Horrified by IDF war crimes in Gaza, more Americans are said to support Palestine than Israel for the first time ever
Israeli troops now routinely ‘secure’ the Old City of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, severely restricting Palestinians’ movements, to allow Israeli settlers to tour the city | Mosab Shawer / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
11 December 2025 (openDemocracy)** —Two months into Israel and Hamas’s ‘ceasefire’, the name is already proving a misnomer. Violence continues in Gaza, where more than 360 Palestinians, including as many as 70 children, and three Israeli soldiers have been killed since 10 October.
(UN News)* —Severe weather conditions have led to further casualties and heightened health risks in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) reported on Monday [].
Heavy seasonal downpours are compounding an already dire humanitarian situation, as rainstorms cause war-damaged buildings to collapse, flood tents and soak people’s belongings, OCHAsaid.
To respond swiftly to flood alerts, a coordinated system bringing together UN agencies and non-governmental organizations is distributing tents, tarpaulins, warm clothes, blankets and dignity kits across Gaza.
The UN and its partners are also mobilising heavy equipment to pump overflowing sewage – which poses serious health risks – away from residential areas.
Nearly nine in ten agricultural West Bank families – or about 100 000 agricultural households – have recently experienced at least one acute “shock”.
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Jerusalem/Cairo – More than 72 000 farming and herding families in the West Bank – nearly two-thirds of all agricultural families – urgently require emergency agricultural assistance, according to a new survey published on 24 December 2025 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The survey shows that about 90 percent of West Bank agricultural families have recently lost income, driven by sharp declines in crop and livestock production and sales.
23 Apr 2025 – Somalia’s recognition of SSC-Khaatumo as its sixth Federal Member State (FMS) has radically shifted the Horn of Africa’s geopolitical dynamics, with implications for Israel, Palestine, and Ansar Allah (“the Houthis”).
The geopolitical dynamics of the Horn of Africa region are always volatile, but more so now than ever.
The world’s attention is most drawn to the region by Ansar Allah’s disruption of crucial maritime routes in the Red Sea in support of Palestine and Donald Trump’s despicable proposal to remove and dump the entire population of Gaza in war-torn Sudan, Somalia, and/or Somaliland, the unrecognized Somali secessionist state.
10 December 2025 (UNICEF)* — UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal helps support the agency’s work as it provides conflict- and disaster-affected children with access to water, sanitation, nutrition, education, health and protection services.
UNICEF/UN0591078/TaxtaOn 3 February 2022 in Somalia, a child feeds on a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) packet while his mother holds him waiting to receive assistance at Community Empowerment and Development Action Health Centre in Dolow.
(UN News)* —Brutal slashes to aid budgets are hampering efforts to assist millions of people in Somalia affected by drought, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on
More than 4.6 million people across the country, roughly a quarter of the population, are impacted, according to local authorities.
“Partners indicate that at least 120,000 people were displaced between September and December, as water prices soar, food becomes increasingly scarce, livestock die and livelihoods collapse,”OCHA said in an update.
Additionally, more than 75,000 students nationwide have been forced to drop out of school.
22 December 2025 — When the seventh edition of the Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) – a sprawling report on the state of the natural world – came out earlier this month its warnings were stark.
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Humanity is pushing the Earth to its environmental breaking point, the report’s authors warned, with potentially dire consequences for everything from human health to the global economy.
But GEO-7, produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), says it is not too late for humanity to change course.
Within its pages is a recipe for a healthier planet that focuses on transforming five key systems: economic and financial; materials and waste; energy; food; and the environment.
(UN News)* — With rising effects of climate change across the globe, the world has started recognising that climate change is not just an ecological collapse, but also a human rights crisis.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk echoed this message in Geneva earlier this year and posed a question before the Human Rights Council:
“Are we taking the steps needed to protect people from climate chaos, safeguard their futures and manage natural resources in ways that respect human rights and the environment?”
His answer was very simple: we are not doing nearly enough.
Dec 23 2025 (IPS)** – CIVICUS discusses migrants’ rights in Libya with Sarra Zidi, political scientist and researcher for HuMENA, an international civil society organisation (CSO) that advances democracy, human rights and social justice across the Middle East and North Africa.
Sarra Zidi
Libya has fragmented into rival power centres, with large areas controlled by armed groups.
As state institutions have collapsed, there’s no functioning system to protect the rights and safety of migrants and refugees.
Instead, state-linked bodies such as the Directorate for Combating Illegal Immigration (DCIM) and the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) often work with militias, smugglers and traffickers, with near-total impunity.
In this lawless environment, Sub-Saharan migrants face systematic abuses that the International Criminal Court (ICC) and United Nations bodies warnmay amount to crimes against humanity.
Despite this, the European Union (EU) continues to classify Libya as a ‘safe country of return’ and work with it to externalise its migration control.Continue reading →
GAZA, The Occupied Palestinian Territory, 24 December 2025 —When Rana learned she was pregnant, her joy was quickly overshadowed by another feeling – fear.
For Rana, as for many of the 55,000 pregnant womenacross Gaza seeking healthcare, the question was not if her baby would be born but where, and whether they would survive the delivery.
“I thought I would have to give birth in a tent,” she recalled.
After two years of relentless attacks, Gaza’s health system has been shattered. Only a fraction of health facilities remain functional, and very few can provide emergency obstetric and newborn care.
(UN News)* —The war in Sudan is entering a deadlier phase, the United Nations has warned, as intensified fighting in the Kordofan region, mounting civilian casualties from drone strikes and growing risks of regional spillover push the conflict toward the 1,000-day mark.
Briefing the Security Council on Monday [], senior UN political and humanitarian officials described a sharply deteriorating security and humanitarian situation marked by indiscriminate attacks, expanding territorial gains by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and escalating dangers for civilians, aid workers and peacekeepers.
(UN News)* — An estimated 500,000 people have been forced from their homes since fighting erupted in South Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), at the beginning of December.
That’s according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
“This hunger crisis risks spiraling without urgent action,” said Cynthia Jones, WFP Country Director for the DRC.
She added that even the families who have provided shelter to those forced to flee are already living at emergency levels of food insecurity, “sharing their last food with displaced neighbors—pushing all of them closer to utter desperation.”
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 23 2025 (IPS)* – Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, once made a highly debatable distinction between “friendly” right-wing “authoritarian” regimes (which were mostly U.S. and Western allies) and “unfriendly” left-wing “totalitarian” dictatorships (which the U.S. abhorred).
Tercer Piso. Source Amnesty International
Around the same time, successive U.S. administrations were cozying up to a rash of authoritarian regimes, mostly in the Middle East, widely accused of instituting emergency laws, detaining dissidents, cracking down on the press, torturing political prisoners and rigorously imposing death penalties. Continue reading →
(UN News)* —As Myanmar approaches elections scheduled for 28 December, the UN’s top human rights official has said that civilians are being coerced from all sides – forced by the military to vote and threatened by armed opposition groups to boycott – in a climate of fear, violence and mass repression.
Unsplash/Kyle Petzer | A pagoda at dawn in downtown Yangon, the commercial hub of Myanmar.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warnedthat the military-controlled ballot is unfolding amid intensified violence, intimidation and arbitrary arrests, leaving no space for free or meaningful participation.
“These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” Mr. Türk said in a news release.
Navdanya International has released the report Seeds of Resistance, which documents the global spread of both old and new GMOs and the dismantling of biosafety regulations across continents.
Photo: Manlio Masucci
On November 22, Navdanya International presented this new report for the first time at the international meeting Semillas en Resistencia Global, held at the National Museum of Popular Cultures in Mexico City, together with peasants, Indigenous communities, researchers and activists from Latin America, Africa and Europe.
(UN News)* — Despite the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, humanitarians continue to receive reports of airstrikes, shelling and gunfire in all five governorates, the United Nations said on Monday [].
UN News | As rain falls over Gaza, children take refuge beneath a disabled fishing boat, one of the few places offering shelter in the overcrowded displacement area.
This has resulted in casualties and disruptions to aid operations over the past 24 hours, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at Headquarters, in New York.
Still, efforts to deliver assistance to the most vulnerable families continue during the cold and wet winter season, although a rescue mission to reach an injured person in Gaza City was denied.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Dec 22 2025 (IPS)** – Myanmar is heading for an election, beginning on 28 December, that’s ostensibly an exercise in democracy – but it has clearly been designed with the aim of conferring more legitimacy on its military junta.
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Credit: Issei Kato/Reuters via Gallo Images
Almost five years after its February 2021 coup, the regime continues to fight pro-democracy forces and ethnic armed organisations, barely controlling a fifth of Myanmar’s territory.
Some 600 glaciers have already disappeared and many more will vanish if temperatures continue to rise.
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PHOTO:Mark/Adobe Stock
Glaciers, an essential source of life around our mountains
Glaciers, vast reserves of ice and snow found across the planet, are far more than frozen landscapes – they are lifelines for ecosystems and communities, holding around 70 percent of the world’s freshwater.
Their accelerated melting represents not only an environmental crisis but also a humanitarian one, threatening agriculture, clean energy, water security and billions of peoples’ lives.
Their retreat, driven by rising global temperatures, is a stark indicator of the climate crisis.
18 December 2025 — Record heat, record low sea ice, shrinking glaciers, continued warming of the ocean and unprecedented extreme weather events are just some of the disruptive changes reported that are transforming this once reliably frozen region into a warmer, wetter, and unpredictable world.
WMO 2021 Calendar Competition – Henrique Pacini
These are the key findings of the Arctic Report Card 2025, authored by 112 scientists from 13 countries. Now in its 20th year, the report documents ongoing trends, record-setting events, and emerging challenges in a region warming far faster than the rest of the planet.
Research underscores the meditation ability to reduce stress, improve focus and emotional balance, alleviating anxiety and depression, and enhance sleep quality. It also contributes to better physical health, including lowering blood pressure and managing pain.
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Meditation is an ancient practice that involves focusing one’s attention on the present moment. Rooted in religious, yogic, and secular traditions across cultures, meditation has been practiced for thousands of years.
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Today, it is embraced worldwide, transcending its spiritual origins to become a universal tool for personal well-being and mental health.
The findings are a stark warning that the Amazon’s crisis is not only about trees. It is about the air millions of people breathe, and the health of our shared planet.
New evidence shows rangelands are degrading faster than rainforests in some regions, despite bringing multiple benefits and sustaining two billion people
Bonn/Panama City– Stretching from the drylands of Latin America and Africa to the steppes of Central Asia, rangelands underpin food security, climate stability and centuries-old pastoral cultures.
These vast landscapes, covering half the planet, store significant carbon, buffer climate extremes, and regulate water in some of the world’s driest regions.
Yet, despite their immense value, rangelands remain one of the planet’s most overlooked ecosystems.
Oppressive heat. Species extinctions. Pollution-choked skies.
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Courtesy NASA
15 December 2025 —This is the future that awaits the world unless humanity takes dramatic steps to end a series of mushrooming environmental crises, finds a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The seventh edition of the Global Environment Outlook(GEO-7) offers a stark vision of the decades to come.
Explore UN Women’s FAQs on how gender affects migration experiences.
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. Photo: UN Women Cambodia/Women Migrant Workers participatory photography project
Learn about the unique challenges that migrant women and girls face and how these differ to those men experience, from limited access to information and services to risks like trafficking, exploitation and violence.
What is the difference between migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers?
(UN News)* — Food security in Gaza has improved since the ceasefire declared in October, pushing back famine conditions, but the situation remains critical with more than three-quarters of the population still facing acute hunger and malnutrition, a new UN-backed analysis has found.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Dec 17 2025 (IPS)** –Machines with no conscience are making split-second decisions about who lives and who dies. This isn’t dystopian fiction; it’s today’s reality. In Gaza, algorithms have generated kill lists ofup to 37,000 targets.
Credit: Annegret Hilse/Reuters via Gallo Images
Autonomous weapons are also being deployed inUkraineand were on show at a recentmilitary paradein China. States are racing to integrate them in their arsenals, convinced they’ll maintain control. If they’re wrong, the consequences could be catastrophic.
Unlike remotely piloted drones where a human operator pulls the trigger, autonomous weapons make lethal decisions.Continue reading →
A new global synthesis report and refugee voices from East Africa and the Middle East warn that reductions in humanitarian footprints risks breaking the refugee protection system.
Sahrawi refugees walk near the Awserd Refugee Camp in the Tindouf Province of Algeria. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
SRINAGAR, India, Dec 16 2025 (IPS)* –– The global refugee system is entering a period of deep strain. The delivery of protection and assistance is undergoing a transformation due to funding cuts, institutional reforms, and shifting donor priorities.
How harmful stereotypes undermine migrant women and what must change
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–Migration is often talked about in numbers – how many people cross borders, what it costs, and how much migrants contribute to economies. Yet each statistic hides a personal journey driven by courage, ambition, and resilience.
“Corruption breeds disillusion with government and governance… Corruption can be a trigger for conflict,” notes António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General.
UN Photo/Leonora Baumann | Port au Prince.
“As conflict rages, corruption prospers. And even if conflict ebbs, corruption can impede recovery.”
Below, find out how corruption can exacerbate conflicts and impede sustainable peace plans – and how the United Nations is working to strengthen integrity, the rule of law and anti-corruption measures in peacekeeping and peacebuilding contexts.
Last year,one in five people who dealt with a public official were asked to pay a bribe, according to a UN report.
The world is doing something about it.
Rabik Upadhayay | Young Nepalis protesting against endemic corruption in the capital Kathmandu earlier this year. Security forces responded with a violent crackdown, leaving more than 50 people dead in the ensuing crisis.
Heads of State, civil society and private sector leaders will be discussing the most pressing issues surrounding corruption and how to tackle the scourge, at a a UN anti-corruption conference (COSP11) this week in Doha, Qatar.
(Beirut) – Qatari government clients and other major businesses are failing to pay contractors on time for projects, leaving migrant workers unpaid, Human Rights Watch on 14 December 2025 said.
(UN News)* — Humanitarian assistance in Gaza is being delayed because aid cargo is routinely deprioritised in favour of commercial goods, the UN’s aid coordination office (OCHA) warned on Monday [], as winter storms continue to worsen already dire living conditions for displaced families.
Despite sustained efforts by the UN and its partners, needs are rising faster than aid can be delivered, according to Olga Cherevko, an OCHA spokesperson in Gaza.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the “heinous deadly attack” on Sunday against Jewish families gathered in Sydney, Australia, to celebrate Hanukkah.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe | UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaking at a press conference at the UN Headquarters, in New York. (file photo)
In a social media post, Mr. Guterres said he was “horrified” by the incident.
“My heart is with the Jewish community worldwide on this first day of Hannukah, a festival celebrating the miracle of peace and light vanquishing darkness,” he wrote.
Online violence is spilling offline: Four in ten of the women surveyed also reported experiencing offline attacks connected to digital abuse.
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Geneva –Online violence against women human rights defenders, activists and journalists has reached a tipping point, often fueling offline attacks, according to a new report released on , produced by UN Women’s ACT to End Violence against Women programme.
More than half the world’s population still lacks access to essential health services.
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And a quarter of them face financial hardship when paying for health care out of their own pockets, often at the expense of food, education or housing.
On 12 December 2012, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a resolution urging countries to accelerate progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) – the idea that everyone, everywhere should have access to quality, affordable health care.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2025 (IPS)* –When there was widespread speculation that a UN Under-Secretary-General (USG), a product of two prestigious universities—Oxford and Cambridge—was planning to run for the post of Secretary-General back in the 1980s, I pointedly asked him to confirm or deny the rumor during an interview in the UN delegate’s lounge.
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The Security Council in session. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
“I don’t think”, he declared, “anyone in his right mind will ever want that job”.
Fast forward to 2026.
As a financially stricken UN is looking for a new Secretary-General, who will take office beginning January 2027, the USG’s remark in a bygone era was a reflection of a disaster waiting to happen.
Statement by Maureen Magee, Global Director of Field Operations, at the Norwegian Refugee Council, commenting on the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) for 2026:
Halima Omar, a displaced mother of seven lives in a camp in Baidoa, Somalia. Halima has been directly impacted by aid cuts: “We had access to water and latrines, but those services are no longer available. The organisations that used to support us have stopped their programmes.” Photo: Abdulkadir Mohamed/NRC
“2026 is set to stretch humanitarian responses to their limit as they seek to support people with the most severe needs around the world.
“Next year, 239 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. Humanitarians are aiming to reach just over half of them.
By Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights*
10 December 2025 (OHCHR)* — Human rights are underfunded, undermined and under attack. And yet. Powerful. Undeterred. Mobilizing.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an interview with UN News.
This year no doubt has been a difficult one. And one full of dangerous contradictions. Funding for human rights has been slashed, while anti-rights movements are increasingly well-funded.
Profits for the arms industry are soaring, while funding for humanitarian aid and grassroots civil society plummets.
Those defending rights and justice are attacked, sanctioned and hauled before courts, even as those ordering the commission of atrocity crimes continue to enjoy impunity.Continue reading →
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2025 (IPS)*– Over the course of 2025, global civic space conditions have deteriorated sharply, with most countries experiencing some degree of obstructed civil liberties.
The panelists at the CIVICUS press briefing on the 2025 People Power Under Attack Report. Credit: Oritro Karim/IPS
As authoritarian governments strengthen their hold and have even escalated the use of military force to suppress public dissent, civilians report facing increasing limitations of freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, petition and religion, as well as notable crackdowns on press freedoms. Continue reading →
NAIROBI, Dec 10 2025 (IPS)* –– A new study and interactive dashboard released today in Nairobi at the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) finds that current international financial flows remain billions of dollars short of what is required to achieve the global biodiversity target of protecting and conserving at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030 (30×30).
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New report finds that current international financial flows remain billions of dollars short of what is required to protect and conserve at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. Photo: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
Around 100 hectares of Palestinian land have been reportedly confiscated to make way for the new route.
This would mark another step towards the progressive fragmentation of the West Bank, warned the head of the OHCHR’s Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajith Sunghay.
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“We are alarmed to hear that Israel has actually started building a new barrier and a road in the heart of the Jordan Valley,” he said on Friday [].
(UN News)* — Gaza’s health system for mothers and newborns has been “decimated”, the UN said on Thursday [], with Israeli attacks destroying almost all hospitals, cutting off medical supplies and driving sharp rises in maternal deaths, miscarriages and newborn fatalities amid mass displacement and hunger.
United Nations | Medical equipment destroyed in an attack on a hospital in Gaza.
According to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, when Palestinian armed groups attacked communities in southern Israel, triggering Israel’s full-scale military assault on the enclave.
OHCHR said 94 per cent of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, leaving pregnant women and newborns without essential care.
Geneva, 12 December 2025 – Storm Byron, a severe storm system that triggered flooding in Greece and Cyprus before reaching Gaza earlier this week, has now made landfall, bringing heavy rainfall that has already flooded multiple displacement sites and placed nearly 795,000* displaced Palestinians at heightened risk.
Flooding in Gaza has damaged shelters and left families exposed to rising risks. Photo: IOM 2025
Rainfall is expected to continue in the hours ahead, further straining conditions for families already living in unsafe shelters.
(UN News)* —The vast majority of World Health Organization (WHO) member States say 40 to 90 per cent of their populations now use traditional medicine.
That’s according to Shyama Kuruvilla, director of WHO’s Global Traditional Medicine Centre, established in 2022 to tap into the potential of these systems for healthcare and well-being.
“With half the world’s population lacking access to essential health services, traditional medicine is often the closest or only care available for many people,” Ms. Kuruvilla told a virtual media briefing on , ahead of this month’s WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine.
Responding to EU home affairs ministers’ position on the EU Return Regulation agreed in Brussels on , Olivia Sundberg Diez, EU Advocate on Migration and Asylum at Amnesty International, said:
“EU ministers’ position on the Return Regulation reveals the EU’s dogged and misguided insistence on ramping up deportations, raids, surveillance, and detention at any cost…
… These punitive measures amount to an unprecedented stripping of rights based on migration status and will leave more people in precarious situations and legal limbo.
Statement by UNICEF as countries move to introduce social media bans for children.
UNICEF/UNI448309/Mahari
NEW YORK, 10 December 2025 (UNICEF)* –“Across the globe, governments are debating how young is “too young” to use social media, with some introducing age-related restrictions across platforms.
“These restrictions reflect genuine concern: children are facing bullying, exploitation, and exposure to harmful content online with negative impacts on their mental health and well-being. The status quo is failing children and overwhelming families.
(UN News)* — Intensifying fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has claimed more than 70 civilian lives, displaced over 200,000 people and cut thousands off from food assistance, prompting UN warnings of a rapidly expanding humanitarian emergency spilling across borders.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the situation in South Kivu province has deteriorated sharply since 2 December due to heavy fighting across multiple territories, including Uvira, Walungu, Mwenga, Shabunda, Kabare, Fizi and Kalehe.
(UN News)* — As another winter storm hits the Gaza Strip, low temperatures and rains are putting the lives of newborns and other vulnerable groups at risk, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said on Wednesday [].
Following two years of war, most of Gaza’s roughly two million residents are living in makeshift shelters.
Humanitarians are working to deliver assistance to communities in flood-prone areas, including by scaling up distribution of winter clothes for children from 5,000 kits a day to 8,000.
Gaza City, 8 December 2025 – One month into the latest ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a fragile calm has brought long-awaited relief for families who have endured unimaginable suffering and repeated displacement.
For the third time in over two years, after previously collapsed ceasefires, there is a small space for hope – a renewed opportunity for survival, safety, and dignity for nearly 2 million Palestinians.
Thousands of families remain without a roof over their heads. For months on end, many have lain awake beneath the open sky.
Ensuring full humanitarian access is essential for Gaza’s fragile ceasefire to lead to meaningful recovery. Photo: IOM 2025
Select your languagEnsuring full humanitarian access is essential for Gaza’s fragile ceasefire to lead to meaningful recovery. Photo: IOM 2025
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Photo: Manlio Masucci
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UN Photo/Mark Garten | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an interview with UN News.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 