{"id":532,"date":"2023-10-11T22:28:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T22:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/?p=532"},"modified":"2023-10-11T22:28:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T22:28:40","slug":"middle-east-crisis-un-engages-parties-as-security-council-meets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/middle-east-crisis-un-engages-parties-as-security-council-meets\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East crisis: UN engages parties as Security Council meets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

8 October 2023Peace and Security<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the 15-member Council prepared to meet, UN agencies were reporting that hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured following the early Saturday morning rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian militants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ensuing Israeli response to the Hamas attacks included airstrikes in Gaza, where the UN agency operating there,\u00a0UNRWA, had reported massive damages alongside\u00a0rising death tolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN agency is currently sheltering 73,538 internally displaced people in 64 of its schools in all areas in the Gaza Strip. An UNRWA school sheltering 225 people was “directly hit” and severely damaged, but no casualties were recorded, the agency said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New reports emerged of alarming food scarcity and clashes across the Israel-Lebanon border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Men<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

UN News\/Ziad Taleb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men walk through a heavily damaged area of central Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel-Lebanon border: Rocket, artillery fire<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Early Sunday, the UN peacekeeping operation in Lebanon,\u00a0UNIFIL, \u201cdetected several rockets fired from southeast Lebanon toward Israeli-occupied territory in the general area of Kafr Chouba and artillery fire from Israel to Lebanon in response\u201d, according to the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN\u00a0Security Council-mandated mission, operating along an area known as the \u201cBlue Line\u201d, was deployed in 1978 to restore peace between Israel and Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are in contact with authorities on both sides of the Blue Line, at all levels, to contain the situation and avoid a more serious escalation,\u201d\u00a0UNIFIL\u00a0said in a\u00a0statement. \u201cOur peacekeepers remain in their positions and on task.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNIFIL said peacekeepers continued to work, \u201csome from shelters, for their safety\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe urge everyone to exercise restraint and make use of UNIFIL\u2019s liaison and coordination mechanisms to de-escalate to prevent a fast deterioration of the security situation,\u201d the mission said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u2018close contact\u2019 with key actors<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the UN chief of the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, \u201cis in close contact\u201d with the United States, European Union, Qatar, Egypt, and Lebanon \u201cto discuss the ongoing war\u201d in Israel and Gaza, according to a\u00a0social media post\u00a0by his office,\u00a0UNSCO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPriority now is to avoid further loss of civilian life and deliver much needed humanitarian aid to the Strip,\u201d the UNSCO post said, adding that the \u201cUN remains actively engaged to advance these efforts\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calls to protect civilians<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Top UN officials have called for an immediate cessation of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN\u00a0Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u00a0on Saturday condemned \u201cin the strongest terms\u201d the attack by Hamas against Israeli towns, UN Spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric said, urging \u201cmaximum restraint\u201d and that \u201call diplomatic efforts\u201d are made \u201cto avoid a wider conflagration\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCivilians must be respected and protected in accordance with international humanitarian law at all times,\u201d the UN chief said in a\u00a0statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rescue<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Magen David Adom Israel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rescue workers in southern Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN agency raises alarm over food scarcity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As the conflict intensifies, civilians, including vulnerable children and families, face mounting challenges in accessing essential food supplies, with distribution networks disrupted and production severely hampered by hostilities, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWFP urges safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to affected areas, calling on all parties to uphold the principles of humanitarian law, taking every necessary measure to safeguard the lives and well-being of civilians, including ensuring access to food,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sourece<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN website<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 October 2023Peace and Security As the 15-member Council prepared to meet, UN agencies were reporting that hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured following the early Saturday morning rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian militants. The ensuing Israeli response to the Hamas attacks included airstrikes in Gaza, where the UN agency operating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatistandfor.co\/humanrights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}