This Week @UN: Gaza death spiral; violence against females in sports; Sierra Leoneans stuck in Beirut; death penalty. Plus: Oct. 7; Israel/UNRWA; Human Rights Council elections; Nepal; Lebanon; UN peacekeepers; Nobel peace prize.
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• Our #1 story this week: Sierra Leonean Migrants Feel ‘Abandoned’ in Lebanon as War Rages, by Damilola Banjo
• Our #1 this month: Special Report: Can the UN Pact for the Future Save Us Now?, by Maria Luisa Gambale
• Rumor mill: Although the Ukrainian delegation at the UN will not confirm that Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya is possibly returning to Kyiv to become deputy foreign minister, a potential successor is the recent foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, according to a source in Ukraine.
From PassBlue this week:
• War Is Spreading in the Mideast, but Don’t Forget About Gaza, Q/A with MSF Boss Christopher Lockyear, by Kasmira Jefford (co-published courtesy of Geneva Solutions)
• The Wide World of Violence Against Females in Sports, by Dulcie Leimbach
• Sierra Leonean Migrants Feel ‘Abandoned’ in Lebanon as War Rages, by Damilola Banjo
• UNODC Should Stand Against the Use of the Death Penalty for Drug Offenses, op-ed by Ajeng Larasati
Top UN news:
Monday, Oct. 7
• Spokesperson’s briefing: On the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s terror attack on Israel, which killed over 1,250 people, Secretary-General António Guterres asked the world to “repeat in the loudest voice our utter condemnation of the abhorrent acts of Hamas, including the taking of hostages” and that it was “[time] to stop the suffering that has engulfed” the Mideast since Israel’s yearlong retaliation. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said he didn’t “believe anyone from the UN has been invited” to the Israeli-held event on Oct. 7 at the UN commemorating the attack. Israel declared Guterres a persona non grata on Oct. 2 for what it said was his failing to sufficiently condemn Iran’s missile attacks on Israel the same day.
Tuesday, Oct. 8
• No spokesperson’s briefing. Instead, Secretary-General Guterres held a brief press encounter, taking only two questions from media. In his remarks, he expressed “profound concern” about proposed legislation in Israel‘s Knesset (parliament) to ban UNRWA’s work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, calling the bill “diametrically opposed to the UN Charter” and a violation of international law, which would create “a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster” (especially in Gaza). The bill, which would “isolate” UNRWA from other UN agencies, would “effectively end coordination to protect UN convoys, offices and shelters serving hundreds of thousands of people”; end the delivery of food, shelter and health care to most Gazans; and strip 660,000 Gazan children of “the only entity that is able to re-start education,” with similar effects on institutions in the West Bank.
Guterres also confirmed that Israeli “tanks and other armed elements” had vacated a firing position they had set up near an outpost operated by UN peacekeepers in Lebanon (UNIFIL), where Irish soldiers were stationed.
Wednesday, Oct. 9
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said the UN and its humanitarian partners launched a $17.5 million response appeal after floods and landslides caused almost 250 deaths in Nepal and left over 10,000 families sheltering in overcrowded temporary camps, struggling to access basic needs like clean water, sanitation and health care. The plan attempts to help 190,000 of the “most vulnerable people,” complementing the government’s efforts.
• After a four-month-long vacancy, Guterres named Tom Fletcher of the UK as head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
• Human Rights Council elections: The General Assembly elected 18 new members by secret ballot to the Geneva body for three-year terms each, starting Jan. 1, 2025. Africa: Benin, Gambia, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia. Asia-Pacific: Thailand, Cyprus, Qatar, South Korea and Marshall Islands (Saudi Arabia lost the competition). Eastern Europe: North Macedonia and Czechia. Latin America/Caribbean: Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico. Western European: Switzerland, Iceland and Spain. (Essay by Kenneth Roth, human rights expert: Why the United States didn’t run for another term.)
Thursday, Oct. 10
• Spokesperson’s briefing: UNIFIL said that two peacekeepers (Indonesian) sustained injuries that were “not serious” when an IDF tank fired at an observation tower at the mission’s headquarters in the Lebanese city of Naqoura. A separate IDF attack on a UN position in Labbouneh, closer to the Israeli border, hit the “entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system.” (Deputy UN spokesperson Haq could not confirm the nationality of the peacekeepers in the bunker, although they included Italians.) When a reporter asked whether the IDF had explained its attack on UN peacekeepers, which is a war crime, Haq said it was “up to the Israelis to explain their own actions.”
On Oct. 9, UNIFIL also said: “IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled the [Labbouneh] position’s perimeter-monitoring cameras. They also deliberately fired on UNP 1-32A in Ras Naqoura, where regular Tripartite meetings were held before the conflict began, damaging lighting and a relay station.”
Additionally, in a Security Council meeting on Thursday about Lebanon, requested by France, the latter’s envoy said, in part: “Finally, France expresses its deep concern following the shootings that hit UNIFIL in Naqoura, in southern Lebanon. It condemns any attack on its security. Explanations for these shots must be given.” France has approximately 700 peacekeepers operating in the UN mission.
The US envoy, Robert Wood, said, despite the UN’s statements on Israel’s attacks against UNIFIL peacekeepers: “As we work to gather additional information, we have also been clear to all parties, including Israel, that we expect them to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and premises, and avoid incidents that expose them to risk or harm, as well as to liaise with UN authorities to ensure UNIFIL can operate freely and in accordance with its mandate.”
[UPDATE, Oct. 11: UNIFIL reported that its Naqoura headquarters was “affected by explosions for the second time in the last 48 hours.” It added: “Today, several T-walls at our UN position 1-31, near the Blue Line in Labbouneh, fell when an IDF caterpillar hit the perimeter and IDF tanks moved in the proximity of the UN position. Our peacekeepers remained at the location, and a UNIFIL Quick Reaction Force was dispatched to assist and reinforce the position.”]
Joint statement from France, Italy and Spain regarding attacks by Israel against peacekeepers in Lebanon.
Friday, Oct. 11
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres congratulated the Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization founded in 1956 composed of atomic-bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as the hibakusha, for earning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. In a statement, Guterres said the hibakusha were a reminder that nuclear weapons “remain a clear and present danger to humanity,” and he appealed for their elimination, saying: “It is time for world leaders to be as clear-eyed as the hibakusha and see nuclear weapons for what they are — devices of death that offer no safety, protection, or security.”
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon?
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Arthur Bassas is a researcher and writer who graduated from St. Andrews in Scotland, majoring in international relations and terrorism. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and speaks English and French.
