By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – Security Council debated the current situation on the ground in Gaza on Friday, where Israeli strikes have killed more than 41,500 Palestinians amid mass displacement and stymied humanitarian efforts as Israel continues hampering the entry of lifesaving aid.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said unprecedented scale of destruction and suffering in Gaza has left international humanitarian law in tatters and the whole humanitarian system “hanging by a thread”.
“And let’s be clear, violations by one side cannot be used to justify violations by the other,” he told the Council.
He called for full investigations and accountability for the killing of 225 UN humanitarians – so far – since the 7 October attacks by Hamas and resulting Israeli offensive began.
Guterres highlighted the deaths of Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank as “new settlements, landgrabs, demolitions and settler violence all continue.”
“The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful, and Israel has an obligation to end it as rapidly as possible,” Mr. Guterres said. The entire region could now be pushed into the abyss: a full-scale conflagration with unimaginable consequences, he added.
He said Gaza remains the epicentre of the violence and the key to ending the fighting which threatens a regional war, the UN chief said.
Despite being the most dangerous place in the world to be a humanitarian, the recent polio vaccination campaign showed what agencies can do when they are allowed to carry out their work.
“But, crossing points into Gaza remain restricted or inaccessible. Roads are damaged and littered with unexploded ordnance,” while 87 per cent of movements between north and south have been denied, Mr. Guterres added.
“Attacks on humanitarians are an unacceptable assault on the values of the United Nations and must stop,” he declared, urging Israeli authorities to do “everything in their power to end attacks on UN personnel and property, to stop spreading disinformation against UN officials and entities and to speed up the approval of visas and procurement requests”.
He said the UN would continue to support all efforts towards sustainable peace.
“The death spiral must end for Gaza, for the people of Palestine and Israel, for the region and for the world,” he declared.
He added that the key lies in a political solution
“All hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally, and the international community must mobilize for an immediate ceasefire and the beginning of an irreversible process towards the end of the
occupation and the creation of a Palestinian State.”
Children make up half of Gaza’s entire population of over two million, but none have been able to attend school since the 7 October attacks triggered nearly a year of devastating war.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA said that the longer the fighting goes on, the greater the chance of losing an entire generation.
UNRWA has provided free basic education to millions, and the agency is determined to reopen classrooms as soon as possible.
Mr. Lazzarini told Khaled Mohamed what impact the constant targeting of schools and civilian infrastructure was having on Gazans, as daily airstrikes continue.
Mohammad Mustafa, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Palestine, noted that a year has passed since the beginning of the “Israeli aggression” in Gaza.
He added that a year has also passed “for the inhumane double standards in this Council”, which have left Palestinian children, women, elderly, doctors, journalists, teachers and humanitarian workers “without any protection, without any support, as if they were not even human beings”.
Mr. Mustafa said he came to the UN and felt solidarity with his people and their just cause.
“But, we leave the United Nations, and we see that the Israeli massacres have not ended, and the Security Council, to this very day, did not put an end to the Israeli aggression, did not adopt measures that would put pressure to bear on the Israeli Government to put an end to this war,” he said.
“They’ve destroyed Gaza completely. They’ve invaded cities in the West Bank. They’ve attacked our unarmed Palestinian citizens, and today we see them firing on the Lebanese people. They are violating the sovereignty of Lebanon.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon noted that five Council meetings had taken place over the last 12 days. “How long will we repeat these debates?” he asked and when would the Council “break free from this gridlock and regain a semblance of productivity?”
He remembered the people who “were torn from their homes, bound and burned alive in their final moments,” on 7 October last year when Hamas attacked Israel, he reiterated the fact that “100 hostages remain in Hamas’ grasp.”
Mr. Danon how he could stay silent and not condemn Hamas.
He added that it was a moment of inflection for the Prime Minister and the Palestinian Authority, where they had to choose “to stand with humanity and peace or align with barbarism and terror.”
Wang Yi, Foreign Minister of China, said the international cannot just look on without acting on the unprecedented crisis.
“War and conflict must not continue, and a comprehensive ceasefire must be realised,” he said.
He underscored that countries with influence should play a more constructive role and condemning all actions that harm innocent civilians.
Beijing also called for holding a meeting for post-war reconstruction in Gaza.
China urged all parties to fulfill all obligations to relevant Council resolutions, he said a conference must be convened to finally achieve the two-State solution.
He said that the international community must play a supporting role for humanitarian efforts in Gaza, including UNRWA.
He added that donors who had suspended funding for UN agency should resume their contributions. War is a test of justice, and efforts must now promote peace in the Middle East, he concluded.
Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov said the conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and along the Lebanon-Israeli border is having consequences in other parts of the region, with fallout being felt in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman.
Sergey Lavrov noted that the entire Middle East and North Africa continue to have hotbeds of instability persisting.
“The spiraling violence has gone far beyond the area of the Arab-Israeli confrontation, destabilizing the situation not just in the above-mentioned regions, but also in the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and in North Africa as a whole.”
Mr. Lavrov said the root cause “has been and remains the fact that the Palestinian issue remains unresolved”, and the Gaza Strip is at the “epicentre” of the current confrontation.
“I would like everybody to recall our steadfast position, which remains unchanged. There is no justification for the terrorist attack on 7 October. However, collective punishment against all Palestinians is unacceptable,” he said.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the region faced “a decisive moment”, and although war is possible, an all-out war is not inevitable.
She said that there is still an opportunity to strike a ceasefire and hostage release deal: “Doing both alongside efforts to integrate Israel into the region could reinforce peace and stability” and breathe life into the possibility of a two-State solution.
The decision to take the “difficult steps” necessary towards a peaceful and prosperous future does not lie with the Security Council, “but in the hands of decision makers in the region”, she added.
She said there were three building blocks that could lay the groundwork for success.
First, a 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Second is the implementation of resolution 2735, which would end the war in Gaza.
Third is a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, “whichwould further bind together Israel and the Arab world and help marginalise the terrorist proxies that are funded, armed and sponsored by Iran”.
French Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière said a ceasefire must also end the violence in Gaza and called end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah,
He lauded the WHO, UNICEF and UNRWA and partners for their successful polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, he said the humanitarian crisis there should not prompt the world to lose sight of the deteriorating situation in the West Bank. The policy of terror by Israeli settlers must end immediately, he stated.
“Inaction on the part of the Security Council is not an option,” he said, referring to the escalating situation and emphasized that no efforts should be spared in ensuring the ongoing ceasefire negotiations move forward.
Security Council will have a role to play when the time is right, including in working towards a two-State solution, he said.
He added that “measures geared towards undermining the Palestinian Authorities need to end.”
Nicolas de Rivière called on Israel not to obstruct revenues transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
Iran’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Seyed Abbas Araghchi said not a single action has been taken to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The US is implicated in every aspect of “Israel’s atrocity” given the extent of its political and military backing, he said.
“The US has sent so many arms to Israel since 7 October that the Pentagon has struggled to find sufficient cargo aircraft to deliver the materiel,” he said.
He said that the world had been watching events in Gaza and Lebanon with “indignation and disgust” while the US, UK, Canada and Germany “have only been appeasing the culprit”.
“The Council’s credibility is shrinking every minute as it is prevented by Israel’s major supporters from fulfilling its responsibility under the [UN] Charter,” he added.
He said that Israel’s prime minister was delusional if he thought that he could normalise relations with the Muslim world “by swimming through a sea of Palestinian and Lebanese blood. That’s not going to happen, for sure.”
Foreign Minister of Egypt, Badr Ahmed Mohamed Abdelatty, said Israel has continued to use hunger as a weapon of war and continues to force people to flee their homes.
Israel has taken hostage of the Palestinians and the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border, which has prevented international organizations from delivering humanitarian assistance, leaving Gazans without sufficient food and medicines.
This has been going on for months, causing humanitarian catastrophe.
Mr. Abdelatty said Egypt and the Group of Arab States reject the targeting of civilians, as well as violence against them.
“And yet we have seen that Israel has obstinately sought to carry out reprisals or to expand the conflict, resulting in conflagration in the region, with more and more civilians being imperiled,” he said. “We condemn this, and this is unacceptable.”
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