Palestine's ambassador to UN urges those who haven't done so to 'recognize state of Palestine without further delay as clear signal they will not tolerate destruction of 2-state solution'
Palestine warned on Tuesday that Gaza is enduring relentless bombardment coupled with a deprivation of necessities, accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians.
"There is no shortage of bombs falling on Gaza, but there is an imposed shortage of everything else; starvation as a weapon of war against an entire civilian population that is still being bombarded relentlessly," Palestine's ambassador to the UN in New York Riyad Mansour told the UN Security Council's 9907th meeting on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.”
Mansour urged the international community to take concrete steps to put an end to Israeli practices in the occupied territories.
"Palestine calls on all states to take measures against settlement colonization, annexation, and forcible displacement, and to end the Israeli unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian Territories, in line with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion.
"We call on those who have yet to do so to recognize the State of Palestine without any further delay as a clear signal that they will not tolerate its destruction and the destruction of the two-state solution," he said.
Mansour urged all states “to support the Palestinian government which has shown a clear commitment to reform and peace, and to support politically and financially the Arab reconstruction plan and to continue supporting” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA.
Palestinians “are in a cage killed and starved day after day after day,” said the Palestinian diplomat. “Our greatest fear is that the world is growing accustomed to such horrors that while it condemns Israelis actions, it feels powerless to stop them.”
“A ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which remains the top priority, should also be accompanied by an end of attacks and repression by Israeli occupation forces and settlers across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which are displacing entire communities.”
“We deeply hope that the United States, Egypt and Qatar, with the support of the international community as a whole, will be able to secure a return to the ceasefire to start bringing all this suffering to an end,” he said.
Mansour noted that Israel had prevented him from entering the West Bank to participate in the meetings of the Palestinian Central Council. “I was supposed to attend the Central Council in Ramallah instead Israel, after holding me up for five hours, denied me entry to my own country,” he said.
Mansour revealed that proposed solutions on the future of Gaza include arrangements for a “transitional governance” phase that would pave the way for the Palestinian Authority to assume full responsibility for the Strip, in parallel with reconstruction plans that do not involve the displacement of the population.
The Israeli army renewed its assault on Gaza on March 18, shattering a Jan. 19 ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with the resistance group, Hamas.
More than 52,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
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