Civilians in Gaza must not be the target of collective punishment, speakers told the Security Council today, as calls for a ceasefire gained greater urgency amid the intensification of Israel’s lethal military offensive into the besieged enclave, following the 7 October attacks by the armed group Hamas against that country.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), called the Israel Defense Forces’ relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip “shocking”, with the level of destruction unprecedented, adding that “the human tragedy unfolding under our watch is unbearable”. Reiterating that “no place is safe in Gaza”, he said 1 million people were pushed from the north to the south over three weeks, with the south also being bombarded. Civilians remaining in the north are now receiving evacuation notices from the Israeli forces, urging them south, although many, including pregnant women and people with disabilities, are unable to move, he said, stressing: “What happened and continues to happen is forced displacement.”
Nearly 70 per cent of those reported killed are children and women, he said, pointing out that nearly 3,200 children were killed in Gaza in just three weeks. “This cannot be ‘collateral damage’.” After two weeks of full siege, basic services were crumbling; medicine, food, water and fuel are running out, with last weekend’s communications blackout accelerating the breakdown of civil order, he said, adding: “The current siege imposed on Gaza is collective punishment.” Gazans today feel that the world equates all of them to Hamas, he said, warning: “An entire population is being dehumanized.” The atrocities of Hamas do not absolve the State of Israel from its obligations under international humanitarian law, he stressed, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Catherine Russell, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said she believed that “the true cost of this latest escalation will be measured in children’s lives — those lost to the violence and those forever changed by it”, as rampant grave violations are being committed against them. More than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza each day, she said, adding that it is “a number which should shake each of us to our core”.
Turning to damage incurred by civilian infrastructure, she said the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported 34 attacks against health-care facilities, including 21 hospitals. Meanwhile, Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants are now non-operational due to the lack of fuel or power, she said, adding: “The lack of clean water and safe sanitation is on the verge of becoming a catastrophe.” She called for humanitarian access to be allowed through all crossings into the Gaza Strip, and for measures to cut electricity, food, water and fuel from entering Gaza from Israel to be immediately reversed.
Also briefing the Council was Lisa Doughten, Director of the Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who spoke on behalf of the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Painting a bleak picture of the plight of Gazans, who recently resorted to breaking into UN warehouses in search of food, she said, “People are becoming increasingly desperate, as they search for food, water and shelter amid the relentless bombing campaign that is wiping out whole families and entire neighbourhoods.”
Describing a health-care system in tatters, with patients laying on the floors and in corridors, while surgeons are operating without anaesthesia, she said that life hangs by a thread for the 1,000 patients dependent on dialysis and the 130 premature babies in incubators, as hospital back-up generators run on fumes. Voicing concern about allegations of military installations in the close vicinity of hospitals and Israel’s request that hospitals be evacuated, she said: “There is nowhere safe for patients to go, and for those on life support and babies in incubators, moving would almost certainly be a death sentence.” Calling on parties to pause the fighting on humanitarian grounds, and for collective action to prevent the further escalation of the war and spillover into the wider region, she warned: “The current situation may pale in comparison with what is to come.”
In the ensuing debate, many Council members voiced alarm over the unbearable plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as well as over the dramatic uptick in violence by armed settlers in the West Bank. Speakers were unanimous in stressing the need for international law to be respected amid Israel’s continuing — and escalating — military operations. However, some stressed its right to legitimate self-defence, and advocated for humanitarian pauses, which fell short of a full ceasefire, while others deplored the Council’s inaction in the face of a staggering civilian toll, including thousands of slain children.
Brazil’s delegate voiced alarm at the “alarming human catastrophe unfolding over our eyes”, with thousands of civilians, including an overwhelming and intolerable number of children, being punished for crimes they have not committed. In that grim context, he deplored that the Council had “repeatedly and shamelessly” failed to put an end to the human suffering, stressing: “The eyes of the world are staring at us and will not move away from our distressing inability to act.” On behalf of the Council’s 10 elected members, he stressed the need to move from rhetoric to action, adding: “I want to put it bluntly: there cannot be rescuing of hostages and humanitarian aid under shells.”
The Russian Federation’s delegate noted Israel’s Foreign Ministry’s outright rejection of the UN’s “despicable” call for a ceasefire, and voiced shock over Knesset representatives’ comments that Gaza’s children brought this upon themselves. Amid “a humanitarian catastrophe of biblical proportions” unfolding in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Council has been unable to adopt a resolution due to the United States position, he said, adding: “Washington and West Jerusalem have entirely other plans — to wipe out the population of Gaza or to force them out of the Gaza Strip to force the remaining Palestinian population to assimilate into Israel so as to solve the Palestinian problem that way.”
The representative of the United Arab Emirates, highlighting that 121 countries unambiguously called for a humanitarian truce in Gaza on 27 October, said that the Council’s ignoring the express will of the majority of the world may be what breaks it. “Colleagues, we need a ceasefire now,” she emphasized. Pointing out that the number of Palestinian children killed in just three weeks exceeds the total number of children killed in conflicts in each of the last four years worldwide, she said: “That should stain our moral conscience if nothing else does.”
The United States’ representative, meanwhile, stressed that Hamas must not use Palestinians as human shields, and Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harming civilians. As well, she called for the unconditional release of hostages, for humanitarian needs to be addressed, for Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism to be affirmed and for all actors to be reminded to respect international law. Recalling that action had been blocked on a text her delegation put forth last week, she deplored the “grossly one-sided resolution” adopted by the General Assembly, adding that it was “unconscionable” that the text did not condemn Hamas.
For his part, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine underscored that Gaza is now hell on Earth, with the 2.3 million there enduring suffering that no human beings should endure. “They are besieged and bombed, with nowhere safe to go,” he said, adding that as many as 8,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past three weeks, including 3,000 in the south of the enclave, where they were forcibly transferred by Israel. The death toll includes 3,500 Palestinian children, he said, adding: “Every five minutes, a Palestinian child is killed. Our children who are, like yours, children of God, children of light. How many more days will you wait to say ‘enough’, to recognize this is a war against our children?” He called on the Council to heed the wisdom of the General Assembly’s call for a humanitarian truce and uphold its responsibilities to put an end to the bloodshed.
The delegate of Israel said that “Hamas are modern-day Nazis, from their appalling inhumane violence to identical genocidal ideologies”. The leadership role in Hamas is held by the Ayatollah regime whose death squads include Hamas, Palestinian Islamic jihad, Hizbullah, the Houthis and other savage jihadists. “The Islamic Nazi regime of Iran is responsible for aiding terrorists around the globe,” he stressed. Yet, like during the rise of Nazism, today the world is deafeningly silent. Over 250,000 innocent Israeli civilians have been displaced since the war began and millions are living everyday under threat of constant indiscriminate rocket fire at the hands of Hamas, Hizbullah and other jihadists, he said, adding that his delegation will wear yellow stars until the Council condemns Hamas’ atrocities and demands the immediate release of Israeli hostages. Stressing that “antisemites have been empowered”, he asked: “Why are the humanitarian needs of Gazans the sole issue you are all focused on?”
Rounding out the discussion, the delegate of Jordan, speaking for the Arab Group, said that the resolution adopted by the General Assembly last week sent a clear message: that the international community stood for the protection of innocent civilians, for adherence to legal obligations and an immediate stop to the war in Gaza. Warning that the Council’s “deafening” silence had emboldened Israel to act with impunity, he asked: “Isn’t it time for the Council to shoulder its responsibility and heed Gazans’ cries for help, as their houses and places of worship tumble on their heads and they have no safe shelter from Israel’s bombardment?”