UN News Today 21 February 2025 |

UN chief condemns ‘parading’ of hostages by Hamas in Gaza 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned Hamas fighters in Gaza for “parading” the coffins of Israeli hostages before their release. 

The UN chief’s statement comes a day after the Palestinian militants handed over what they said were the remains of four Israelis taken during the Hamas-led 7 October attacks that triggered the war. 

On Friday, the Israeli authorities claimed that only three of the hostages were known to them and that the fourth body was not Shiri Bibas, the mother of two young children whose bodies were given back by Hamas, along with Oded Lifshitz, a retired peace activist. 

The development has provoked anger across Israel whose military has described it as a violation of the current ceasefire. 

In a strong statement the UN Secretary-General said that international law prohibited cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment when handing over the remains of the deceased. Any handover must ensure “respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families”, he insisted. 

Nearly three years since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country’s people still face attacks, “psychological terror…displacement and hardship”, top UN aid coordinator Matthias Schmale said on Friday. 

Mr. Schmale was speaking from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, after another night of Russian attacks: 

“This past night, all of us here in Kiev were woken up yet again by air sirens and loud explosions. And this of course has a serious psychological impact. I sometimes call this psychological terror from the sky and this is weakening resilience.” 

According to latest UN data, 2024 saw a 30 per cent increase in civilian casualties in Ukraine compared to 2023.  

And the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that the situation is worsening, especially in frontline areas. Today across Ukraine, 36 per cent of the population – or 12.7 million people – need humanitarian aid this year. 

To Burundi, which is facing an exodus of people fleeing hostilities in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (or DRC). 

In an alert on Friday, the UN refugee agency, UNCHR, said that 42,000 Congolese are already seeking shelter in Burundi. 

This new influx is adding pressure to the already stretched humanitarian response since Burundi already hosts 91,000 refugees, mainly from DRC. 

The humanitarian emergency in eastern DRC has been caused by advancing Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have taken key cities in North Kivu and South Kivu in recent days and weeks. 

Many of those arriving from DRC need immediate lifesaving support, said UNHCR’s Representative in Burundi, Brigitte Mukanga-Eno: 

“They have been walking for days, arriving in really a very bad shape. The other day we had even a case of a woman who was transporting her children and not knowing that they were already dead, actually. When she dropped them in the camp, two of the children just passed on, based on exhaustion.” 

UNHCR needs more than $40 million to respond to the crisis in DRC and neighbouring countries. 

Priorities include delivering lifesaving protection and assistance to 275,000 internally displaced people in the provinces of South Kivu, North Kivu, Manima and Tanganyika.  

Daniel Johnson, UN News.  

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