Gaza City, Palestinian Territories – AFP Israel has called for the immediate relocation of 1.1 million people in Gaza amid its massive bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’s attacks, with the United Nations warning of “devastating” consequences. The UN said the mass relocation of the entire population in northern Gaza t...
ANKARA (AA) – Israeli airstrikes have displaced more than 260,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the UN humanitarian office has said. “Over 263,934 people in Gaza are believed to have fled their homes,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said. Fears are mounting that the number of displaced Palestinian...
Geneva, Switzerland — AFP Israel’s total siege of the Gaza Strip, depriving civilians of goods essential for survival, is banned under international law, the United Nations human rights chief has said. Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said people’s dignity and lives had to be respected as he called for ...
ANKARA (AA) – The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has urged conflicting sides to exercise restraint to prevent further escalation of tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border. “We urge everyone to exercise restraint and make use of UNIFIL’s liaison and coordination mechanisms to de-escalate to prevent a fast deterioration of the security situ...
OVIEDO, Spain (AA) – The UN human rights chief on Wednesday slammed recent “despicable incidents” of desecration of Muslims’ religious scripture in Europe. They are “deliberate provocations… intended to drive wedges between countries and communities,” Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said at a high-level conf...
WASHINGTON (AA) – A total of 1,264 Palestinians are currently held by Israel in administrative detention, UN special coordinator for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, said Wednesday. The number, according to the UN envoy, is the highest in over a decade. “Israeli security forces carried out 1,042 search-and-arrest operations in the West B...
TORONTO (AA) – The UN will continue to advocate for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in all their contacts, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday. Dujarric was speaking at a daily press conference, where he was asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presenting of a map of “a new Midd...
WASHINGTON (AA) – More than 3,300 peacekeeping personnel serving in Mali have left the country as part of a gradual UN withdrawal plan, according to a statement Wednesday. The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said 116 Senegalese peacekeepers were repatriated from Mopti Camp on Sept. 20. &...
LONDON (AA) – The UK home secretary has voiced strong criticism of the current operation of the UN refugee treaty, calling it “absurd and unsustainable.” In her speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, Suella Braverman argued that UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention is extending protection to nearly 800 milli...
United Nations, United States – AFP Moroccan and Algerian representatives to the United Nations sparred over the fate of Western Sahara on Tuesday, with Algiers calling for the revival of a long-stalled referendum on the fate of the former Spanish colony. “We Algerians have chosen the camp of justice, decolonization, freedom, self-...
