UN News Today 07 November 2025 |

West Bank settler violence must end with accountability: UN Human Rights

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) has called for an end to continuing expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Spokesperson Thameen Al-Keetan said on Friday that “unchecked” settler violence has surged since the war in Gaza began more than two years ago.

In that time, Israeli security forces and settlers have killed more 1,010 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, he told journalists in Geneva.

Of this number, 215 were children, Mr. Al-Keetan noted:

“There must be accountability for settlers and for members of Israeli security forces who are involved in these attacks. And of course, we refer back to the ruling by the International Court of Justice that it’s very crucial for the unlawful Israeli presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to end.”

The UN human rights office warned that Bedouin residents of Umm Al Khair who have lived there since being expelled from their lands nearly 80 years ago now face eviction.

Across the occupied West Bank, OHCHR maintains that Palestinians have long faced “discriminatory” land regulations and demolitions imposed by Israel, which regards their housing as illegal because they lack building permits which the UN states are “almost impossible” for them to obtain.

DR Congo hunger crisis worsening amid fighting and lack of aid funding

The crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to worsen amid ongoing fighting that has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes and created acute hunger.

That’s the worrying message from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) which is calling for greater access to provinces overrun by Rwanda-backed M23 rebel fighters.

Kigali has consistently denied providing military backing to the group.

Help could be provided more easily if air access were re-established, WFP insists, as two airports in M23 areas in the east have been closed since the end of January.

With more, here’s WFP’s Country Director, Cynthia Jones:

“The banks are closed, there’s no money available and this has just had a major impact on the population and on the humanitarian response. And of course, it has devastated livelihoods and really put the food security of affected people in dire, dire circumstances.”

Dramatic funding shortfalls for aid work have also meant that WFP has had to cut its assistance from around one million people at the start of the year, to 600,000 now.

Orlando Bloom highlights plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya: UNICEF

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom visited Bangladesh this week to see the impact of severe cuts to aid work on children living in camps in Cox’s Bazar.

The star actor met some of the 500,000 children in the vast camp, along with their families. They are “100 per cent dependent on aid”, but it is shrinking, he warned.

At risk from the funding cuts are education, health, protection and survival for people in the camps who are mainly ethnic Rohingya who fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

Here’s Mr. Bloom now:

“It’s a very transient environment. There are so many people coming and going. We met a mother who has just arrived who still feels you just had to flee the conflict. It felt very unstable and unsafe. So, this is really, a lifeline for these families in these communities and without their support, they have nothing.”

In June, UNICEF had to temporarily close most schools in Cox’s Bazar because of funding shortages; almost 150,000 children were affected.

And although youngsters of all ages recently went back to class after a fundraising push, the threat of an imminent funding shortfall in early 2026 risks closing all schools again, potentially impacting more than 300,000 children.

Daniel Johnson, UN News