Majed Bamya, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, on Friday addressed the Security Council stating that the killing of Palestinian civilians was not a collateral effect of war.
“This Israeli assault relies, by design, on mass and indiscriminate killing of civilians.
“The humanitarian catastrophe is not the consequence of the war, it is a tool employed by Israel to pressure people and force them out,” he said.
The UN correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the Security Council met at the UN headquarters on the situation in the Middle East, amid rising tensions in the occupied West Bank and fighting in the Gaza Strip.
At the meeting, Itay Epshtain, Senior Advisor at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), informed Council members of the legal observations that underpinned the NRC’s response to the humanitarian crisis.
“Some capture serious violations that have been perpetrated and continue to occur, others relate to premediated atrocities that should be prevented by this august Council,” he said.
The envoy noted that all parties – Palestinians armed groups and Israel – had shown reckless disregard for the norms of international law, including the basic rules of international humanitarian law, “the very rules they must comply with in all circumstances, breached.”
He emphasised that the NRC had condemned the atrocious violence launched by Hamas against Israeli civilians and continued to call for the immediate release of all hostages.
It also called for humane treatment of Palestinians detainees, in keeping with international law.
“The same legal certainty must also mean a halt to the Israeli offensive from which ordinary Gazans have no refuge before it claims the lives of even more civilians, many of them women and children,” he said.
Also, Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East at UN DPPA, informed Council members that the situation in the Middle East was alarming and continued to deteriorate.
He noted intense Israeli ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas and other groups in most areas of Gaza, as Hamas and other Palestinian factions continued to fire rockets from Gaza into Israel.
“Civilians from both sides, particularly in Gaza strip currently, continue to bear the brunt of this conflict,” he said.
Reiterating the Secretary-General’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, Khiari warned that the risk of regional spillover of this conflict with potential devastating consequences for the entire region remained high given also a multitude of actors involved.
He informed Council members of “continued daily exchanges” of fire across the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel, posing a “grave risk” to regional stability.
“Increasingly, there have been strikes on civilian areas, with civilian casualties, on both sides of the Blue Line, in addition to a rising number of fatalities among combatants,” he added.
Khiari also noted attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, with the U.S. conducting some airstrikes against groups suspected to be behind these actions in Iraq and Syria.
He also cited reports of Israeli air strikes inside Syria, as well as tensions in the Red Sea.
José Javier De La Gasca, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ecuador, which holds the Presidency of the Security Council for December, called the meeting to order.
Israel has been invited to the meeting, as has the been the Observer State of Palestine.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a non-permanent member called for the emergency meeting, and a senior UN official from the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) is expected to brief ambassadors.
The meeting follows a resolution adopted on Friday by the Security Council calling for a scale-up in aid deliveries to civilians in the Gaza Strip. The resolution passed with 13 votes in favour, with the U.S and Russia abstaining.
Earlier, Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, voiced concerns over escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Briefing the Security Council on Dec. 19, he noted “intensified armed exchanges” between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, predominantly in the context of Israeli operations, which led to high levels of fatalities and arrests.
Wennesland also expressed alarm at lethal attacks carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and by Palestinians against Israelis in the occupied West Bank and Israel.
“All perpetrators of violence must be held accountable and swiftly brought to justice,” he stressed.
