The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Friday evening to immediately end the month-long hostilities between the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and Israel. Ghanaian Foreign Minister Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who chaired the meeting, said he believed the resolution strengthened the hand of the international community and was “a clear signal to those involved in the hostilities that the world is united, on the way forward, and out of this crisis.” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Council members before the vote he was “relieved” but summed up international frustration. Read more about Unanimous UN Security Council vote for "cessation of hostilities" 

According to the Government of Lebanon (GoL) Higher Relief Committee (HRC) the number of casualties now stands at 1,056 people killed. It estimates that some 971,361 Lebanese have been displaced, inside and outside the country. UNRWA estimates that some 16,000 Palestinian refugees have been displaced by the conflict and an additional 5,500 Lebanese IDPs have moved into Palestinian camps. After drops of warning leaflets on the Burj Barajneh camp in southern Beirut, around a third of the camp population - up to 3,000 people - evacuated the camp yesterday evening. Read more about OCHA: 971,361 displaced in Lebanon, including 16,000 Palestinian refugees 

One day after the Security Council voted unanimously for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, fighting continued today and one blue helmet was wounded when Israeli fire hit a United Nations position in the south. In a speech to last night’s Council meeting, Kofi Annan said he would be working with Israel and Lebanon this weekend to establish “the exact date and time at which the cessation of hostilities will come into effect.” He also welcomed the resolution but said the Council should have acted much sooner. One blue helmet was wounded early this morning when two artillery rounds from the Israeli side impacted directly inside a UNIFIL position. Read more about As fighting persists in Lebanon, blue helmet wounded when Israeli rounds hit UN post 

The Security Council voted tonight to halt the deadly conflict that has engulfed Lebanon and northern Israel for the past month, passing a resolution that calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities followed by the deployment of Lebanese troops and a significantly expanded United Nations peacekeeping presence across southern Lebanon as well as the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the same area. In a unanimous vote, conducted after weeks of intensive diplomacy with Secretary-General Kofi Annan pushing for action, the 15-member Council called for Hizbollah to stop all attacks immediately and for Israel to cease “all offensive military operations.” Read more about Security Council votes unanimously for an end to hostilities in the Middle East 

There is a “clear and urgent need” to investigate attacks against civilians in Lebanon and northern Israel, the top United Nations rights official stressed at a special session of the Human Rights Council today, emphasizing that the crisis demands a meaningful response from the UN body and repeating the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities. “Civilians must never be the object of a direct intentional attack…And yet, almost on a daily basis, information from the field indicates an alarming pattern in the scale and choice of targets by all sides in the conflict,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour told the 47-member Council meeting in Geneva. Read more about Urgent need for inquiry into attacks on civilians in Lebanon and Israel - UN rights chief 

Over 75 tons of essential medical supplies have been safely transported to Lebanon via sea, following a joint operation between Greenpeace and Medecins Sans Frontieres, in which three voyages were made by the Rainbow Warrior between Larnaca in Cyprus and Beirut. The humanitarian cargos consisted of essential relief equipment, including medical equipment, dialysis material, drugs, hygiene kits and fuel, which was transported on the three shuttle voyages, starting on 2 August and ending today at 0900 when the Rainbow Warrior arrived back in Larnaca. Read more about Rainbow Warrior completes joint mission with MSF to transport humanitarian supplies to Lebanon 

Yesterday, UNHCR started an airlift from Jordan and Denmark to help rush tonnes of urgently needed relief supplies to Lebanon. The severely damaged roads along the so-called northern corridor into Lebanon from Syria - where we have a major supply base - via the Al Aarida border crossing, have slowed up our convoys and made it increasingly difficult to move supplies in bulk. The first flight - a Royal Jordanian Air force C-130 from Amman - arrived in Beirut on Thursday morning loaded with 14.76 tonnes of supplies including 9,000 blankets from UNHCR’s regional stockpile in Jordan, and boxes of drugs for the World Health Organisation. Read more about Lebanon crisis: Airlift under way 

In its written statement submitted to the second special session of the Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch states that the continuing toll of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is enormous and warrants the attention of this special session of the Human Rights Council: hundreds of civilians, many of them children, have been killed, essential infrastructure has been destroyed, and millions of lives have been disrupted. Serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) have been committed by both Israel and Hezbollah. Read more about "Israel and Hezbollah must stop using the excuse of the other's misconduct for their own abuses"