"HEALTH"

As World AIDS Day approaches, UNAIDS urges governments to empower grassroots communities worldwide to lead the fight to end AIDS. A new report by UNAIDS, Let Communities Lead, shows that AIDS can be ended as a public health threat by 2030, but only if communities on the frontlines get the full support they need from governments and donors. UNAIDS

On the fifth day of a pause in fighting in the Gaza Strip, UN humanitarians echoed the UN Secretary-General and called for a full humanitarian ceasefire and for more aid deliveries to enter into the devastated enclave, such is the scale of need. UNTV CH

UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder said that the situation in Gaza is “dire,” with 1.5 million people have lost their homes, and hospitals filled with war-wounded children. He stressed the urgency for a ceasefire and the need for lasting peace. UNIFEED / FILE

WHO asks all relevant authorities to ensure that the medical evacuations that WHO has been requested to assist in can proceed safely, under agreed procedures, without endangering the lives of patients. WHO

On 22 November, in cooperation with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, WHO participated in another joint-UN mission to transfer 151 patients, relatives and health workers accompanying them from Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza. The mission was undertaken following specific requests from health authorities and hospital officials in Gaza. WHO

A UN humanitarian said that after a four-day-day pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas, which started on Friday at 7 am local time, trucks carrying humanitarian deliveries entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing from Egypt, bringing respite to the Gazans in the devastated Palestinian enclave. UNTV CH

Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Sami Bahous welcomed "the news that 50 hostages, all women, and children, will be released in return for the release of 150 Palestinian women and children, and a much-needed humanitarian pause.” UNIFEED

A UN spokesperson said that the Secretary-General “has welcomed the agreement reached by Israel and Hamas, with the mediation of Qatar and supported by Egypt and the United States.” UNIFEED

Shipments of the world’s first WHO-recommended malaria vaccine, RTS,S, have begun with 331,200 doses landing in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The delivery is the first to a country not previously involved in the malaria vaccine pilot programme and signals that scale-up of vaccination against malaria across the highest-risk areas on the African continent will begin shortly. UNICEF

WHO is appalled by the attack on the Indonesian Hospital in North Gaza, which reportedly resulted in the killing of at least 12 persons including patients and their companions residing at the hospital. WHO