UN News Today 13 August 2026 |

Settler attacks on Palestinian homes ‘beyond a boiling point’: OHCHR

In the occupied West Bank, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, appealed to Israeli authorities on Thursday to help Palestinian families who have been trapped in their homes by settlers for days, amid an intensifying campaign to seize their land.

Three Palestinian families including at least two children have remained confined to their homes without electricity or water and “in a state of terror” in Qusra village, south of Nablus, OHCHR said. 

Head of the UN office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay, told UN News that the families have been moved into just one home, which remains surrounded by Israeli settlers.

“Again, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is either unable or unwilling to protect Palestinian communities, which they are expected to do so under the Geneva Convention; or worse, that the IDF is in collusion with the Israeli settlers, all aimed at displacing Palestinians and occupying their lands.” 

Mr. Sunghay said that about 20 Palestinian families from Qusra had been evacuated by Israeli soldiers allegedly “for security purposes”, before stressing the urgent need for international assistance to end the increasingly dangerous situation in the occupied territory.

The West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. 

The territory remains central to plans for a future Palestinian state, but violent settlement expansion is a growing obstacle to a negotiated two-State solution.

Afghanistan: Education ban for girls is hardest to bear

Five years since the Taliban seized power in Kabul, life for some Afghans has improved while many others suffer growing hardship.

In rural Afghanistan, finding enough food and water is a daily challenge for many families. 

But the first thing on their minds is the ban on girls’ education, said Olga Cherevko, from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.

Here she is now, describing the situation in Daykundi province, in the bare highlands of central Afghanistan, where rural communities live in remote mountain settlements:

“The women I met there really surprised me because before anything else, the first thing they mentioned was the ban on girls’ education and how it’s impacting their lives. And they told me that basically they had lost hope for their daughter’s future and of course for themselves. And that really stayed with me because this is also a community struggling simply to make ends meet and to survive.”

Ms. Cherevko told UN News that Afghan women today have fewer opportunities to earn an income than men, because of increasing restrictions placed on them by their Taliban rulers.

As a consequence, women are finding it harder to support their families, while also having to cope with reduced opportunities to participate in life outside their homes, the veteran aid worker said. 

“For millions of Afghan women and girls, the restrictions against them are shaping their ability to learn, to earn a living and to imagine a different future,” Ms. Cherevko stressed.

In an assessment of the situation in Afghanistan today, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that the past five years of Taliban rule had brought a reduction in conflict and “tangible benefits” for some.

But significant obstacles to lasting stability remain, the mission said, particularly the “increasingly damaging restrictions” on women and girls and ongoing terrorism concerns.

Myanmar floods threaten to deepen hunger crisis: WFP

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an emergency response operation in Myanmar, where monsoon flooding threatens to push vulnerable communities deeper into hunger.

The agency has begun distributing fortified biscuits in Laymyethna Township, Ayeyarwady region in southwestern Myanmar.

Flooding caused by heavy rainfall there over the last two weeks has breached river embankments and inundated villages. 

WFP rapid assessments indicate that more than 32,000 people across nearly 100 villages have been affected.

The 20 tons of fortified biscuits already dispatched to UN partners will provide immediate food assistance to 10,000 people. 

“Flooding is a recurring threat, but this year it is impacting communities already battered by multiple underlying crises,” said WFP Representative Michael Dunford.

The emergency represents a new challenge for Myanmar’s people. An estimated 12.4 million are already going hungry amid an ongoing civil war, displacement, economic hardship and high food prices.

WFP has appealed for urgent funding and sustained aid access to prevent the crisis from worsening.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.