News in Brief 27 February 2024 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Gaza: Frustration mounts as UN convoy is blocked outside stricken hospital

UN relief agencies operating in wartorn Gaza voiced deep frustration on Tuesday over continuing aid access restrictions imposed by the Israeli military.

The development comes after ambulances carrying 24 patients away from Al Amal hospital in Khan Younis were stopped for several hours on Sunday, while health workers were searched and detained.

From the UN health agency WHO, here’s spokesperson Christian Lindmeier:

“You can imagine being already transferred under life-threatening circumstances, not being able to move or being able to move and then being made to stand outside and having to wait for seven hours is pretty unimaginable.”

Several patients ‘if not all of them” required some kind of surgical intervention which could not have been provided at Al Amal, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, which confirmed that the evacuation mission had been flagged to the Israeli authorities as part of standard deconfliction protocols. 

The Israeli military had not given “any information or any communication” about why the ambulances were detained for at least seven hours, nor why the paramedics “had been taken out (and) forced to undress”, with two still not freed, OCHA said. 

Peacekeepers’ alarm over exchanges of fire on Israel-Lebanon border

Staying with the Middle East, where UN peacekeepers expressed alarm on Tuesday at an escalation in hostilities on the border area known as the Blue Line that separates Israel and Lebanon.

The alert from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (or UNIFIL) follows what it calls “a concerning shift in the exchanges of fire” in recent days between Hezbollah militia in south Lebanon and the Israeli military.

In a statement, UNIFIL reported “an expansion and intensification of strikes”, while also calling for both sides “to halt hostilities”.

The on-off conflict between militia in Lebanon and Israel has “claimed too many lives”, jeopardized livelihoods and “changed the life of tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the Blue Line”, the UN mission said.

UNIFIL has continued its engagement with both sides “to decrease tensions and prevent dangerous misunderstandings, but recent events have the potential to put at risk a political solution to this conflict”, the UN force warned.

$9 billion investment boost for global internet connectivity: ITU

A staggering 2.6 billion people have no internet access but a $9 billion investment by mobile phone operators should help fix that, according to the UN International Telecommunications Union – ITU.

Announcing major commitments to extend services and network upgrades by major mobile telecoms firms including China Telecom and VEON, ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin said that millions of people stood to benefit from more widely available and affordable online access.

“Universal meaningful connectivity is within our grasp,” she told the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.

The announcement brings the total amount of planned investment in infrastructure, services and support for ITU’s Partner2Connect Digital Coalition platform to over $46 billion, since it launched nearly two years ago.

 Daniel Johnson, UN News.