Northern Gaza under a ‘Near-Total Brutal Siege,’ UN Humanitarian Chief Says

A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Northern Gaza under a ‘Near-Total Brutal Siege,’ UN Humanitarian Chief Says

A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Northern Gaza has been under “a near-total brutal siege” for the past month and Palestinian civilians are starving while the world watches, the acting United Nations humanitarian chief said Tuesday.

Joyce Msuya said in a post on X that Israeli military ground operations have left Palestinians without the essentials to survive, forced them to flee for safety multiple times, and cut off their escape and supply routes.

“These atrocities must stop,” she said.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, visited the Al Moumanya school in Gaza City on Tuesday.

The school was run by the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA and is now sheltering hundreds of families, most of whom fled the north.

Hadi told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that conditions in the school “are unbearable,” saying families lack food, water and functioning toilets and are crammed into very overcrowded facilities, the UN spokesperson said.

Hadi told the UN chief that “sewage at the school is running everywhere, and waste is everywhere,” Dujarric said.



NGOs Seek UN Emergency Rights Meeting, Investigation on Lebanon

An excavator operates around a damaged building targeted by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Barja, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, 06 November 2024. (EPA)
An excavator operates around a damaged building targeted by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Barja, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, 06 November 2024. (EPA)
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NGOs Seek UN Emergency Rights Meeting, Investigation on Lebanon

An excavator operates around a damaged building targeted by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Barja, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, 06 November 2024. (EPA)
An excavator operates around a damaged building targeted by an Israeli airstrike, in the town of Barja, Chouf district, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, 06 November 2024. (EPA)

A group of NGOs pressed countries on Wednesday to hold an emergency session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to set up an investigation into abuses committed by both sides of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon.

Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have been fighting for more than a year, in parallel with Israel's war in Gaza, after Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in solidarity with its ally Hamas.

The Lebanon conflict has dramatically escalated since mid-September, with most of the more than 3,000 deaths reported by Lebanon since October 2023 occurring in that period.

In a letter to diplomatic missions, 12 NGOs including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International urged states to act decisively over a situation "spiraling out of control", citing incidents such as Israeli strikes on civilian infrastructure such as homes and hospitals.

"There's a huge risk of the same types of atrocities occurring in Lebanon as in Gaza," said Jeremie Smith, Geneva Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, whose organization is leading the call.

"Entire towns are being levelled, thousands of people are being killed and injured and there's not a single investigation that has been opened by anyone, anywhere. We can't let that stand," he told Reuters.

The meeting is almost certain to obtain the required one-third of votes in the 47-member council but would need the support of Lebanon, which some diplomats said might have reservations about inviting scrutiny of Hezbollah's actions.

Lebanon's Geneva ambassador Salim Baddoura told Reuters a session was "possible" but that Beirut had yet to take a decision.

Debates addressing Israel's policies have in the past been controversial and current voting member the United States temporarily left the council in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump alleging anti-Israeli bias.

Such a meeting could also reignite allegations of double standards against Western states supportive of accountability for Russian violations in Ukraine since its 2022 invasion, but who maintain support for Israel.

Israel's military says it tries to avoid harming civilians but says Hamas and Hezbollah fighters hide among them.

The UN body does not have legally binding powers but it can mandate investigations to document abuses, which sometimes form the basis for war crimes prosecutions.