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By Iftikhar Ali
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 28 (APP):Pakistan has earnestly urged “those who shield Israel” and prevent the UN Security Council from taking action to restore peace and security in Gaza to seriously re-examine their policies that have resulted in “mass carnage” of the Palestinians in the devastated enclave.
“The occupying power’s apologists must introspect, and objectively assess the consequences of their policies”, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the 15-member Council on Wednesday.
“What else is complicity,” the Pakistani envoy asked. “In fact, impunity has become Israel’s shield – and this Council’s silence, its enabler.”
The Security Council, he added, cannot remain a bystander. “It must act now, with resolve, to fulfill its Charter responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”
In this regard, Ambassador Iftikhar Ahmad, who was speaking in a debate on the situation in the Middle East, recalled that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) recently adopted a resolution urging the Council, with “moral clarity”, to act under Chapter VII (enforcement) to halt the aggression and violations by the Israeli occupation forces.
Highlighting the deliberate destruction of civilian life in Gaza, he pointed out that overwhelming majority of the more than 62,000 people killed, mostly women and children, were civilians. “How can this ever be justified or defended? This cannot be collateral damage. It is mass carnage.”
“The indiscriminate military onslaught continues, because Israel is confronted with no real consequences for its actions,” the Pakistani envoy told delegates.
“The combined effect of (Israel’s) mass killing, displacement, famine, settlements, and destruction of habitable land leaves no ambiguity: this is a campaign of ethnic cleansing in plain sight.”
Pakistan, he said, condemns Israel’s so-called “military operation” and planned full occupation of Gaza City, which is nothing but a blueprint for further humanitarian catastrophe, threatening to displace once more up to one million people.
At the outset, senior UN officials spoke of the catastrophic situation in Gaza, continued violence and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, and talk of an imminent takeover by Israel of the whole Strip – while underscoring the need to end the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
“Today the world looks on in horror as the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory continues to deteriorate to levels not seen in recent history,” said Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
Twenty-two months into the hostilities, Gaza faces “rapidly mounting civilian casualties, mass displacement, and, now, famine”, he said. Moreover, hostages remain in “appalling conditions”, while the West Bank is gripped by “relentless expansion of settlements, demolitions, and intensifying violence”.
“On 22 August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Famine Review Committee confirmed that famine is now occurring in Gaza,” Joyce Msuya, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Council.
Over half a million people currently face starvation, destitution and death,” with projections of 640,000 within weeks, she added. At least 132,000 children under the age of five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition, with over 43,000 at risk of death. For pregnant and breastfeeding women, numbers are surging from 17,000 to 55,000.
“It’s a created catastrophe,” she went on, citing 22 months of restricted aid, destroyed cropland, and decimated livestock. Overcrowding and collapsed water and sanitation systems have also “turned menstrual hygiene into a nightmare for women and girls”.
International law, she reminded, “prohibits the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”. Turning to the West Bank, she echoed Mr. Alakbarov’s warning that “settler violence and discriminatory policies” threaten 18 Bedouin communities with displacement.
In his remarks, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad called on the Security Council to demand an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire across Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory; lifting of all restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid in the enclave; release of all hostages and exchange of Palestinians prisoners; a halt to Israel’s declared intent to occupy Gaza City; and an end to forced displacement, illegal settlement expansion, and annexations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“Lasting peace requires a credible political horizon – one grounded in international law – leading to the realization of a sovereign, viable, and contiguous Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“Occupation must end,” he emphasized.
In conclusion, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar said, “Every moment of inaction deepens the suffering, multiplies the grief, and tears apart the very fabric of international law.
“The world is watching. History will not forgive delay. It will not forget inaction. The Council must rise to its Charter duty – and act.”