{"id":7186,"date":"2023-10-09T12:40:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T07:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=7186"},"modified":"2023-10-09T12:40:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T07:40:15","slug":"un-engages-key-mideast-parties-ahead-of-security-council-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/news\/un-engages-key-mideast-parties-ahead-of-security-council-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"UN engages key Mideast parties ahead of Security Council meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS: Top UN officials are in touch with key parties amid the spiraling Israeli-Palestinian conflict while UN peacekeepers detected rocket and artillery fire exchanged across the Israel-Lebanon border ahead of Sunday\u2019s Security Council emergency meeting on the unfolding crisis.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the 15-member Council prepared to meet at 3 pm (Midnight PST) in New York, UN agencies were reporting that hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured following the early Saturday morning rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian militants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ensuing Israeli response to the Hamas attacks included airstrikes in Gaza, where the UN agency operating there, UNRWA, had reported massive damages alongside rising death tolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New reports emerged of alarming food scarcity and clashes across the Israel-Lebanon border, the UN said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early Sunday, the UN peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, UNIFIL, \u201cdetected several rockets fired from southeast Lebanon toward Israeli-occupied territory in the general area of Kafr Chouba and artillery fire from Israel to Lebanon in response\u201d, according to the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN Security Council-mandated mission, operating along an area known as the \u201cBlue Line\u201d, was deployed in 1978 to restore peace between Israel and Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are in contact with authorities on both sides of the Blue Line, at all levels, to contain the situation and avoid a more serious escalation,\u201d UNIFIL said in a statement. \u201cOur peacekeepers remain in their positions and on task.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNIFIL said peacekeepers continued to work, \u201csome from shelters, for their safety\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe urge everyone to exercise restraint and make use of UNIFIL\u2019s liaison and coordination mechanisms to de-escalate to prevent a fast deterioration of the security situation,\u201d the mission said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the UN chief of the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, \u201cis in close contact\u201d with the United States, European Union, Qatar, Egypt, and Lebanon \u201cto discuss the ongoing war\u201d in Israel and Gaza, according to a social media post by his office, UNSCO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPriority now is to avoid further loss of civilian life and deliver much needed humanitarian aid to the Strip,\u201d the UNSCO post said, adding that the \u201cUN remains actively engaged to advance these efforts\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, top UN officials have called for an immediate cessation of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday condemned \u201cin the strongest terms\u201d the attack by Hamas against Israeli towns, UN Spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric said, urging \u201cmaximum restraint\u201d and that \u201call diplomatic efforts\u201d are made \u201cto avoid a wider conflagration\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCivilians must be respected and protected in accordance with international humanitarian law at all times,\u201d the UN chief said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the conflict intensifies, civilians, including vulnerable children and families, face mounting challenges in accessing essential food supplies, with distribution networks disrupted and production severely hampered by hostilities, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWFP urges safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to affected areas, calling on all parties to uphold the principles of humanitarian law, taking every necessary measure to safeguard the lives and well-being of civilians, including ensuring access to food,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS: Top UN officials are in touch with key parties amid the spiraling Israeli-Palestinian conflict while UN peacekeepers detected rocket and artillery fire exchanged across the Israel-Lebanon border ahead of Sunday\u2019s Security Council emergency meeting on the unfolding crisis. As the 15-member Council prepared to meet at 3 pm (Midnight PST) in New York, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,2,342,73,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-politics","category-security","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}