This article is published in association with United Nations.
The UN human rights chief said on Monday the antisemitic attack on the Jewish community in Sydney which left fifteen dead at the weekend, including a 10-year-old girl, was “a moment of deep sadness.”
Volker Türk said the “heinous” shootings targeting a Hannukah celebration on Bondi Beach exposed again that “antisemitism is real, and it is abhorrent.”
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the killings had been motivated by “extremist ideology”. The alleged shooters named as Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed, 24, had reportedly pledged allegiance to the ISIL terrorist group.
Video of bystander Ahmed al Ahmed who was filmed wrestling one of the guns used in the assault away from one of the assailants, has gone viral and the fruit shop owner has been hailed as a hero whose intervention saved many lives.
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‘Recommit to our common humanity’
The UN human rights chief said the mass shooting served as another reminder of “hateful crimes and rhetoric that are all too common in our world today.”
He added that it is time to “recommit to our common humanity and collectively fight against this scourge.”
Mr. Türk said the deadly antisemitic attack must not be allowed to sow further hatred and division.
“I stand in solidarity with the victims and those who bravely helped and protected them,” he concluded.
UNHCR chief Grandi urges solidarity to counter toxic scapegoat rhetoric
Asylum is becoming increasingly politicised as humanitarian funding shrinks – and it’s against this backdrop that reaffirming global support for refugees is essential, the head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Monday.
Speaking at a key meeting on refugees in Geneva, UN High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said that host countries who take in asylum seekers need to be told: “You are not alone.”
“Solidarity saves lives,” Mr. Grandi insisted, as he pointed to “unending atrocities” that have impacted the world’s most vulnerable people, from Myanmar to Sudan and Ukraine.
He said it had been a year when refugees were frequently vilified and scapegoated “with their suffering cynically used by traffickers for profit,” as well as by politicians to gain votes.”
Mr. Grandi reflected on a year of repeated attacks on the 1951 Refugee Convention “and on the very institution of asylum.”
Global compact
It is almost a decade since the UN General Assembly agreed to the Global Compact on Refugees, to boost international solutions and support for host countries.
The agreement has produced commitments that have made a real difference in the lives of refugees and of the communities hosting them, Mr. Grandi insisted.
He said that since 2023, thousands of pledges have been made to support refugee solutions, with more than $2.6 billion already provided in support of more inclusive policies in host communities.
In future, the High Commissioner insisted that host countries needed more help to strengthen their support systems for people uprooted from their homes.
Ukraine: Aid teams respond as Russian attacks continue
In Ukraine, UN-supported aid partners continued to offer a lifeline to at-risk communities on Monday, after widespread Russian strikes targeted homes and other critical infrastructure over the weekend.
An update from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, listed attacks in the port city of Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson, reportedly involving 300 missiles and drones.
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Those strikes cut off electricity, water and heating to around one million people.
Aid teams also provided shelter and emergency protection to people in Zaporizhzhia after an attack on Sunday morning injured several residents, damaging homes and a shopping centre.
“With freezing temperatures, the aid is urgent”, while critical services are restored, OCHA said in a statement.
Authorities report that between 12 December and Monday, frontline hostilities and attacks across the country killed at least nine civilians and injured more than 70 others, including three children.
The Odesa region suffered repeated attacks that injured six civilians and damaged energy infrastructure over the weekend. As a result, the city of Odesa – home to more than one million residents – was left without electricity, heating and water.
Odesa outages
“While power has been restored for around 100,000 consumers and water supply has resumed, 20,000 residents remain without heating as of this morning,” said Deputy UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq.
In the neighbouring Mykolaiv region, attacks damaged the power supply and injured five civilians, including a child.
The Kherson region has also been severely impacted, with around two dozen civilians injured. In Kherson city, more than 40,000 residents remain without heating following damage to the combined heat and power plant earlier this month.
With temperatures dropping to around or below zero and snowfall reports in parts of the country, attacks on critical energy infrastructure are driving widespread water and heating outages across the country, Mr. Haq added.
“Our humanitarian partners, with the UN’s support, are providing hot meals, bottled water, shelter materials, water-trucking and psychosocial support.”
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