This Week @UN: Can Gaza ever be stable?; Security Council OK’s Trump’s Gaza scheme; UN secretary-general race; restoring Africa’s famed Virunga forest; a woman UN Refugees boss?
Plus: Mysterious planeload in South Africa; US-led Board of Peace; Syria’s sovereignty; Haiti’s endless gang rapes; Congolese massacres.
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• Our #1 story: Small Nation, Big Dreams: Sierra Leone Learns Tough Lessons in the Security Council, exclusive by Damilola Banjo
• US-UN Tracker: Tammy Bruce, the Trump nominee for deputy representative at the US mission to the UN (rank of ambassador), testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Nov. 19. Although Bruce, a former Fox News pundit and State Department spokesperson, broke no new ground on how she would carry out US policy at the UN. She called the organization “bloated” and praised President Trump, saying, “He’s our guiding hand here.” Bruce, if approved by the Senate, will succeed Dorothy Shea, a career Foreign Service officer who has just retired.
PassBlue this week:
• Can Gaza Become Stable? The Prospects and Perplexities, op-ed by Alan Doss
• The UN Security Council Accepts US Plan for Gaza With Wariness, by Dulcie Leimbach
• The Ultimate Guide for the Upcoming UN Secretary-General Race, by Ben Donaldson
• Africa’s Famed Forest Is Damaged by War, but a New Plan Could Help Restore It, by Prosper Heri Ngorora
• Why the Next UN Refugees Chief Should Be a Woman, op-ed by Susana Malcorra and Noeleen Heyzer
Monday, Nov. 17
• Spokesperson’s briefing: UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said a “review” found that the planeload of Palestinians “essentially stranded” in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Nov. 13 was “not voluntary,” as first portrayed but rather a “forced transfer.” It appears, he added, that a private third-party company, in conjunction with the Israeli military or ties with it was behind this. The UN “[stands] firmly against any forced transfer of population, whether it’s in Gaza or anywhere else,” Dujarric said, noting the “bizarre” incident requires a “full investigation. . . .”
• Updates on Gaza, Nov. 18-21:
Humanitarians are continuing to distribute tents, tarpaulins and other essentials to people affected by rains and flooding as the UN fast-tracks money to support deliveries of the items across Gaza. The vaccination campaign launched on Nov. 9 continues, with more than 7,000 children under age three inoculated in the first five days of the effort. Yet, the UN warns the overall humanitarian situation “remains extremely dire”; sanitation and hygiene conditions in Gaza are “deplorable, with no wastewater treatment capacity in the Strip due to widespread destruction of infrastructure after two years of conflict.” On-site surveys of displaced families staying on the shoreline in Khan Younis and Mawasi in Rafah, accommodating more than 4,000 households, found that people are forced to use the sea as a toilet. At the same time, rising sea levels are reaching tents and risk submerging whole sections.
• West Bank updates:
UN humanitarian colleagues warn that the level of violence remains “deeply concerning — with property damage, displacement, loss of livelihoods and a strong sense of insecurity for Palestinian civilians.” This week, the number of Palestinian children killed in 2025 reached 50. Overall, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the year. From Nov. 11-17, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented 29 attacks by Israeli settlers, resulting in 11 injuries and damage to 10 homes, 2 mosques, nearly two-dozen vehicles and agriculture: livestock, crops and roughly 1,000 trees and saplings. — DULCIE LEIMBACH
Tuesday, Nov. 18
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Dujarric said Secretary-General António Guterres “encourages all parties to abide” by the UN resolution on Gaza adopted by the Security Council, an “important step in the consolidation of the ceasefire” (which continues to be violated, mostly by Israel). Dujarric said the UN is so far not part of the Trump-led Board of Peace endorsed by the resolution.
Wednesday, Nov. 19
• Spokesperson’s briefing: After Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu discussed maintaining a “defensive and offensive capability” during his controversial visit to the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, Dujarric labeled the “very public” visit “concerning” and called on Israel to “respect the 1974 Disengagement Agreement” and the “full sovereignty, unity, and independence and territorial integrity of Syria,” as outlined by Security Council Resolution 2799. In a statement, Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Najat Rochdi appealed to the Security Council “to assume its responsibilities” regarding Israel’s adherence to the above-mentioned agreement and resolution.
Thursday, Nov. 20
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Humanitarians in Haiti warned that the Caribbean island continues to tally “alarming levels of gender-based violence,” Dujarric said, with “insecurity, access challenges and funding shortfalls” severely limiting help to victims. Over 7,400 cases of such violence were reported from January through September, with sexual violence making up 3,700 of all reports, nearly two-thirds involving gang rape and two-thirds of victims being displaced people. Meanwhile, the US proposal approved by the Security Council on Sept. 30 to establish a Gang Suppression Force in Haiti has yet to materialize.
• Remarks by Ambassador Mike Waltz of the US in UN Security Council meeting on US-Russia 28-point plan for Ukraine
• Remarks of Ukraine’s “red lines” in response to the plan, by Deputy Permanent Representative Khrystyna Havovyshyr
Friday, Nov. 21
• Spokesperson’s briefing: The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) reported that violence that occurred Nov. 13-19 in the Lubero territory of North Kivu province was enacted by the armed militia Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), in which they killed 98 civilians, including at least 20 women and as yet undetermined number of children. At least 17 more civilians were killed in an assault on a health center in Byambe, west of Lubero, including women in a maternity ward, while “abductions, the looting of medical supplies, the burning of homes and the destruction of property,” Dujarric said, were also reported in communities. Monusco urged prompt “independent and credible investigations” into the “massacres.”
ICYMI:
Geneva: Unicef to Leave Geneva’s Lakeside for Rome’s Colosseum
Gaza/Israel: Clueless in Gaza, With Craig Mokhiber on US Resolution 2803, Foreign Press Association podcast
Bangladesh: Sheikh Hassana verdict and Bangladesh’s upcoming referendum signal a transitional moment for South Asia, Chatham House analysis
Women: The Rising Threat of Digital Abuse: Women’s Vulnerability in the Age of AI and Online Harassment
Women: White House Defends Trump Calling Female Reporter ‘Piggy’
The summary has been updated.
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.
