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Breaking updates, policy debates,  ideas, criticisms, essays, expert analysis, commentaries, on-the-spot reporting, insights and opportunities from the Middle East.

UN rights office condemns continuing Israeli military operation in West Bank

Since the start of the offensive on 21 January, Israeli forces have killed at least 44 Palestinians, including five children and two women, in...

Israeli military operation displaces 40,000 in the West Bank

Several refugee camps are nearly empty after Israeli forces launched Operation Iron Wall on 21 January, making it the longest operation in the West...

Syria: Chemical weapons watchdog hits reset button in Damascus, following productive meetings

In a press release on Saturday the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Director-General Fernando Arias and his team had met...

Palestinians’ rights matter, says UNRWA chief

In a social media post on Friday, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that “people in Gaza have undergone systematic dehumanization” since the war there began.He...

UNRWA delivers bulk of aid in Gaza, as destruction mounts in West Bank

UNRWA’s communications director Juliette Touma described catastrophic scenes at the camp, where some 100 buildings had been “destroyed or heavily damaged” by the detonations...

Gazans depend on us for ‘sheer survival’ insists UNRWA

The development came as more than 462,000 people are estimated to have crossed from south Gaza to the north since the opening of the...

Israel’s new laws banning UNRWA already taking effect

If implemented, the two new laws passed in October will simultaneously prohibit Israeli authorities from contacting UNRWA and ban the agency from operating in...

What’s UNDOF? Why UN peacekeepers patrol the Israel-Syria border

One of the UN’s longest-standing peacekeeping missions – the UN Disengagement Observer Force, known by its acronym UNDOF – began more than a half century...

Aid surging into Gaza ‘at scale’ but massive needs remain: OCHA, WHO

On day three of the ceasefire which entered into force on Sunday 19 January, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, welcomed the “surge” in...

UN rights chief in historic meeting in Syria’s with caretaker authority in Damascus

Speaking from Damascus after meeting the leader of the caretaker authorities, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Mr. Türk said that he had been “assured…of the importance of...

Syria emergency: Four children a day killed by leftover explosives

Ricardo Pires, UNICEF Communication Manager for Emergencies, told journalists from Damascus that in the last nine years, at least 422,000 incidents involving unexploded ordnance...

Al Jazeera ban must be lifted, rights experts urge Palestinian Authority

The development comes one week after a court in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank ordered the closure of several Al Jazeera websites. A...

Top humanitarian official issues ceasefire appeal during visit to Gaza City

 Muhannad Hadi, who is also the Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, made the appeal during a visit to Gaza City,...

Critical aid blocked in Gaza, as fuel shortages threaten lifesaving services

On Thursday, only 10 out of 21 planned humanitarian movements were facilitated by the Israeli authorities. Seven were denied outright, three were impeded and...

‘Children are now freezing to death’: harrowing updates from Gaza

Tragically in the last month alone, eight newborns have died of hypothermia and 74 children have already died amid the brutal conditions of winter...

Gaza: Humanitarians assist families impacted by recent airstrike in Deir Al-Balah

Personnel from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) conducted the assessment earlier this...

Syria crisis: UN teams support cholera vaccination in northeastern camps

The cholera outbreak was detected in the camp in early October and subsequently confirmed by laboratory tests. Because Al Hol does not have a...

Over 115,000 Syrians have returned home since end of Assad dictatorship

The information is based on public statements by host countries, contacts with immigration services from inside Syria, and border monitoring by the agency and...

‘RC blog: ‘It will take years to help people deal with the invisible consequences...

“I am continually inspired by the strength and courage of the Ukrainian people. As I have travelled to Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and...

The inspiring female engineer breathing new life into Yemen’s ancient capital

"There is a common language between me and the buildings. In every house I try to preserve. I feel that the city is grateful...

UN News Champion: ‘Are you keeping up with the death?’ The grinding toll of...

“My team — my friends — are the reason I stand where I am today.This will, inevitably, evolve into a homage to them, but...

Syria’s new ‘flame of hope’ must not be extinguished: Guterres

That’s the warning from UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaking to reporters in New York on Thursday morning. He said there is “a real risk that...

Winter rains and aid convoy obstacles worsen ordeal for one million Gazans

In an update, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, stressed that attacks on civilian infrastructure have not stopped, “particularly in North Gaza, where the...

In Damascus, top UN envoy stresses need for credible, inclusive, ‘Syrian owned’ transition

The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria also called for all parties to prioritize the protection of civilians as the country grapples with...