By David L. Phillips
NEW YORK, Mar 12 2025 – Israel’s decision to suspend electricity supplies to Gaza has far-reaching consequences for daily life of Palestinians as well as Gaza’s reconstruction. Managing Gaza’s energy crisis will require the development of alternative supplies, which are found in off-shore natural gas fields that can be developed off the coast of Israel and Gaza in the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed).

Gaza is undoubtedly facing an energy crisis. The main source of Gaza’s electricity is its power plant in Deir al-Balah and Israeli utility lines that transport electricity and make up nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s power supply. Gaza’s energy supplies were already limited before the war. Supplies have been further affected by damage to energy infrastructure during the Gaza War.

Deir al-Balah was bombed in 2023 by air strikes on Gaza’s energy infrastructure. As a result, Gaza was left with only diesel generators to power its essential services, including hospitals and desalination plants providing potable water. Natural gas is an alternative that can provide abundant power supplies and serve as a tool for peacebuilding.

Reserves of natural gas were found in Israel and Gaza in 2000. Exploration was undertaken within the framework of a licensing agreement between British Gas and the Palestinian National Authority. The discovered gas field, Gaza Marine 1 and 2, though modest in size, was considered one of the possible drivers of the Palestinian economy and a boost to regional energy cooperation.

Though the discovery was cause for hope, Hamas’s election in 2007 put a damper on the prospects for energy cooperation between Israel and Palestine. The opportunity diminished further with the discovery of major gas fields in the Israeli economic waters in 2009 and 2010. With new prospects coming on line, Israel simply has no incentive to allow the development of Marine 1 and 2.

The calculus for economic recovery changed in 2023 when Israel provided approval for the development of the Gaza Marine gas field, with the involvement of the Palestinian Authority and Egypt. It marked a watershed moment in Israel’s willingness to cooperate through production sharing agreements.

Both the goal of conflict resolution and the reconstruction of Gaza can benefit by incorporating Gaza and the broader Palestinian territories into a collaborative framework for energy development in the EastMed.

The United States can play a role by encouraging cooperation through the ‘3+1’ framework, which includes Cyprus, Greece, Israel, and the United States, as well as cooperation for extraction and transport with Egypt.

The East Med Gas Framework constitutes the first international organization to include both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, in which the US is an observer. President Donald Trump’s transactional approach may yield an opportunity for energy development with mutual benefit to both Isael and the Palestinians.

The EastMed presents an opportunity for the US to burnish its credentials as a peacemaker. During his first administration, Trump led the efforts for energy security in the EastMed and Europe. Trump signed the East Med Act, which was co-sponsored by Marco Rubio.

EastMed energy development relies on the interconnectedness of Gaza’s natural gas with European countries via pipelines, electric grids, integration of renewables, and energy efficiency standards. This strategy for interconnectedness would enhance stability and prosperity in Israel and the EastMed by bringing together Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus and even Lebanon. The development of natural gas on the continental shelf of Gaza could be a game-changer.

The discovery of what may be the region’s largest natural gas field off the Egyptian coast and the newest discoveries of natural gas off the coast of Cyprus could represent a significant windfall, enhancing self-sufficiency and the region’s strategic energy importance.

Gaza’s energy development plays a twofold role. The volume of the Gaza marine reserves discovered by British Petroleum (BP) in 1999, is estimated at 1 to 1.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf). Combined with Israeli export infrastructure, these reserves can produce more than enough revenue for the reconstruction of Gaza.

Tapping into these reserves will have the added benefit of engaging the Palestinian Authority in a regional collaborative framework. Funds from these assets have the potential to produce revenue for reconstruction and services such as education and health care what would benefit Palestinians.

A Palestinian state with adequate capacity would further serve as a deterrent to radicalization by giving Palestinians self-determination, freedom of movement, statehood, and other rights guaranteed by international humanitarian law.

The end of conflict with Palestine would normalize ties between Israel and the Arab states. This is one of the main objectives of multilateral frameworks in the EastMed, involving Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan.

Regional energy cooperation would advance the process that started with the Camp David Accords in 1978, reinforced by the Abraham Accords in 2020, and the Negev Summit in 2022.

Not only will energy cooperation enhance security for Israel. Another geopolitical benefit includes limiting China’s influence. As an alternative to China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) will foster economic integration between Asia, the Persian Gulf and Europe.

IMEC would traverse both Arab states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Israel. IMEC offers the ancillary benefit of bringing prosperity to Gaza, the Eastern Mediterranean, the broader Middle East, and Europe.

In November 2014, the first trilateral summit between Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt noted: “The unresolved Arab Israeli conflict remains the most serious threat to the region’s long-term security and stability.” When regional economic development benefits stakeholders, the calculus for peacebuilding can create conditions for diplomatic progress.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

Excerpt:

David L. Phillips is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for European Studies.

By Antonio Guterres
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2025 – Our world is facing challenges on every front. Since the United Nations reflects that world in all its aspects, we feel it in all our work.

These are times of intense uncertainty and unpredictability.

And yet certain truths have [never] been more clear: The United Nations has never been more needed. Our values have never been more relevant. And the needs have never been greater.

At the same time, we know the more the UN does together to address big challenges around the world, the less the burden on individual countries to do it alone.

The United Nations stands out as the essential one-of-a-kind meeting ground to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights.

But resources are shrinking across the board – and they have been for a long time. For example, for at least the past seven years, the United Nations has faced a liquidity crisis because not all Member States pay in full, and many also do not pay on time.

From day one of my mandate, we embarked on an ambitious reform agenda to strengthen how we work and deliver.

To be more effective and cost-effective. To simplify procedures and decentralize decisions. To enhance transparency and accountability. To shift capacities to areas such as data and digital.

And, significantly, the Pact for the Future and UN 2.0 are exactly about updating the UN for the 21st century.

These efforts are not ends in themselves. They are about better serving people whose very lives depend on us.

They are about hardworking taxpayers around the world who underwrite everything we do. And they are about ensuring the right conditions for everyone serving under the UN flag as they undertake their critical work.

For all these reasons, it is essential that an organizational system as complex and crucial as the United Nations – subjects itself to rigorous and regular scrutiny to assess its fitness for purpose in carrying out its goals efficiently.

And this 80th anniversary year of the United Nations is a prime moment to expand all our efforts, recognizing the need for even greater urgency and ambition.

That is why I have informed yesterday UN Member States that I am officially launching what we call the UN80 Initiative.

I have appointed a dedicated internal Task Force led by Under-Secretary-General Guy Ryder – and composed of principals representing the entire UN system.

The objective will be to present to Member States proposals in three areas:

First, rapidly identifying efficiencies and improvements in the way we work.

Second, thoroughly reviewing the implementation of all mandates given to us by Member States, which have significantly increased in recent years.

Third, a strategic review of deeper, more structural changes and programme realignment in the UN System.

Under the leadership of the President of the General Assembly, I will consult closely and regularly with all Member States on the progress made, seeking guidance on the way forward and presenting concrete decisions for discussion and decision-making when appropriate.

My objective is to move as soon as possible in areas where I have the authority – and to urge Member States to consider the many decisions that rest with them.

This goes far beyond the technical. Budgets at the United Nations are not just numbers on a balance sheet – they are a matter of life and death for millions around the world.

We must ensure value for money while advancing shared values.

The need is great and the goal is clear: an even stronger and more effective United Nations that delivers for people and is tuned to the 21st century.

And I thank you.

IPS UN Bureau

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

Excerpt:

Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at a Press Encounter on the UN80 Initiative

By Dawn Clancy
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2025 – With enough steel and concrete, the hospitals that have been smashed to bits in Gaza can be rebuilt. But a construction plan paired with an army of bulldozers will not be enough to reconstruct the entirety of Gaza’s health care system, which, after many months of war, has been decimated by the Israeli military forces.

From the full-scale destruction of Gaza’s roads, polluted water systems and sewage infrastructure. To the long-standing networks of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and medical professionals with specialized knowledge who have been killed or left the Strip. The restriction of medications and critical vaccinations destroyed telecommunication and electricity networks, and data systems that monitor health at the community level and manage the medical history of thousands of patients and families across Gaza have all “disappeared,” says Karl Blanchet. He is the director of the Geneva Center of Humanitarian Studies at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Blanchet told IPS that to rebuild the system, you would need to “start from scratch,” which would be expensive.

A recent needs assessment report published by the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations estimates that “the total recovery and reconstruction needs [in Gaza] are estimated at USD 53.2 billion.” The report adds that Gaza’s healthcare sector alone—including the reconstruction of hospitals, private and public health facilities, pharmacies, dental practices, and maternity clinics, in addition to the short-term restoration of essential services such as mental health assistance, rehabilitation, nutrition, and non-communicable disease treatments—will cost over USD 1.7 billion.

According to the latest data collected by the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1,060 health workers have been killed in the Strip since October 7, 2023, and only 18 out of 35 hospitals, or 50 percent, are “partially functional.” Additionally, Health Care Workers Watch—an initiative that monitors attacks on healthcare facilities and workers in Palestine—estimates that Israeli forces have unlawfully detained 339 health workers in Gaza, including nurses, pharmacists, administrative staff, technicians, physicians and paramedics.

However, Dr. Mona Jebril, a research associate at the University of Cambridge’s Center for Business Research, told IPS that even before October 7, Gaza’s healthcare sector struggled under the oppressive weight of the Israeli occupation and political jockeying between Hamas, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority. The historical legacies of sanctions imposed on the Strip by the international community after Hamas came to power in 2007, limited funding, the complete siege of Gaza by the Israeli government and the cycle of destruction brought on by repeated wars kept the sector functioning, but barely.

“The health system has always been attacked,” said Jebril. “Maybe sometimes a little damage to a clinic and an ambulance here or there. But after the seventh of October, we noticed a different pattern, where actually the hospital itself has been burned, targeted, and destroyed.”

Similar observations have been outlined in a recent report published by the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR), which concluded that “Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) operations on, within and around hospitals generally followed a pattern with often catastrophic impacts” on the facilities, the people reliant on their services, and those who were sheltering inside. The report found that IDF operations against hospitals started with airstrikes, followed by a complete siege of the facilities by ground troops, followed by raids, the detention of medical staff and patients, followed by forced evacuation and finally, the withdrawal of IDF troops. The report added that the severe damage and destruction left behind effectively rendered the hospitals “non-functional.”

Notably, Annie Sparrow, a practicing clinician in conflict zones and an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who volunteered in Syria during the civil war, credits Russian President Vladimir Putin with “understanding so effectively that people won’t stay where there’s no doctor.”

“Putin created five million refugees in six weeks, which is a world record,” said Sparrow. “He started bombing hospitals and clinics on the first day of the war in Ukraine, and Israel has learned these lessons from Russia and perfected it.” She added, “Attacking hospitals was once exceptional and now for Putin it is military doctrine.”

The mass destruction of Gaza, including the bombing of hospitals and the killing of civilians, technically ceased on January 19, 2025, when Hamas and Israel agreed to a shaky three-phased ceasefire deal that requires ongoing negotiations. Although the first phase of the agreement is currently underway—each phase lasts for 42 days and includes the return of all Israeli hostages—the reconstruction of Gaza won’t begin until the deal’s third phase, when Israeli troops withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip and the war is declared over.

But, given the current political climate, including President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to forcibly and illegally displace Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan to build the “Riviera of the Middle East” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s flat-out rejection of a Palestinian state, Jen Gavito, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council—an American think tank based in Washington D.C.—told IPS that she is skeptical the deal will reach phase three.

“With all things related to reconstruction right now, it’s hard to do it with a straight face,” said Gavito. “Having worked on peace negotiations, the statement we always made was that until there is a permanent solution that allows Palestinian self-determination, all of this is moot.”

To counter Trump’s Gaza proposal, Arab leaders met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, February 21, to hammer out an alternative reconstruction plan that would allow Palestinians to remain in Gaza. Although the details have yet to be released, some reports suggest there was little agreement on who would govern the enclave and fund its reconstruction.

Arab mediators and the United States are currently trying to resolve differences between Hamas and Israel over a January 19 ceasefire agreement after Israel blocked aid to the region.

Regardless of how the final plan for the reconstruction of Gaza’s healthcare system shakes out, Dr. Omar Lattouf, a heart surgeon and one of the founders of the Gaza Health Initiative—a global coalition of healthcare and humanitarian workers organizing to assist in the rebuild of Gaza—told IPS that he is optimistic about the reconstruction of the healthcare sector even if it has to be rebuilt “brick by brick.”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s impossible to predict, but one thing we know for sure is that there will always be people there: sick people, injured, hungry people, orphans, widows, and people who need help,” said Lattouf.

“As harsh as this is going to sound, irrespective of politics and how many people will be killed—and that’s a painful statement to make—there will be people who are injured and need to be treated,” he said. “There’s no way everybody’s going to vanish.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);  

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2025 – In 2025, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti has grown increasingly dire amid the ongoing gang wars. With rates of displacement, child recruitment, food insecurity, physical violence, and sexual violence having skyrocketed in the past year alone, the national police have found it difficult to keep gang activity under control.

According to figures from the United Nations (UN), by the end of 2024, at least 5,600 Haitians were killed as a direct result of gang violence. The UN also estimates that over 85 percent of the nation’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, which contains roughly a third of Haiti’s population, is controlled by gangs. Entrances, exits, and key roads in the city have been compromised, which has significantly reduced mobility and has made civilian safety nearly impossible.

A surge of heightened insecurity in late January 2025 has also led to a rise in civilian displacements. It is estimated that over 6,000 Haitians have been displaced from Port-Au-Prince. Additionally, over one million people have been displaced as of January 2025, marking a threefold increase from the previous year.

On February 24, an armed group attacked the Delmas 33 neighborhood in Port-Au-Prince in which at least 20 people were killed, though true number of casualties is likely much higher. “What happened in Delmas 30 was a massacre. The gangs killed more than twenty people and burned their bodies. Some victims are unrecognizable,” said a member of the Delmas 30 neighborhood vigilante brigade.

Targeted attacks on educational facilities have exacerbated the high levels of child recruitment that have already been seen in Haiti. Geetanjali Narayan, a representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) informed reporters last month that gang coalitions had destroyed 47 schools in Port-Au-Prince, adding to the 284 schools that had been destroyed in 2024.

“The relentless attacks on education are accelerating, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without a place to learn…Videos capture piercing screams of children lying on the floor, motionless with fear, a chilling reminder that these attacks do damage far beyond the classroom walls. A child out of school is a child at risk,” said Narayan.

Narayan adds that approximately half of all gang members in Haiti are children. Eight to ten year-olds are often used as informants, with young girls being used for domestic chores. As these children get older, they take more active roles in perpetuating violence.

According to Ulrika Richardson, the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Republic of Haiti, women and children have been disproportionately affected by human rights violations. Since 2020, gang members have used sexual violence as a weapon of terror, which has increased by 1000 percent from 2023 to 2024.

Amnesty International issued a press release on February 12 that focused on the rampant levels of sexual violence in Haiti. They stated that abductions of young girls are common, with girls also being exploited by gang members for commercial sex. Threats of reprisals and the absence of law enforcement in gang-controlled areas make it nearly impossible for victims to seek justice or protection services. Limited healthcare services make the road to recovery difficult for many survivors as well.

“These violent criminal groups continue to extend and consolidate their hold beyond the capital,” said William O’Neill, a UN expert on the human rights situation in Haiti. “They kill, rape, terrorize, set fire to homes, orphanages, schools, hospitals, places of worship, recruit children and infiltrate all spheres of society. All this, with the utmost impunity and sometimes, as many sources point out, with the complicity of powerful actors.”

Heightened insecurity has also greatly exacerbated the widespread hunger crisis. On February 18, Action Aid, a humanitarian organization that strives to maintain social, economic, and environmental justice, released a press statement in which 200 families (roughly 1,499 people) in Jérémie and Roseaux were surveyed to analyze trends in hunger. The survey found that nearly 90 percent of all Haitians are going all day without eating.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), approximately 5.5 million people are acutely food insecure, which is roughly half of the nation’s population. From March to June, 2 million Haitians are projected to face emergency levels of hunger.

Armed gangs continue to disrupt critical routes for food distribution which has spiked up food prices, making it inaccessible for many. Roughly 85 percent of surveyed individuals reported having fallen into debt while 17 percent indicated that they make no income whatsoever.

Additionally, some households have been recorded surviving on only $1 USD per month. Girls have been reported to exchange sex for food, and pregnant or nursing mothers have faced serious complications as a result of malnutrition.

“What we’re witnessing in Haiti isn’t a food shortage – it’s a full-blown hunger crisis driven by violence, inflation and systemic neglect,” Angeline Annesteus, ActionAid’s Country Director in Haiti. “The markets still have food, but millions simply cannot afford it…The levels of hunger, suffering and death in Haiti are beyond disturbing, world powers are looking away or – even worse – actively disrupting humanitarian efforts. People will starve to death in the coming months unless urgent funding is released. There is no chance for peace and stability in Haiti while millions are facing starvation.”

In 2024, the international community launched a $600 million fund to assist in relief efforts for Haiti, receiving only 40 percent of the required total. 2025’s plan requires an additional $300 million, which has been attributed to heightened violence and limited access to basic services.

In January this year, the Trump administration ordered a 90 day pause on the distribution of foreign aid. The freezing of U.S. assets is projected to have a significant impact on relief efforts, particularly at such a dire time for Haiti.

“We continue to assess the impact of those termination notices on our programmes for children. But we already know that the initial pause has impacted programming for millions of children in roughly half the countries that we work…But even the strongest can’t do it alone…Without urgent action, without funding, more children are going to suffer malnutrition, fewer will have access to education, and preventable illnesses will claim more lives,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);