UN News Today 19 June 2025 |

Gaza: As last fuel supplies run out, aid teams warn of catastrophe

More than 100 days into Israel’s complete fuel blockade in Gaza, UN agencies still in the shattered enclave warned on Thursday that vital services are only “hours away” from shutting down and people are still starving.

Speaking from Gaza City, Olga Cherevko from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that water pumps had stopped at one site for displaced people on Wednesday “because there’s no fuel”.

She described people waiting for food and hoping to find something to eat so they would not have to watch their own children starve:

“I spoke with a woman a couple of days ago where she told me that she went with a friend of hers who is nine months pregnant in hopes of finding some food in any of the areas where there is possibly some distributions and of course they didn’t manage because they were too afraid to enter areas where there could be incidents like the ones that have been reported over the past few days, which are completely appalling and unacceptable in which people were killed and injured simply waiting for food.”

In its latest update, OCHA reported an estimated 55,000 pregnant women in gaza now face miscarriage, stillbirth and undernourished newborns as a result of the food shortages.

UNHCR gravely alarmed at Iran-Israel escalation

To the Iran-Israel conflict, and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Thursday that it’s gravely concerned about the situation and called for restraint to protect civilian lives.

UNHCR’s Babar Baloch said that the agency was monitoring reports that people are on the move within Iran and that some are leaving for neighbouring countries, although the situation remains “fluid” and hard to confirm.

Mr. Baloch explained that the people of Iran have been long-time hosts of Afghan refugees and other refugee populations and that they now face “devastation and fear” because of the missile strikes being traded between Israel and Tehran.

“We stand ready to provide technical and operational support to the National Health authorities in the region to ensure an effective and human response is possible; UNHCR also reaffirms that non-admission or rejection of all those seeking safety at the borders amounts to refoulement.”

Global investment fell 11 per cent to $1.5 trillion in 2024: UNCTAD

Global investment fell a full 11 per cent to $1.5 trillion last year – it’s a huge blow for developing nations, the UN trade agency, UNCTAD, said on Thursday.

Their latest data shows that the outlook for international investment this year “is negative”, a sharp course correction from January, when “modest” growth seemed possible.

The reasons for this range from trade tensions and tariffs whose main effect has been a “dramatic increase in investor uncertainty”, said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan.

She said that investment in renewable energy, water and sanitation fell by some 30 per cent and that agriculture saw a 19 per cent drop in investor confidence.

Only the health sector saw an increase of nearly 20 per cent, Ms. Grynspan said, although that only accounts for “less than $15 billion globally”.

“Behind those numbers are very real consequences. Jobs not created. Infrastructure not built. Sustainable development delayed. What we see here is not just a downturn. It is a pattern.”

Ms. Grynspan also cited “growing geopolitical tensions” in addition to rising trade barriers around the world as reasons for the fall in global investment for development.

In critical sectors as hi-tech industries and rare earth minerals, governments are also tightening screening measures on proposed foreign investment, the UN agency noted.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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