News in Brief 29 January 2024 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Gaza: ‘Simply not enough food’ to go around, humanitarians warn

Ongoing hostilities across the Gaza Strip have been “particularly intense” in the southern city of Khan Younis, UN humanitarians warned on Monday, as the UN agency for Palestinians, UNWRA, reported that its shelters were now four times over-capacity.

“There is simply not enough food,” UNRWA said on the social platform X, formerly Twitter, with photographs from the city of Deir-al-Balah showing people queuing “in the rain and cold” for relief supplies.

The agency for Palestinians would do “whatever possible” to continue helping Gazans, as the largest aid organization in the enclave, it said.

The development comes amid extremely serious allegations that several UNRWA staff colluded with Hamas during the 7 October terror attacks on Israel.

Of 12 individuals allegedly implicated, nine were immediately identified and their contracts terminated with UNRWA. One staff member was confirmed dead and the identities of the remaining two are being clarified. 

A probe has already been launched by the UN’s highest investigative body – the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) – while UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that any UN employee involved “in acts of terror will be held accountable”.

In its latest situation update on the fighting in Gaza, UN aid coordination office OCHA reported heavy fighting in Khan Younis close to two hospitals.

In Nasser hospital, many wounded patients have “no options for treatment amid ongoing heavy fighting and bombing”, OCHA said, citing the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières.

The UN aid office noted that at Al Amal hospital, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) had reported continuing bombardment of the immediate area surrounding it.

OCHA also cited reports of more Palestinians fleeing south to Rafah “which is already overcrowded, despite the lack of safe passage” along with continued rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel.

Slippery slope for industrially produced transfats, says WHO 

Food news now from the UN health agency which on Monday reported that the global campaign against mass-produced transfats has extended its reach to help 3.7 billion people in more than 50 countries.

Transfats are industrially produced or naturally occurring and both of these slippery customers are linked to an increased risk of heart attacks and heart disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The UN agency stressed that transfats “have no known health benefits” and that the fried foods, cakes and ready meals where they can be found lurking are often high in sugar, fat and salt.

To tackle the problem, the WHO has for years encouraged governments to ban or limit the amount of transfats in the food we eat. 

Although no global ban has come into force yet, the UN health agency pointed to “remarkable progress” limiting the dangerous ingredient “in every region of the world”.

A grand total of 53 countries now have “best practice” policies in place to tackle mass-produced transfats in food, WHO said. This covers 3.7 billion people – or 46 per cent of the world’s population – which is a massive jump from just six per cent only five years ago. 

Some 183,000 lives a year are expected to be saved thanks to the development, said WHO, which has just awarded “best practice” in eliminating transfats certificates to five more countries: Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

UN migration agency alert over Mediterranean deaths spike

Nearly 100 people have died or disappeared in the central and eastern Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday. 

The shocking toll is over twice as high as the same period in 2023 which turned out to be the deadliest year for migrants at sea in Europe since 2016.

IOM Director General Amy Pope said that even one migrant death at sea was one too many, before calling for “safe and regular pathways” as an alternative to dangerous migration journeys, that would “benefit migrants and States alike”.

Ms. Pope was speaking at a migration solutions conference in Italy, attended by more than 20 heads of State and government – at a time of increasing numbers of dead or missing migrants. 

According to IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, the annual number of migrant deaths and disappearances throughout the Mediterranean spiked to 3,041 by the end of 2023, up from 2,411 a year earlier. 

Three shipwrecks that set sail from Libya, Lebanon and Tunisia within the last six weeks carrying 158 people remain unaccounted for – although IOM has recorded 73 of them missing, presumed dead.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.