(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
(Washington, DC) – Human rights groups on 8 December 2025 urged US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end immigration detention at Camp East Montana, a massive tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas.
In their letter, advocates summarized accounts of horrific conditions, including beatings and sexual abuse by officers against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to compel deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other rights violations.
(UN News)* —Mothers who’ve been left starving in Gaza are now giving birth to underweight or premature babies who die in intensive care units or struggle to survive as they endure acute malnutrition, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday [].
Speaking from the shattered enclave, UNICEF Communication Manager Tess Ingram said that at least 165 children are reported to have died “painful, preventable deaths” related to malnutrition during the war between Hamas fighters and Israel.
A lesser-known scourge is acute hunger among pregnant and breastfeeding women and “the devastating domino effect” of this lack of a healthy diet on thousands of newborns.
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Baher Kamal
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 