News in Brief 8 January 2024 |

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Gaza crisis: another hospital facing dire shortages, warns WHO

After more than three months of intense fighting in Gaza, UN humanitarians have pleaded for overwhelmed healthcare workers to be allowed to continue their lifesaving operations. 

In central Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that doctors and nurses at the only functioning hospital in Deir al Balah governorate “had been forced to cease lifesaving and other critical activities…and leave” at the weekend, following an evacuation order, issued amid “increasing” Israeli military activity.

Only five doctors reportedly remained at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Middle Area of Gaza on Sunday, where a health agency team delivered medical supplies to support 4,500 dialysis patients for three months and 500 patients needing trauma care.

From Al-Aqsa hospital, WHO staff posted a video on social media platform X on Sunday evening showing chaotic scenes as medics treated patients on the blood-streaked floor.

Hundreds of injured people have been arriving every day requiring treatment, but “the greatest need is for the hospital, its staff, patients and families there, to be protected from strikes and hostilities”, said UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Top rights experts demand accountability for victims of sexual torture in 7 October attacks 

In a related story, top rights experts on Monday demanded prompt investigations and accountability for victims of sexual torture during the 7 October Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel.

Some 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals were massacred in the surprise attacks across 22 villages and thousands more were injured; an estimated 240 adults, children and infants were also taken hostage. 

In a statement on Monday the rights experts – who are not UN staff and who report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva – also called for justice relating to other grave crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the war in Gaza began – a likely reference to spiking violence in the West Bank including East Jerusalem that has left more than 300 Palestinians dead since 7 October.

“Investigators must be given the necessary resources, support and access required” to explore all alleged crimes,” the experts said, as they called on Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the de facto authorities in Gaza to cooperate fully with any probes.

Plastic pollution: UN atomic agency embarks on Antarctic study 

To the Antarctic now, where the UN atomic energy agency is using its nuclear knowhow to explore solutions to the global problem of plastic pollution.

In cooperation with Argentina, a small team from the International Atomic Energy Agency is deploying for one month to assess the impact of microplastics in the once pristine Antarctic environment.

The researchers’ plan is to investigate levels of microplastic in seawater, lakes, sediments, sand, discharge water and animals of the Antarctic ecosystem, near the Argentine Carlini scientific research station.

As part of the UN agency’s NUTEC initiative, 22 Antarctic sites will be monitored for microplastic pollution using radiation technology which has many uses including industrial recycling.

The process works by making use of gamma and electron beams to transform or recycle plastic waste into other products, such as construction materials.

According to the UN atomic energy agency, approximately 70 per cent of all plastics produced in the world are now waste material and only nine per cent of them have been recycled so far.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.