UN News Today 01 October 2025 |

The world is failing Gaza’s starving children, aid teams warn

As Israeli forces continued their push to take full control of Gaza City on Wednesday, UNICEF said that another skeletal child has now died there from acute malnutrition. Her name was Jana and she was just nine.

A total of 151 children have perished through acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian health authorities.

UNICEF’s Tess Ingram explained that Jana had been treated in hospital twice for the condition and recovered the first time, only to waste away  and die on 17 September, amid continuing Israeli aid restrictions.

Here’s Ms. Ingram now: 

“I remember holding her frail little hand and helping her into the ambulance. And after that day, I wondered so many times, where is Jana now? Is she okay? Just a couple of weeks ago, and in Gaza City, I walked into a hospital and found her, again, acutely malnourished. The world failed Jana so many times.”

Ms. Ingram explained that Jana’s last hope was to be medically evacuated out of Gaza – but no host country would take her.

More than 7,800 patients – the majority children – have been medevacked from Gaza since war erupted there on 7 October 2023, following Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel. But well over 15,600 patients still need to leave the Strip for urgent treatment abroad.

‘Trust crisis’ threatens vaccine confidence and global uptake, says WHO

Immunization experts at the UN World Health Organization (WHO) have warned that global protection against preventable diseases is under threat, in part because of an “information and trust crisis” regarding vaccines.

And because healthcare spending is also under pressure around the world, it should be a priority to develop so-called combination vaccines, the panel insisted.

Here’s WHO immunization chief Dr Kate O’Brien, stressing that the combination MMR jab that protects against mumps, measles and rubella, is safe for children:

“The measles, mumps, rubella vaccine is a very safe vaccine. Measles and rubella vaccine also very safe. And what is really critical is that rubella and measles both have significant health risks. Rubella in particular, the risk is that if a woman who becomes pregnant does not have protection against rubella and develops a rubella infection during early pregnancy, there is significant risk of severe harm to the foetus.”

The panel listed several obstacles preventing global health improvements; these include the high numbers of people living in conflict settings today, who are at greater risk of contracting disease.

The fall in global health spending has also impacted “all” of WHO’s regional offices, the experts said. They underlined the “drastic reductions” in staffing levels and financial resources now facing the health agency, before appealing for “greater national leadership” on immunization programmes moving forward.

Haiti: Security Council approves force to target gang violence

The UN Security Council has approved a large new international force to tackle escalating gang violence in Haiti for an initial 12 months.

The move comes as widespread rights abuses continue in the Caribbean island nation that have created a humanitarian emergency.

The new force will include 5,500 police and soldiers who will be authorized to detain suspects.

Its priorities include protecting vulnerable groups, supporting former fighters to prevent them from going back to their gangs and helping strengthen Haitian institutions.

The resolution was supported by Panama and the United States in the Council and it was backed by dozens of countries in the region and beyond. It was adopted by a vote of 12 in favour and three abstentions – from China, Pakistan and Russia.

The existing Security Council-backed police support mission authorized in 2023 and led by Kenya was hampered by underfunding and a lack of personnel.

Daniel Johnson, UN News