In the makeshift coastal encampments of Al Mawasi families have no choice but to live in unsanitary conditions that are rapidly turning deadly, Louise Wateridge, Senior Emergency Officer at Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, told UN News.

She described an increasingly dire situation: malnourished children and families, already worn down by months of war, battle unrelenting heat, unsanitary conditions, a lack of clean water and limited access to healthcare.

“The trash is just out of control. The sewage, the rodents, the pests, the rats, the mice – all of these animals are going between the structures that people are sheltering in,” she said.

As the days hot up, “disease is spreading. There is not enough medicine,” she added. UNRWA teams are conducting intensive clean up campaigns, but their resources are running out.

“They’ve got about 10 days left of pesticides. Supplies are going to run out,” Ms. Wateridge warned.

Heavy equipment destroyed

The worsening conditions are being compounded by the destruction of Gaza’s public health infrastructure.

According to the UN humanitarian coordination office (OCHA), more than 30 vehicles essential for waste management, water supply and sewage maintenance were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes between 21 and 22 April.

In the past week alone, at least 23 reported strikes have hit tents sheltering internally displaced persons (IDPs), killing dozens of civilians – including women, children, and persons with disabilities.

Health system under strain

OCHA also noted that Gaza’s health system is continuing to collapse.

Over half of the remaining health facilities are located in zones under evacuation orders, posing serious access challenges for communities in urgent need. There are also widespread shortages of medicine, equipment and medical staff.

As of 15 April, an estimated 420,000 people have been displaced – many for the second or third time.

Shrinking humanitarian space

Humanitarian space continues to be shut down. Vital humanitarian aid has not entered Gaza for 52 consecutive days.

OCHA noted that between 15 and 21 April, nearly half of the planned humanitarian movements were denied or impeded.

It reported that out of 42 planned movements across the Gaza Strip that were coordinated with the Israeli authorities, 20 were denied, two faced impediments, 19 were facilitated and one was cancelled.

Meanwhile, UN agencies also have to contend with lack of funds to sustain their programmes.

As of 22 April, donors have disbursed about $569 million out of the $4.07 billion (about 14 per cent) required to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of three million people requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The meeting was part of a joint mobilisation strategy by the two leaders to strengthen global action under the Paris Agreement and build momentum for stronger national climate plans to be announced in 2025.

The two-hour session held behind closed doors included China, the European Union, the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and small island developing States.

Mr. Guterres described it as one of the most diverse meetings of national leaders focused exclusively on climate for some time, carrying a powerful unifying message.

“As we heard today, the world is moving forward. Full-speed ahead. No group or government can stop the clean energy revolution”, he declared at a press briefing afterwards.

New national commitments

He said many leaders pledged to deliver ambitious new climate plans, formally known as National Determined Contributions (NDCs), as soon as possible in what he called a “strong message of hope”.

Guterres announced that President Xi Jinping confirmed during the meeting that China’s updated NDCs would cover all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases — a clarification he described as “extremely important” for climate action.

He added that these pledges provide a vital opportunity to chart a bold path for the next decade and most importantly, helps speed up a just transition away from fossil fuels to renewables.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (on screen) joins a virtual meeting of world leaders on climate action.

‘Economic opportunity of the century’

Renewable energy production is “the economic opportunity of the century,” he said, describing it as the “pathway out of climate hell.”

“The clean energy sector is booming – creating jobs and boosting competitiveness and growth worldwide…Science is on our side and economics have shifted.”

He noted that prices for renewables have fallen dramatically, offering “the surest route to energy sovereignty and security, ending dependence on volatile and expensive fossil fuel imports.”

Since the 2015 Paris Agreement, global projections for warming have declined, from over 4°C this century to 2.6°C if current plans are implemented.

But that still falls short of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels – the goal agreed in Paris by nations and endorsed by climate scientists.

The Secretary-General urged leaders to submit national plans that align with that target, cover all greenhouse gases and sectors, and signal a full commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

A man protests against fossil fuels at an international climate meeting in Dubai in 2023.

Strategic mobilization

According to a senior UN official who spoke on background prior to the meeting, Wednesday’s summit was “just another step” in the important effort to sustain political momentum during a pivotal year for combating climate change.

The group of invitees, the official said, was “small but representative,” including major economies, regional powers, former COP hosts, and climate-vulnerable nations.

“This is a really important year,” the official said, pointing to the 10^th anniversary of the Paris Agreement and the upcoming deadline for countries to submit new climate plans.

“This meeting is about reminding leaders that climate remains a key priority – that collaboration and multilateralism still matter.”

A senior Brazilian official who took part said the UN climate summit in Belém will move beyond negotiations to focus on implementation, transparency, and delivery. “We have already negotiated enough…now the world wants to see action – results, examples, solutions.”

The official also stressed that demonstrating tangible outcomes is essential for restoring trust in multilateralism.

“We want to prove that multilateralism is not only about negotiating documents,” they said, “but about making them real.”

Call for justice and finance

Mr. Guterres underscored the need to direct far more support to developing countries, which face the most severe impacts of climate change despite contributing the least to global emissions.

“Africa and other parts of the developing world are experiencing faster warming – and the Pacific islands are seeing faster sea-level rise – even while the global average itself is accelerating,” he said.

He called on countries to deliver a credible roadmap to mobilise $1.3 trillion per year for developing nations by 2035, double adaptation finance to $40 billion this year, and increase contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund created at COP28.

No let up on climate action

The Secretary-General also announced a high-level UN event in September – just weeks ahead of COP30 – to assess progress on climate plans and finance.

The message was clear, according to Mr. Guterres. “We cannot, must not, and will not let up on climate action.”

The UN relief coordination office, OCHA, said on Tuesday that this marks the longest period without aid or commercial supplies entering the Strip since the conflict began in October 2023.

“Right now, it is probably the worst humanitarian situation ever seen throughout the war in Gaza,” OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists at a briefing in Geneva.

Over 2.1 million Gazans are facing acute shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and clean water.

However, humanitarian supplies are stockpiled just across the border, including nearly 3,000 trucks of life-saving aid prepared by the Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA), which Israeli authorities are refusing to allow in.

Deliberate, man-made suffering

“Hunger is spreading and deepening – deliberate and man-made,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

“Gaza has become a land of desperation…humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war.”

The agency warned supplies inside Gaza are nearly all gone, with food stocks running dangerously low and only 250 food parcels left.

Flour has run out. Bakeries are shutting down, hospitals are collapsing without fuel or medicine, and essential items have soared in price.

“Two million people – a majority of women and children – are undergoing collective punishment,” Mr. Lazzarini said.

“The siege must be lifted, supplies must flow in, the hostages must be released, the ceasefire must resume.”

Aid effort continues

Despite these conditions, UNRWA continues to operate on the ground, providing water, collecting solid waste, and running vital health services.

Eight heath centres and 39 medical points are still providing around 15,000 consultations daily. A blood donation drive to support local hospitals in urgent need of transfusions is also underway.

The children were among the patients being treated in the hospital’s emergency ward for injuries from previous bombings in the area, said the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.

“This heinous attack is a blatant violation of children’s rights. Children are being killed and injured in the very places where they should be safest from harm,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

“Such attacks exacerbate the dire situation for children and families who are trapped in areas affected by conflict, insecurity, and lack of protection.”

70 per cent of hospitals out of action

In Sudan, over 70 per cent of hospitals in conflict-affected areas are currently non-operational due to damage, destruction, lack of supplies, or being used as shelters.

The delivery of medical supplies, vaccines, and routine immunisation has been hindered by ongoing security concerns and lack of access, worsening the humanitarian crisis and putting countless lives, especially those of children, at significant risk.

Under International Humanitarian Law, hospitals enjoy special protection and must not be targeted. Attacks on them undermine the essential care and relief the facilities provide to civilians, including children. All parties to the conflict have an obligation to ensure the protection of civilians, including children, and refrain from any actions that could impede access to life-saving medical services.

“Continued attacks on health facilities endanger children’s lives and restrict their access to lifesaving medical care, which can have immediate and long-term impacts on their health,” said Ms. Russell. “The violence must end now. Children in Sudan cannot wait any longer.”

US with pull out of Paris Agreement 27 January next year

The United States has officially notified the Secretary-General of its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, effective 27 January 2026, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Tuesday.

The historic accord reached by 193 countries in December 2015 in a bid to keep temperature rises to below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, was signed by the US on 22 April 2016.

During the first Trump administration the US withdrew from the Agreement effective 4 November 2020, before his successor took the country back into the accord on 19 February 2021.

Fight continues against global warming

The UN Spokesperson said the latest withdrawal would not lead to any slowdown in the UN’s efforts to combat climate change.

“We reaffirm our commitment to the Paris Agreement and to support all effective efforts to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” said Mr. Dujarric.

The international community continues to work towards the goals set by the Agreement, despite the US’s decision to withdraw.

UN health agency leads call to fight neglected disease scourge

Health news now, and an appeal from the UN World Health Organization (WHO) for concerted action to tackle neglected tropical diseases, which impact more than one billion people – often with devastating health, social and economic consequences.

Every year, around 800 to 900 million people are treated for at least one neglected tropical disease, according to the UN health agency, which warned that global warming has emerged as a threat in this field of medicine.

Long list

The list of tropical diseases is a long one and includes Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, dengue, chikungunya and dracunculiasis. They tend to thrive among vulnerable people who live in poverty and are caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi and toxins.

Progress in tackling these diseases remains hampered by a lack of investment and conflict, the WHO said, ahead of World Neglected Tropical Disease Day on Thursday.

Today, 54 countries have successfully eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease; WHO’s goal is for 100 countries to do the same by 2030. 

That is the warning from a new report by the UN Spotlight Initiative, which finds that climate change is intensifying the social and economic stresses that are fuelling increased levels of violence against women and girls.

The report finds that extreme weather, displacement, food insecurity, and economic instability are key factors increasing the prevalence and severity of gender-based violence.

These impacts hit hardest in fragile communities, where women already face entrenched inequalities and are more vulnerable to assault.

Every 1°C rise in global temperature is associated with a 4.7 per cent increase in intimate partner violence (IPV), the study finds. In a 2°C warming scenario, 40 million more women and girls are likely to experience IPV each year by 2090. In a 3.5°C scenario, that number more than doubles.

The Spotlight Initiative — a global partnership between the European Union and the United Nations — works to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. Its latest findings emphasise that climate solutions must address rights, safety, and justice if they are to be effective or sustainable.

UNIC Mexico/Eloísa Farrera

A ‘shadow pandemic’

Gender-based violence is already a global epidemic, the report outlines. Over one billion women — at least one in three — have experienced physical, sexual, or psychological abuse in their lifetime. These figures are likely underestimated, as only around seven per cent of survivors file a formal report to police or medical services.

The Spotlight Initiative identifies a pattern of increased violence in the aftermath of climate disasters.

In 2023 alone, 93.1 million people were affected by weather-related disasters and earthquakes, while an estimated 423 million women experienced intimate partner violence. As climate shocks become more frequent and severe, the risk of violence is projected to rise dramatically.

For example, one study highlighted in the report found a 28 per cent increase in femicide during heatwaves.

Other consequences include higher rates of child marriage, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation, especially in the wake of displacement caused by floods, droughts, or desertification.

Marginalized communities

The burden of this crisis is not evenly distributed. Women and girls living in poverty — including smallholder farmers and those in informal urban settlements — face heightened vulnerability.

Women who are Indigenous, disabled, elderly, or part of the LGBTQ+ community also experience overlapping risks, with limited access to services, shelters, or protections.

In sub-Saharan Africa, projections show that intimate partner violence could nearly triple from 48 million women in 2015 to 140 million by 2060 if temperatures rise by 4°C. However, under a scenario that limits warming to 1.5°C, the share of women affected could decrease from 24 percent in 2015 to 14 percent in 2060.

The report also draws attention to the growing threats against women environmental human rights defenders. Many face harassment, defamation, physical assault, or worse for speaking out against destructive land use or extractive industries.

In Guatemala, women who reported illegal logging were forcibly evicted and had their homes burned. In the Philippines, those opposing mining operations have faced abduction and deadly violence.

© UNICEF/Anderson Flores

An urgent call for gender-inclusive climate policy

Despite the urgency of this issue, only 0.04 per cent of climate-related development assistance focuses primarily on gender equality. The report argues that this gap represents a critical failure to recognize how gender-based violence – or GBV – determines climate resilience and justice.

The Spotlight Initiative calls for GBV prevention to be integrated into all levels of climate policy, from local strategies to international funding mechanisms.

Examples from countries like Haiti, Vanuatu, Liberia, and Mozambique have shown how programmes can be designed to simultaneously address violence and build climate resilience.

These include re-training midwives for jobs in the expanding climate-smart agricultural sector, ensuring that disaster response includes GBV services, and supporting mobile health clinics in disaster zones.

The report stresses that effective climate action must prioritize safety, equity, and the leadership of women and girls.

Ending violence against women and girls, the report concludes, is not only a human rights imperative — it is essential to achieving a just, sustainable, and climate-resilient future.

On 6 March, armed groups linked to the deposed Assad regime ambushed forces of the caretaker administration led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, targeting military and internal security forces as well as several hospitals.

Mr. Pedersen described the violence as “sectarian and retaliatory,” with reports of entire families executed and widespread fear among the civilian population.

“The coordinated attack on the caretaker authority, the heavy counterattacks against this, and the mass killings of civilians all came against a background of already-fomenting insecurity,” said Mr. Pedersen.

The Special Envoy noted the “great hopes and huge fears” that have emerged since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024.

Calling for transparent, independent and public investigations into the violence, he urged for those responsible to be held accountable, “with a clear signal that the era of impunity in Syria is in the past.”

Meanwhile, humanitarian efforts by UN agencies and partners continue, amid a mixture of progress and setbacks.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher underscored the work being done by the international community.

“We are making progress,” he stated, noting expanded routes for cross-border deliveries and increased support for vulnerable communities. One recent success saw the Atareb Water Station in Aleppo resume operations, bringing water to 40,000 people.

The Syrian Ambassador also expressed gratitude to Qatar and Jordan, alongside the UN Development Programme (UNDP), for the initiative to supply Syria with gas through Jordan and the ability to generate 400 megawatts of electricity.

Meanwhile, the European Union has committed nearly €2.5 billion for 2025 and 2026, having raised an overall of €5.8 billion towards Syria’s recovery.

But despite pledges of support, the humanitarian response remains critically underfunded, Mr. Fletcher explained.

“Last year’s appeal was only 35 per cent funded – causing us to reduce our humanitarian response by more than half,” he stated.

On a more hopeful note, Mr. Pedersen highlighted the recent agreement between caretaker authorities and the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which speaks to the future integration of civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria.

“We will continue and deepen engagement in support of the process,” he said, expressing cautious optimism, warning that the road ahead would not be easy.

“The issue of foreign fighters in the senior ranks of the new armed forces, as well as individuals associated with violations, remains a key concern,” he added.

Echoing this sentiment, representative of Syrian civil society and legal adviser, Joumana Seif,  emphasised: “We don’t want to build our new country on the back of new massacres.”

“Syria stands at a historic crossroads, with a rare chance to unite and transition to democracy,” she said, calling for the lifting of sanctions on the Syrian government.

In response, some ambassadors in the chamber noted that they had already relaxed unilateral sanctions on Syria, including an end to asset freezes.

Both Mr. Pedersen and Mr. Fletcher concluded their statements with calls for urgent action.

Mr. Fletcher underscored that humanitarians cannot make the “toughest choices” alone, urging the international community to provide additional resources.

“The cost of hesitation is greater than the risk of decisive action,” he warned.

Finally, Mr. Pedersen highlighted the choice Syria faces: either a return to violence and instability or a path toward a peaceful, inclusive future.