More than a million Palestinians have been displaced from Rafah
More than a million people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah by the Israeli offensive and have moved towards the center of the Strip and the coast where ““The conditions are indescribable.”
“Thousands of families are now sheltering in damaged and destroyed facilities in Khan Younis, where UNRWA continues to provide essential services, despite growing challenges. The conditions are indescribable,” the agency said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The director of the humanitarian coordination office for the Occupied Palestinian Territories explained that people flee with donkeys loaded with their few belongings in search of a safe place that does not exist. The only way they can clean themselves is to go into the sea, which also gives them a break from the unbearable heat in the tents.
Andrea de Domenico said that coordination with Israeli authorities for the movement of humanitarian aid remains “very complicated.”
“Honestly, Nowhere else in the world has the (humanitarian) system been put under such a level of challenge and stress. I think that honestly the UN would not stay in a place like this anywhere else in the world in the conditions that we are experiencing in Gaza if it were not for the fact that Gaza is the only place people cannot flee. The Secretary-General pledged that the UN would stay to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza whatever the cost. “Extending this war for another six or seven months is simply terrible, but we will stay and do our job,” he said before the press.
De Dominico said that the main reason the UN has been able to continue operating is because of the trust of the local population, but warned that in recent weeks there has been increasing desperation and “growing tension in the communities, and violence between families and within families”, which can lead to a “breaking point” that makes it “impossible to operate”.
UN experts ask States to recognize Palestine as Spain, Ireland and Norway have done
UN experts have asked all States to recognize the State of Palestine as 146 member countries of the United Nations already do.
Experts welcomed the latest recognitions by Norway, Ireland and Spain, which come after the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly, 143 in favor and nine against, in favor of Palestine’s candidacy for membership. full right of the United Nations.
“This recognition is an important recognition of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggles and suffering towards freedom and independence,” they stated.
The State of Palestine, formally declared by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on November 15, 1988, claims sovereignty over the remaining parts of historic Palestine that Israel occupied in 1967: West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Experts consider the two-state solution to be “the only way” toward lasting peace and an “end to the Israeli occupation.”
The racism of the Chicago police and judges “has stolen lives,” rapporteurs denounce
EQUIS Justice for women/Scopio
Another group of rapporteurs today called for more measures to remedy police violence and the racism of law enforcement and the justice system in Chicago, in the United States.
“Chicago has a long history of using torture” to obtain “confessions to serious crimes,” UN experts have declared. “These egregious alleged human rights violations appear to be largely rooted in systemic racism and have disproportionately affected people of African and Latin American descent.”
These confessions and the racism of the judicial system have reportedly led to “many wrongful convictions and imprisonments,” they noted. “Lives have been stolen, with a significant ripple effect within communities.”
Chicago has taken steps to address abuses, but they have been “piecemeal and too slow in implementation,” resulting in many victims remaining incarcerated and impunity among perpetrators prevailing.
La Niña, associated with lower temperatures, will arrive in the second half of the year, but global warming continues
The La Niña meteorological phenomenon, normally associated with lower temperatures, will arrive in the second half of this year, according to forecasts from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
There’s a 50% chance of this phenomenon arriving between June and August, and 70% in the August-November period.
Currently the world is under the influence of El Niño, the inverse phenomenon linked to an increase in temperatures and partly responsible for 2023 being the warmest year on record.
La Niña is produced by a drop in surface water temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which is usually combined with changes in tropical atmospheric circulation, accompanied by wind and rain.
“The end of El Niño does not mean a pause in long-term climate change, as our planet will continue to warm due to greenhouse gases, and recently exceptionally high sea temperatures will continue to play an important role in the coming months. “, stressed the WMO.
According to the WMO, La Niña could be accompanied by above-average rainfall in northern South America and also in Central America and the Caribbean.
