UN News Today 01 July 2025 |

Gaza: aid teams report more essential services are shutting down

In Gaza, more essential services are shutting down as Israel’s near-total blockade continues, UN aid teams said on Tuesday.

In an update from the shattered enclave, Olga Cherevko from the UN relief coordination agency, OCHA, said that Gazans were “living in terror” amid constant Israeli bombardment.

“The only thing that is on their minds right now is a ceasefire and peace at last,” Ms. Cherevko told UN News.

Here she is now, describing her mission to Gaza City:

“There was bombing all around us when I was there and just constant strikes and constant shrapnel flying around, and they even showed the pile of shrapnel that they had collected just from this morning. In the meantime, people suffering continues to deepen as very little supplies are able to enter.”

After a weekend of Israeli military operations that reportedly killed and injured scores of people, Ms. Cherevko said that the only way to avoid the humanitarian emergency is to reopen crossings into Gaza.

No fuel has entered the territory in four months, the OCHA staffer continued, adding that “more vital and life-saving services are shutting down as we speak.

This includes Al Shifa hospital’s kidney dialysis units, which had to stop on Tuesday because of a lack of fuel.

“If the situation doesn’t change very, very urgently, more such services will continue shutting down, Ms. Cherevko said.

Iran crisis: Needs still emerging after 12 days of Israeli missile strikes

A clearer picture of needs across Iran is beginning to emerge after the country’s 12-day war with Israel, which left hundreds dead, several hospitals hit and a spike in Afghan refugees returning home, the UN’s top official in Tehran said on Tuesday.

Stefan Priesner, the UN’s Resident Coordinator in Iran, said that multiple missile attacks killed 627 people killed and injured almost 5,000.

Mr. Priesner noted that discussions are ongoing with the Government on how to adapt existing UN programmes to meet the country’s “emerging needs”.

Speaking from the Iranian capital, he said that the health sector needed specific support after strikes on several hospitals and health equipment including ambulances.

The UN official confirmed reports that increasing numbers of Afghan refugees have been heading back to their country across the Iranian border either voluntarily or through deportation.

According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, 36,000 Afghans returned on 26 June alone. The number of daily returns has continued to increase since 13 June.

Heatwave in northern hemisphere is a sign of things to come: WMO

The scorching early-summer heatwave that’s brought life-threatening temperatures across much of the northern hemisphere is a worrying sign of things to come, UN weather experts said on Tuesday.

Just days ago, Spain’s national weather service confirmed a record 46 degree Celsius – or almost 115 degree Fahrenheit – reading in the southern town of El Granado.

And there’s been little let-up in stifling day and night temperatures across the continent and beyond.

In Barcelona, a road sweeper reportedly died last Saturday after finishing work, prompting an investigation and widespread public appeals to keep out of the sun.

“Everybody is at risk,” said Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), who advised against strenuous physical exercise such as running or biking without water in the middle of the day:

“The frequency and intensity of extreme heat events is increasing in Europe and by 2050 about half the European population may be exposed to high or very high risk of heat stress during summer.”

Ms. Nullis said that it was unusual to see episodes of extreme heat so early in the northern hemisphere summer.

Part of the reason for Europe’s heat misery is because it is in the grip of a strong high-pressure weather front trapping hot air from northern Africa, Ms. Nullis said.

But “human-induced climate change” is the source of these acute weather events, the WMO spokesperson insisted.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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