Israeli plan to take military control of Gaza must stop now, says UN rights chief
The UN’s top human rights official insisted on Friday that the Israeli Government must not pursue a complete military takeover of the Gaza Strip, beginning with full control of Gaza City.
The development followed a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet on Thursday which approved a plan implying a full-scale Israeli military takeover in the shattered enclave.
With more, here’s spokesperson from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell:
“On all evidence to date, this further escalation will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes… Instead of intensifying this war, the Israeli Government should put all its efforts into saving the lives of Gaza’s civilians by allowing the full, unfettered flow of humanitarian aid. The hostages must be immediately and unconditionally released by Palestinian armed groups. Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel must also be immediately and unconditionally released.”
You can run – but we will find you, militias tell terrified civilians
“You can run, but we will find you” – that’s the chilling threat issued by militias in Sudan to terrified civilians fleeing the ongoing conflict in the country.
In an alert, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that communities continue to be terrorised by parties to the conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary rebels.
With more, here’s UNHCR Protection Officer Jocelyn Knight, relaying what she heard from people fleeing Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s North Darfur.
“People told me multiple times that when they were fleeing from Zamzam, armed people would threaten them while they were in flight, saying sure, ‘Flee, go to that place, run here, run there, we will follow you, we will find you, you know, we will get you, wherever you go…A tiny boy told me, ‘You know, during the day things are okay here, but I’m afraid to go to sleep at night in case the place where we’re living is attacked again.’”
In addition to the ongoing conflict, a wave of deadly cholera is also sweeping across Sudan; it is also present just across the border in Chad.
The disease thrives on unsanitary conditions are common in the disused public buildings in western Sudan which provide shelter to many people.
Nearly 100,000 cases have been reported since July last year and in neighbouring Chad, the Dougui refugee settlement has recorded more than 260 cases and 12 deaths.
Afghanistan returnees have lost hope and now they need our help: UN- Habitat
Afghanistan is in the middle of an unprecedented returnee crisis, with millions of people forcibly returned from neighbouring countries, the UN development agency UN-Habitat said on Friday.
The alert comes as Afghans continue to be repatriated from Iran and Pakistan, principally, with up to 40,000 people making the crossing in a single day.
Support is being provided at border points, but the real challenge will be in helping these new arrivals to reintegrate once they’re living in Afghanistan.
According to the de facto authority’s strict rules, women and girls cannot attend secondary school, work or step foot outside their home alone.
With more, here’s UN-Habitat’s Stephanie Loose:
“I know they’re being pushed back into a country where there’s no education for girls beyond 12, where they don’t actually know where to go and where there’s actually specifically for women and girls, no social and no economic development opportunities. And we also have women headed households who return to the country. So, you can just imagine actually what it means to them. They cannot actually leave their houses without being accompanied by mahram, a male guardian – even if they want to go and see a doctor.”
Latest UN data indicates that more than three million people have returned to Afghanistan since September 2023; this year alone, 1.7 million people have crossed the border.
Ms. Loose noted that many of those returning to the country have nowhere to go “because they’ve never actually lived in Afghanistan”.
Daniel Johnson, UN News
