United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is working “very intensely” with Security Council members and key leaders to push for a resolution concerning the situation along the Blue Line separating Israel from Lebanon. A spokesman for Annan issued a statement in New York saying the diplomacy is taking place “both here and in capitals.” The statement also reiterated Annan’s long-standing call for a cessation of hostilities. “The fighting must stop to save civilians on both sides from the nightmare they have endured for the past four weeks.” The spokesman voiced Annan’s conviction that the Security Council should be able to adopt a resolution by the end of the week. Read more about Annan pushes for Security Council resolution on Israel-Lebanon violence 

Cautioning that the media’s focus on Lebanon should not detract attention from the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today spoke out against the killing of civilians on both sides, noting that Israeli attacks have caused hundreds of deaths, and called for the parties to resume dialogue. “The Secretary-General is greatly concerned that the tragic events in Lebanon and northern Israel should not distract from the urgent need to work towards a solution to the current crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory,” a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement. Read more about Decrying civilian deaths in Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Annan urges parties to talk 

With a quarter of Lebanon’s population forced to flee their homes and violence claiming lives daily in the conflict between Hizbollah and Israel, the United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a special session on Friday to discuss the worsening situation in the war-ravaged country. The President of the Council decided to convene the special session in response to a request from Tunisia on behalf of the Group of Arab States and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which was supported in total by 16 Member States, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press release today. Read more about UN Human Rights Council to hold special session on Friday to discuss Lebanon 

Seeking to help ease the plight of thousands of civilians who have fled fighting in Lebanon for Syria, United Nations agencies are rushing aid to the country as part of the overall effort to assist civilians caught in the crossfire of the Middle East conflict. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has focused its attention on the youngest victims, organizing immunization campaigns to protect them from diseases such as polio, mumps, measles, rubella and meningitis. The agency has also provided 150,000 capsules of vitamin A to be distributed to all affected children in a bid to boost their immune system. Read more about UN agencies rush aid to help Lebanese and others who have fled to Syria 

The United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights today adopted a statement decrying the rights violations taking place in Lebanon and voicing hope that the Security Council will foster an end to the fighting and a lasting solution to the conflict. The Geneva-based body said it was meeting “at a tragic moment when a brutal and barbarous war has already deprived a thousand men, women, and children of their inherent right to life, several thousands have been injured and maimed, and a million innocent people displaced.” Read more about UN Sub-Commission voices outrage at rights violations in Lebanon 

Getting emergency United Nations humanitarian aid to the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese displaced by the worsening conflict became even harder today after the UN said that Israeli shelling had severed the vital supply route between Syria and Beirut, as well as forcing the cancellation of all but one convoy to the devastated south of the country. “We do not have the humanitarian access we need for critical and vulnerable communities in south Lebanon … ” UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters in New York. Read more about No time to lose, UN warns as emergency aid supplies to Lebanon cut off by shelling 

More than three weeks after hostilities began, Hizbollah and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are still exchanging heavy fire in southern Lebanon with little sign of any abatement, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported today. Although the number of rockets launched by Hizbollah from within UNIFIL’s area of operation during the past 24 hours was below the figures of recent days, the numbers remained large, UNIFIL said in a statement issued in the Lebanese city of Naqoura. Some rockets were fired from close to UN positions near Alma ash Shab and At Tiri. Read more about Southern Lebanon continues to endure intense fighting - UN mission 

There has been a significant rise in the number of artillery shells fired by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) into Gaza, which remains tense, a United Nations spokesman reported today. With at least 1,050 shells fired in the last week, the UN remains “remain very concerned about the threat this poses to civilians and civilian infrastructure,” Ahmad Fawzi told reporters in New York. The IDF shelling of the northern Gaza strip continues to bring more fatalities and increased internal displacement, he said. In the latest round of violence a 24-year old woman and a 14-year old boy were killed east of Beit Lahiya by an artillery shell. Four other people were reported injured. Read more about UN reports increase in Israeli shells fired into Gaza 

The humanitarian crisis engulfing Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip is on the verge of being forgotten because of the fighting taking place in Lebanon and northern Israel, and children are suffering more than most, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today. Gaza’s children - estimated at more than 830,000 - “are living in an environment of extraordinary violence, fear and anxiety,” UNICEF Special Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, Dan Rohrmann, said today in a statement released in Jerusalem after he visited Gaza. Read more about Gaza crisis must not be forgotten, UNICEF says 

Addressing a meeting of the United Nations Security Council today, Lebanon’s acting Foreign Minister urged an immediate series of steps aimed at quelling the violence there, while Israel’s representative said his country was acting in self-defence and called for the authorities in Beirut to take control of their entire nation. Tarek Mitri decried the recent unabated attacks by Israel and asked for an international investigation into the “crime of Qana” where over 50 civilians were killed this weekend. “The spilled blood of the children in Qana deserves more, much more, than expressions of regret.” Israel should withdraw its troops behind the Blue Line and the displaced should return to their villages. Read more about Addressing Security Council, Lebanese minister urges steps to end violence