UN News Today 16 March 2026 |

UN chief urges action against anti-Muslim hate

UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued an impassioned appeal on Monday against a “rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry and hate”, calling on technology companies “to bring people together, not drive them apart”. 

Marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, Mr. Guterres highlighted that on Thursday, the world’s nearly two billion Muslims will celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

It’s traditionally a time “to reach out – especially to those in need”, the UN chief said, especially as conflict and instability rage around the world, affecting countless people, including many Muslims. 

For “far too many Muslims, daily life can be shaped by exclusion”, the Secretary-General insisted, as he condemned attacks on individuals and on mosques that are “an assault on the values that underpin peaceful, inclusive societies”.

While online companies have a responsibility to prevent such violence, all of us have that responsibility, too, the UN chief insisted, as he called on the world to “reject the narratives of fear and exclusion” in favour of respect, inclusion, justice and peace.

Middle East war’s ‘spiral of conflict’ drives mounting civilian toll

To Geneva, where independent experts briefing the Human Rights Council warned on Monday of escalating violence in the Middle East following Israeli and US strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks by Tehran and allied groups.

The fighting – which has included Iranian counterstrikes against Gulf states and Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after the group launched assaults – is intensifying a regional “spiral of conflict”, the Council also heard.

Sara Hossein, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said that in almost three weeks of Israeli and US strikes, there had been “mounting reports of civilian casualties, including children”:

CUT

“Against this backdrop, we are particularly concerned by public statements from U.S. officials suggesting that long-established ‘rules of engagement’ do not apply in this conflict. We will continue to monitor compliance with international humanitarian law of all parties to the conflict and to gather evidence in this regard.”

The Council also heard from the Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, who expressed concern that several oil depots and a desalination plant had been struck or destroyed, causing “severe harm” to civilians.

Ms. Sato said that three million people are now displaced inside Iran. The independent expert who is not paid for her work nor a UN staff member, highlighted the reported absence of functional air raid sirens and bomb shelters in many urban areas, that add to concerns about civilian protection during hostilities.

UN human rights office condemns killing of Palestinian families

To Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where two Palestinian families were reportedly killed on Sunday by Israeli forces, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, has said.

It said that an airstrike on one of the last few houses still standing in Middle Gaza’s Az Zuwaida killed a man, his pregnant wife, their young son and a teenager.

In the northern occupied West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a couple and their two children aged five and six in Tammoun, all with shots to the head.

The two older sons survived and said that the Israeli soldiers had physically assaulted them after killing their parents and brothers, saying that they had killed quote unquote “dogs”.

OHCHR said such incidents raised serious concerns about a “persistent trend” of unlawful killings of Palestinians with impunity.

Since the announcement of a ceasefire deal in Gaza in October 2025, 663 people have been killed in Israeli military attacks, according to the Palestinian authorities.

Violence against Palestinians has intensified since the start of the wider regional war on 28 February, the UN rights office said, citing movement restrictions that keep Palestinians in “locked silos” and claiming that armed Israeli settlers and security forces roam free, attacking Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank.

Daniel Johnson, UN News