UN Experts Call For A General Assembly Emergency Meeting On Gaza

On September 5, 2025, United Nations experts, including Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, occupied since 1967, issued an urgent appeal for a UN General Assembly emergency meeting on Gaza. Their statement calls upon the international community to act immediately before the September 17 deadline for demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. As they indicated: “Israel must immediately end its obstruction of safe, effective and dignified humanitarian assistance. But lifting these restrictions alone will not be enough to save Gaza’s devastated population. What is urgently required is an end to Israel’s siege and the declaration of an immediate ceasefire. At this critical moment, the world needs the General Assembly — the highest body of the United Nations — to take decisive leadership and act to prevent further catastrophe.”

The urgent appeal comes after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally confirmed famine in Gaza. Reportedly, 361 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition, including 130 children, with 13 of them, including three children, having died in the past 24 hours. An entire population is said to be facing starvation under siege.

In addition to famine, the UN experts raised the issue of genocide. As they indicated, “A State responsible for creating genocidal conditions aimed at destroying Palestinians in Gaza as a group by also starving them cannot and shall not be entrusted to control access, distribution, or supervision of humanitarian aid. (…) The deliberate obstruction of food, water, medicine, shelter and other relief – compounded by deadly attacks on civilians, including women and children, gathering at aid distribution points, and repeated forced displacement – has transformed hunger into a weapon of war.”

The urgent appeal comes also a day after Ajith Sunghay, Head of Office of the High Commissioner’s (OHCHR) Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), warned about the intensifying Israeli military operations in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, and raised the issue of annexation in parts of the West Bank. As he pointed out, the escalation has caused extensive destruction to residential buildings in the southern parts of North Gaza governorate and in the northeastern areas of Gaza City. This is reported to have led to further civilian casualties and forced displacement. According to local health authorities, 816 Palestinians were killed between August 26 and September 1, a sharp increase from previous weeks. The United Nations assessed that some one million Palestinians remain in northern Gaza. They are said to be pushed into increasingly smaller areas in the west of the enclave. As Ajith Sunghay commented, “Many are unable to relocate – there are no safe areas and movement is dangerous. Others are still trapped in eastern Gaza City, with humanitarian workers unable to reach them.” The concerning news comes as Israeli military attacks continued across the Gaza Strip, including as people try to access humanitarian assistance. Among others, OHCHR recorded over 2,146 deaths in the vicinity of sites run by the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and along convoy routes.

As the situation in Gaza escalates, independent reporting on conditions in Gaza becomes more and more challenging. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, at least 197 journalists and media workers were killed during the war; 189 of them were Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza. The United Nations suggested that the number of killed journalists can be as high as at least 248, more than in any other conflict in modern times. CPJ named journalist Hussam Al-Masri, a Reuters contractor; Al Jazeera camera operator Mohammed Salama; Mariam Abu Dagga, freelance photojournalist with Independent Arabia and the Associated Press; freelance journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz, who contributes to Quds Feed; and freelance video journalist Moaz Abu Taha, as among at least 20 people killed in two Israeli strikes on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on August 25, 2025. As CPJ indicated, Al-Masri was killed in the first strike, while the others were killed while covering the aftermath of the previous Israeli strike. Several others were injured in the attacks. In response to the latest casualties, the IDF spokesperson expressed regret and indicated that it did not target journalists.

The United Nations further raised concerns in relation to the reports of the Israeli Government planning to “extend sovereignty” over the occupied West Bank, with such “extension” effectively being an annexation. As he indicated, “[Israel] has done so, and continues doing so, with the unabated building of settlements and outposts and related infrastructure and with the forcible transfer of thousands of Palestinians from large swathes of the West Bank now controlled by the Israel forces and settlers. (…) It has done so also by reshaping the West Bank with an extensive network of checkpoints, and gates which ensure freedom of action to settlers while segregating Palestinian towns and villages.” The reports come even though in July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its advisory opinion, decided, by fourteen votes to one, that the State of Israel is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the OPT.

Furthermore, in June 2025, the United Nations reported that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are increasingly being subjected to forced displacement and land seizures. It further added that, “In recent months, Israel has dramatically ramped up home demolitions, as well as the arbitrary arrest and ill-treatment of Palestinians and human rights defenders. (…) At the same time, Israeli settlers from nearby outposts have carried out daily attacks and harassment of Palestinians, including older people, women and children, to force them to leave.”

The situation requires urgent international attention, this to prevent further suffering of people, politics aside. However, as it stands, the international responses are increasingly polarizing, with little progress on the resolution of the situation. It is yet unclear whether the UN General Assembly will respond to the urgent appeal.