The UN Security Council meets at 10 AM in New York to discuss the situation in Middle East, as deadly Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza and a two-week aid blockade strains critical supplies. Well over 400 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more injured, according to local authorities. We‘ll have reaction from across the UN and agencies on the ground.
Archiv: United Nations Security Council (UNSC) / Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen
France, Germany, Italy and UK back Arab plan for Gaza reconstruction
The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the UK have said they support the Egypt-led Arab plan for the reconstruction of Gaza.
„The plan shows a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and promises – if implemented – swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions for the Palestinians living in Gaza,“ the ministers said in a joint statement on Saturday.
What is Egypt’s $53bn plan for Gaza reconstruction?
(March 4, 2025)
According to the plan, Egypt and Jordan will train Palestinian police forces in preparation for their deployment in Gaza.
The plan, however, states that this effort may include other countries in the future to provide political and financial support.
Then it proposes that the United Nations Security Council should consider the idea of “an international presence” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This, the plan states, could involve the deployment of international protection or peacekeeping forces, as part of the rebuilding process.
European Union fails to agree on joint position on Ukraine support
In his letter, Orbán called instead for last week‘s United Nations resolution to be endorsed that called for a rapid end to the war but did not name Russia as the aggressor in the war in Ukraine.
The resolution, which was adopted by the UN Security Council on the third anniversary of Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was brought forward by the US government.
UN Security Council adopts neutral US stance on war in Ukraine as Trump pursues end to conflict
(February 25, 2025)
The resolution mourns the loss of life in the „Russia-Ukraine conflict“, reiterates the U.N.‘s purpose is to maintain international peace and security and peacefully settle disputes, and urges a swift end to the conflict and a lasting peace.
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The Security Council adopted the U.S. resolution with 10 votes in favor, while France, Britain, Denmark, Greece and Slovenia abstained.
Was Trumps Erfolg im Sicherheitsrat bedeutet
(February 25, 2025)
Die US-Regierung von Präsident Donald Trump hatte die Resolution bei den Vereinten Nationen eingebracht. Der Text hinter dem Titel „Der Weg zum Frieden“ benennt Russland nicht als Aggressor und fordert keinen russischen Rückzug, angemahnt wird bloß ein rasches Ende des Krieges.
Erstmals verabschiedet der UN-Sicherheitsrat damit eine gemeinsame Resolution zum Ukraine-Krieg. Russland, China und die USA stimmten zu, während europäische Länder sich enthielten.
Full text of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon
(November 27,2024)
10. Israel and Lebanon will report any alleged violations to the Mechanism and Unifil without prejudice to their respective rights to communicate directly with the UN Security Council. The Mechanism will develop appropriate procedures to consult, inspect, gather information, and assist in ensuring the enforcement of these commitments.
11. Upon the commencement of the cessation of hostilities according to paragraph one, Lebanon will deploy its official military and security forces to all borders, and to all regulated and non-regulated land, air and sea border crossings. In addition, the LAF will deploy forces, set road blocks and checkpoints on all the roads and bridges along the line delineating the Southern Litani Area.
12. Upon the commencement of the cessation of hostilities according to paragraph one, Israel will withdraw its forces in a phased manner south of the Blue Line, and in parallel the LAF will deploy to positions in the Southern Litani Area shown in the attached LAF Deployment Plan, and will commence the implementation of its obligations under the commitments, including the dismantling of unauthorised sites and infrastructure and confiscating unauthorised arms and related materiel. The Mechanism will co-ordinate execution by the Israel Defence Forces and LAF of the specific and detailed plan for the phased withdrawal and deployment in these areas, which should not exceed 60 days.
Security Council welcomes five new non-permanent members
The Security Council on 2 January welcomed Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, and Somalia as the five newly elected non-permanent members for the 2025–2026 term. (,,,)
The five newly elected countries will join Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia as non-permanent members of the Council.
The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question – Security Council, 9830th meeting
(January 3, 2024)
Summary
The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question – Security Council, 9830th meeting
Description
– Briefer: Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (via video-teleconference)
– Briefer: Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, Representative for the West Bank and Gaza, World Health Organization (via video-teleconference)
– Briefer: Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan, medical practitioner, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Charity (via video-teleconference)
– Statements: All Council members
– Statement: Observer State of Palestine
– Statements: Israel, Egypt
Palestinian UN ambassador calls for release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh
In the first United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Middle East for 2025, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour asked the international body to show „courage“ in demanding the release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, the medical director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza was detained by Israeli forces last week.
‘Hospitals have become battlegrounds’: Gaza’s health system on brink of collapse
In a Security Council meeting on Friday, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, painted a grim picture of the situation, emphasising that over 25 per cent of the 105,000 injured civilians now face life-changing injuries.
“At the current rate, it would take five to 10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients,” Dr. Peeperkorn warned, noting that over 12,000 people remain on waiting lists for urgent treatment abroad.
Only 16 of the region’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, their collective capacity merely above 1,800 beds – entirely insufficient for the overwhelming medical needs.
“The health sector is being systematically dismantled,” Dr. Peeperkorn noted, citing shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel.
USA blockieren erneut Resolution für Waffenruhe in Gaza
Der Text war von allen zehn nicht ständigen Mitgliedern des mächtigsten Gremiums der Vereinten Nationen eingereicht worden. Nach wochenlangen Verhandlungen und Änderungen auf Wunsch des Israel-Verbündeten USA blieb am Ende Uneinigkeit vor allem über eine Formulierung: Im Entwurf hieß es, der Sicherheitsrat „verlangt eine sofortige, bedingungslose und dauerhafte Waffenruhe, die von allen Parteien zu respektieren ist; bekräftigt ferner seine Forderung nach der sofortigen und bedingungslosen Freilassung aller Geiseln“.
US vetoes another UN Security Council resolution seeking Gaza ceasefire
Unlike several previous resolutions regarding a ceasefire in Gaza, Wednesday‘s measure was brought forward by all 10 elected members of the Security Council.
U.S. Vetoes Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution at U.N. Security Council
The veto was the fourth time the United States blocked an effort by the Council to demand a cease-fire since the war began over a year ago when Hamas attacked Israel and took more than 200 people hostage. In the months since, more than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the local health authorities.
PM Mohammed Shia al-Sudani rejects Israeli ‚threats‘ to expand war against Iraq
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani blasted Israeli “efforts to expand the war” in West Asia on 19 November, after Israel’s foreign minister sent a letter to the UN Security Council urging action against the Iraqi resistance and stressing Tel Aviv’s right to “protect itself.”
In a cabinet session on Tuesday, Sudani said that “the message sent by the Zionist entity to the UN Security Council represents a pretext and argument to attack Iraq, and to achieve the entity‘s ongoing efforts to expand the war in the region.”
Sudan: Allies of warring generals ‘enabling the slaughter,’ Security Council hears
Ms. DiCarlo condemned not only the RSF attacks but also the indiscriminate airstrikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in civilian-populated areas such as the capital Khartoum and El Fasher, a major city in North Darfur hosting thousands of internally displaced which has been besieged for months by the RSF.
“Both warring parties bear responsibility for this violence,” she stressed.
She added that as the rainy season nears its end, both sides continue to escalate their military operations, recruit new fighters and intensify their attacks, fuelled by “considerable” external support and a steady flow of arms.
“To put it bluntly, certain purported allies of the parties are enabling the slaughter in Sudan. This is unconscionable, it is illegal, and it must end.”
(…)
The situation in Sudan has been in a freefall since the war erupted last April.
It is now the world’s worst displacement crisis, with more than 11 million people driven from their homes – nearly three million among them into neighbouring countries as refugees, according to the UN relief coordinating office, OCHA.
The war has also unleashed a severe hunger crisis, affecting millions.
Türkiye leads joint call to UN Security Council to halt arms shipments to Israe
The letter, led by Türkiye‘s initiative, was signed by 52 countries and two international organizations, and submitted to the UN on Nov. 1, calling for a cessation of arms supplies to Israel.
“We must reiterate at every opportunity that selling weapons to Israel amounts to complicity in genocide,” Fidan said at a news conference in Djibouti, where he attended the third Ministerial Review Conference of Türkiye-Africa Partnership.
(Continued) The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question – Security Council, 9763rd meeting
Continuation of the Security Council Open Debate.
Israeli army ‘deliberately demolished’ watchtower, fence at UN peacekeeping site in southern Lebanon
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has said that an Israeli army bulldozer demolished an observation tower and the perimeter fence of a UN position earlier on Sunday in Marwahin, in the southern part of the country.
Arab League to appeal for Gaza ‚no-fly zone‘
(April 10, 2011)
The Arab League request for a no-fly zone over Gaza may have been inspired by a UN-sanctioned aerial blockade for Libya to halt forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi harming civilians.
Arab League backing for that no-fly zone was seen as crucially important by the United States when it pressed for a UN resolution that authorised it and other countries to keep Libyan planes grounded.
Charter Chapter VII: Action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression
Article 42
Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of members of the Renewed United Nations, when peaceful solutions to the conflict, leading to freedom, personal responsibility, self-determination, increased prosperity and further implemenations of fundamental rights and freedoms for the population of the territory are simultaneously proposed or put into effect.
Egypt condemns Israeli massacre of Gazans in Beit Lahia
Egypt reiterated its call for the Security Council to fulfill its responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security, warning of the serious consequences if the international community fails to intervene promptly to stop the Israeli aggression.
UN mission in Lebanon needs different rules of engagement, Italy says
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told RAI television that changing UNIFIL‘s rules of engagement or increasing troop numbers could happen if Israel stopped its operations.
„The message we want to send to Israel is that if you stop your army, the U.N. can also change its approach in that part of Lebanon, so that we can peacefully achieve what you‘re now trying to do by attacking Hezbollah‘s bases militarily,“ he said.
Security Council meets on north Gaza as ‘supplies for survival’ run out
Reality is brutal in Gaza and gets worse every day, while essential humanitarian supplies and assistance are being blocked at every turn, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday.
Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, briefed ambassadors on the situation in the north, where fighting has escalated.
Hospitals are running out of fuel and critical medical supplies, and food stocks are dwindling.
Ms. Msuya said that since her last briefing a week ago, the people of Gaza have suffered multiple mass casualty incidents due to Israeli airstrikes, with nearly 400 reportedly killed and almost 1,500 injured.
The world has also witnessed images of patients and displaced persons sheltering near Al Aqsa hospital burning alive, while scores more are suffering from excruciating burns.
Additionally, more than 20 people were killed and injured in a strike on a school serving as a shelter in Nuseirat.
‘Yet another’ Israeli strike on peacekeepers’ position in southern Lebanon
“Yet again we see direct and apparently deliberate fire on a UNIFIL position,” the Mission said in a statement.
“We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times,” it stressed.
Israeli tank fired at UN peacekeepers‘ watchtower in Lebanon, says Unifil
(19:06 BST)
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) said an Israeli Merkava tank fired at their watchtower near southern Lebanon‘s Kfar Kela on Wednesday morning.
Two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged, Unifil said.
Northern Gaza is being erased – Global leaders must act now to end Israel’s atrocities
The Israeli forces’ assault on Gaza has escalated to a horrifying level of atrocity. Northern Gaza is being wiped off the map. Under the guise of “evacuation,” Israeli forces have ordered the forced displacement of an estimated 400,000 Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza, including Gaza City. This is not an evacuation – this is forced displacement under gunfire. Since 1 October, no food has been allowed into the area, and civilians are being starved and bombed in their homes and their tents.
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Signatories:
– ActionAid
– Action For Humanity
– Afri (Action from Ireland)
– Amos Trust
– Bloody Sunday Trust
– Centre for Global Education
– CESVI
– Children Not Numbers
– Christian Aid
– Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
– Comhlamh Justice for Palestine
– Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu)
– Embrace the Middle East
– Feminist Humanitarian Network (FHN)
– Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS)
– Global Justice Now
– HelpAge International
– Interpal
– Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
– Islamic Relief
– KinderUSA
– Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
– Médecins du Monde Spain
– Middle East Children‘s Alliance
– Muslim Aid
– Novact Institute for Nonviolence
– Oxfam
– Plan International Jordan
– Sabeel-Kairos UK
– Sadaka-The Ireland Palestine Alliance
– TDH Italy
– Trócaire
– Trinity College Dublin Students‘ Union/ Aontas Mac Léinn Choláiste na Tríonóide (TCDSU/AMLCT)
– Vento di Terra
– War Child
– War on Want
– WeWorld
– Welfare Association
Lebanon: Security Council offers ‘unanimous support’ to UNIFIL peacekeepers
The head of UN Peace Operations on Monday said ambassadors in the Security Council had given a “unanimous expression of support” to peacekeepers in Lebanon remaining in position along the Blue Line that separates south Lebanon from Israel, despite coming under fire, with five “Blue Helmets” sustaining injuries following attacks by Israeli forces.
Jean Pierre Lacroix was speaking to the media at UN Headquarters in New York after emerging from a closed door meeting on peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, amidst Israeli calls for the force to vacate the area and move further north.
Jordan calls for UN Security Council to impose arms embargo on Israel
Jordan has called on the UN Security Council to impose a total arms embargo on Israel, citing its attacks on Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, UN peacekeepers, journalists, humanitarian workers, and Lebanese soldiers.
„Countries that truly want an end to the dangerous regional escalation and seek peace and security in the Middle East must immediately stop supplying Israel with the weapons it is using in its aggressions,“ Jordan‘s foreign minister Ayman Safadi wrote on X.
Libanon: Israel beschießt erneut UN-Friedenstruppe
Das libanesische Außenministerium warf Israel einen „absichtlichen und systematischen Beschuss der Blauhelmtruppe“ vor.
UNIFIL bestätigte auf der Plattform X, dass es zwei Explosionen nahe einem Wachturm in Nakura gab. Zwei Soldaten seien verletzt worden. Den Grund der Explosionen nannte die UN-Mission nicht.
Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Lebanon injured in Israeli attack
Israeli forces on Friday launched another attack on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) headquarters in southern Lebanon, injuring several Sri Lankan peacekeepers stationed there.
Israeli forces again attack UNIFIL headquarters in southern Lebanon, Sri Lankan peacekeepers injured
According to Lebanon‘s official National News Agency, an Israeli Merkava tank targeted one of UNIFIL‘s observation towers on the main road connecting Tyre to Naqoura, in front of a Lebanese Army checkpoint, injuring the Sri Lankan contingent stationed there.
It said Israeli artillery fired a shell that struck the main entrance of the UNIFIL command center in Naqoura, causing damage to the site.
Middle East crisis: UN human rights office condemns worsening violence
(today)
UN peacekeepers came under fire for the second day in a row in Lebanon on Friday, amid intensifying Israeli bombing of Beirut and southern areas, along with continuing Hezbollah rocket strikes targeting Israel.
Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi makes unannounced visit to Beirut
For his part, Mikati briefed Araghchi on the latest situation in Lebanon, terming Israel‘s acts of aggression as a real example of war crimes.
While he lamented the inaction of the UN Security Council against the dangerous adventures of the Zionist enemy, the Lebanese prime minister appreciated the support of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Lebanese government and people amid unrelenting Israeli strikes.
Secretary-General‘s remarks to the Security Council – on the situation in the Middle East [as delivered]
Madame President, Excellencies,
The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno.
Exactly one week ago, I briefed the Security Council about the alarming situation in Lebanon.
Since then, things have gone from bad to much, much worse….
Barred From Israel, UN Chief Warns Middle East ‚Fast Becoming an Inferno‘
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday reiterated his urgent call for an end to violence and a diplomatic resolution in the Middle East shortly after Israel‘s foreign minister declared that the U.N. chief was barred from entering the country, a move that drew international condemnation.
„The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno,“ Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, denouncing Israel‘s „relentless airstrikes across Lebanon,“ devastation of the Gaza Strip, and obstruction of a cease-fire agreement that could pull the region back from the brink of all-out war.
Turkish president condemns Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, calls for global action
Erdogan criticized the international community for enabling Israel‘s actions, saying that as Tel Aviv continues to receive „weapons and ammunition support from its backers,“ it becomes „increasingly reckless, defying all humanity, humanitarian values, and international law.“
He stressed that Israel‘s „politics of madness,“ already seen in Gaza and Ramallah, must not be allowed to spread to Lebanon and other countries in the region.
„No person of conscience can accept, justify, or deem such a massacre legitimate,“ he said.
Dramatic footage shows strike and explosions in Beirut
Video shows the moment Israeli strikes hit Choueifat, an area on the outskirts of Beirut, in the early hours of Saturday.
Published 2:41 AM GMT+2, September 28, 2024