UN News Today 28 February 2025 |

Gaza reconstruction cannot include any form of ethnic cleansing: Guterres

The reconstruction of Gaza must not include any form of ethnic cleansing or a “long-term Israeli military presence”, UN chief António Guterres has insisted.

His statement comes ahead of his participation in next week’s Extraordinary Summit of the League of Arab States, which is gathering on Tuesday to discuss the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

The development follows declarations from President Trump that the United States could manage Gaza while the Palestinians who live there could be resettled in neighbouring Arab States.

But Mr. Guterres said that Gaza must remain “an integral part of an independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state”, with no reductions in the size of its territory or the forced transfer of its population.

In a related development, the UN human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory warned that the situation in the West Bank is now critical, after weeks of Israeli military raids that have uprooted tens of thousands of people from their homes.

“Return is not an option” for them, said Ajith Sunghay, Head of Office for the UN human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as he cited declarations from the Israeli authorities that they would not be able go home for a year.

Mr. Sunghay also highlighted ongoing settler violence against Palestinians including this week when groups allegedly joined forces to launch attacks.

Haiti gangs recruiting children as young as eight: UNICEF

Unrelenting gang violence in Haiti has left dozens of schools damaged and shut down amid what the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, on Friday called “relentless attacks on education”.

In January alone, armed groups destroyed 47 schools in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. UNICEF said that 284 schools were already destroyed last year and that the pace of destruction is accelerating.

The result is that half a million children are out of school and in real danger of recruitment by Haiti’s lawless gangs, which control much of the capital.

With more, here UNICEF representative in Haiti, Geetanjali Narayan, speaking in Geneva:

“Just yesterday we received reports of yet another attack. Videos capture piercing screams of children lying on the floor, motionless with fear. A chilling reminder that these attacks do damage far beyond the classroom walls. A child out of school is a child at risk.”

UNICEF said that last year in Haiti, child recruitment into armed groups surged by 70 per cent. It is now estimated that up to half of all armed group members are children, some as young as eight years old.

Children are already dying in Sudan’s stricken Zamzam camp, warns WFP

To Sudan, where UN humanitarians warned once again on Friday that thousands of families could starve in the coming weeks in Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed that it has had to pause the distribution of lifesaving food and nutrition assistance, because of escalating violence.

WFP spokesperson Leni Kinzli said that the UN agency’s partners in the camp had no choice but to evacuate their staff to safety:

“The recent violence in Zamzam has also left the central market destroyed, and this means that the residents of the camp, which is around half a million people are even further away from accessing food and essential food items and supplies. People, particularly children, are already dying of hunger in Zamzam camp.”

WFP and partners provided 60,000 people with food vouchers before heavy shelling forced the UN agency to pause aid operations in Zamzam.

The food vouchers allow families to purchase essential food supplies such as cereals, pulses, oil and salt, directly from local markets which are stocked by the private sector.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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