UN Polio Vaccine Campaign in Gaza Will Proceed During Humanitarian Pause

The UN’s multi-agency polio vaccine campaign in Gaza is set to begin this weekend. It will do so under continued constraints on humanitarian operations and mobility, but with the assurance from Israel to pause fighting for the campaign to go ahead.

Infection Rates Among Children Show Worrying Increase in Gaza

As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues, so does the spread of illness among Palestinian children. Already facing widespread malnutrition, starvation, dehydration, and unhygienic living conditions, hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza face the risk of contracting a multitude of diseases.

UN Efforts for a Resilient Iraq

Climate change and water scarcity pose significant threats to Iraq's stability, prosperity, and the well-being of its people. The environmental challenges facing the nation are complex and interconnected, requiring a comprehensive and coordinated response.

Fast-Acting Interventions Needed for Sudanese Refugee Children as Needs Outpace Response

As peace eludes war-torn Sudan, thousands of displaced people fleeing the deadly battle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have found refuge in neighboring countries, including Egypt.

Gaza War: Displaced Palestinian Families Struggle to Access Basic Services

The latest Israeli evacuation order on August 17 led to the displacement of over 13,000 individuals, Secretary General’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told a press conference at the UN headquarters.

Biden’s Convention Speech Made Absurd Claims About His Gaza Policy

An observation from George Orwell -- “those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future” -- is acutely relevant to how President Biden talked about Gaza during his speech at the Democratic convention Monday night.

2023 Deadliest Year for Aid Workers– & 2024 Could be Even Worse, Predicts UN

Back in August 2003, the United Nations faced one of its violent tragedies when a terrorist attack on the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad claimed the lives of 22 people. Among those killed was Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, the UN envoy in Iraq and High Commissioner for Human Rights, who had a long and distinguished UN career stretching over 30 years.

Origins of the Gaza Catastrophe – Part 1

During the first half of the 20th century, antisemitism was endemic in Europe and eventually burst out in full force when Nazi-Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945 systematically (and well-documented) murdered six million Jews across German-occupied Europe. In an environment mined by hostile public opinion, the Zionist Nahum Sokolow popularized the Hebrew term Hasbara. The word has no real equivalent in English, but might be translated as “explaining”, indicating a strategy seeking to explain actions, regardless whether or not they are justified. As a skilled diplomat, Sokolow based his widely publicized opinions on in-depth research of actual events, though he presented his findings in a manner that favoured his cause.

Yemen Crisis Brings Small Reprieve for Entrepreneurial Women

Once upon a time, the Sheba (Seba’a) Kingdom (today’s Yemen) had a prominent queen. Women, in the presence of men, were held in a higher position, literally.

WFP in Gaza: ‘We Need a Long Ceasefire That Leads to Peace so We Can Operate’

Corinne Fleischer, WFP’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, describes Gaza as “a terrible situation getting worse.” Over the past two weeks, 21 United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) food distribution points have been closed under evacuation orders.

Killings of Palestinian Journalists Continue –Aided by Uninterrupted Flow of US Arms

The growing number of killings of Palestinian journalists in Gaza has triggered a demand for a cut-off in US arms supplies to Israel. Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), told IPS despite pleas of the international community to suspend arms to Israel in the face of its unprecedented atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza, including the killing of over 165 Palestinian journalists, it beggars the imagination that Biden is now seeking to sell Israel new weaponry to facilitate even more slaughter.

Gaza Children’s Education, Mental Health Targeted With Emergency Response Grant

Since October 2023, 625,000 children enrolled in schools across Gaza have had no access to education, and more than 370 schools have sustained damage from attacks, according to the United Nations.

First, it was Food as Weapon of War– & Then Came Water…

The Palestinians in Gaza have been victims of a double tragedy: killings by Israel’s mostly American-made weapons and deaths by starvation. And now comes a revelation of a new weapon of war: how Israel has been systematically weaponizing water against Palestinians in Gaza, according to a new report from the global human rights organization, Oxfam.

Biden Administration Faces Rebellion Within its Own Ranks over Gaza War

The Biden administration, which has come under heavy fire for its unyielding pro-Israeli stand on the nine-month-old war in Gaza, is facing a rebellion within its own bureaucratic ranks—12 and counting. The 12 government officials, who recently resigned, have accused the US of providing diplomatic cover for the continuous flow of arms to Israel ensuring “our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza.”

US Policy Towards the Gaza Crisis has been an Absolute Failure at Virtually Every Level

Usama bin Laden once claimed that the seeds of 9/11 were planted in 1982 as he watched the scenes of mass slaughter emerging out of Beirut's Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps, the bloody conclusion of that summer's US-supported Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Overwhelmed Healthcare Systems in Gaza Struggle Through Evacuation Orders

For nine months, over 2 million people in the Gaza Strip have been forcibly displaced in the wake of the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas. The ongoing fighting and displacement have put significant strain on humanitarian organizations on the ground to address even basic health needs. The United Nations and other humanitarian organizations have stressed that the healthcare system in Gaza has collapsed or has suffered undue pressure as a result of the fighting. Out of 36 hospitals in the area, 13 remain open, operating with partial functionality.

UAE Complicit in Sudan Slaughter

Sudan is the scene of unimaginable suffering. As war between army and militia continues, civilians are paying the highest price. Both sides are killing non-combatants and committing gross human rights crimes.

A Staggering New Estimate of Over 186,000 Killings in Gaza Revives Charges of War Crimes

An overwhelmingly staggering 186,000 killings in Gaza –- compared with the official figure of over 37,000—has resurrected accusations of genocide and war crimes in the devastating nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, with no signs of a cease-fire. The new estimates have come from The Lancet, one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed British medical journals.

The UAE’s Forgotten Mass Trial

At least 84 Emirati human rights defenders and political dissidents are on trial in the UAE, facing death sentences or life in prison on spurious charges related to their political activism and human rights work, in a case that has its origins in another from over a decade ago. A verdict is expected July 10.

Lebanon’s Deep Healthcare Crisis Exposed through Communicable Diseases

This summer is bringing an additional challenge to the public health front in Lebanon, along with higher-than-normal temperatures.

Zionism is Broken

Zionism is broken. It is finished as a political philosophy and cannot long survive. Having earned the visceral opposition of multitudes of people and countries around the world for engaging in vast overkill in Gaza, that historical reality will likely become clear to the Israeli people over time.