Links to News Articles You May Have Missed This Week : Tom McDermott

Note to readers - if you are a daily subscriber to our blog, you will likely have already seen the articles listed below in our series "Links to News Articles You May Have Missed".  For the convenience of our weekly or occasional readers, we have consolidated the series for the week here.

Please let us know what you think of both the daily and weekly compilations. 

Palestine - Gaza

A New Generation of Orphans - In addition to the over 17,000 children killed in Gaza, UNICEF estimates that another 17,000 have been orphaned and 21,000 are 'missing'.  Even before the current war began, some 33,000 children were thought to be orphans. The four orphanages and various outreach services operating before the war have ceased to operate. (The New Arab "Israel's war has created a generation of orphans")

UN School - An attack on UN School in Jabalia on Thursday killed 28, including an unknow number children, and injured another 160.   (The Irish Times "At least 28, including children killed in strike onschool sheltering displaced¨)

Second Polio Round - the plan is to reach 591,700 children younger than 10 years old. So far 156,943, children have been vaccinated in central areas. At the same time, 128,121 children received vitamin A supplements. Meanwhile, one of the schools designated for the campaign was hit by an airstrike. 22 people were killed. (UN News "School set for polio campaign hit") The big challenge ahead will be in reaching some 119,000 children in northern Gaza which has remained under military blockade since 1 October. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Desparate food situation in the north - after over two weeks of blocking all food and other aid, Israel finally allowed 50 truck loads of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza Wednesday in an apparent response to recent demands from the Biden Administration. (Asharq Al-Awsat "Israel Must Show No "Policy of Starvation").  

UNICEF's Ted Chaiban issued a statement on the situation saying, "The situation in northern Gaza is extremely grave. Renewed mass forced displacement, increased conflict, and ongoing military obstruction that amounts to an effective-blockade has cut off hundreds of thousands of children and families from vital humanitarian aid." (UNICEF "Near Blockade of Aid and Access"

Arundhati Roy has won the PEN Pinter Prize for 2024 used her acceptance speech to say, “No propaganda on earth can hide the wound that is Palestine….I do not tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression or who their allies should be.” With thanks for the news to Niloufar Pourzand and Dan Toole - article in the Wire

Children held by Israel - Defence for Children Palestine report finds "that the number of Palestinian children being held in Israeli administrative detention has nearly quadrupled over the last year. (Al Jazeera "Imprisoning Palestinian children at record rates")

Lebanon

UNIFIL as inconvenient witness - just before dawn on Saturday an Israeli tank burst through the main gate of UNIFIL's base at Naqoura on the Lebanon / Israel border. This follows attacks on UN observation towers and cameras on Thursday and Friday. (The Evening Standard "UN Says Israeli Tanks Burst Through Gates"). 

In his statement the SG said, "Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime. He calls on all parties, including the IDF, to refrain from any and all actions that put our peacekeepers at risk." 

 Meanwhile Israeli PM Netanyahu was repeating demands that the UN withdraw its peacekeepers from south Lebanon and adding, “The IDF has repeatedly asked for this, and has been met with repeated refusals, all aimed at providing a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists,” Times of Israel "UN Must Withdraw". 

Writing in El Pais Jésus Núñez Villaverd says "The only rational conclusion to draw from this well-established reality is that the IDF did not accidentally fire upon UNIFIL (i.e., the U.N.) but, rather, as has happened numerous times before in Lebanon, did so intentionally to eliminate inconvenient witnesses." (El Pais "Israel in Lebanon, better without witnesses")

Children displaced - UNICEF's Ted Chaiban who is touring affected regions of Lebanon said that over 400,000 children have been displaced in the last 3 weeks and 1.2 million are out of school. (AP - "UN says over 400,000 children displaced") 

Qana, a dark history repeated - An Israeli airstrike killed at least 15 people in the town of Qana on Tuesday evening. (AP "Strikes kill 25 in Lebanon, including in a town with a dark history of civilian deaths")

Qana's "dark history for UNIFIL' - On 18 April 1996 it was the site of the 'Qana Massacre' when Israeli troops used artillery to fire on a UN Compound sheltering 800 internally displaced people. The attack killed 106 of the IDPs and wounded 116, including 4 UNIFIL soldiers. Israel later rejected the UN report on the incident. (Wikipedia "Qana Massacre")

During the 2006 war, an Israeli strike on a residential building in Qana killed nearly three dozen people, a third of them children. 

Many Lebanese Christians and Shia Muslims believe that Qana is the site where according to Christian scripture Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine when the wine ran out at a wedding.  (Wikipedia "Qana").   Sadly, there seem to be few miracles in Qana's more recent history.  

 
The latest attack on Qana was one of a series of airstrikes across southern Lebanon that killed at least 25 people.

In Nabatieh the mayor and five others were killed while attending a meeting to coordinate distribution of aid.  (The Guardian "Strike kills mayor at meeting to coordinate aid deliveries").

Attack on displaced families - UN Human Rights called for an investigation into an Israeli airstrike that killed 24 people on Monday in the Christian-majority village of Aitou, in northern Lebanon. The strike hit a residential block rented out to families displaced from fighting in Lebanon’s south. All of those killed were displaced people." (The Guardian).

Syria
Airstrickes hit Idleb and western Aleppo, including residential areas. On 14 October, three airstrikes struck close to a tent settlement in Idleb, where displaced families were receiving food assistance. (ReliefWeb) 

Yemen

Renewed Appeal for Release of Staff - Heads of UN agencies and several INGOs appealed again for release of their staff members held incommunicado by Houthi authorities. Those held include 17 UN staff, along with dozens of NGO and local voluntary agencies. “At a time when we were hoping for the release of our colleagues, we are deeply distressed by this reported development. The potential laying of ‘charges’ against our colleagues is unacceptable and further compounds the lengthy incommunicado detention they have already endured." (UN News - "UN, INGOs Call for immediate release")

Sudan 

Sudan's military continues to block food deliveries crucial to the starving population (Reuters - Special Report "Famine is ravaging Sudan, while the World Can't Get the Food Aid to the Starving"

World doesn't care?  Jonathan Freedland writes a scathing denunciation of how the world (politicians, media, and humanitarians) have stood by and watched while Sudan undergoes a brutal civil war. He includes criticism of the hypocrisy of progressive activists who have been vocal about other humanitarian crises but silent on Sudan. “It’s the world’s gravest humanitarian disaster - but almost nobody cares”

Western Sahara

Our UNICEF colleague, Staffan de Mistura, in his role as UN envoy for Western Sahara, has proposed partition as possible solution to the long-standing dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front.  De Mistura has threatened to resign if no progress is made in the next six months, and so far neither side has so far accepted the proposal. (Reuters "UN Envoy Proposes Partition")

UNICEF

UNICEF condemned the attack on the tent camps at Gaza's Deir al-Balah and Al-Aqsa hospital, which killed 15 children. "Today, our screens were once again filled with horrifying reports of children killed, burnt, and families emerging from bombed tents in Gaza. These should shock the world to its core." (UNICEF on X "This shameful violence against children must end now.")  

In a separate statement UNICEF ED Catherine Russell said, "Children do not start wars and they have no power to end them, yet their lives are devastated by conflict. Tens of thousands of children have died. Thousands more are in captivity, displaced, orphaned, out of school, and suffer trauma from violence and war.  The deaths and suffering of children are shameful. The daily bloodshed and horror for children are an affront to the most fundamental values of humanity. The violence against children, the most vulnerable among us, must end.”

UN and International agencies 

Violence Against Children Pervasive - In releasing this year's annual report on violence against children, Najat Maalla M’Jid, the Special Representative, expressed particular concern about online sexual exploitation of children. UNICEF estimates that more than 370 million girls and women alive today, or one in eight, experienced rape or sexual assault before the age of 18. When ‘non-contact’ forms of sexual violence, such as online or verbal abuse are included, the number of girls and women affected rises to 650 million, according to UNICEF.  (UN News - "Pivotal momen") 

New UN Relief Chief - The New Humanitarian makes a deep dive into the questions raised over the choice of the UK candidate, Tom Fletcher, given Fletcher’s experience is diplomatic rather than emergency relief, as well as the issues he will face. “What lies ahead for the UN’s new relief chief.”

Israel takes on another enemy, the UN - apparently not busy enough launching fresh attacks in Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, and Lebanon, the IDF has begun mounting attacks on UN Peacekeepers in south Lebanon. Three UNIFIL positions were attacked in a single day, injuring five UN troops. (Washington Post “Israel steps up its battles with the United Nations”). The IDF action followed the announcement last week by Israel’s foreign minister that the SG is now persona non grata and forbidden to enter Israel or the Occupied Territories. Meanwhile in Jerusalem, Israel has seized the headquarters of UNRWA (Middle East Eye “Israel seizes..” ) and the Knesset seems poised to announce a new law forbidding UNRWA to operate anywhere in lands Israel controls ( UN News - “New law would be a catastrophe”

ICSC elections - Three 'commissioner' seats are up for election this year. At present only 20% of the seats are held by women, far behind the gender balances of UN agencies.  Moreover, 13 of the 15 commissioners are over the UN retirement ages of 62 and 65.  The author argues for younger commissioners especially those who would be sensitive to the needs of employees with young families. The present system precludes any public review of candidates until after the nomination deadline of 25 November.  (PassBlue "An Important Election You've Never Heard Of")

World Bank - The Bank has issued its first post-pandemic report on progress towards ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity. (World Bank "Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report - Pathways Out of the Polycrisis"

Africa CDC and PAHO - The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a push for regional manufacturing of vaccines, medicines, and health products in the global south. In sub-Saharan Africa three manufacturers should be able to manufacture vaccines at scale within the next five years, according to the Africa CDC. Whether such companies can actually be profitable and self-sustaining, however, is a broader question. (DEVEX "Regional vaccine and drug production is coming. Can it survive?")

Where are we headed? - We often ask ourselves that question, but Irwin Loy at the New Humanitarian is asking it in relation to the humanitarian system after reading a recent report by Development Initiatives, “Falling short? Humanitarian funding and reform,” Much of the report concerns the growing funding gaps, but a key point is that agencies increasingly find themselves ‘stuck’ in emergencies that never stop being emergencies. “Humanitarians are spending most of their money and energy on long-term crises – a stark change from a decade ago. Some 91% of funds requested for UN-coordinated emergency appeals this year are for protracted crises – where there have been responses for five straight years or longer. It was only 29% in 2014.” See The New Humanitarian “What new data says about where the humanitarian system is heading”