The UN human rights office (OHCHR) in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has warned of an alarming rise in violence and restrictions by Israeli settlers and security forces against Palestinian farmers, as the crucial olive harvest season gets underway.
In Gaza, the ceasefire is enabling UN humanitarians to reach more desperate people with life-saving food – but greater access is needed to contain the spread of famine.
The UN on Monday said it was encouraged by renewed Gaza ceasefire commitments, warning that recent violence risked undermining fragile progress, as recovery efforts – including a large-scale rubble removal project – slowly gain momentum across the war-ravaged enclave.
Nearly 70,000 women in Afghanistan tune in to Radio Femme – an all-female-run online and traditionally broadcast radio station which brings education and awareness of rights to women and girls across the province.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned food aid cannot reach everyone in Gaza unless all border crossings are opened, particularly in the north where famine was declared in August.
As a fragile ceasefire holds in the Gaza Strip, UN aid teams are intensifying efforts to deliver urgently needed assistance.
Bangladesh has begun legal proceedings against security officials accused of sanctioning enforced disappearances and torture under the previous government – a move UN human rights chief Volker Türk called “an important step towards accountability.”
The UN relief chief on Wednesday urged Israel and Hamas to honour their agreement to return deceased hostages and allow aid at scale into Gaza, warning that it should not be used as “a bargaining chip” amid reports of new civilian killings and extrajudicial executions.
Israel announced late on Tuesday that it will limit the flow of aid to Gaza, accusing Hamas of breaching the ceasefire agreement by returning only four of the bodies of deceased hostages so far.
Around $70 billion will be needed to reconstruct Gaza and make it safe after two years of war, UN development experts said on Tuesday, while aid agencies reported that far too little aid is getting in to meet the needs of desperate Palestinians.
