Scroll down for the PDF file.
The Bulletin can be found in the United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL) at https://www.un.org/unispal/data-collection/monthly-bulletin/
Disclaimer: The texts cited in this Monthly Bulletin have been reproduced in their original form. The Division for Palestinian Rights is consequently not responsible for the views, positions or discrepancies contained in these texts.
May 2025
Volume XLVIII, Bulletin No. V
Contents
- UN Relief Chief calls on Israel to lift brutal blockade and let humanitarians save lives
- UNICEF Executive Director: Families are struggling to survive in Gaza
- Statement by UNRWA Commissioner-General on Israeli Security Forces demolition orders
- OPT Humanitarian Country Team affirms need for principled aid delivery in Gaza
- Palestinian Rights Committee Bureau demands immediate lifting of Gaza blockade and welcomes ongoing ICJ proceedings
- UN Human Rights Chief raises alarms over potential forcible transfer of Gaza population
- UN experts say States face defining choice: End unfolding genocide or watch it end life in Gaza
- Israel’s aid plan will force Gaza families to choose ‘between displacement and death’ warn UN humanitarians
- UN Special Committee on Israeli practices in occupied territories warns of a second Nakba
- UN Anti-Racism Committee decries halt to food aid, urges immediate humanitarian access
- UN Secretary-General alarmed by worsening hunger crisis in Gaza
- WHO: People in Gaza are starving, sick and dying as aid blockade continues
- With famine looming, FAO urges immediate access to save livelihoods and food production
- UN Relief Chief calls on Security Council to act decisively to prevent genocide in Gaza
- “People are already dying of hunger”: FAO on the food security crisis in Gaza
- “The catastrophe has been unfolding for decades” President of the General Assembly at the 77th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba
- “History will judge our response” statement delivered by UN Assistant Secretary-General at the 77th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba
- UN Human Rights Chief deplores Gaza escalation, pleads for global action to stop more killings
- UN Human Rights Office in OPT calls for an end to the senseless killings in the occupied West Bank
- “Only a two-State solution can deliver sustainable peace” UN Secretary-General
- UN Relief Chief welcomes renewed aid deliveries to Gaza, but stresses it’s only a “drop in the ocean” of what is needed
- OHCHR: Escalation of attacks in Gaza with a pattern of strikes on Internally Displaced People’s tents and residential buildings, as well as on crowded hospitals
- UN experts condemn renewed attacks on UNRWA schools in Gaza and East Jerusalem
- UN experts call on Security Council to protect women and girls in Gaza and restore peace
- UN Child Rights Committee condemns mass starvation of children amid aid blockades
- WHO warns health system at breaking point as hostilities further intensify in Gaza
- Under-Secretary-General and UNOPS on the Gaza aid blockade and the UN 2720 Mechanism
- UNICEF: More than 50,000 children reportedly killed or injured in the Gaza Strip
- ‘Two-State solution on life support’, UN Special Coordinator tells the Security Council
- UN Human Rights Office: Unlawful killings in Gaza and the imperative for accountability mechanism
- 600 days of Israeli war on Gaza: UN Committee urges immediate, unhindered humanitarian access
- “Stop the clock on madness”: UN expert appeals to States after Gaza aid distribution shootings
I. UN Relief Chief calls on Israel to lift brutal blockade and let humanitarians save lives
On 1 May, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher issued the following statement.
Two months ago, the Israeli authorities took a deliberate decision to block all aid to Gaza and halt our efforts to save survivors of their military offensive. They have been bracingly honest that this policy is to pressurize Hamas.
Yes, the hostages must be released, now. They should never have been taken from their families.
But international law is unequivocal: As the occupying power, Israel must allow humanitarian support in. Aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip.
Blocking aid starves civilians. It leaves them without basic medical support. It strips them of dignity and hope. It inflicts a cruel collective punishment. Blocking aid kills.
The humanitarian movement is independent, impartial and neutral. We believe that all civilians are equally worthy of protection. We remain ready to save as many lives as we can, despite the risks. But as the UN Secretary-General has made clear, the latest modality proposed by Israeli authorities does not meet the minimum bar for principled humanitarian support.
To the Israeli authorities, and those who can still reason with them, we say again: lift this brutal blockade. Let humanitarians save lives.
To the civilians left unprotected, no apology can suffice. But I am truly sorry that we are unable to move the international community to prevent this injustice. We won’t give up, even if the world has given you every reason to give up on us.
II. UNICEF Executive Director: Families are struggling to survive in Gaza
On 2 May, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell issued the following statement.
For two months, children in the Gaza Strip have faced relentless bombardments while being deprived of essential goods, services and lifesaving care. With each passing day of the aid blockade, they face the growing risk of starvation, illness and death – nothing can justify this.
Families are struggling to survive. They are trapped, unable to flee in search of safety. The land they used to farm has been destroyed. The sea they used for fishing has been restricted. Bakeries are closing, water production is declining, and market shelves are almost bare. Humanitarian aid has provided the only lifeline for children, and now it is close to running out.
In the past month, over 75 per cent of households have reported deteriorating access to water – they don’t have enough water to drink, are unable to wash their hands when needed, and often forced to choose between showering, cleaning, and cooking.
Vaccines are quickly running out and diseases are spreading – especially acute watery diarrhoea, which now accounts for 1 in every 4 cases of disease recorded in Gaza. Most of these cases are among children under five, for whom it is life-threatening.
Malnutrition is also on the rise. More than 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition since the beginning of the year. Hundreds more children in desperate need of treatment are not able to access it due to the insecurity and displacement.
International humanitarian law requires authorities to ensure that the population under their control is treated humanely. This not only includes ensuring that civilians have the food, medicine, and essential supplies they need, but also ensuring sufficient hygiene and public health standards. All parties to the conflict must allow and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance. And they must allow and facilitate all relevant UN entities to carry out those activities for the benefit of the local population.
UNICEF remains in the Gaza Strip, doing what we can to support and protect children. But the aid blockade and more than 18 months of war are pushing Gaza’s children to the brink. We reiterate our call for the aid blockade to be lifted, for the entry of commercial goods into Gaza, for the release of the hostages, and for the protection of all children.
III. Statement by UNRWA Commissioner-General on Israeli Security Forces demolition orders
On 2 May, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini issued the following statement.
Yesterday, the Israeli Security Forces issued two new demolition orders, which would see 106 houses across Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps destroyed. These demolition orders, if enacted, would further entrench the displacement of thousands of Palestine Refugees in the northern West Bank.
Since 2023, Israeli Security Forces have forcibly displaced most residents of Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps, by directly evicting them or by demolishing houses and camp infrastructure, making living conditions so unbearable that residents cannot remain.
The situation has dramatically escalated since the beginning of operation ‘Iron Wall’, which started in Tulkarm on 27 January 2025, a week after it was launched in Jenin.
These orders continue a trend of mass demolitions conducted by the Israeli Security Forces in northern West Bank camps. They serve punitive and coercive objectives, targeting entire communities.
This practice constitutes collective punishment, categorically prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
By targeting civilian homes absent of immediate military necessity, the actions of the Israeli Security Forces bring about more than just physical destruction: they inflict lasting trauma and psychological harm. They perpetuate economic hardship. Families lose not only shelter but also their sense of dignity and safety.
These demolitions seek to alter the character of the camps and permanently shatter their social fabric.
Whilst the erasure of buildings or even entire camps will not eradicate the status of Palestine Refugees it will prolong the occupation and obstruct the path to a just solution.
These demolitions must stop, and those displaced be allowed to return to their homes unhindered and without delay.
IV. OPT Humanitarian Country Team affirms need for principled aid delivery in Gaza
On 4 May, the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, of about 15 UN entities and some 200 NGOs – both international and local – issued the following statement.
OCHA warns that air strikes and other attacks continue across the Gaza Strip, with reports that scores of people were killed and hundreds injured over the weekend, including children and other civilians.
Yesterday, the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which brings together about 15 UN entities and some 200 NGOs – both international and local – issued a statement, speaking with one voice and reaffirming the position taken by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, on principled aid operations.
They recalled that for nine weeks now, Israeli authorities have blocked all supplies from entering Gaza – regardless of how essential they are. This blockade has forced bakeries and community kitchens to shut down, emptied warehouses and left children hungry.
The organizations note that Israeli officials have sought to shut down the existing aid system run by the UN and its partners, asking them to instead deliver supplies through Israeli hubs – under conditions set by the Israeli military – once the Government agrees to re-open the crossings.
The statement calls on world leaders to use their influence to help lift the blockade now. Aid organizations remain in Gaza and have significant stocks ready to move into the Strip as soon as restrictions are lifted. Once that happens, they are ready to ramp up operations again.
Meanwhile, OCHA reports that robbery and looting have become a daily reality, especially in and around Gaza city. This is in parallel to the depletion of supplies. Businesses are being targeted. There have also been attempts involving UN warehouses, and in most of those cases, guards have managed to stop them, or the looters find the warehouses already empty, after more than two months of total blockade.
Last week, water pumping and sanitation systems in Beit Lahiya, in North Gaza governorate, went down because fuel had run out. Those services are still not back, as fuel remains unavailable. On Friday, a major water line from Israel was damaged, cutting water supply to northern Gaza, including Gaza city, by half. Only yesterday were teams able to fix it, as this repair work required coordination with the Israeli authorities.
Also yesterday, a UN team managed to retrieve some fuel from a station in Gaza city, after the Israeli authorities facilitated their efforts to reach it. However, much of the fuel reserves remain out of reach because the supply is located in areas where Israeli authorities systematically deny humanitarians access. In Rafah, not a single attempt to retrieve fuel has been facilitated since 18 April.
OCHA stresses that fuel is essential not only to power water wells and treat sewage, but also to keep intensive care units and ambulances running.
Humanitarian teams need Israeli coordination to move through vast areas of Gaza. Since Saturday, most of those attempts, 19 out of 27 planned movements, were denied outright. Other attempts initially received the green light but were then impeded on the ground.
V. Palestinian Rights Committee Bureau demands immediate lifting of Gaza blockade and welcomes ongoing ICJ proceedings
On 6 May, the Bureau of the UN Palestinian Rights Committee issued the following press release.
The Bureau of the UN Palestinian Rights Committee condemns the unfolding events since the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire on 18 March and the illegal blockade and siege imposed since 2 March 2025 by Israel, the occupying power, that has cut off all food, fuel, medicine, and commercial supplies to the Palestinian civilian population and has already taken thousands of lives through bombardment and deprivation since it broke the ceasefire. Since 18 March, more than 2,308 Palestinians have been killed, part of over 52,400 killed and 118,000 injured, the majority of them women and children, since 7 October 2023, amid relentless bombardment and blockade.
It has been two unbearable months of Israeli siege upon more than two million people of the Gaza Strip, children, women, older persons, youth and ordinary people who are being collectively punished. The UN World Food Programme’s announcement on 25 April 2025 of the delivery of its last remaining stocks of food, underscores the life and death urgency of the situation which will silently kill even more children and women. Israel’s punitive action, preventing all humanitarian access to Gaza, has compounded conditions of starvation, spread of diseases and deprivation among a population of more than 1.9 million forcibly and repeatedly displaced. Such measures flagrantly violate international humanitarian and human rights law, defy the most basic principles of humanity, and must end immediately.
The Committee Bureau calls for an immediate ceasefire and permanent ceasefire, in line with Security Council resolution 2735 (2024), and for the immediate, unconditional lifting of the blockade, the sustained flow of food, water, fuel, medicine, and other essentials, and full protection for humanitarian personnel and for the civilian population in accordance with international law.
We reject any proposals to displace Palestinians from Gaza under the guise of so-called “voluntary migration” or “redevelopment” to entrench this unlawful occupation. These proposals are inhumane and illegal. We urge Member States, the Security Council, and all parties with influence to act now before more Palestinian civilians brutally lose their lives. The catastrophic situation in Gaza highlights the importance of the Committee Bureau-endorsed ongoing advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice on whether Israel violates international law as it prevents the UN, international humanitarian organization and states from providing humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians under its brutal occupation. We urge the Court to issue its opinion swiftly, as its guidance is indispensable at this critical juncture and will serve as further guidance for Member States to act in line with their legal, political and humanitarian responsibilities.
The upcoming High-Level International Conference in June, co-chaired by France and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, presents a timely and vital opportunity to mobilize renewed international support toward ending the Israeli unlawful occupation, realizing the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and establishing a viable two-States solution for achieving a just and lasting solution to the Question of Palestine. The UN Palestinian Rights Committee stand ready to contribute actively to this effort and strongly support the objectives of the Conference.
VI. UN Human Rights Chief raises alarms over potential forcible transfer of Gaza population
On 7 May, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, issued the following statement.
Israel’s reported plans to forcibly transfer Gaza’s population to a small area in the south of the strip and threats by Israeli officials to deport Palestinians outside of Gaza further aggravate concerns that Israel’s actions are aimed at inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group.
There is no reason to believe that doubling down on military strategies, which, for a year and eight months, have not led to a durable resolution, including the release of all hostages, will now succeed. Instead, expanding the offensive on Gaza will almost certainly cause further mass displacement, more deaths and injuries of innocent civilians, and the destruction of Gaza’s little remaining infrastructure.
This would only compound the misery and suffering inflicted by the complete blockade on the entry of basic goods for almost nine weeks now. Gaza’s residents have already been deprived of all lifesaving necessities, particularly food, with relentless Israeli attacks on community kitchens and those trying to maintain a minimum of law and order. Any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime.
The only lasting solution to this crisis lies through full compliance with international law, including as articulated by the International Court of Justice in its 2024 Advisory Opinion and its orders on provisional measures.
VII. UN experts say States face defining choice: End unfolding genocide or watch it end life in Gaza
On 7 May, Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; George Katrougalos, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Gehad Madi, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association; Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Astrid Puentes Riaño, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment ; Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; Tomoya Obokata, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Ashwini K.P. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; Heba Hagrass, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities; Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation; Graeme Reid, Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing; Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders: Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito (Chair-Rapporteur), Ravindran Daniel, Michelle Small, Joana de Deus Pereira, Andrés Macías Tolosa, Working Group on the use of mercenaries; and Geneviève Savigny (Chair-Rapporteur), Carlos Duarte, Uche Ewelukwa, Shalmali Guttal, Davit Hakobyan, Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas and Bina D’Costa (Chair), Barbara G. Reynolds, Isabelle Mamadou, Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, Laura Nyirinkindi (Chair), Claudia Flores (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Ivana Krstić, and Haina Lu, Working group on discrimination against women and girls, issued the following press release.
Escalating atrocities in Gaza present an urgent moral crossroads and States must act now to end the violence or bear witness to the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza, an outcome with irreversible consequences for our shared humanity and multilateral order, UN experts warned today, demanding immediate international intervention.
“While States debate terminology, is it or is it not genocide? – Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza, through attacks by land, air and sea, displacing and massacring the surviving population with impunity,” the experts said.
“No one is spared, not the children, persons with disabilities, nursing mothers, journalists, health professionals, aid workers, or hostages. Since breaking the ceasefire, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians, many daily, peaking on 18 March 2025 with 600 casualties in 24 hours, 400 of whom were children.”
“This is one of the most ostentatious and merciless manifestations of the desecration of human life and dignity,” the experts said.
The aggression has transformed Gaza into a landscape of desolation, where nearly half of the casualties are children and thousands remain displaced. The group of experts cited over 52,535 deaths, of which 70 percent continue to be women and children, and 118,491 injuries as of 4 May 2025.
Since March 2025, coinciding with the end of the ceasefire, Israel has reinstated an even harsher blockade on Gaza, effectively trapping its population in misery, hunger, and disease. “Under constant bombardment, amid homes reduced to rubble, streets turned into zones of terror and a devastated environment, 2.1 million survivors are facing the direst humanitarian crisis,” the experts said. “Food and water have been cut off for months, inducing starvation, dehydration, and disease, which will result in more deaths becoming the daily reality for many, especially the most vulnerable.”
Amid this carnage, Israeli statements that fluctuate between outright blocking of aid and conditional releases incumbent on other strategic goals, showcase a clear intent to wield starvation as a weapon of war, and uncertainty in the population for a basic need, increasing the risk for trauma and mental health injuries, they warned.
“Not only is delivering humanitarian aid one of Israel’s most critical obligations as the occupying power, but its deliberate depletion of essential necessities, destroying of natural resources and calculated push to drive Gaza to the brink of collapse further corroborates its criminal responsibility,” the experts said.
“These acts, beyond constituting grave international crimes, follow alarming, documented patterns of genocidal conduct.”
The experts called on states to transcend rhetoric and take enforceable action to immediately end the carnage and ensure accountability for perpetrators.
“The world is watching. Will Member States live up to their obligations and intervene to stop the slaughter, hunger, and disease, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity that are perpetrated daily in complete impunity?”
International norms were established precisely to prevent such horrors. Yet, as millions protest globally for justice and humanity, their cries are muted. This situation conveys a deadly message: Palestinian lives are dispensable, and international law, if unenforced, is meaningless,” the experts said.
They recalled that the Palestinian right to self-determination is irrevocable. “States must act swiftly to end the unfolding genocide, dismantle apartheid, and secure a future in which Palestinians and Israelis coexist in freedom and dignity.
“Arrest warrants from the ICC against Israeli leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity require immediate action and compliance. The ICJ Advisory Opinion mandates an end to the prolonged occupation, and the deadline the General Assembly has set is 17 September 2025,” the experts said.
Continuing to support Israel materially or politically, especially via arms transfers, and the provision of private military and security services risks complicity in genocide and other serious international crimes, they warned.
“The decision is stark: remain passive and witness the slaughter of innocents or take part in crafting a just resolution. The global conscience has awakened, if asserted, despite the moral abyss we are descending into, justice will ultimately prevail,” they said.
VIII. Israel’s aid plan will force Gaza families to choose ‘between displacement and death’ warn UN humanitarians
On 9 May, UNICEF, UNRWA, WHO held a Gaza aid-related press briefing.
Israel’s plan to take control of relief assistance in Gaza risks increasing the suffering of families already exhausted by 18 months of war by putting their lives in danger and inciting more displacement, using aid as “bait”, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder told journalists in Geneva that the Israeli proposal to create a handful of aid hubs exclusively in the south of the Strip would create an “impossible choice between displacement and death”.
The plan “contravenes basic humanitarian principles” and appears designed to “reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic”, he said. “It’s dangerous to ask civilians to go into militarized zones to collect rations… humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip”.
In addition, Gaza’s most vulnerable individuals, the elderly, children with disabilities, the sick and the wounded who cannot travel to designated distribution zones, will face “horrendous challenges” accessing aid, the UNICEF spokesperson insisted.
The Gaza Strip has been under a complete aid blockade for more than two months and humanitarians have warned repeatedly that food, water, medicines and fuel have been running out.
The Israeli aid distribution plan presented to UN humanitarians envisages only 60 aid trucks per day entering Gaza, “one-tenth of what was being delivered during the ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas which held from 19 January to 18 March, Mr. Elder explained.
“It’s not nearly enough to meet the needs of 1.1 million children, 2.1 million people,” he insisted. “There is a simple alternative: lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in, save lives.”
The UN agency spokesperson also expressed concern that the Israeli plan risks separating family members “while they move back and forth to try and get aid” from the designated locations in a territory that “lacks any safety” amid ongoing bombardments.
Stressing the success of the UN-led aid scale up during the ceasefire, humanitarian affairs coordination office spokesperson Jens Laerke urged the Israeli authorities to “facilitate the aid that we and our partners have available just a few kilometres away” just outside Gaza.
UNRWA, the largest aid provider in the Strip, said that the UN agency has “over 3,000 trucks of aid” that are stuck outside Gaza.
Juliette Touma, Director of Communications, deplored the fact that such a “big dollar figure” was going to waste, when the food could be reaching hungry children and when medicine could be used to treat people with chronic diseases.
“The clock is ticking. The gates must reopen, the siege must be lifted as soon as possible,” she insisted, while calling for the release of Israeli hostages and a return to a standard flow of humanitarian supplies.
Inside Gaza, aid teams warn that the situation is desperate. “Even those [food] lines are now gone because food is running out,” said UNRWA’s Ms. Touma.
In an update on Thursday, OCHA said that more than 80 community kitchens have been forced to shut since late April, owing to the lack of supplies. This number is rising “by the day”, fuelling “widespread” hunger in Gaza, the UN aid coordination office said.
Rebutting Israeli allegations that aid reaching Gaza has been diverted by militant groups, both Ms. Touma and UN World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris described “end-to-end” systems put in place to counter this risk.
“Our supplies are reaching the health facilities they’re meant to serve,” said Dr. Harris, adding that the UN health agency had not witnessed any aid diversion within the health care system.
“It is not about failure of aid delivery within Gaza. It is about not being allowed to bring it in,” Dr. Harris concluded.
In a further note of caution about the Israeli plan, UNICEF’s Mr. Elder insisted that the proposed use of facial recognition as a precondition to access aid ran against all humanitarian principles to “screen and monitor beneficiaries for intelligence and military purposes”.
He recalled that the ceasefire earlier this year had resulted in a “huge” improvement in children’s nutrition.
“It meant food in the markets, repaired water systems…It meant people could access health care safely. It meant health care facilitators had medicines that they need.”
Fast forward to today and food, water, medicines, “everything for a child to survive”, is being blocked, Mr. Elder said — “and in many ways, boastfully blocked”.
“The only thing entering Gaza right now is bombs.”
IX. UN Special Committee on Israeli practices in occupied territories warns of a second Nakba
On 9 May, the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories issued the following press release.
“Israel continues to inflict unimaginable suffering on the people living under its occupation, whilst rapidly expanding confiscation of land as part of its wider colonial aspirations. What we are witnessing could very well be another Nakba”, warned a UN Special Committee as it concluded its annual field mission to Amman.
Appointed by the General Assembly in 1968 to investigate Israeli practices in Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, the Special Committee heard firsthand from numerous interlocutors how policies, actions and practices of the Government of Israel continue to lead to mass and indiscriminate murder of civilians, enforced disappearances, ethnic cleansing and the total subjugation of those under its occupation and apartheid system.
“According to testimonies, it is evident that the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including sexual violence, is a systematic practice of the Israeli army and security forces, and is widespread in Israeli prisons and military detention camps,” the Special Committee said. “The methods read as a playbook of how to try to humiliate, derogate, and strike fear into the hearts of individuals; first comes sexual harassment, inappropriate touching of private parts, then sexual abuse, then the threat of rape, and then rape itself, including gang rape, and often with foreign objects such a sticks and batons, against men, women, and even children.”
The Committee’s visit took place as the Government of Israel continued to implement a total blockade on aid for Gaza, weaponizing the right to food. “It is hard to imagine a world in which a government would implement such depraved policies to starve a population to death, whilst trucks of food are sitting only a few kilometres away. Yet, this is the sick reality for those in Gaza.”
The Committee expressed regret that Israel did not respond to its request for consultations or provide access to Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory or the occupied Syrian Golan.
“Israel’s persistent refusal to engage with us and other UN mandated bodies, or to abide by resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly and binding orders and advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice, reveals its total disregard for international law and its obligations as a Member State of the United Nations,” the Special Committee said.
“Israel clearly feels it has full impunity to commit horrendous crimes and will never be held accountable for its actions, policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Syria Golan,” it said.
“The occupation must end. Only when this happens will grave human rights violations end,” the Special Committee said. “Impunity cannot be accepted.”
The Special Committee urged States with influence to use all political, economic pressure and all means at their disposal to force the Israeli Government to stop its unlawful policies and practices and hold it accountable for the vast war crimes and crimes against humanity already committed.
“The humanitarian blockade must end now, and UNRWA must be able to perform its unique mandate and deliver essential services. Arms sales and military support must also stop, including via private companies and state-owned enterprises. The world cannot stay silent,” the Special Committee said.
X. UN Anti-Racism Committee decries halt to food aid, urges immediate humanitarian access
On 9 May, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued the following statement.
With food aid supplies now completely exhausted in Gaza and border crossings still sealed, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) today issued an urgent call for immediate humanitarian access and a lasting ceasefire, warning of catastrophic consequences for the civilian population.
The Committee, currently convening in Geneva for its latest session, which ends today, issued its statement hours after the World Central Kitchen announced it was forced to shut down its remaining soup kitchens across Gaza due to a lack of food.
The World Food Programme previously raised the alarm of the total collapse of food aid operations in the besieged enclave. In late April, the UN food agency announced that all of its food reserves in Gaza had been depleted, and ongoing restrictions at key border crossings had halted the entry of additional supplies.
The food exhaustion in Gaza, combined with the widespread destruction or serious damage to water and electricity infrastructure, are “placing the civilian population—especially vulnerable groups such as children, women, the elderly, and persons with disabilities—at imminent risk of famine, disease, and death,” the Committee said.
The Committee also raised grave alarm at the intensification of Israeli military operations across the Gaza Strip since early March, citing indiscriminate bombardments and expanded ground incursions, “which have dramatically worsened the humanitarian crisis and severely endangered the civilian population.”
Invoking its early warning and urgent action procedures, the Committee recalled its 2024 decision, which raised serious concerns regarding Israel’s obligations under international law to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
It also drew attention to the broader deterioration of conditions across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where patterns of mass displacement and settler violence are increasingly mirroring those in Gaza.
The Committee urged the State of Israel to “lift all barriers to humanitarian access, allow the immediate and unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid, and cease all actions obstructing the provision of essential services to the civilian population in Gaza.”
Furthermore, it called on all States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to fulfil their international obligations by taking immediate and appropriate measures to prevent further escalation of hostility and to ensure the protection of civilians.
All States have to “cooperate to bring an end to the violations that are taking place and to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including by ceasing any military assistance,” the Committee further urged.
XI. UN Secretary-General alarmed by worsening hunger crisis in Gaza
On 12 May, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shared the following press release.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is alarmed by the findings, released today, that one in every five people in Gaza is facing starvation, while the entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity and the risk of famine, according to the latest snapshot by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
The Secretary-General is especially alarmed that the vast majority of children in Gaza are facing extreme food deprivation. This is now confirmed by 17 UN agencies and NGOs in the IPC report.
According to the latest analysis, 470,000 people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger, IPC Phase 5, the highest level, and the entire population is experiencing acute food insecurity. The report also projects that an alarming 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.
Over 70 days into the blanket ban imposed by Israeli authorities on the entry of any supplies into Gaza – regardless of how critical they are for people’s survival, stocks have run out, bakeries have shut down, community kitchens are closing daily, and people are starving. This is not a natural disaster but a human-made catastrophe that the world should not allow.
The way to address this crisis should be clear: open up Gaza so that aid and other essential supplies can reach everyone who needs them, wherever they are.
Humanitarian teams on the ground have pre-positioned enough supplies – including more than 116,000 metric tons of food assistance, to respond to people’s needs at scale quickly and efficiently, as they did during the 42-day ceasefire earlier this year. These stocks are enough to feed 1 million people for up to four months. But to accomplish that, the crossings into Gaza must open immediately, and international humanitarian law must be fully respected.
Earlier today, the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warned that hunger and malnutrition have intensified sharply since all aid was blocked from entering Gaza on 2 March, reversing the clear humanitarian gains seen during the ceasefire earlier this year.
WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said families are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border. “It’s imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again,” she said. “If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people.”
Partners on the ground in Gaza report that the number of hot meals served by those community kitchens that are still operating is declining very quickly. Today, about 260,000 meals have been prepared and delivered across the Gaza Strip. That marks a decrease compared to 840,000 meals last Wednesday, a 70 per cent reduction of 580,000 daily meals in just five days.
OCHA stresses that humanitarian assistance is not limited to food; it includes visiting people in their communities, assessing what they need, identifying those at risk of being left behind, and mobilizing support across sectors, food, but also water, hygiene, health, nutrition, education, protection and beyond.
OCHA underscores that under the ongoing blockade, medical supplies and shelter materials are also urgently needed. Healthcare in Gaza is hanging by a thread, with hospitals facing mass casualty incidents amid severe shortages of supplies, equipment, blood and staff. The fuel that powers healthcare and water facilities is also being rationed and running out.
Principled humanitarian aid means reaching people wherever they are and based on what they need. Israel, as the occupying power, must facilitate humanitarian relief for people in need throughout Gaza.
XII. WHO: People in Gaza are starving, sick and dying as aid blockade continues
On 12 May, the World Health Organization issued the following press release.
The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade.
The entire 2.1 million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death. This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time.
The latest food security analysis was released today by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership, of which WHO is a member.
“We do not need to wait for a declaration of famine in Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Today’s report shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing more deaths and descent into famine.”
Famine has not yet been declared, but people are starving now. Three quarters of Gaza’s population are at “Emergency” or “Catastrophic” food deprivation, the worst two levels of IPC’s five level scale of food insecurity and nutritional deprivation.
Since the aid blockade began on 2 March 2025, 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to the Ministry of Health. This number is likely an underestimate and is likely to increase. If the situation persists, nearly 71 000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next eleven months, according to the IPC report.
People in Gaza are trapped in a dangerous cycle where malnutrition and disease fuel each other, turning everyday illness into a potential death sentence, particularly for children. Malnutrition weakens the bodies, making it harder to heal from injuries and fight off common communicable diseases like diarrhoea, pneumonia, and measles. In turn, these infections increase the body’s requirement for nutrition, while reducing nutrient intake and absorption, resulting in worsening malnutrition. With health care out of reach, vaccine coverage plummeting, access to clean water and sanitation severely limited, and increased child protection concerns, the risk of severe illness and death grows, especially for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, who urgently need treatment to survive.
Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are also at high risk of malnutrition, with nearly 17 000 expected to require treatment for acute malnutrition over the next eleven months, if the dire situation does not change. Malnourished mothers struggle to produce enough nutritious milk, putting their babies at risk, while the delivery of counselling services for mothers is heavily compromised. For infants under six months, breastmilk is their best protection against hunger and disease, especially where clean water is scarce, as it is in Gaza.
The long-term impact and damage from malnutrition can last a lifetime in the form of stunted growth, impaired cognitive development, and poor health. Without enough nutritious food, clean water, and access to health care, an entire generation will be permanently affected.
The plan recently announced by Israeli authorities to deliver food and other essential items across Gaza via proposed distribution sites is grossly inadequate to meet the immediate needs of over two million people. WHO echoes the UN’s call for the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality to be upheld and respected and for unimpeded humanitarian access to be granted to provide aid based on people’s needs, wherever they may be. A well-established and proven humanitarian coordination system, led by the UN and its partners, is already in place and must be allowed to function fully to ensure that aid is delivered in a principled, timely, and equitable manner.
The aid blockade and shrinking humanitarian access continue to undermine WHO’s ability to support 16 outpatient and three inpatient malnutrition treatment centres with life-saving supplies, and to sustain the broader health system. The remaining supplies in WHO’s stocks inside Gaza are only enough to treat 500 children with acute malnutrition, a fraction of the urgent need, while essential medicines and supplies to treat diseases and trauma injuries are already running out and cannot be replenished due to the blockade.
People are dying while WHO and partners’ life-saving medical supplies sit just outside Gaza, ready for deployment, with safeguards in place to ensure the aid reaches those who need it most in line with humanitarian principles. WHO calls for the protection of health care and for an immediate end to the aid blockade, which is starving people, obstructing their right to health, and robbing them of dignity and hope. WHO calls for the release of all hostages, and for a ceasefire, which leads to lasting peace.
XIII. With famine looming, FAO urges immediate access to save livelihoods and food production
On 12 May, the Food and Agriculture Organization published the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
New IPC analysis reveals alarming escalation in food insecurity due to ongoing hostilities and blockades.
With the imminent risk of famine, agriculture on the brink of total collapse, and the possible outbreak of deadly epidemics in Gaza, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) calls for immediate restoration of humanitarian access and the lifting of blockades.
The urgent call comes in response to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis issued today warning that the entire population of the Gaza Strip, approximately 2.1 million people – is facing a critical risk of famine following 19 months of conflict, mass displacement, and severe restrictions on humanitarian aid.
According to the report, between 1 April – 10 May 2025, 93 per cent of the population, which translates to 1.95 million people, were classified in Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above), including 244,000 people, or 12 percent of the population, in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe), and 925,000 (44 percent) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency).
For the projection period from 11 May to the end of September 2025, the entire population in Gaza is expected to face Crisis or worse acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above).
“The international community must act now. The immediate restoration of access to humanitarian and commercial supplies at scale is critical. Every delay deepens hunger and accelerates starvation, bringing us closer to famine,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
“If we fail to act, we are failing to uphold the right to food, which is a basic human right and the legal protections that uphold it, undermining one of the core principles safeguarding civilian survival.”
Livestock restoration
Reestablishing immediate humanitarian access is critical to maintaining minimum local food production, particularly of livestock. Despite efforts from FAO, having already distributed over 2,100 tons of animal feed and veterinary kits to more than 4 800 herders in Gaza –, current supplies fall far short of growing needs. More veterinary kits, animal feed, and other supplies are ready to be deployed by FAO and partners as soon as access is granted.
Commercial production of livestock has largely ceased, with most operations now limited to household-level production for self-consumption. Even with drastically reduced livestock numbers, sheep down to 36 percent, goats to 39 percent, cattle to 3.8 percent, layers and broilers to 1.4 percent, and working animals to 79.5 percent, these remaining animals are vital for household food security. For many families, they provide the last accessible source of milk, eggs, and meat.
Following the ban on all humanitarian and commercial inputs, an additional 20 to 30 percent of livestock are predicted to have perished. Preserving the remaining animals now is essential to prevent irreversible losses that could collapse livestock-dependent livelihoods entirely.
Without feed and veterinary kits, not only do herders lose these critical food sources, but untreated animals also pose serious public health risks by becoming vectors for disease, particularly for those working closely with animals. Immediate access is essential to prevent further losses, maintain basic nutrition, and safeguard public health.
Agriculture on the brink of collapse
Before October 2023, around 42 percent of Gaza’s land (over 15 000 hectares) was used for crops, orchards, and livestock grazing. But a geospatial assessment carried out by FAO and UNOSAT between October and December 2024 reveals that 75 percent of fields once used to grow crops and olive tree orchards have been damaged or destroyed.
More than two-thirds of Gaza’s agricultural wells (1 531 in total), which rely on groundwater for irrigation and agriculture, were no longer functional as of early 2025, severely debilitating irrigation efforts.
A new FAO-UNOSAT assessment is under way and early indications suggest a further reduction in usable agricultural land, leaving little space to preserve or restore livelihoods.
XIV. UN Relief Chief calls on Security Council to act decisively to prevent genocide in Gaza
On 13 May, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher briefed the UN Security Council.
/…
Briefing you again on this subject is a grim undertaking.
Before starting, I ask you to reflect, for a moment, on what action we will tell future generations we each took to stop the 21st century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza.
It is a question we will hear, sometimes incredulous, sometimes furious, but always there, for the rest of our lives.
We will surely all claim to have been against it. Maybe we will say we issued a statement? Or that we trusted that private pressure might work, despite so much evidence to the contrary?
Or pretend that we thought a more brutal military offensive had more chance of bringing the hostages home than the negotiations which brought so many hostages home?
Maybe some will recall that in a transactional world we had other priorities. Or maybe we will use those empty words: “We did all we could.”
/…
Let me start with what we see and are mandated by this Council to report.
Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. For more than 10 weeks, nothing has entered Gaza – no food, medicine, water or tents. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have, again, been forcibly displaced and confined into ever-shrinking spaces, as 70 per cent of Gaza’s territory is either within Israeli-militarized zones or under displacement orders.
As my colleague from the FAO will explain, every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face the risk of famine. One in five face starvation. Despite the fact that you have funded the food that could save them.
The few hospitals that have somehow survived bombardment are overwhelmed. The medics who have somehow survived drone and sniper attacks cannot keep up with the trauma and the spread of disease. Even today, the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis was bombed, again, with even more civilian casualties reported.
I can tell you from having visited what’s left of Gaza’s medical system that death on this scale has a sound and a smell that does not leave you. As one hospital worker described it, “children scream as we peel burnt fabric from their skin…” And yet we hear that “we did all we could.”
/…
Our response as humanitarians is to make a single ask of the Council: let us work.
The UN and our partners are desperate to resume humanitarian aid at scale across Gaza in line with the fundamental principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.
We have a plan. We have shown we can deliver, with tens of thousands of trucks reaching civilians during the ceasefire. We have life-saving supplies ready, now, at the borders.
We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians, and not to Hamas.
But Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians. It is bad enough that the blockade continues. How do you react when Israeli Ministers boast of it? Or when attacks on humanitarian workers and violations of the UN’s privileges and immunities continue, along with restrictions on international and non-governmental organizations.
/…
This Council has adopted resolutions that demand all parties to the conflict comply with international humanitarian law and protection of civilians, including humanitarian personnel.
A reminder that Israel also has clear obligations under international humanitarian law. It must treat civilians humanely, with respect for their inherent human dignity. It must not forcibly transfer, deport or displace the civilian population of an occupied territory.
As the occupying power, it must agree to aid and facilitate it. So, for anyone still pretending to be in any doubt, the Israeli-designed distribution modality is not the answer. It practically excludes many, including people with disabilities, women, children, the elderly, the wounded.
It forces further displacement. It exposes thousands of people to harm. It sets an unacceptable precedent for aid delivery not just in the OPT, but around the world. It restricts aid to only one part of Gaza, while leaving other dire needs unmet.
It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip. It is cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement. If any of that still matters, have no part in it.
/…
For the record, we have tried. The UN has met 12 times – and again this morning – with the Israeli authorities to discuss this proposed modality. We wanted to find a way to make it possible.
We repeatedly explained the minimum conditions for our involvement on the basis of long-settled fundamental principles: aid based on independent assessments of who needs it, the globally tested and donor-demanded basic requirement, and the ability to deliver aid to all those in need wherever they are.
The Secretary-General set out the relevant international law in his submissions to the International Court of Justice.
And your resolutions have strongly condemned starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access. Resolution 2417 demands the Council’s full attention to widespread conflict-induced food insecurity.
/…
It’s not just Gaza. Appalling violence is also increasing in the West Bank, where the situation is the worst in decades.
The use of heavy weaponry, military methods of war, excessive force, forcible displacement, demolitions and movement restrictions. Ongoing, illegal settlement expansion. Entire communities destroyed, refugee camps depopulated. Settlements expanding, and settler violence continuing at alarming levels, sometimes with the support of Israeli forces. Recently, settlers abducted a 13-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother. They were found tied to a tree. Do we also say to them that “we did all we could?”
/…
There is, I fear, a broader context here. For the past 19 months Palestinian journalists, civil society and individuals have live-streamed their destruction to the world. Many have been targeted and killed for their testimony. And during this time, international aid workers have been the only international civilian presence in Gaza, watching and reporting the unfolding horror. We are your eyes and your ears. And be in no doubt that we feel the weight of that responsibility, to you, to the communities we serve and to the world.
And so, we have briefed this Council in great detail on the extensive civilian harm that we witness daily: death, injury, destruction, hunger, disease, torture, other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, repeated displacement, on a large scale.
We have described the deliberate obstruction of aid operations and the systematic dismantling of Palestinian life, and that which sustains it, in Gaza. So, you have that information. And now, the ICJ is considering whether a genocide is taking place in Gaza. It will weigh the testimony that we have shared. But it will be too late.
Recognizing the urgency, the ICJ has indicated clear provisional measures that must be implemented now, yet they have not.
Previous reviews of the UN’s conduct in cases of large-scale violations of international human rights and humanitarian law – reports on Myanmar, 2019; Sri Lanka, 2012; Srebrenica and Rwanda, both in 1999 – pointed to our collective failure to speak to the scale of violations while they were committed.
So, for those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now? Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law? Or will you say instead that “we did all we could?”
/…
This degradation of international law is corrosive and infectious. It is undermining decades of progress on rules to protect civilians from inhumanity and the violent and lawless among us who act with impunity.
Humanity, the law and reason must prevail. This Council must prevail. Demand this ends. Stop arming it. Insist on accountability.
To the Israeli authorities: stop killing and injuring civilians. Lift this brutal blockade. Let humanitarians save lives.
To Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups: release all hostages immediately and unconditionally. Stop putting civilians at risk during military operations.
And for those who will not survive what we fear is coming – in plain sight – it will be no consolation to know that future generations will hold us in this chamber to account. But they will. And, if we have not seriously done “all we could,” then we should fear that judgement.
/…
XV. “People are already dying of hunger”: FAO on the food security crisis in Gaza
On 13 May, the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization Liaison Office with the United Nations, on the humanitarian situation in Gaza Angélica Jácome briefed the Security Council.
/…
At the outset I wish to thank the Greek Presidency of the United Nations Security Council for inviting the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to brief you on the item ‘the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question’ specifically the food security situation in Gaza.
/…
The situation in Gaza is very difficult as millions of people face acute food insecurity, and the risk of famine is imminent.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, released just yesterday, confirms that the entire population of the Gaza Strip – approximately 2.1 million people – remains at critical risk of Famine following months of conflict, mass displacement, and severe constraints on humanitarian access.
Half a million people, one out of five people, are in IPC Phase 5 category, defined as Catastrophe. Essential items for people’s survival are depleted or likely to be exhausted in the coming weeks.
Compared to the previous IPC analysis released in October 2024, the situation has significantly deteriorated.
Between 1 April and 10 May 2025:
- 93 percent of the population – or 1.95 million people – were classified in Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above),
- of which 244 000 people – 12 percent of the population – are in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe), and
- 925 000 – 44 percent – in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency).
While levels of acute malnutrition remain at Alert and Serious levels in North Gaza, Gaza City and Rafah governorates, there is deep concern that this could quickly worsen.
In what is considered the IPC’s most likely scenario (from 11 May to the end of September 2025), the whole Gaza Strip is classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), with the entire population expected to face Crisis or worse acute food insecurity.
This includes:
- nearly 470 000 people or 1 in 5 people reaching Catastrophe levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 5).
- over a million people (54 percent) will face Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of hunger, and
- the remaining half million (24 percent) will experience Crisis (IPC Phase 3) levels of hunger.
Should humanitarian and commercial blockades continue, the worst-case scenario could unfold, leading to a near complete lack of access to food, water, medicines, non-food items, supplies and services that are essential for survival.
/…
Children and women have not been spared in this crisis. Prior to 7 October 2023, Gaza had low rates of malnutrition, comparable to European countries, due to a diverse and affordable food supply. It was self-sufficient in vegetables, eggs, milk, poultry, and fish, and produced much of its meat, olive oil, and fruits.
Nearly 71 000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months (May 2025-April 2026). Of these, 14 100 cases are expected to be severe. In addition, nearly 17 000 pregnant and breastfeeding women also require treatment for acute malnutrition during this period.
Agrifood systems have collapsed in the Gaza Strip, while food prices have soared. Local food production, the primary source of a healthy diet, has been decimated. Nearly 75 percent of the cropland, which contributed up to one-third of daily consumption, has been damaged or destroyed since the escalation in hostilities. Animal production has been devastated with almost 95 percent of cattle, and more than half of sheep and goat herds now dead. And the price of wheat flour has increased by 3 000 percent since February 2025.
We are witnessing the systemic breakdown of conditions essential for survival. People in Gaza are not only experiencing a lack of food, but they are going through a profound breakdown of health, livelihoods, and social structures, leaving entire communities in a state of desperation, devastation and death.
The right to food is a basic human right, and this crisis is preventable: food, food production kits, medicine, water and hygiene kits are waiting to be delivered across the border.
/…
By the time Famine has been declared, people are already dying of hunger, with irreversible consequences that will last generations. The window of opportunity to deliver assistance is now.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2417 reaffirms that protecting civilians and objects critical to preventing hunger is a shared responsibility.
FAO stands ready to work with all partners.
/…
XVI. “The catastrophe has been unfolding for decades” President of the General Assembly at the 77th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba
On 15 May, statement by Mr. Philémon Yang, President, UN General Assembly was read by Ms. Blanca Montejo, Deputy Chief of Staff at the 77th Commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba organised by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, pursuant to the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/79/82.
/…
I thank the organisers for the kind invitation to join you today. One of the first main tasks of the United Nations was to find a just solution to the question of Palestine. For 77 years, the unresolved conflict has been on the agenda of the General Assembly. This is far too long.
We are seeing generation after generation live through conflict and despair. Those who came before us believed they would see the resolution of this conflict during their lifetime and a return to peace in the Middle East.
Yet here we are, once again commemorating the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since 1948. We must do more.
The horrors we have witnessed in Gaza for more than 18 months are a stark reminder that we urgently need to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This is a solution that cannot be brought about through endless war and occupation. It is a solution that requires meaningful action by the international community towards the realisation of a two-State solution, in accordance with international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and relevant United Nations resolutions.
/…
As you know, Nakba is an Arabic word that means catastrophe. A catastrophe that has been unfolding for decades. It is time to recognise the pain and trauma this catastrophe has brought to the Palestinian people. It is time to recognise that the suffering of civilians on both sides will end only when Israelis and Palestinians are able to live side by side in their own sovereign, independent States, in peace, security and dignity.
As the General Assembly, we must seize every chance to help chart the path towards the two-State solution.
The High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in June, to be chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, will present a crucial opportunity to set a political horizon.
The General Assembly’s commitment to the two-State solution and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination has been firm.
The United Nations Charter is also clear: all people deserve to live free from violence and intimidation. All deserve to fully enjoy their human rights. This includes Palestinians and Israelis. Together, we must uphold the Charter, General Assembly resolutions and international law. We must end the catastrophe. We must build a brighter future for the young generations in both Palestine and Israel.
/…
XVII. “History will judge our response” statement delivered by UN Assistant Secretary-General at the 77th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba
On 15 May, the Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Khaled Khiari, made the following statement at the 77th Commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba organised by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, pursuant to the UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/79/82.
/…
Through resolution 77/23 (2022), reaffirmed in December 2024, the General Assembly requested the UN Secretariat to commemorate the anniversary of the Nakba, which led to the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Today, more than 5 million registered Palestine refugees are spread across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has led to the world’s longest refugee crisis. It is a crisis that remains unresolved, shaping identity, lives, and the enduring pursuit of justice and self-determination for the Palestinian people.
This event demonstrates the importance the international community attaches to the ongoing plight of Palestine refugees.
/…
The situation we are witnessing today in Gaza is a catastrophe with no end in sight. Since the horrific terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023 and continued holding of hostages, over 1.9 million Palestinians, more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s population and almost 80 per cent of them Palestine refugees from 1948, have been forcibly displaced, many repeatedly, some 10 times or more. As the Secretary-General had warned, Gaza has now become a “humanitarian hellscape.” There is no safe place in the Strip.
Forced displacement must be rejected unequivocally. Unrestricted humanitarian access must be ensured, and the blockade on Gaza lifted to allow the flow of life-saving aid in order to prevent the deepening of an already grave humanitarian crisis.
International humanitarian law requires the protection of civilians, UN personnel, humanitarian workers and journalists. Accountability for violations is imperative.
In parallel, since early 2025, over 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the occupied West Bank due to Israeli military operations, most of them from Palestinian refugee camps in Northern West Bank. They are a staggering human tragedy.
As affirmed by the International Court of Justice, in its Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and, of course, Gaza, is unlawful and must end.
/…
I echo the Secretary-General’s call on the international community to fully support peace, stability, and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. International law must be upheld by all parties.
The Secretary-General has called for an immediate and durable ceasefire, the release of all hostages without delay, and the resumption of credible political negotiations.
Steps must also be taken to reverse the negative trends of violence, settlement expansion and unilateral steps that undermine the Palestinian Authority.
I echo the Secretary-General’s own recent warning that the promise of a two-State solution is at risk of dwindling to the point of disappearance.
The upcoming GA-mandated international conference on the two-State solution in June 2025 offers an important opportunity for Member States to support a viable two-State solution, before it is too late.
Peace will require tangible, irreversible and permanent progress toward the two-State solution, an end to the occupation, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with Gaza as an integral part.
A viable, sovereign Palestinian State living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel is critical to achieving peace in the Middle East.
Let us build political momentum toward that end.
The United Nations remains committed to a multilateral response anchored in human rights, dignity, international law, and shared responsibility.
History will judge our response. The suffering of the Palestinian people, including generations of displaced and dispossessed, remains as a stark reminder that the root causes of this conflict have yet to be resolved. The UN Charter calls on us to end this conflict and uphold the principles of our organization. Let us act with clarity, determination and conviction.
/…
XVIII. UN Human Rights Chief deplores Gaza escalation, pleads for global action to stop more killings
On 16 May, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, issued the following press release.
The sharp escalation of attacks and killings this week in Gaza, including Israeli strikes on hospitals, are compounding the already desperate humanitarian situation amid signs of even worse to come, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said today.
“This latest barrage of bombs, forcing people to move amid the threat of intensified attacks, the methodical destruction of entire neighborhoods, and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Türk said.
The High Commissioner said this week’s intensification raises fears of the start of an even wider Israeli offensive and urged all parties, including third States with direct influence, to stop the assault. “We must stop the clock on this madness,” he said.
Already, medical services are in a state of collapse, shelters continue to shrink under displacement orders and destruction, and families are forced to live in tents under conditions far below standards keeping their human dignity, and extreme hunger is deepening due to the Israeli blockade.
On 13 May, the Israeli military struck two of the largest hospitals in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Nasser Medical Complex and the European Hospital, leaving the latest out of service, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
“Hospitals are protected at all times, and are even more indispensable during war,” he said. “The killing of patients or of people visiting their wounded or sick loved ones, or of emergency workers or other civilians just seeking shelter, is as tragic as it is abhorrent. These attacks must cease.
“Even if, as Israel says, it was targeting Hamas command centres underground, and even if destroying these structures offered a definite military advantage at the time of the attack, it is bound by international law to ensure that constant care is taken to spare the lives of civilians, and that’s clearly not the case.”
CCTV footage broadcast by international news outlets and taken immediately prior to at least one of the strikes at the European Hospital shows children, women and men walking around seemingly oblivious to the impending attack. Their presence is very likely to have been known given the constant aerial surveillance over the Gaza Strip, in particular areas being targeted.
International humanitarian law requires that an attack be suspended when it becomes apparent that it would be unlawful. Using a hospital for harmful military purposes is forbidden under international humanitarian law. However, even when hospitals are being used outside their humanitarian functions, for acts harmful to the enemy, there are strict protection rules in place. This includes issuing a time-bound warning to stop its hostile use before any attack. If not heeded, protection may cease but forces still must ensure any attack complies with principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack.
“The laws of war, built on the Geneva Conventions, are sacrosanct, as are the rules requiring all States, without exceptions to protect human rights, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” the Human Rights Chief said. “All actors are bound to strictly respect these rules. Those who do not must be held to account.”
XIX. UN Human Rights Office in OPT calls for an end to the senseless killings in the occupied West Bank
On 16 May, the UN Human Rights Office in Occupied Palestinian Territory issued the following press release.
The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory calls for an end to the senseless killings in the occupied West Bank. Israel must stop all extrajudicial executions and other unlawful use of force in the occupied West Bank. Over the last two weeks, Israeli security forces have killed two Palestinian men in planned summary executions, while seven Palestinians were killed in conditions that raise concerns of the use of unnecessary or disproportionate lethal force. An Israeli woman was shot and killed on a highway in the occupied West Bank by as yet unidentified assailants. Israel must ensure that all those responsible for unlawful killings are brought to justice in fair trials.
On 8 May, Israeli undercover forces appear to have summarily executed a 30-year-old “wanted” Palestinian man in the old city of Nablus. CCTV footage suggests that an undercover officer killed the man while he tried to surrender and then shot him again as he lay on the ground injured and incapacitated, seemingly to “confirm the killing”. Claims from Israeli security forces that the man was armed and posing a threat to them appear to be contradicted by this video evidence. On 2 May, disguised Israeli security forces chased and killed a 39-year-old “wanted” Palestinian man in Balata refugee camp in Nablus. Although Israeli security forces claimed that they found a gun and cartridges in his car, they made no claim that he posed a threat to life at the moment he was shot. On 14 May, Israeli security forces reportedly fired live ammunition and injured a young Palestinian man in his thigh near the Qalandiya Refugee Camp, Jerusalem. A video shows two Israeli soldiers repeatedly kicking the man in the head, while he lay injured on the floor. The soldiers then walked away, without carrying out an arrest or providing medical assistance to the man who, in addition to live ammunition injury, reportedly incurred head hemorrhage due to the Israeli soldiers’ kicking.
Meanwhile, also on 15 May, armed Palestinians reportedly shot and killed a pregnant 30-year-old Israeli woman on the highway near Brukhin settlement, west of Salfit, also injuring her husband. Following the incident, Israeli security forces closed several checkpoints in the northern and central West Bank and imposed severe movement restrictions particularly around Burqin, and Salfit, while an Israeli minister called for “flattening” Palestinian villages in response. Israeli security forces must ensure that measures adopted following the attack complies with international law, including the prohibition of collective punishment.
XX. “Only a two-State solution can deliver sustainable peace” UN Secretary-General
On 17 May, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, made the following remarks at the League of Arab States Summit.
/…
I am honoured to be with you to further strengthen our partnership with the League of Arab States. The region and the world face trials and tests on all fronts.
Starting with Gaza. Nothing justifies the atrocious October 7 terror attacks by Hamas. And nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. We need a permanent ceasefire, now. The unconditional release of all hostages, now. And the free flow of humanitarian aid ending the blockade, now.
I am alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations and more. And I emphasize that the United Nations will not participate in any so-called aid operation that does not adhere to international law and the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality. And I reiterate my appeal for the urgent and full support of UNRWA’s work, including financial support.
We reject the repeated displacement of the Gaza population, and we obviously reject any question of forced displacement outside of Gaza. We must also stay focused on the terrible situation in the occupied West Bank.
Let’s be clear: Annexation is illegal. Settlements are illegal. Only a two-State solution can deliver sustainable peace: Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, in line with UN resolutions, international law, and previous agreements.
The high-level conference in June, co-chaired by France and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is an important opportunity. The world, the region, and, most of all, the people of Palestine and Israel – cannot afford to watch the two-State solution disappear before our eyes. That goal has never been more imperative, but unfortunately it also looks more distant. The international community has an enormous responsibility in this decisive moment.
/…
Despite the enormous challenges, let us draw lessons and hope from here in Baghdad.
Working in unity and solidarity, we can help resolve conflicts and build a future of peace and prosperity.
That is the shared goal of the League of Arab States and the United Nations, and I look forward to continue to deepen our partnership together.
/…
XXI. UN Relief Chief welcomes renewed aid deliveries to Gaza, but stresses it’s only a “drop in the ocean” of what is needed
On 18 May, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, issued the following press release.
The Israeli authorities have temporarily allowed us to resume delivery of limited aid into Gaza, following 11 weeks of complete blockade, and amid a spike in the military offensive. This is a welcome development that should remain in place.
Today, nine of our trucks were cleared to enter, via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
But it is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed, and significantly more aid must be allowed into Gaza, starting tomorrow morning.
We have been reassured that our work will be facilitated through existing, proven mechanisms. I am grateful for that reassurance, and Israel’s agreement to humanitarian notification measures that reduce the immense security threats of the operation. I am determined that our aid reach those in greatest need, and that the risk of theft by Hamas or other armed groups is minimized.
Our expectations for today’s crossings are realistic: Given ongoing bombardment and acute hunger levels, the risks of looting and insecurity are significant.
But it is our job to do everything we can to deliver, even against these odds. I am grateful to our humanitarian colleagues for their immense courage and dedication. They are the best of humanity.
The limited quantities of aid now being allowed into Gaza are of course no substitute for unimpeded access to civilians in such dire need. The UN has a clear, principled and practical plan to save lives at scale, as I set out last week.
We are ready to do so much more. To make this possible, we urge the Israeli authorities to:
- open at least two crossings into Gaza, one in the north and another in the south;
- simplify and expedite procedures; and remove any quotas;
- lift access impediments within Gaza and not conduct attacks in areas and times of deliveries;
- allow us to cover the whole range of needs – food, water, hygiene, shelter, health, fuel, gas and beyond.
To reduce looting, there must be a regular flow of aid, and humanitarians must be permitted to use multiple routes. Commercial goods should complement the humanitarian response.
We are ready and determined to scale up our life-saving operation Gaza and respond to the needs of people, wherever they are.
We call again for the protection of civilians. We need a resumption of the ceasefire. Hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally.
This will be tough. But the humanitarian community will take any opening we have.
XXII. OHCHR: Escalation of attacks in Gaza with a pattern of strikes on Internally Displaced People’s tents and residential buildings, as well as on crowded hospitals
On 19 May, the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued the following press release.
The Israeli military’s escalation of attacks in Gaza over the weekend raises further concerns that Israel is inflicting conditions of life on Palestinians increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group. These latest attacks, which are forcing people to move while they are being bombed, the methodical destruction of entire neighborhoods, and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline an apparent push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Palestinian civilians are dying under the bombs or from hunger. This is intolerable, and a ceasefire must be immediately agreed and implemented.
On 19 May the Israeli Defense Forces announced that they had struck ‘160 terror targets” across Gaza over the period of one day, which in the context of the existing destruction of infrastructure in Gaza, raises grave concerns that not all strikes were targeted at military objectives. Furthermore, the pattern of strikes on Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) tents and residential buildings, as well as on crowded hospitals, indicates that little, if any, care is being taken to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza, while reports of the use of weapons with wide area effects suggest deliberate, indiscriminate attacks.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation is beyond description. For the third consecutive month, Israel continues to prevent the entry and distribution of any items essential for life. Mass displacement continues as a result of bombings and strikes, the humanitarian catastrophe, and displacement orders, some of which no longer even identify areas where civilians should move. Around 150,000 people reportedly have been displaced in the last 24 hours alone. Displaced Palestinians are being forced onto the streets, with no shelter, and in most cases with no food, water or medical care. On 19 May, Israel issued more displacement orders impacting large areas of Khan Younis and Deir El Balah, which will result in further massive displacement, death, destruction, and push people into smaller areas.
Those who have been forced from their homes or other shelters remain under attack. In the last 48 hours, the Israeli military has intensified strikes, especially in North Gaza and Khan Younis and adjacent Deir al Balah in Middle Gaza, killing at least 96 Palestinians during the night and early morning of 17-18 May alone. In the last few days, the majority of Palestinians killed were in IDP tents, especially in the overcrowded Al Mawasi area in western Khan Yunis, where the Israeli military had previously unilaterally designated a “humanitarian zone.” During the late night of 17 May, Israeli military strikes on IDP tents in Al Mawasi killed at least 36 Palestinians, including 4 cases in which parents and their children were killed together. In the morning of 18 May, an attack on another IDP tent near Alkhear Hospital in Al Mawasi, killed 4 Palestinians, a man and his 3 boys.
In less than 24 hours, 5 Palestinian journalists were reportedly killed, including a female journalist. This wave of killings of journalists came a few days after 3 other journalists were killed on 13 and 14 May. OHCHR has verified the killing of 214 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including 185 men and 29 women. The apparent targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, combined with the denial by Israel of access of foreign journalist to Gaza for over 18 months, except a few visits controlled by IDF, appear to indicate a deliberate attempt by Israel to limit the flow of information to and from Gaza and prevent reporting on the impact of its attacks and denial of humanitarian assistance.
XXIII. UN experts condemn renewed attacks on UNRWA schools in Gaza and East Jerusalem
On 20 May, Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, Cecilia M. Bailliet, Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, George Katrougalos, Independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Ashwini K.P., Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Heba Hagrass, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences and Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Laura Nyirinkindi (Vice-Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, and Haina Lu, Working group on discrimination against women and girls, Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, issued the following press release.
Attacks on schools are an assault on children, UN experts said today, condemning the latest attacks on UNRWA schools in Gaza and the storming and forcible closure of UN schools in Jerusalem by Israeli occupation forces.
“These attacks are also an assault on the right to safe education and a blatant violation of international law, all the more in the context of an unlawful occupation,” the experts said.
On 7 May, Israeli forces reportedly struck an UNRWA school sheltering 2,000 displaced Palestinians in Gaza twice in a single day, killing at least 30 civilians, including women and children. Nearly three-quarters of all school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit since October 2023, with around one third of UNRWA schools among them. According to UN satellite-based assessments, 95 per cent of Gaza’s schools have sustained damage, rendering the vast majority unusable.
“This destruction demonstrates the devastating, lasting impact on a generation of Palestinian children’s learning,” the experts said. Their learning has already been cut-off for more than 19 months and once hostilities cease, they will have no schools to return to. Girls are disproportionately affected by such actions and the long-term consequences for girls’ education, health, and empowerment are especially dire. In addition, leaving all the children exposed to armed eviction with irreversible trauma, that takes years of mental and psychosocial support and is inaccessible to them.
At least 300 UN personnel, mostly UNRWA aid workers, have been killed since the escalation began in October 2023.
In East Jerusalem, on 8 May, heavily armed Israeli forces stormed three UNRWA schools in Shu’fat refugee camp while classes were in session, violently evicting over 550 Palestinian children, some as young as six, from their classrooms. One UNRWA staff member was detained, and by the end of the day all six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem had been evacuated.
“Israel has no authority to carry out these actions, when the International Court of Justice has determined that Israel is under an obligation to dismantle its occupation,” the experts said. “In the meantime, it is bound by international humanitarian law, which protects schools against direct attacks, especially as there were no hostilities in the area that would justify an evacuation.”
“As the schools stormed were UN premises, the harassment of staff and forcible removal of children from schools by Israeli soldiers also constitute a breach of the inviolability of UN facilities and violate the right to education,” they said.
“Targeted attacks against civilians and civilian objects are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes. In the current context, such actions may also amount to collective punishment.”
The experts emphasized that Israel’s obligation to end its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is mandatory under international law, rooted in non-derogable norms like the right to self-determination and the ban on acquiring territory by force. Israel is required to withdraw its troops, dismantle its settlements, provide full reparations to Palestinian victims and facilitate the return of displaced people and humanitarian aid and rehabilitation.
“As a UN Member State, Israel must respect international humanitarian and human rights law,” the experts said. “Education is never a target. The international community must act to ensure respect and protection of the right to life and to education of Palestinian children living under occupation and accountability for violations.”
XXIV. UN experts call on Security Council to protect women and girls in Gaza and restore peace
On 21 May, Laura Nyirinkindi (Chair), Claudia Flores (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Ivana Krstić, and Haina Lu, Working group on discrimination against women and girls; Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; Cecilia M. Bailliet, Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity; George Katrougalos, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing; Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development; Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food; Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association; Ashwini K.P. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; Heba Hagrass, Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities; Claudia Mahler, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons; Bina D’Costa (Chair), Barbara G. Reynolds, Isabelle Mamadou Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; Alexandra Xanthaki, Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, issued the following press release.
The UN Security Council must urgently address Israel’s unprecedented assault on civilians in Gaza and reaffirm its commitments to the Women, Peace and Security agenda, a group of independent human rights experts* said today.
“Ahead of the Council’s open debate on civilian protection under Greece’s presidency, we urge meaningful discussion of the grave and gendered impacts of the unfolding genocide on women and girls in the besieged Gaza Strip,” the experts said.
The experts stressed that attacks have shattered every aspect of civilian life, with distinctly gendered consequences, and that Palestinian girls and women of all ages have suffered in staggering numbers, while Israel continues to deny critical humanitarian access. They noted that over 28,000 women and girls have been killed, thousands have been injured and nearly 1 million displaced. Close to 13,000 women are now single heads of households. The entire population is still confronted with a critical risk of famine. Nearly 71,000 children and 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition in the immediate future.
Women continue to mourn profound losses while caring for families with little to no access to water, medicine, adequate food, sanitary products, or sexual and reproductive health care. Women and girls with disabilities face especially acute risks, disproportionately experiencing neglect, heightened exposure to violence, and significant barriers in accessing essential services, the experts noted.
“The destruction of civilian infrastructure and profound suffering inflicted on women and girls demands immediate and sustained action by the Security Council,” the experts said. “The devastation experienced by women, girls, and entire communities is not incidental, it is the consequence of intentional policies and actions by Israel. The killings of thousands of women and girls may constitute the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction, in whole or in part, of the Palestinian people.”
The experts noted that while Palestinian women and girls in Gaza are victims of this indiscriminate and disproportionate military assault, women, as journalists, medical workers, teachers, lawyers, and aid workers, continue to care, document, and resist despite unbearable losses.
“Girls and other children report walking long distances for remote learning, even as they fear bombings along the way. They cling to uniforms and books, still hoping to return to classrooms—even when those spaces are no longer safe,” the experts said.
Reiterating their repeated calls for a permanent ceasefire and the need for protection and accountability measures, the experts urged the Council to respond to the specific gendered impacts of the crisis. Women, Peace and Security commitments, they noted, must not be sidelined from core peace and security discussions.
“In Gaza, the rules of engagement and fundamental protections owed to civilians have been intentionally, persistently and flagrantly violated,” the experts warned. “If the Security Council fails to confront this profound breakdown in compliance and accountability, and what it means for humanity and multilateralism, the very foundations of international law risk becoming meaningless.”
XXV. UN Child Rights Committee condemns mass starvation of children amid aid blockades
On 21 May, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued the following press release.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child condemned the continued obstruction of humanitarian aid to Gaza, urging the international community to pressure Israel to allow immediate and sustained access for essential food and medical supplies.
“More than eleven weeks after the obstruction of humanitarian access, the food security crisis is deteriorating rapidly to the point that more than 50 children have died from hunger and many others are on the verge of death. If the blockade continues, more children will die and up to 71,000 children under five could suffer from acute malnutrition over the next year,” the Committee said, drawing on numbers from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The right to food is a fundamental human right, intrinsically linked to the right to life, and as such, it is non-derogable under international law,” the Committee stated.
It strongly condemned Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza, which are killing and maiming women and children, including reportedly more than 100 children killed just last week, before accounting for the casualties from the latest strikes. These attacks are occurring on a massive daily scale and are pushing the humanitarian situation to a critical point.
“There is no justification for actions which clearly defy international humanitarian law as well as international human rights law, including the Conventions on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” the Committee said.
It reaffirmed the importance of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, along with its Orders issued on 26 January and 24 May 2024 in the case South Africa v. Israel concerning the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip.
In addition, recalling its country review findings on Israel adopted September last year, the Committee urged the State party to take immediate action to guarantee the right to life, survival, and development of all Palestinian children, stop the killing and injuring of children in Gaza, and to allow safe and unrestricted humanitarian access throughout the Gaza Strip.
XXVI. WHO warns health system at breaking point as hostilities further intensify in Gaza
On 22 May, the World Health Organization issued the following press release.
Israel’s intensified military operations continue to threaten an already weakened health system, amidst worsening mass population displacement and acute shortages of food, water, medical supplies, fuel and shelter.
Four major hospitals in Gaza (Kamal Adwan Hospital, Indonesia Hospital, Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, and European Gaza Hospital) have had to suspend medical services in the past week due to their proximity to hostilities or evacuation zones, and attacks. WHO has recorded 28 attacks on health care in Gaza during this period and 697 attacks since October 2023.
Only 19 of Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals remain operational, including one hospital providing basic care for the remaining patients still inside the hospital, and are struggling under severe supply shortages, lack of health workers, persistent insecurity, and a surge of casualties, all while staff work in impossible conditions. Of the 19 hospitals, 12 provide a variety of health services, while the rest are only able to provide basic emergency care. At least 94% of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed.
The increased hostilities and new evacuation orders issued across northern and southern Gaza in the past two days threaten to push even more health facilities out of service. This includes 1 hospital, 11 primary care centres, and 13 medical points within the evacuation zones, and an additional 5 hospitals, 1 field hospital, 9 primary care centres, and 23 medical points within 1000 metres of those zones.
North Gaza has been stripped of nearly all health care. Al-Awda Hospital is only minimally functional, serving as a trauma stabilization point. It faces an imminent risk of closure due to ongoing insecurity and restricted access. The hospital’s third floor was reportedly attacked on Wednesday, injuring a staff member. Hostilities in the area also damaged the water tank and pipeline. Today, the hospital was attacked again. The third and fourth floors were reportedly hit, injuring two health workers. Patient triage tents, including one provided by WHO, caught fire, which also burned all medical supplies in the warehouse and destroyed vehicles in the basement. A WHO mission attempting to reach the hospital today was impeded.
The Indonesian Hospital is out of service due to continued military presence since 18 May, making it inaccessible. Yesterday, a WHO mission to the hospital was forced to abort due to the security situation after waiting nearly four hours for clearance to proceed. WHO team had planned to deliver food and water to patients, assess their conditions, and identify critical equipment for transfer. WHO tried to reach the hospital again today, but the mission was impeded.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, which had the only centre to treat patients with severe acute malnutrition in North Gaza, went out of service on 20 May after intense hostilities in its vicinity, forcing patients to evacuate or be discharged prematurely.
In southern Gaza, Nasser Medical Complex, Al-Amal, and Al-Aqsa hospitals are overwhelmed by a surge of injured people, worsened by a new wave of displacement to Deir al Balah and Khan Younis. The European Gaza Hospital remains out of service following an attack on 13 May, cutting off vital services including neurosurgery, cardiac care, and cancer treatment, all unavailable elsewhere in Gaza.
Currently, across the Gaza Strip, only 2000 hospital beds remain available, for a population of over 2 million people, grossly insufficient to meet the current needs. Of these, at least 40 beds are at risk of being lost as they are in hospitals within newly declared evacuation zones, while an additional 850 could be lost if conditions deteriorate at facilities near these zones.
Continued hostilities and military presence inhibit patients from accessing care, obstruct staff from providing care, and prevent WHO and partners from resupplying hospitals.
With each hospital forced out of service, patients lose access to health care, and WHO and partners’ efforts, to sustain Gaza’s health system are undone. The destruction is systematic. Hospitals are rehabilitated and resupplied, only to be exposed to hostilities or attacked again. This destructive cycle must end.
Amid constant fear and insecurity, health workers, including those from national and international emergency medical teams, continue delivering urgent care in Gaza. WHO salutes their courage and commitment.
WHO calls for the active protection of health care. Hospitals must never be militarized or targeted.
WHO calls for aid at scale to be allowed into Gaza through all possible routes, and for unimpeded humanitarian access to reach people wherever they are. Echoing the United Nations’ Relief Chief, WHO reiterates that the UN and its partners have a clear, principled and effective plan to deliver aid with safeguards against diversion, a system that has worked and must be enabled to continue.
WHO calls for an immediate and lasting ceasefire.
XXVII. Under-Secretary-General and UNOPS on the Gaza aid blockade and the UN 2720 Mechanism
On 23 May, the UN Under-Secretary-General and UNOPS Executive Director, Jorge Moreira da Silva, made the following statement.
After over 11 weeks of complete blockade, the Israeli authorities have allowed the UN and partners a brief window to resume delivery of aid into Gaza. This is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.
UNOPS is working with our sister agencies in Gaza to supply fuel to bakeries that are now restarting with the small amount of incoming wheat flour. It powers hospital generators. It moves ambulances. To do this, our team run convoys to destroyed areas and evacuation zones. Operating at great risk to access our fuel storage tanks.
As the Secretary-General said today, the UN is ready to scale up our life-saving operation in Gaza and respond to the needs of people, wherever they are. We have presented our plan to do this. A plan that is rooted in the non-negotiable humanitarian principles and built on accountability, transparency and trust.
The UN 2720 Mechanism, that UNOPS manages- is there to expedite, streamline and accelerate the delivery of aid into Gaza. It is recognised by the key stakeholders and broader international community. It is mandated by the Security Council.
Since the beginning of its implementation almost 1 year ago, this mechanism has reduced bureaucracy and fragmentation and improved efficiency, transparency and predictability. The problem was never of a logistics nature, but rather a matter of political will and security.
And precisely when these security conditions improved, the Mechanism worked effectively during the first phase of the ceasefire. It worked effectively to temporarily alleviate the suffering of the population bringing aid to those in need.
***
We cannot make aid conditional on political and military aims. We cannot turn starvation into a bargaining chip. So, let’s get things done with what works based on transparency & accountability.
Rather than solutions that risks undermining the UN Security Council’s authority and fragmenting the response. We and our humanitarian partners have the expertise, distribution mechanism and monitoring systems to deliver aid at scale across Gaza. We just need the political willingness and the trust for it to work.
Let us do what we are here to do, to ensure rapid, unhindered, and safe humanitarian relief for all civilians in need.
XXVIII. UNICEF: More than 50,000 children reportedly killed or injured in the Gaza Strip
On 27 May, the UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, made the following statement.
In a 72-hour period this weekend, images from two horrific attacks provide yet more evidence of the unconscionable cost of this ruthless war on children in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, we saw videos of the bodies of burnt, dismembered children from the al-Najjar family being pulled from the rubble of their home in Khan Younis. Of 10 siblings under 12 years old, only one reportedly survived, with critical injuries.
Early Monday, we saw images of a small child trapped in a burning school in Gaza City. That attack, in the early hours of the morning, reportedly killed at least 31 people, including 18 children.
These children lives that should never be reduced to numbers, are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors: the grave violations against children, the blockade of aid, the starvation, the constant forced displacement, and the destruction of hospitals, water systems, schools, and homes. In essence, the destruction of life itself in the Gaza Strip.
Since the end of the ceasefire on 18 March, 1,309 children have reportedly been killed and 3,738 injured. In total, more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured since October 2023. How many more dead girls and boys will it take? What level of horror must be livestreamed before the international community fully steps up, uses its influence, and takes bold, decisive action to force the end of this ruthless killing of children?
UNICEF is once again urging all parties to the conflict to end the violence, protect civilians, including children, respect international humanitarian law and human rights law, allow the immediate provision of humanitarian aid, and release all hostages.
The children of Gaza need protection. They need food, water, and medicine. They need a ceasefire. But more than anything, they need immediate, collective action to stop this once and for all.
XXIX. ‘Two-State solution on life support’, UN Special Coordinator tells the Security Council
On 28 May, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ad Interim, Sigrid Kaag, briefed the UN Security Council.
The two-State solution is on life support, the Security Council heard today from a senior United Nations official who called for urgent humanitarian assistance in Gaza while speakers for Israel and the State of Palestine accused each other of politicizing aid delivery.
“Instead of saying goodbye, Palestinians in Gaza now say ‘see you in heaven’”, Sigrid Kaag, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Ad Interim, said in her briefing. Since the collapse of the ceasefire in March, civilians have constantly come under fire and are deprived of life-saving relief. Israel must halt its devastating strikes on civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza, she urged.
On 18 May, the UN was informed by Israeli authorities of the approval for the resumption of limited aid entry into Gaza. This is comparable to “a lifeboat after the ship has sunk”, she said, stressing that aid cannot be negotiable. Stressing that Israel has the right to live in peace and security, she said this was undeniably shaken by the horrific terror attacks of 7 October. The hostages need to be released unconditionally, she said, and Hamas and other armed groups must stop launching rockets towards Israel.
The Council must move from managing the conflict to ending it, she said, adding that peace cannot be a transaction or a temporary arrangement. Also highlighting the dangerous trajectory in the West Bank, she pointed to the acceleration of the “de facto annexation through settlement expansion, land seizures and settler violence”. The General Assembly’s High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, to be held in June, must not end up as “another rhetorical exercise”, she said, adding: “Statehood is a right, not a reward.”
Feroze Sidhwa, civil-society representative, then told the Council that he is a trauma surgeon from the United States who has volunteered at two medical facilities in Khan Younis in 2024 and 2025. “I did not see or treat a single combatant during my five weeks in Gaza — my patients were six-year-olds with shrapnel in their hearts and bullets in their brains, pregnant women whose pelvises were obliterated and fetuses cut in two while still in the womb,” he said.
“I cannot pretend not to have seen it,” he said, emphasizing: “You, too, cannot claim ignorance.” Underscoring that the medical system has not failed, “it has been systematically dismantled through a sustained military campaign that has willfully violated international humanitarian law”, he stressed that “preventing genocide means refusing to normalize these atrocities.” The War Child Alliance reports that “nearly half of Gaza’s children are suicidal”, he told Council members.
He urged them, “and especially my own Government”, to demand an immediate ceasefire and a halt to all arms transfers. Further, it is necessary to “explicitly reject the weaponization and politicization of aid embodied by the ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’”, he said, noting the public resignation of the Foundation’s executive director on 25 May due to the “lack of adherence to humanitarian principles”.
“Flames and hunger are devouring Palestinian children,” Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, said. Overcome by sobs, he recounted images of mothers embracing the motionless bodies of children. He said that 1,300 children have been killed by Israel since it broke the ceasefire on 18 March. After seeing starvation used as a weapon of war, “now we see aid being used as a weapon of war,” he added. If Israel wanted aid in, it would open the crossings and allow humanitarian aid to enter fully. But its true concern is how to get rid of the Palestinians by killing them, starving them and destroying Gaza, he said, drawing attention to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mockery of claims of starvation in Gaza, as well as well as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s incendiary speeches in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The representative of Israel, meanwhile, noted that 170 trucks entered Gaza on 26 May with food and medicine, and that new aid-distribution centres ensure that these goods get “to civilians, not to terrorists”. However, he said that the UN has not only refused to condemn Hamas for its efforts to sabotage these new centres, but “is now actively joining Hamas in trying to block that aid” by removing organizations participating in the new mechanism from the central system tracking aid delivered into Gaza. He said that this is “the extortion of well-meaning NGOs who refused to kiss the ring” and “a shakedown by UN mobsters”.
The representative of the United States, underscoring Israel’s right to defend itself, called on the UN to work with the Gaza Heritage Foundation — “an independent entity established to provide a secure mechanism for the delivery of aid directly to those in need”. He also recalled the two Israeli embassy officials murdered last week in his country and noted that one of them had made a social media post about antisemitism at the UN, condemning Tom Fletcher, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, for antisemitism. His country will continue its effort to bring about a diplomatic agreement that will free the hostages, he said, but Hamas continues to reject proposals, violently suppresses protests and diverts aid meant for civilians.
Several Council members condemned the shooting of the two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. Many expressed support for Mr. Fletcher whose humanitarian briefing last week highlighted the risk of famine in Gaza. Speakers also highlighted the failures of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and underscored that aid should not be political.
“9,000 trucks wait at the border. Our message to Prime Minister Netanyahu is clear: let aid in and enable the UN to operate, now,” said the representative of the United Kingdom, while stressing Israel’s right to defend itself. Recalling warnings from UN officials about the risks from the Israeli Government’s plan for aid delivery, he said: “In Rafah yesterday, we saw this warning become a reality as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation lost control of its distribution center, with multiple casualties reported and great distress for those desperately seeking aid.”
The representatives of the Russian Federation and Panama also noted that incident in which despairing, hungry Palestinians overcame a distribution centre. “These facts demonstrate the limitations of this solution”, the latter said, underscoring the urgent need for better coordination, with the participation of UN agencies. The Republic of Korea’s delegate appealed to Israel to listen to the principled voices of humanitarian workers, including the former Executive Director of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, who resigned because he said that entity could not adhere to the principles of humanity and neutrality.
He as well as the representative of Greece, Council President for May, speaking in his national capacity, also condemned the recent incident in which shots were fired during a visit of foreign diplomats in Jenin.
The representative of the United Arab Emirates, speaking for the Arab Group, said the aid Israel has recently permitted represents “a drop in the ocean compared to Gaza’s overwhelming humanitarian needs”. The “chaos” that ensued at the distribution centre underlines the need for aid delivery coordinated with the United Nations. He added that Israel’s recent military escalation, along with its efforts to militarize and manipulate humanitarian aid, further its declared objective — “namely, to make life in Gaza unliveable, forcibly displace its population and seize Palestinian land in clear violation of international law”.
Speakers urged the Council to renew efforts towards a ceasefire and revive the two-State solution, many of them highlighting the suffering of the children of Gaza. The representative of Algeria asked: “What is the worth of saying ‘18,000 children’?” Stressing that “these are not only numbers”, he also said that they are lives, dreams, voices, playtimes and lullabies extinguished. “The Israeli army killed them”, deliberately, he underscored, adding: “Their deaths were not collateral; they were the consequences of a system that sees Palestinian lives as not human, as disposable.” Emphasizing that the Israeli occupation persists, emboldened by impunity and immunity, he asked: “What is expected of the Palestinians? Must they continue offering their children on the altar of global inaction?”
“Given our experience”, Sierra Leone’s delegate said, “we understand too well the consequences of delayed international action or inaction”. He recalled “with painful clarity” the global failure to prevent mass atrocities in Rwanda and Srebrenica. “The obligation to prevent genocide is not discretionary,” he underscored.
“Denmark remains firmly committed to Israel’s security,” said the former’s representative, while adding: “However, this cannot come at the cost of the civilian Palestinian people and their right to live in peace and dignity.” The representative of France, while underlining the need to disarm and politically neutralize Hamas, said: “However, the civilians in Gaza are not Hamas, and they are enduring a humanitarian situation that is devastating.”
Guyana’s delegate stressed that any peace deal reached should guarantee that Palestinians are not forced to give up any of their rights in exchange for peace. China’s delegate noted repeated calls from the Israeli side to completely destroy and take over Gaza. Noting the Israeli army’s control over more than 70 per cent of Gaza, as well as the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank, he said the annexation of those territories will completely erode the two-State solution.
“As the task of listing every single cruelty has become impossible, our responsibility not to remain silent has become clearer,” stressed Slovenia’s representative. He spotlighted Israel’s “clear responsibility to protect civilians” and underlined the “clear responsibility to act”, which is why his country strongly supports the upcoming June conference on the two-State solution.
Several delegates, including the representatives of Somalia, expressed support for the upcoming international peace conference co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and France. While the Assembly will hold that Conference in June, “the Council cannot remain a bystander,” Pakistan’s delegate said, adding: “History will not absolve those who delay justice in the face of genocide.” He called on the Council to support the humanitarian resolution to be tabled in that organ soon.
XXX. UN Human Rights Office: Unlawful killings in Gaza and the imperative for accountability mechanism
On 28 May, the , the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued the following press release.
The apparent summary execution of an UNRWA staff member in Rafah on 23 March this year is truly shocking and must be promptly investigated, and those responsible brought to justice. It reflects a chilling pattern of violations of the basic principles of International Humanitarian Law. Related to the same incident, the Israeli military appears to have shot at clearly marked ambulances and rescue vehicles, killing eight Palestinian Red Crescent Society and seven Gaza Civil Defense staff. This appears to be an incident of deliberate targeting and killing of medical and humanitarian personnel in violation of international law. These killings reflect the Israeli military’s pattern of unlawful killings since the escalation of hostilities in Gaza began in October 2023.
UN Human Rights Office has documented numerous reports of possible extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, including the reported summary execution of members of the Anan family on 19 December 2023, the deliberate and systematic lethal targeting of members of the civilian police and the civil defence, the killing of journalists, and a pattern of attacks on fishers clearly neither participating in hostilities nor posing any threat to life or limb.
Palestinians have died in Israeli custody in situations that raise grave concerns that they were tortured and/or otherwise killed. In one example, the Israeli military arrested Dr. Adnan Ahmad Ateya Al Bursh, a senior orthopedic doctor on 17 December 2023 at Al Awda Hospital, North Gaza. He reportedly died on 19 April 2024 in Ofer Prison, an Israeli detention facility. According to witnesses he showed signs of torture and other ill-treatment, and his body is still being withheld by the Israeli authorities.
All of those reportedly killed are presumed to have been civilians and if they were targeted as such this would constitute a serious violation of IHL, as would the deliberate killing of any person within the power of a party. Under IHL, the parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants, and attacks may only be directed against combatants and other military objectives and never against civilians. Deliberately targeting or killing a civilian is a war crime.
Following the killings on 23 March, the Israeli Defense Forces dismissed the Deputy Commander of the Golani Battalion and issued a reprimand to the Commander of the 14th Brigade. Although the case was reportedly submitted to the Military Advocate General, no further accountability measures have been reported as of now. In addition, monitoring by the UN Human Rights Office confirms that such investigations in this context do not lead to effective accountability. UN Human Rights Office is gravely concerned that the prevalence of unlawful killings, including extrajudicial executions, and the repeated nature of these violations, as well as the apparent absence of effective steps from the Israeli military to repress and punish most of these cases, imply that these killings are not isolated events and indicate that they are condoned by the military and civilian hierarchy. In the absence of effective accountability within the Israeli military and judicial system, the international community must take steps to ensure effective investigations into all allegations of unlawful killings in the context of the escalation of hostilities in Gaza.
XXXI. 600 days of Israeli war on Gaza: UN Committee urges immediate, unhindered humanitarian access
On 30 May, the Bureau of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People Palestinian Rights Committee issued the following press release.
As the Israeli military attacks on Gaza enter its 600th day, the Bureau of the UN Palestinian Rights Committee expresses grave concern over the escalating casualties, worsening humanitarian emergency, catastrophic devastation and destruction and continued obstruction of life-saving assistance to the Palestinian people.
Described by UN Secretary-General António Guterres as “the cruelest phase” of the conflict, the situation has left Palestinian civilians enduring unbearable suffering and widespread and engineered deprivation and mass displacement. The UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher echoed this dire assessment in his Security Council briefing of 13 May and emphasized: “When you face starvation, you don’t need air drops and floating piers, you need roads open, convoys moving, and a ceasefire that lasts.” The Committee Bureau strongly shares these sentiments in light of the worsening of unprecedented and grave humanitarian conditions.
The Bureau joins the United Nations and countless countries firmly opposing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). This initiative is an attempt to circumvent the UN and its agencies on the ground, foremost UNRWA, that have long delivered humanitarian aid and basic services in assistance to the Palestinian people in accordance with international law, including humanitarian law, relevant UN resolutions and the humanitarian principles of independence, neutrality, impartiality and independence. The GHF fails the test of the humanitarian principles, employing, inter alia, a food and essentials rationing system described by OCHA as “engineered scarcity” and “a policy of deprivation by design” that must be firmly rejected.
The destruction of Gaza’s essential infrastructure, including hospitals, bakeries, and water systems, alongside the destruction of over 90% of housing and the mass displacement and forced encampment of civilians, represents not only a humanitarian crisis but a profound erosion of the human dignity of the Palestinian people. The International Court of Justice’s provisional measures in the case of South Africa v. Israel under the Genocide Convention remain unheeded, compounding the breaches of international law by Israel, the occupying Power.
Humanitarian organizations, including the UN and its partners, are prepared and capable of delivering assistance effectively to the Palestinian people in Gaza to alleviate this humanitarian catastrophe. What stands in the way is not capacity, but political obstruction and systematic violations of obligations under international law, including humanitarian and human rights law.
This somber milestone must be a moment of reckoning and moral clarity. The international community must act decisively to uphold the rights of a population facing starvation, mass displacement, and death, as the world watches on. While the June 2025 International Conference on the implementation of the UN resolutions pertaining to the question of Palestine and the two-State solution is a vital step forward towards ending the illegal occupation, and achieving a just and peaceful resolution to the historic injustice, the immediate humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza and in the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, under constant Israeli assault, cannot wait.
The Bureau calls on all Member States to take urgent, meaningful action to bring an end to the Israeli siege and to ensure immediate, unimpeded and full humanitarian access to save the endangered lives of 2 million Palestinian children, women and men, halt their forced displacement and end this unbearable human suffering. Urgent international efforts are also required to bring a halt to the violence and bloodshed with an immediate and permanent ceasefire in accordance with Security Council resolution 2735 (2024) and all other relevant resolutions, and ensure accountability for all violations of international law, including all war crimes and crimes against humanity, perpetrated in this horrific conflict.
XXXII. “Stop the clock on madness”: UN expert appeals to States after Gaza aid distribution shootings
On 30 May, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, issued the following press release.
The international community must stop the clock on continued and deliberate misuse of humanitarian language and mechanisms by Israel aimed at obscuring and facilitating the commission of atrocity crimes in Gaza, a UN expert said today.
“We continue to witness a brutal humanitarian camouflage, where the red lines have led to massive atrocities. Israel pretends to promote humanitarian solutions in order to continue its control of Gaza and sustain its systematic denial of life-saving humanitarian aid to the starving population in the besieged strip,” said Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“It is a deliberate strategy – aimed at masking atrocities, displacing the displaced, bombing the bombarded, burning Palestinians alive and maiming survivors,” Albanese warned. “All camouflaged behind the language of aid, to divert international attention from legal accountability, in Israel’s attempt to dismantle the very principles upon which humanitarian law was built.”
Albanese echoed concerns by the UN and other humanitarian actors about the Israeli aid system and the establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – a body backed by Israel and the United States to distribute aid under a system of full military control. The proposal has been criticised for failing to respect international law and the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.
On 27 May, thousands of Palestinian flocked towards the foundation’s distribution sites to receive food packages after several days without food.
“Within hours, horrifying images and videos emerged from Gaza demonstrating how this mechanism functions and how the Israeli army fired on unarmed Palestinian civilians. It seems that there is no limit to Israel’s actions,” the expert said.
At least 3 people were killed and 46 injured and seven went missing according to authorities in Gaza.
“As the occupying power, Israel must agree to allow and facilitate the aid and access cannot be assessed based on political or military considerations,” the expert said. Aid that has entered the besieged enclave after Israel’s 11-week blockade is a drop in the ocean, she said.
“To starve a population for months and then shoot at them when they clamour for food is unmitigated cruelty”, Albanese said.
“The time for sanctions is now, as Israeli politicians continue to call for the extermination of babies while over 80 percent of the Israeli society, according to Israeli media, ask for the forcible removal of Palestinians from Gaza. The time to save life is shrinking,” Albanese said. “I am reiterating my call for a full arms embargo and suspension of all forms of trade with Israel by all States. In a world of growing consensus that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, using ceaseless bombardment and starvation, while only a minority of the population opposes it, is an affront to the UN principles and values, States can no longer sit by and watch.”
“The International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, and its Orders issued on 26 January and 24 May 2024 in the case South Africa v. Israel provided States with the imperative to act,” the Special Rapporteur said.
“Every day that has passed since without tangible action from States is steeped in the blood of innocent Palestinians.”
“The gravity of Israel’s conduct is matched only by the complicity of States that continue to provide political and material cover, and by corporations that profit from Israel’s crimes,” she said.
“Accountability can no longer be deferred. The UN and States need urgently to establish an independent protection mechanism that Israel shall not stop, it has no sovereignty over the occupied territory, and it is about time States implement it. The people of the world are watching, and history will remember”.
_________________
Document Type: Monthly Bulletin
Document Sources: Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), General Assembly, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Secretary-General, Security Council, United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), World Health Organization (WHO)
Subject: Access and movement, Accountability, Armed conflict, Assistance, Casualties, Ceasefire, Children, Closures/Curfews/Blockades, Disease, Education and culture, Food, Gaza Strip, Gender, Genocide, Health, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Hunger, Internally displaced persons, Jerusalem, Nakba, Occupying Power, Refugees and displaced persons, Settlements, Two State solution, UNRWA, West Bank, Women
Publication Date: 31/05/2025