(UN News)* — A sweeping UN human rights report released on Wednesday [] concludes that in the occupied West Bank, Israel is violating international law prohibiting racial segregation and apartheid, warning that the discriminatory practices have accelerated dramatically since late 2022 amid growing violence, repression and impunity.
The report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, documents what it describes as a decades-long system of discrimination that has sharply intensified since at least December 2022.
‘Systematic asphyxiation’ of rights
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, saidthe findings reveal “a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank.”
(UN News)* — Some 65,000 households in the Gaza Strip were affected by the severe winter storms that whipped through the enclave last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday [].
“Tents were blown away or damaged, homes collapsed under storm conditions, and personal belongings were soaked,” according to its latest update.
(UN News)* —The UN Secretary-General has condemned amendments adopted by Israel’s Knesset to a law aimed at ceasing the operations of the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA), saying the measures must be immediately repealed.
UNRWA | UNRWA Headquarters in East Jerusalem. (file)
The amendments, adopted on 29 December, to the Law to Cease UNRWA Operations “seek to further impede UNRWA’s ability to operate and carry out its mandated activities,” said astatementissued by the Spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
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“The Law and its amendments are inconsistent with the status and international legal framework applicable to UNRWA and must be immediately repealed,” it added.
(UN News)* — As 2026 begins, residents of the Gaza Strip are confronting life in displacement camps and among the ruins of destroyed neighbourhoods – facing deep uncertainty after months of war and devastation.
UN News | A young Palestinian girl wearing a Santa Claus outfit, stands in front of tents belonging to displaced families in northern Gaza City.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain uprooted, many living in makeshift tents pitched on bare ground or squeezed into damaged buildings without reliable access to water, electricity, healthcare or sanitation. Winter rains have compounded the hardship, flooding shelters and turning camp pathways into heavy mud.
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.
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.
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.
(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.
(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.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 