International Community Must Keep Pushing for Permanent Ceasefire, Work towards Gaza’s Reconstruction, Secretary-General Tells Palestinian Rights Committee
Speakers Urge Member States to Fully Support UN Palestine Refugee Agency’s Vital Work, Stress Rising Violence by Israeli Settlers in West Bank Must Stop
The international community must keep pushing for a permanent ceasefire and work towards the reconstruction of Gaza, the UN Chief told the Palestinian Rights Committee today, highlighting the essential role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the process.
“At its essence, the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people is about the right of Palestinians to simply live as human beings in their own land,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his remarks to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People as it opened its 2025 session.
However, the realization of those rights steadily slips farther out of reach as the world witnesses “chilling, systematic dehumanization and demonization of an entire people”, he said. Nearly 50,000 people — 70 per cent of them women and children — have been reported killed and most of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure — hospitals, schools and water facilities — has been destroyed. Displacement after displacement, hunger and disease left an entire generation homeless and traumatized.
“We cannot go back to more death and destruction,” he asserted, adding that the UN is working around the clock to reach Palestinians in need and scale up support. That requires rapid, safe, unimpeded, expanded and sustained humanitarian access, he said, calling on Member States to fully fund humanitarian operations and support UNRWA’s vital work.
In the search for solutions, it is crucial to stay true to the bedrock of international law and avoid any form of ethnic cleansing, he stressed, adding that a viable, sovereign Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security with Israel is “the only sustainable solution for Middle East stability”.
Relatedly, he voiced grave concern over rising violence by Israeli settlers and other violations in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. “The violence must stop,” he said, urging respect for international law, including the International Court of Justice orders.
“The ceasefire was a decisive step forward in providing aid and safety,” said Coly Seck (Senegal), the elected Chair of the Committee for 2025. He called on States to “reinvent strategies to block the way for those enemies of peace on Palestinian ground” and on the international community to defend “these people long oppressed”, adding: “This is a key year for the Palestinian cause.”
Permanent Observer for State of Palestine Rejects Concept of ‘Ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and Open Hell in the West Bank’
Riyad H. Mansour, Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine, said that while “we are delighted to have a ceasefire”, the agreement must become permanent and cover all parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. He rejected the concept of “a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and open hell in the West Bank”, and underscored the need to implement all the agreement’s provisions, including the reconstruction of Gaza and the safe return of the Palestinians to the areas from which they were displaced.
Outlining his objectives for 2025, he stressed that defending UNRWA — the most successful story of multilateralism since the UN’s inception — is paramount. Furthermore, he outlined his plan to work with all Member States towards a successful international conference in June, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, to accomplish the objectives established by the International Court of Justice. The body determined that prolonged occupation of the Palestinian Territory is unlawful and must be terminated as quickly as possible. Echoing that, the General Assembly legislated that this illegal occupation must be terminated within one year.
Underscoring the need to rebuild Gaza, he declared: “It is part of our homeland, and we do not have a homeland other than the State of Palestine [nor] are we looking for other homelands or countries”. Rejecting any idea of ethnic cleansing, he urged all countries to help Palestine’s Government in this endeavour. Accordingly, he spotlighted “intense meetings and communications” between President Mahmoud Abbas and the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
“There is no power on Earth that can remove the Palestinian people from our ancestral homeland, including Gaza,” he said, adding that the return of 400,000 Palestinians to the north is “our answer for those who want us to kick us out of Gaza”.
UNRWA Is Stabilizing Force, Committed Partner to Peace, Agency Official Says
Greta Gunnarsdottir, Head of the UNRWA Liaison Office in New York, speaking on behalf of the Agency’s Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazarini, said that, although the Knesset legislation prohibiting UNRWA’s operations creates challenges, the Agency’s local staff continues to operate “at considerable personal risk” in the occupied West Bank. While operations in Gaza continue, it is unclear how the contact prohibition with Israeli officials will constrain the Agency’s work. Since the ceasefire, UNRWA has distributed food to 750,000 people and conducted 17,000 medical consultations; in January, 260,000 children enrolled in its online learning programmes.
However, she emphasized curtailing UNRWA’s operations will undermine the ceasefire and sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition. “The Government of Israel is investing significant resources to portray the Agency as a terrorist organization,” she said, adding that — as a result — donors are declining or reducing funding. “For 75 years, UNRWA has been a stabilizing force and a committed partner for peace in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It must be allowed to remain so until a political solution is at hand,” she stated.
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Calls Israel’s Starving of 2.3 Million Palestinians in Gaza ‘Fastest Starvation Campaign in Modern History’
Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, speaking via video conference, recalled that Israel announced its intent to starve the civilians in Gaza on 6 October 2023 — before the Hamas attacks. On the reached agreement, he said: “This is not a ceasefire, [but] a slowing down of Israel’s genocide and starvation campaign.”
On 6 October 2023, Gaza had been under a blockade for 23 years, with 50 per cent of its civilians already food insecure and 80 per cent dependent on humanitarian aid. “How is it even possible for Israel to starve 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza so quickly and so completely,” he asked, citing it as “the fastest starvation campaign in modern history”.
One of the reasons for UNRWA’s creation in 1948 was to prevent the starvation of the Palestinian people, he pointed out, stressing that “there has always been the risk of starvation”. The International Court of Justice has recognized the risk of genocide and the occurrence of starvation, as reflected in its warrants on the crime of starvation against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
The right of return and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people constitute the foundation necessary for future political solutions, he continued. Israel has been attacking Palestinians “at degrees of violence not seen before”, destroying food systems and creating conditions of hunger that will last for generations. Moreover, it has attacked the UN itself — it shot at peacekeepers in Lebanon, killed a record number of UN staff in Gaza, mostly UNRWA, and declared the Secretary-General a persona non grata.
Nonetheless, he emphasized that without the support of the United States and Germany — among others — Israel would be unable to implement its starvation campaign and commit genocide. Washington, D.C., under the previous administration, exited international law, while “the current administration exited the UN” by defunding UNRWA, threatening to defund the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and withdrawing from the Human Rights Council. “What is at stake is the international legal order and the UN itself,” he warned, highlighting the importance of the Hague Group, which was created to implement the decisions of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
Recounting Death of Relatives in Gaza Due to Israeli Bombings, UNRWA USA Philanthropy Director Stresses ‘We Will Continue’
“My world shuttered for the first time on 24 November 2023, when Israel dropped a bomb on the family home where my brother lived,” said Hani Almadhoun, Senior Director of Philanthropy at UNRWA USA, also recalling the humiliation of his other brother, who was falsely accused of being a fighter. “Palestinian men were paraded by the Israeli army in their underwear as if they were part of some grotesque spectacle,” he observed. While his non-profit organization supports UNRWA’s work, he noted that individual efforts — no matter how heartfelt — cannot replace the comprehensive support of an established institution like UNRWA. He further recalled that, in February 2024, together with his brother Mahmoud, he co-founded the Gaza Soup Kitchen, which soon became a “lifeline” serving hot meals to thousands of families.
When hospitals were under siege, Mahmoud also created a medical clinic that provided baby formula and diapers and founded a small school for 560 children. He said that “forcing the Palestinians out of Gaza is as unrealistic as draining the ocean”, stating: “Whenever the world failed the Palestinian people […] the land did not.” His concluded by citing the words of his brother Mahmoud, who was killed by an Israeli strike in November 2024: “We will continue.”
Committee Members Highlight UNRWA’s Indispensable Role, Reject Any Attempts to Expel Palestinians from Occupied Palestinian Territory
In the ensuing discussions, Committee members highlighted UNRWA’s indispensable role, with Cuba’s delegate stressing that “to prohibit the work of the Agency today means undermining the present and the future of the Palestinian people”.
While Guyana’s delegate underscored that “the ceasefire must be a stepping stone towards the lasting peace”, her counterpart from Venezuela warned that the latest developments in the West Bank could threaten the agreement.
Others, including Nicaragua’s representative, rejected the recent declarations that imply attempts to expel the Palestinian population from its territories. A displacement plan — “even opening it for discussion” — is unacceptable, said Türkiye’s representative.
Echoing that, Qatar’s delegate said that, during the comprehensive reconstruction process in Gaza, the international community must ensure that Palestinians remain on their land.
For her part, Egypt’s delegate said that commemorating the Committee’s fiftieth anniversary manifests “the failure of the international community to assist the Palestinian people”.
2025 Work Programme Adopted, Bureau Elected
In other business, the Committee adopted its work programme for 2025 and unanimously elected Coly Seck (Senegal) as Chair and Neville Melvin Gertze (Namibia), Jaime Hermida Castillo (Nicaragua), Ahmad Faisal Muhamad (Malaysia), Arrmanatha Christiawan Nasir (Indonesia) and Ernesto Soberón Guzmán (Cuba) as Vice-Chairs.