UN News Today 8 July 2024 |

After nine months of war in Gaza, another UN school suffers Israeli airstrike

The war over Gaza passed the nine-month mark on Sunday with humanitarians left assessing the damage of a fresh Israeli airstrike on a school run by UNRWA, the largest aid agency in the occupied enclave.

“Another day. Another month. Another school hit,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, in a post on X, after a school in Noose-ay-rat, central Gaza, was hit on Saturday.

It was home to nearly 2,000 people forcibly displaced, according to UNRWA, which said dozens of casualties had been reported.

The development comes as ceasefire and hostage-release talks were reportedly due to resume in coming days. Repeated previous efforts to make headway have foundered, despite sustained international pressure from Member States with influence on both sides.

Latest data from UNRWA indicates that at least 520 people sheltering in the agency’s shelters have been killed and at least 1,602 injured since the start of the war.
And in a regular situation update, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reported that up to 1.9 million people in Gaza have been uprooted by the war, including some displaced “nine or 10 times”.

Several Ukrainian cities hit in new wave of Russia missile attacks

Ukrainian cities faced another barrage of missiles fired by Russian forces on Monday with dozens killed and a children’s hospital among the locations hit, UN humanitarians have said.

Condemning the daytime attacks, the UN’s top aid coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, said that several cities were targeted, including the capital, Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Pokrovsk.

The attacks happened just “as people were starting their day. Dozens of people have been killed and injured,” said Ms. Brown, who reported heavy damage to the children’s hospital in the centre of Kyiv.

“This morning, a wave of attacks by the Russian armed forces took place across Ukraine, including Kyiv, Kaveri and Pakos, a hospital for children in Kiev has been heavily damaged and everyone is there first responders, the community WHO, UNICEF with the Ministry of Health assisting those who may be under the rebel. Almost 2000 health facilities have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine since the start of the war, as verified by the UN. Hospitals have special protection, as do children, sick children in a hospital should not be further traumatized by this kind of violence.”

Ms. Brown said that it was “unconscionable” for children to be killed and injured during the war.

“Under international humanitarian law, hospitals have special protection. Civilians must be protected,” she insisted.

Record temperature streak continues in June: WMO

June was the hottest on record and the 13^th month in a row to set a new temperature high, the UN weather agency, WMO, said on Monday.

The World Meteorological Organization said that although the weather pattern is unusual, something similar happened in 2015 to 2016.

Data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found that June was 1.5 degrees Celsius above the estimated average before the industrial age began in 1850.

From July 2023 to June 2024, the global average temperature was 1.64 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, WMO said.

The situation is as alarming at sea, with the average sea-surface temperature for June 2024 reaching 20.85 degrees Celsius. This is the highest number on record for June and the fifteenth month in a row that sea surface temperatures have been the warmest on record.

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