Middle East News

Breaking updates, policy debates,  ideas, criticisms, essays, expert analysis, commentaries, on-the-spot reporting, insights and opportunities from the Middle East.

Yemen: Ten Years of War, a Lifetime of Loss 

Ten years. That’s how long Yemenis have been putting their lives on hold – through airstrikes, through hunger, through loss. A decade of war...

3-week Gaza aid ban ‘collective punishment’: UNRWA chief

Mr. Lazzarini made the remarks in a social media post, in which he noted that the siege, which is preventing food, medicines, water and fuel...

Syria’s humanitarian crisis: 16.5 million in need amid continuing conflict

Briefing journalists in New York from Damascus, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Adam Abdelmoula, explained that the country remains at a critical juncture...

Gaza: ‘Bring them all home now’, freed hostage tells Security Council

Briefing ambassadors, Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General at the Department of Political Affairs (DPPA), reiterated the UN’s unequivocal condemnation of the horrific attacks by Hamas...

No food deliveries to Gaza as border closures continue

There is also a shortage of fuel, which is affecting the movement of vehicles across Gaza and slowing down first responders, Stéphane Dujarric told...

Yemen: ‘Fear of a return to full conflict is palpable’, says UN envoy

The “current trajectory is deeply concerning,” he told ambassadors, updating them on the latest political developments in the country, where Houthi rebels – formally...

UN envoy strongly condemns continuing Israeli attacks inside Syria

Geir Pedersen said in a statement that “such actions are unacceptable and risk further destabilising an already fragile situation, heightening regional tension and undermining...

Gaza: Despite challenges, UNRWA says ‘unparalleled progress’ made during ceasefire

Agency teams have worked around the clock to provide services to a people who are overwhelmed following 15 months of constant bombardment, forced displacement,...

West Bank security situation remains alarming, warn UN aid agencies

The violence has seen exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants – and the use of bulldozers in refugee camps for the...

‘Political courage’ needed to end war in the Middle East: Top UN envoy

Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, Special Coordinator Sigrid Kaag emphasised that peace in the Middle East is possible.“We can achieve a future where...

New round of polio vaccinations begins in Gaza

It follows a campaign last year that reached hundreds of thousands of young children.  Polio virus was recently detected in wastewater samples in Gaza,...

UN rights office condemns continuing Israeli military operation in West Bank

Since the start of the offensive on 21 January, Israeli forces have killed at least 44 Palestinians, including five children and two women, in...

Israeli military operation displaces 40,000 in the West Bank

Several refugee camps are nearly empty after Israeli forces launched Operation Iron Wall on 21 January, making it the longest operation in the West...

Syria: Chemical weapons watchdog hits reset button in Damascus, following productive meetings

In a press release on Saturday the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Director-General Fernando Arias and his team had met...

Palestinians’ rights matter, says UNRWA chief

In a social media post on Friday, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that “people in Gaza have undergone systematic dehumanization” since the war there began.He...

UNRWA delivers bulk of aid in Gaza, as destruction mounts in West Bank

UNRWA’s communications director Juliette Touma described catastrophic scenes at the camp, where some 100 buildings had been “destroyed or heavily damaged” by the detonations...

Gazans depend on us for ‘sheer survival’ insists UNRWA

The development came as more than 462,000 people are estimated to have crossed from south Gaza to the north since the opening of the...

Israel’s new laws banning UNRWA already taking effect

If implemented, the two new laws passed in October will simultaneously prohibit Israeli authorities from contacting UNRWA and ban the agency from operating in...

What’s UNDOF? Why UN peacekeepers patrol the Israel-Syria border

One of the UN’s longest-standing peacekeeping missions – the UN Disengagement Observer Force, known by its acronym UNDOF – began more than a half century...

Aid surging into Gaza ‘at scale’ but massive needs remain: OCHA, WHO

On day three of the ceasefire which entered into force on Sunday 19 January, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, welcomed the “surge” in...

UN rights chief in historic meeting in Syria’s with caretaker authority in Damascus

Speaking from Damascus after meeting the leader of the caretaker authorities, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Mr. Türk said that he had been “assured…of the importance of...

Syria emergency: Four children a day killed by leftover explosives

Ricardo Pires, UNICEF Communication Manager for Emergencies, told journalists from Damascus that in the last nine years, at least 422,000 incidents involving unexploded ordnance...

Al Jazeera ban must be lifted, rights experts urge Palestinian Authority

The development comes one week after a court in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank ordered the closure of several Al Jazeera websites. A...

Top humanitarian official issues ceasefire appeal during visit to Gaza City

 Muhannad Hadi, who is also the Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, made the appeal during a visit to Gaza City,...