Israel/Palästina

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution that demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The war in Gaza represents “the biggest stress test” the UN has faced in its work to forge greater peace and a two-State solution between Israelis and Palestinians, according to the senior envoy who has been at the forefront of these efforts since 2021. More than a year into the conflict, “we are at the point where diplomacy has failed in the situation where the geopolitics is superbly difficult,” Tor Wennesland said in an exclusive interview with UN News earlier this week.

Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including pursuing a deliberate policy of forcibly displacing people and denying them the right to return home, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday. The report also labelled the likely permanent dispossession of Gazans in areas cleared by Israel to serve as buffer zones and security corridors as “ethnic cleansing”. 

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed that the bloc suspend a political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations in the war in Gaza, according to four diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for "real and extended pauses" in the Gaza war to allow aid delivery to residents. … He said Israel has taken steps to address the humanitarian problem, and it has also "accomplished the goals that it set for itself," he said. "This should be a time to end the war."

Saudi crown prince condemns ‘massacre’ committed against Palestinian and Lebanese people at the Arab-Islamic summit.

Qatar has told Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel it will stall its efforts to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until they show "willingness and seriousness" to resume talks, its foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Top UN officials continued to line up on Tuesday to defend the irreplaceable role of the global body’s agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, insisting that if implemented, the Israeli parliament’s decision to ban it would only deepen suffering in Gaza.

United Nations Security Council members urged Israel and Iran on Monday to end their spiraling cycle of tit-for-tat attacks on one another, following Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Iran.

The UN’s top humanitarian official warned on Saturday that the entire population of northern Gaza is at risk of dying, calling for an immediate stop to “blatant disregard for basic humanity” by Israeli forces.