UN News Today 14 January 2026 |

Condemnation as Israeli authorities shut down UNRWA healthcare facility

There’s been strong condemnation from the UN following Israel’s move to close a health centre for Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem.

The facility is run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which said that Israeli security forces “stormed” the building on Monday and demanded the removal of UN signage.

Later that same day, Israel issued a temporary closure order on the health centre, shutting it down it for 30 days. UNRWA warned that “it may never open again”.

The agency’s Jonathan Fowler noted that the move disregarded protection for UN premises under international law:

“Now, this is a health centre that’s used by several hundred Palestine refugee patients every single day under the mandate that UNRWA has from the United Nations General Assembly. For most of them, it’s their only possibility of having access to primary healthcare. So, you know, there’s a right to health is involved in this.”

In the coming weeks, water and power supplies are also set to be cut to UNRWA facilities, in line with legislation passed last month by the Israeli parliament. 

The development will impact healthcare and education and is in addition to laws passed in 2024 in the Knesset that prevent UNRWA from carrying out its longstanding mandate set out by the UN General Assembly.

Syria: Aleppo violence uproots 120,000 people; aid teams push for access

To northern Syria, where aid teams remain deeply concerned for the safety of civilians fleeing heavy fighting that’s reportedly been continuing in and around Aleppo, between largely Kurdish forces and the national army.

The development comes 13 months since the overthrow of the Assad regime by now President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who has called for unity in Syria to rebuild the country after more than a decade of brutal fighting.

UN aid teams say that around 120,000 people have fled the violence in Syria’s second largest city and that they’ve been providing assistance to hundreds of families. 

With more, here’s Babar Baloch from the UN refugee agency:

“Our teams, in partnership with the Syrian Red Crescent, distributed relief kits and winter items, which included firewood stoves, clothing, winter jackets, and carpets…Displaced families were indicating to our colleagues a strong desire to return home whenever it was possible for them while keeping an eye on the evolving situation.”

According to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, around 29,000 people have returned to their homes so far. The situation remains “fluid” and schools are due to be closed for the next two weeks, while flights from Aleppo International Airport are still suspended.

2025 confirmed as one of three warmest years on record

The UN weather agency WMO confirmed on Wednesday that 2025 was one of the three warmest years on record, continuing the streak of extraordinary global temperatures. 

The World Meteorological Organization also noted that the past 11 years have been the warmest in the modern era, while our oceans continue to heat up, too.

WMO said that global average surface temperatures last year were 1.44°C above the 1850 to 1900 average, after analysing eight international datasets. 

The fact that 2025 was very slightly cooler than the three-year average from 2023 is partly explained by the La Niña phenomenon, which is associated with colder weather. 

But WMO insisted that any  cooling from La Niña is not reversing the long-term trend of warmer temperatures. Here’s the agency’s Claire Ransome:

“The year 2025 started and ended with a cooling La Niña and yet it was still one of the warmest years on record globally, because of the accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Land and ocean temperature helped fuel extreme weather, heatwaves, heavy rainfall and intense tropical cyclones which really underline the vital need for early warning systems for all.”

The agency’s Claire Ransome closing that item.

Daniel Johnson, UN News