UN News Today 06 May 2025 |

Gaza: UN aid teams reject Israel’s ‘deliberate attempt to weaponize aid’

The Israeli proposal to deliver aid supplies through hubs controlled by the military would be a breach of core humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence, the UN said on Tuesday.

In Geneva, Jens Laerke from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, noted that a verbal brief had been presented to the aid community by Israeli authorities on Monday.

It proposed delivering supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the military, once the Government reopens crossings into Gaza, Mr. Laerke said:

“It appears to be a deliberate attempt to weaponize the aid. And we have warned against that for a very long time, that aid should be provided based on humanitarian need to whomever needs it.”

The proposal comes as Israel plans to expand its military offensive against Hamas, which includes the “capture” of the Gaza Strip and a reported comment by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that Palestinian territory will be “entirely destroyed”.

Exhausted Sudanese flee into Chad as fighting escalates

Thousands of exhausted Sudanese refugees continue arriving in neighbouring Chad seeking shelter from war, aid teams said on Tuesday.

The development comes as drone strikes ripped into the city of Port Sudan on the opposite side of the country, for the third day running.  

Nearly 20,000 people – mainly traumatized women and children – have reached Chad in the past two weeks, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHC R.

Magatte Guisse, UNHCR Representative in Chad, said that most of those arriving have no food, money or identification:

“Many of the newly arrived refugee report experiencing grave violence and human rights violations that force them to flee. They describe men being killed, women and girls subjected to sexual violence and homes burned to the ground. The journey to safely were perilous, with refugee facing robbery and extortion at checkpoints and repeated threats along the way.”

Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world and already hosts 1.3 million refugees.

This includes nearly 800,000 people from Sudan since war erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, after a breakdown in transition to civilian rule.  

Hospital bombing could be a war crime, warn human rights investigators

Top human rights investigators have condemned the bombing of a hospital in South Sudan as a potential war crime.

The UN Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) in South Sudan which reports to the Human Rights Council insisted that Saturday’s deadly strike on the facility in eastern Jonglei state was a “calculated, unlawful attack on a protected medical facility”.

The attack killed seven civilians and injured another 20, while the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières which runs the hospital said that that it had been completely destroyed – including its pharmacy and emergency care units.

Further aerial bombardments were also reported, following public threats by South Sudanese military forces against Nuer-majority communities. This policy “is deeply irresponsible and may amount to collective punishment” the Commission warned.

Condemning the hospital attack, the UN health agency said that medical facilities have been targeted eight times since January.

The World Health Organization warned that more attacks may lead to half the health facilities along the Nile closing at a time of escalating violence that has impacted civilians since South Sudan gained independence in 2011.  

Daniel Johnson, UN News 

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