(UN News)* —One of the many ugly consequences of wars and conflict is injuries leading to a loss of limbs. Gaza, which now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world, is no exception.
UN News | Palestinian child Maryam Abu ‘Alba lying on a hospital bed in Gaza; her right leg amputated while the left leg is severely injured.
“I was going to buy falafel,” says Mohammed Hassan. “On the way home, I looked up and saw a rocket heading towards me. I tried to run, but it was too fast. I found myself pinned to the wall, and my foot had been blown off.”
Brought to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the young boy looks down at his heavily bandaged left leg, and the stump where his foot used to be.
In another area of the hospital, a small child, Maryam Abu Alba, is crying in pain.
(UN News)* — Victims of atrocities and freedom fighters across history can inspire future generations to build just societies, the chief of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on the occasion of theInternational Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, commemorated annually on 23 August.
UN News/Eileen Travers | The ‘tronco’ was used to restrain enslaved people in the 18th century, seen here as part of an exhibit at UN Headquarters. (file)
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“It is time to abolish human exploitation once and for all and to recognise the equal and unconditional dignity of each and every individual,” Ms. Azoulay said.
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The Day is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples.
GENEVA, Aug 21 2025 (IPS)* – On August 7, a tar-like slurry glistened on the roads leading up to the gate of the Palais Des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Greenpeace protest at the recent Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 5.2) on plastic pollution held in Geneva. Credit: Ravleen Kaur/IPS
For fear of sticky substances sticking to tires, no vehicles were allowed to go inside for a while, forcing officials arriving from different parts of the world to disembark and walk through a side entrance.
Four people swiftly climbed the gates of the Palais, where the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 5.2) on plastic pollution was taking place in Geneva, with yellow fluorescent banners that read “Big Oil polluting inside” and “Plastic treaty not for sale.”
(UN News)* —More than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths, according to a new UN-backed food security report released on Friday [].
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 2025 (IPS)* –– The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has officially declared that there is famine in Gaza. The world’s biggest food monitoring system raised its classification to Phase 5, the highest level on its food insecurity scale.
The IPC confirmed famine conditions in Gaza City, Deir al Balah and Khan Younis. Credit: UNICEF/Mohammed Nateel
The latest IPC analysis – the sixth on the crisis in Gaza – confirms that as of mid-August famine is occurring in Gaza City and warns that by mid-September it will expand to Deir al Balah and Khan Younis.
More than half a million Palestinians are facing “catastrophic levels” of hunger.
(UN News)* — Heavy monsoon rains and flash floods have killed at least 739 people across Pakistan since late June, displacing thousands and destroying homes and crops, with more severe weather expected in the weeks ahead, according to UN agencies and national authorities.
The National Disaster Management Authority has also reported 978 injuries and the destruction or damage of more than 2,400 houses, while over 1,000 livestock have been lost as of Thursday, 21 August.
Severe weather is forecast to continue into early September, raising the risk of further flooding, landslides and crop losses, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
(UN News)* —UN aid teams in Gaza say that they’re only able to get less than half the lifesaving food support that is needed into the war-torn enclave.
In an alert from the World Food Programme (WFP), the agency said that half a million people “are on the brink of famine”, a claim backed up by multiple humanitarian agencies.
The latest worrying data is showing widespread acute malnutrition.
(UN News)* — With intensifying Israeli activity in and around Gaza City reportedly continuing on Thursday [], UN chief António Guterres renewed his urgent call for a ceasefire, as Palestinians fled intense airstrikes, artillery shelling and gunfire.
UN News | People wait for food at a community kitchen in western Gaza City.
“It is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza,” the UN Secretary-General told reporters on the sidelines of the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9), “and the unconditional release of all hostages and to avoid the massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would inevitably cause.”
Around one million people still live in the city – Gaza’s largest – in the north of the war-torn enclave.
In July, major news organizations published the image of 18-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, a Palestinian child so emaciated that his bones protruded through his back, while his mom cradled him in her arms. Instead of a diaper, he wore a black plastic bag.
(UN News)* — Israeli airstrikes and shootings near aid hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a controversial US and Israel-backed initiative, have seen a dramatic increase in deaths and injuries leading to amputations, compounding the suffering of Palestinians struggling to stave off malnutrition and starvation as the conflict continues.
UN News | Palestinian child Maryam Abu Alba lying on a hospital bed in Gaza.
At the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a small child, Maryam Abu Alba, is crying in pain. “The neighbour’s house was bombed, and their home was hit,” says her grandmother.
“One of her legs had to be amputated, and metal plates had to be inserted into the other one, which was fractured. She is in severe pain.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 