UN News Today 19 March 2025 |

Gaza latest: UN staffer killed at UNOPS premises in as-yet unconfirmed strike

Gaza news first, and reports that a UN staff member has been killed by explosive ordnance that was either “dropped or fired” at premises where they were based in Deir-Al-Balah.

It is also understood that there are at least five additional casualties; several are very severely injured. 

In a statement on Wednesday, the UN Office for Project Services, UNOPS, said that the building was hit at approximately 11.30 in the morning. 

The incident follows strikes on Tuesday that caused damage to the premises, whose location had been shared with Israeli security forces.

“What we do know is that an explosive ordnance was dropped or fired at the infrastructure and detonated inside the building”, UNOPS said in a statement –adding that there was uncertainty about whether it was due to airdropped weapons, artillery, or rocket fire. 

It should be stressed that it was not through any action removing unexploded ordinance at the location, the UN agency insisted.

Ukrainians tortured, raped, executed by Russian captors, Human Rights Council hears

The Human Rights Council on Wednesday heard gruesome testimony of torture, rape and execution of Ukrainian detainees and soldiers allegedly committed by Russian forces, as a high-level independent probe into Russia’s full-scale invasion delivered its latest mandated report in Geneva.

According to the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, enforced disappearances of civilians committed by Russian authorities have been “widespread and systematic” and likely amount to crimes against humanity.

Commissioner Vrinda Grover described the ordeal of one Ukrainian prisoner:

“A civilian woman who had been raped during confinement in a detention facility held by Russian authorities stated that she pleaded with the perpetrators, telling them she could be their mother’s age, but they dismissed her saying. ‘Bitch don’t even compare yourself to my mother. You are not even a human. You do not deserve to live.’”

The independent rights investigators also highlighted a growing number of incidents in which Russian armed forces apparently killed Ukrainian soldiers who were captured or attempted to surrender. It repeated the testimony of a former Russian soldier who alleged that “a deputy brigade commander told the entire regiment that ‘Prisoners are not needed, shoot them on the spot’”.

Belarus crackdown on dissent is a crime against humanity, independent probe says

The Human Rights Council also focused on allegations of continuing widespread abuses in Belarus, that’ve been characterized by a crackdown on political dissent and freedom of expression, arbitrary detentions, torture and trials of people forced into exile.

Presenting its latest report to the forum in Geneva, the Group of Independent Experts on Belarus insisted that some violations it investigated amounted to crimes against humanity.

Chair of the panel, Karinna Moskalenko, mapped out detention facilities where torture or degrading treatment is alleged to have taken place. She noted that she and her fellow independent investigators have been unable to access Belarus.

The Group of Experts – who work in an independent capacity and are not UN staff-  also produced a list of individuals allegedly responsible for rights violations since the disputed May 2020 presidential election that returned Alexander Lukashenko to power, prompting widespread public protests.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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