Interviews United Nations

Left behind in a now-abandoned school in Khan Younis is the evidence of the haste in which Gazan civilians fled the shelter in fear of Israeli bombardment.  
Louise Wateridge, Communications Officer with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said people had to evacuate within hours – some leaving behind half-eaten meals, toothbrushes, and even clothes. 
She said the ongoing war continues to leave families in fear, children without education, and infrastructural displacement, in Gaza.  
UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki spoke to Ms. Wateridge, who is stationed in Rafah. She said that people in Gaza are visibly tired of the war, and are steadily hoping for a ceasefire.  
 

Digital technologies and algorithm-driven software, especially social media, present high risks of privacy invasion, cyberbullying and distraction from learning to young girls – that’s according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) 2024 Global Education Monitor (GEM) report released on Thursday.
The report highlighted global progress in girls' access to and attainment in education over the past two decades but called attention to increased social media usage in young girls, its harmful effect on them, and the lack of women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Shanaé Harte sat with Anna D'Addio, the Senior Policy Analyst in the GEM Report team at UNESCO, the agency's 2024 Gender Report and further discussed the use of social media in educational settings to protect girls’ well-being and learning.

Some heads of top “Ivy League” universities across the United States have been pushed out due to political pressure as educators crack down on students protesting Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, shining a spotlight on the right to free speech around the world.
That’s what Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has told UN News’s Khaled Mohammed, stressing that the Gaza crisis is also becoming a crisis of free speech on campuses worldwide.
While there has been a rise in hate speech on both sides of the protests, she said legitimate speech must be protected, and people must be allowed to express their political views.
Special Rapporteurs and other rights experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations, are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.

The UN and partners are duty bound to work towards an early recovery on behalf of Gazans, even though that is “intrinsically tied to progress on the political front and the two-State solution”.
That’s according to Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag who told UN News in an exclusive interview following the announcement of a new aid mechanism for the enclave that “we cannot ask civilians to wait”.
She told Ezzat El-Ferri that reconstruction will have to be far more than physical with a major focus on mental health and psychosocial support, especially for children.

Sabreen al-Sakani: one name among the more than 34,000 people killed in Gaza since 7 October. Sabreen was 30 weeks pregnant when she died after sustaining terrible head injuries in an Israeli airstrike in the south of the enclave. 
Thankfully, her baby daughter lived after being delivered by emergency Caesarean section, at a hospital in Rafah last weekend. With more on this story - and the latest on the war in Gaza that was sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel – UN News’s Daniel Johnson spoke to Dominic Allen, from the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA.

Sudan’s food security crisis is a matter of deep concern with a very real risk there could be famine there, the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Office of Emergencies and Resilience has told UN News.
Rein Paulsen has been in the war-ravaged country with an interagency team planning how best to scale up the aid response to the food security crisis.
FAO is supporting vulnerable farms to boost crop production and is implementing famine prevention strategies, including vaccinating animals.
“We have a window of opportunity and that window as right now,” he told UN News’s Ezzat El-Ferri from the coastal aid hub of Port Sudan.