Any Attempt to Discredit UN Relief, Works Agency for Palestine Refugees Undermines Principles of International Cooperation, Delegate Tells Security Council
Decrying legislative and physical attacks against the United Nations agency providing the backbone for the humanitarian response in Gaza, two senior UN officials urged the Security Council today to act in the face of flagrant violation of international humanitarian law in the Strip, as Council members discussed ways to address the catastrophe unfolding there.
“It’s a relentless and often-hourly struggle,” said Antonia Marie De Meo, Deputy Commissioner-General for Operational Support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). More than 2 million people remain “trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction at a staggering scale”, dominated by fear, thirst, hunger, disease, dehumanization, lack of basic sanitation and repeated displacement. Moreover, blatant disregard for international humanitarian law is now commonplace in the Gaza Strip.
On that, she reported that the Agency’s offices in Gaza are “destroyed beyond recognition”, more than 560 displaced people have been killed while sheltering under the UN flag and, just recently, two UN convoys sustained fire despite authorization from the Israeli military. Further, visa refusals hinder humanitarian work and recent Israeli legislation threatens to ban UNRWA operations in East Jerusalem, revoke privileges enjoyed by the Agency since 1949 and designate it as a terrorist organization. “We cannot afford this to become a new standard for future humanitarian operations in conflict zones around the world,” she stressed.
“The campaign against UNRWA, attacks against its premises and legislative efforts to declare UNRWA a terrorist organization to end its operations are utterly unacceptable and endanger our operations,” added Muhannad Hadi, Deputy Special Coordinator, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. Almost 10 months into this crisis, a safe enabling environment for the provision of humanitarian assistance still does not exist inside Gaza. “The commitment or willingness of the aid workers is not the issue — it’s the inability to achieve our mandate, and that is beyond our control,” he emphasized.
In the following debate, Council members voiced alarm over the bleak situation in which civilians in Gaza find themselves. Many also pointed out that attacks against civilians — including humanitarian workers — are prohibited under international law and underscored the need for an immediate ceasefire. Additionally, some expressed support for UNRWA, condemning continuing attempts to slander or hinder the Agency’s vital work.
Any attempt to discredit UNRWA undermines the principles of international cooperation and solidarity, stressed the representative of Algeria, also rejecting any attempt to shift responsibility for the disaster in Gaza to the United Nations. While calling for several measures to alleviate suffering in the Strip — including a “massive vaccination campaign” through the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent the spread of polio among children — he added, however, that such measures will be “useless” without a ceasefire.
The representative of China also opposed attempts to attack and discredit UNRWA and to “throw a spanner” in the Agency’s implementation of its mandate. Also noting that almost two months have passed since the adoption of resolution 2735 (2024), he pointed out that Israel has continued large-scale military operations while ceasefire negotiations are underway. Therefore, the United States must apply greater pressure on Israel to help effect such a measure immediately.
That country’s representative, meanwhile, called on the Council to maintain pressure on Hamas to reach a final agreement and begin its implementation without delay. A ceasefire would create a safer environment for aid workers to conduct needed vaccination campaigns and provide other health interventions, he said, urging all parties to the conflict to do more to protect aid workers. For his part, the President of the United States recently expressed to the Israeli Prime Minister the need to finalize the deal as soon as possible, bring all hostages home and reach a permanent end to the war.
Yet, Slovenia’s representative urged the Council to demand from both Israel and Hamas the finalization of a ceasefire deal with a short deadline, additionally suggesting an Olympic truce while that deal is being finalized. After that grace period, if a deal is still not in place, the Council should take further action to make Hamas and Israel comply. “This is what we believe the Council could do to move beyond briefings and lamenting over the humanitarian situation,” he said.
“There is no speech that can convey the shouts of a child being amputated or dealing with severe burns, the silent agony of a father watching his child turning into bones before his eyes until all life leaves his body, the tears in a doctor’s eyes as he counts the days and hours in lives he could not save,” said the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine, describing the horrors in Gaza. “In a parallel world”, he added, the Israeli Prime Minister stood before the United States Congress and “claimed Israel was not killing or starving Palestinians”.
Israel’s representative, detailing his country’s “extensive humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip”, said that Hamas has twisted much of the aid intended for civilians into weapons of war. He also stated that the UN not only falters in its duty to coordinate aid distribution, but that “UNRWA is complicit in the perpetuation of this conflict”. Noting that 115 hostages are still held captive by “Hamas Nazis”, he emphasized that the “most crucial element for the end of this conflict has been excluded from this conversation”.
The representative of the Russian Federation, Council President for July, took the floor at that point to state, however, that any Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza implies discussing the issue of hostages. He added that Council members “do know what the formula is” to end the conflict – “a ceasefire is needed”.
THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST, INCLUDING THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION
Briefings
ANTONIA MARIE DE MEO, Deputy Commissioner-General for Operational Support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), reported that more than 2 million people in Gaza remain “trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction at a staggering scale”, dominated by fear, thirst, hunger, disease, dehumanization, lack of basic sanitation and repeated displacement. “It’s a relentless and often-hourly struggle,” she stressed, stating that famine remains a risk and communicable diseases are on the rise. Children are bearing the brunt of this — with 625,000 “deeply traumatized” children out of school — and she underscored that “we risk depriving an entire generation of girls and boys of formal education, sowing the seeds of hatred, resentment and future conflict”. UNRWA is therefore committed to resume learning for all of Gaza’s children, which will start in a few days with the provision of mental-health and psychosocial support, transition to informal learning and culminate in a return to formal instruction in schools.
Noting the Council’s resolutions “aimed at ending this war”, she said that — while their adoptions have been welcomed in New York — “in Gaza, we have seen woefully limited impact”. Blatant disregard for international humanitarian law is now commonplace in the Gaza Strip, and she reported: “In the past two weeks alone, eight UNRWA schools — all serving as shelters for displaced people — have been struck.” Further, UNRWA offices in Gaza are “destroyed beyond recognition”, more than 560 displaced people have been killed while sheltering under the UN flag, and just recently, two UN convoys were shot at despite coordination, deconfliction and authorization from the Israeli military, she said. Reiterating that “no place” and “no one” is safe in Gaza — including humanitarian workers — she also said that concerted efforts to dismantle UNRWA “continue unabated”. Many UN and non-governmental organization (NGO) staff have been refused visas to enter Israel, the visa of UNRWA’s Commissioner-General expired more than a month ago and has yet to be renewed and, for UN staff who have been granted a visa, most are only two or three months long — therefore requiring repeated, lengthy bureaucratic processes.
She also reported that Israel’s Parliament approved, on first reading, legislation related to UNRWA on 22 July, seeking to ban its operations in occupied East Jerusalem, to revoke UN privileges and immunities afforded to the Agency since 1949 and to designate it as a terrorist organization. If these bills pass — “which could happen as early as next week” — she underscored that, while UNRWA will face the impact today, the entire UN system will feel it tomorrow. “We cannot afford this to become a new standard for future humanitarian operations in conflict zones around the world,” she stressed. Noting that the campaign against UNRWA is often framed around the Agency’s alleged failure to uphold the humanitarian principle of neutrality, she recalled the April findings of the independent review, which confirmed that UNRWA “possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities”.
She therefore urged those present to push back against calls to dismantle the Agency, stating that it exists because a political solution — or a Palestinian State that can deliver public services in its place — does not. Also calling on the Council to persist in its efforts to secure a ceasefire and to protect UNRWA’s mandate, she expressed hope that the 15-member organ will speak out in one voice against attacks — “legislative or otherwise” — against the Agency. Further, she said that the Council must advance a peaceful solution to this 70-year-long conflict as, the longer it persists, “the further we drift from achieving a peaceful solution”.
MUHANNAD HADI, Deputy Special Coordinator, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, reiterated the United Nations three asks: a ceasefire, the ability to provide aid to the Palestinians in Gaza in line with humanitarian principles and an immediate and unconditional release of hostages. He shared that the women he met in Deir al Balah in Gaza on 9 July told him they wake up every day just to search for food and water. One woman also shared her plight, saying: “As a mother, I am forced to witness my child starve and cry all night long.” Many women had suicidal thoughts. Thousands of these children have sustained horrific injuries such as third-degree burns, amputated limbs and profound mental trauma. Children wander around camps for displaced people, often unaccompanied, exposed to huge risks and further injuries from playing in rubble filled with unexploded ordnance. They are also at risk of contracting dangerous diseases, such as polio, from the mountains of garbage and rivers of sewage that flow through those settlements.
No one is safe in Gaza, he said, illustrating how “those who survive the bombs and bullets, still face the threats of hunger, unsanitary conditions and lack of health care”. Among the destruction of social fabric and infrastructure, the UN and NGOs are sparing no effort to provide life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable. “The commitment or willingness of the aid workers is not the issue, it’s the inability to achieve our mandate, and that is beyond our control,” he said, deploring that, almost 10 months into this crisis, a safe enabling environment for the provision of humanitarian assistance still does not exist inside Gaza. Against this backdrop, UNRWA has been shouldering the burden of this crisis. “The campaign against UNRWA, attacks against its premises and legislative efforts to declare UNRWA a terrorist organization to end its operations — are utterly unacceptable and endanger our operations,” he emphasized.
“Today, the UN is not in a position to provide the necessary assistance to the people in Gaza, let alone to scale up, unless specific factors are in place,” he reported, highlighting the responsibility of warring parties to protect humanitarian actors. Current procedures in place for getting aid and fuel consignments from crossings to people in need are cumbersome, dangerous and costly. All crossings must be utilized simultaneously, with streamlined procedures, including the Rafah crossing. Trucks carrying aid must be allowed to drive directly from Egypt and Jordan to the humanitarian destinations inside Gaza. Visa procedures for UN and other aid workers must be streamlined. The human impact of this conflict cannot be overstated. “This impact will haunt all of us, not for years, but for generations to come,” he said, calling for a ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of hostages.
Statements
The representative of the Russian Federation, Council President for July, spoke in his national capacity to sound the alarm over the catastrophic situation in Gaza and the staggering number of civilian victims. More than 50,000 bombs were dropped on the enclave, destroying civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools. People in Gaza have no food, water and medicine. There is no hope that this suffering will end soon, he said, highlighting the testimony of an American reporter who witnessed snipers targeting children. “This is what you get from rhetoric stating that every Palestinian — as of three years of age — is a terrorist,” he stated, recalling the statement of the Israeli Ministers at the early stages of the conflict. Voicing concern over the low level of humanitarian response, he said that the Rafah crossing — through which a significant volume of humanitarian aid used to be delivered — is closed and the roads are destroyed. Also, 278 humanitarian workers died, including 197 UNRWA staff, and on 21 July, yet another human convoy into Gaza was shelled. Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to collective punishment and an attempt to totally eliminate the civilian population, he observed, criticizing that country’s continued disinformation campaign about UNRWA, to which “there is no alternative”.
The representative of Algeria urged: “Let our voices thunder and our deeds resound — not one more day shall pass with starvation used as a tool of war in Gaza.” Rejecting any attempt to shift responsibility for this disaster to the UN, he stressed that any attempt to discredit UNRWA undermines the principles of international cooperation and solidarity. He also stressed that the warnings of the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding disease outbreak among displaced populations cannot be ignored, as preventable disease will claim more lives due to shortages of essential medical equipment unjustly restricted under dual-use pretexts. He therefore called for opening of all border crossings — including Rafah, to be operated exclusively by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority; deploying monitors in Rafah to ensure the smooth passage of aid; enabling UNRWA and other humanitarian actors to distribute aid throughout Gaza; and launching a “massive vaccination campaign” through WHO to prevent the spread of polio among children. He added, however: “Without a ceasefire, all the above measures will be useless.”
The representative of China said that “the unfolding tragedy in Gaza is testing the moral conscience of humanity and rocking the very foundation of international justice” and “the red lines of international law and international humanitarian law have been crossed repeatedly”. It will be remembered as “a stain in human history, one that is hard to scrub off”, he said. Almost two months have passed since the adoption of Council resolution 2735 (2024). While negotiations for a ceasefire are under way, Israel has continued its large-scale military operations. The United States must put greater pressure on Israel to help bring about an immediate ceasefire. China is firmly opposed to attempts to attack and discredit UNRWA and “throw a spanner” in the works of the Agency’s mandate implementation. Earlier this week, Beijing hosted a reconciliation dialogue by intra-Palestinian groups. They reached an important consensus — a significant step forward towards operationalizing the principle of Palestinians governing Palestine and preparing for post-war governance in Gaza, he reported, calling for a more broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference to work out a timetable and a road map to implement a two-State solution.
The representative of Ecuador, voicing concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, said that almost 200 UNRWA staff members have died there, the sanitary conditions are disastrous and the living conditions of the Gaza population are further deteriorating. Noting that hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally, he said that an agreement has not been reached that allows for their release, the cessation of hostilities and the delivery of humanitarian assistance. He emphasized that the civilian population and humanitarian personnel must not be targeted, appealing to the parties to demonstrate political will and flexibility to conclude an agreement that will stop the violence and ensure a just and peaceful solution.
The representative of Mozambique underscored: “There is no plausible reason for the current unjustified and unbearable suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza.” The humanitarian disaster in the Strip must cease, and for this to happen, the war must stop immediately. Demanding the full implementation of relevant Council resolutions, he also urged Israel to comply with the rulings of the International Court of Justice calling for an immediate ceasefire and to allow unhindered humanitarian assistance to flow into Gaza. In this, the opening of all border crossings — particularly Rafah — is critical. Further, he called on the international community to fully support UNRWA “as it is a pillar of regional stability and a lifeline of hope for millions of Palestinian refugees”. To this end, donors must provide the Agency with necessary, predictable financial resources such that it can operate and fulfil its mandate.
The representative of Sierra Leone said that attacking UN convoys and humanitarian workers is a violation of international humanitarian law and hinders the ability of aid agencies to deliver critical assistance to civilians in desperate need, condemning the recent attacks on convoys of UNRWA and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the latter carrying five Palestinian children, including a baby to be reunited with the father. The International Court of Justice advisory opinions of 19 July point to one direction — ending the unlawful occupation by Israel of Palestinian territory, ensuring unhindered access to humanitarian aid and releasing the hostages and wrongfully detained prisoners. To achieve all of these, his country demands an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory. In that regard, he expressed his country’s strong support for the mediation efforts of Egypt, Qatar and the United States and urged Israel and Hamas to approach the negotiation with good faith, and the determination and courage needed for a positive outcome.
The representative of Malta, describing the situation in Gaza as “beyond catastrophic”, said humanitarian aid continues to be blocked without any legitimate administrative reasons. “Alternative attempts at aid delivery via sea and air have failed, and the situation has quickly reverted to the status quo: hopelessness,” she stated. Today, the man-made humanitarian disaster in Gaza is worse than at any point in the past 10 months. Millions of people face starvation and dehydration. Humanitarian assistance remains politicized, and UNRWA continues to be targeted and vilified. No hospital in Gaza remains fully functioning, no university has been left standing and there are no more police or medical specialists. “The social fabric has been completely torn apart, perhaps irreparably,” she said, adding: “All that remains are individuals who have lost all sense of hope and purpose while struggling for their daily survival amid terror, starvation and criminality.” The Palestinian people cannot continue to endure this situation, which is effectively akin to “hell on Earth”, she said.
The representative of Switzerland, underscoring the need to restore immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access “to the entire affected population, at all crossing points and throughout the Gaza Strip”, said that this also applies to UNRWA. Incidents in which clearly identified UN vehicles sustain fire must cease, and he also condemned the continued use of inflammatory language “despite our repeated appeals to abandon it”. Stating that attacks against civilians and the deliberate use of starvation as a method of warfare constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute, he urged that respect for — and implementation of — international law “remain a priority for this Council”. He also called for the immediate, unconditional release of hostages and the full implementation of the Council’s binding decisions. However, these elements are only the first steps towards a political resolution of the conflict, and therefore Council members and States with influence must take the necessary measures to end the violence and relaunch dialogue.
The representative of Slovenia said that Gaza is twice the size of Washington, D.C. It has been bombed over and over again for 10 months, and probably nothing is left there but a pile of rubble — the pile continuing to be bombed. In this situation, what is the Council doing? “This is the question that we are getting from our citizens,” he said, adding: “My response to people in Slovenia was that we don’t have the power to enforce a ceasefire.” As a Council member, his country’s role is to send messages or offer proposals and pressure influential members to urge the warring parties to act. He then urged the Council to demand from Israel and Hamas the finalization of a ceasefire deal with a short deadline and call for an Olympic truce — a pause in fighting while the ceasefire deal is being finalized. After that grace period, if a ceasefire deal is still not in place, the Council should take further action to make Hamas and Israel comply, he said, adding that it is also time to start considering how to support transitional governance in Gaza, reconstruction and the final resolution of the conflict for the two peoples and two States. “This is what we believe the Council could do to move beyond briefings and lamenting over the humanitarian situation,” he said.
The representative of the United States said confirmation of vaccine-derived poliovirus in the Strip is worrisome and underscores the need to address the health risks to the Gazan population. “The fighting has brought Gaza’s health system to the brink of collapse,” he observed, also noting the failure of waste-management systems and critical infrastructure. During his meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, United States President Joseph R. Biden expressed the need to close the remaining gaps and finalize the deal as soon as possible, to bring all the hostages home and reach a permanent end to the war. However, the Council must maintain pressure on Hamas to reach a final agreement and begin its implementation without delay. He further underscored the need to remove obstacles to the flow of humanitarian aid, restore basic services and protect civilians. A ceasefire would create a safer environment for health workers to carry out needed immunization campaigns and provide other health interventions, he stressed, urging all parties to the conflict to do more to protect aid workers. He also urged Israel to investigate incidents where humanitarian workers have been killed and injured, hold perpetrators accountable and prevent such incidents from occurring. Concurrently, the UN should investigate credible claims of its personnel who might be involved in acts of terrorism. He also called on the Russian Federation to stop politicizing the situation in Gaza, adding that Moscow “does not help solve humanitarian crises, it creates them”.
The representative of the United Kingdom stressed that civilians need better protection and designated civilian spaces, expressing concern over Israel’s incursion into Khan Younis, as well as Al-Mawasi, the only remaining humanitarian zone designated as such by the Israel Defense Forces. “Civilians in Gaza need much, much more aid,” she added, stating that UNRWA is “central” to these efforts and reporting that London recently announced $27 million in new funding for the Agency. Further, she called for full cooperation with UN and humanitarian actors — including UNRWA — and granting visas, allowing equipment in and opening all aid routes to Gaza. Noting that the Israeli Government has seized more land in 2024 than in the past 20 years combined, she underscored that this is “unacceptable”, runs counter to multiple Council resolutions and undermines the viability of a two-State solution. “The only way out of this cycle of violence is through diplomacy,” she urged.
The representative of the Republic of Korea said: “Let’s be clear; a ceasefire is the only way — as well as the critical first step — to alleviate the immense suffering that has lasted for far too long.” UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian efforts in Gaza and essential for ensuring the dignified lives of millions of Palestinian refugees in the region, he said, rejecting any attempt to hamper its activities and legitimacy by a national institution of a Member State as “a dangerous challenge” to the architecture of global governance based on the UN that cannot be tolerated. The international community’s commitment to a two-State solution is strong and steadfast. “Any inflammatory rhetoric, whether it is from Israeli politicians or from Hamas members, cannot have any impact on this firm global aspiration,” he stressed.
The representative of Japan, voicing concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, said “desperate Palestinians are facing acute food insecurity, if not famine”, and are left searching for safe drinking water and sanitation, medical care and shelter. Israel’s repeated evacuation orders have forced nearly 1.9 million to relocate, many multiple times. Sounding the alarm over the heavy civilian casualties caused by the ongoing hostilities, she said the Israel Defense Forces’ new military offensive in Khan Younis reportedly killed dozens and forced thousands to flee. Furthermore, the reduction in the size of the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Al-Mawasi is deeply troubling, she said, stating: “There is no safe place in Gaza.” Noting that prompt and extensive delivery of humanitarian aid is essential, she called for the immediate reopening of the Rafah crossing and underscored the need to ensure the safety of humanitarian aid workers.
The representative of France, recalling that the Council has adopted four resolutions since 7 October 2023, observed that “none of them have been implemented”. He also recalled that France supported the United States’ proposal that was endorsed by the Council on 10 June in resolution 2735 (2024). “Six weeks after that vote, it is time for that resolution to finally be implemented,” he urged. Recent Israeli strikes on a camp for internally displaced persons and a school are unacceptable, and the long-term consequences on an entire generation of children are catastrophic. Emphasizing that the revocation of visas for UN personnel and recent incidents affecting UN convoys are also unacceptable, he called on all actors to ensure the efficacy of deconfliction mechanisms and to guarantee protection for humanitarian workers. In the face of immense need, UNRWA’s role is “essential”, he added, reporting that France’s support to the Agency totals €38 million — making Paris its fourth-largest donor.
The representative of Guyana cited media and UN reports on details about the deeply inhumane treatment of Palestinian civilians both in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where Palestinian civilians threw stones at Israeli security forces and elicited live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets and teargas canisters in response. This is illustrative of the wider paradigms of this conflict, in which “defenceless Palestinians are pitted against a war machine intent on dispossessing, subjugating and annihilating them”. The International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of 19 July answers how to stop this, she said, quoting from it: “It is for the General Assembly and the Security Council to consider what further action is required to put an end to the illegal presence of Israel.” Many displaced Palestinians hold on to their home keys in the hope of returning to their homeland. “This practice is ripe with messaging for this Council,” she said, calling for Council consensus on mandating and enforcing the end of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory to end the decades-long conflict.
The representative of the Russian Federation, taking the floor a second time, said that the United States spends billions of dollars on supplies of weapons to Israel and Ukraine. If the “self-proclaimed coach” of all international actors spent even a small share of those on humanitarian aid in Gaza and other regions in need, “our world would be very different”. Underscoring that the Russian Federation provides humanitarian aid to Palestine through non-governmental organizations, the Government and the World Food Programme (WFP), he told his counterpart from the United States that “before giving lessons to everyone, at least pay up your contribution to the United Nations and stop causing a liquidity crisis, which also hinders the humanitarian efforts of our Organization”.
In response, the representative of the United States asked what percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) the Russian Federation spends on humanitarian assistance. “The United States is a lead player on humanitarian assistance around the globe,” he said, adding: “Russia is not.” If Moscow spent 1 per cent of what it is spending to carry out barbaric atrocities in Ukraine, then it could claim that it was doing something to solve humanitarian crises around the world.
The representative of the Russian Federation, taking the floor again, asked what percentage of its GDP the United States spends on supplies of weapons around the world.
The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine said that — while humanitarians in Palestine are trying to deliver on their noble mission in impossible circumstances and at the peril of their lives — UNRWA remains under attack. “The baseless and shameless terrorism charge against a UN humanitarian agency is no longer a talking point, but a license to kill,” he asserted. The killing, maiming and arrest of its staff members and the setting ablaze of its headquarters was a direct result of such incitement. However, Israel’s real target is the millions of Palestinians who rely on UNRWA to stay alive, he said, adding that there is “hardly any space left to operate” in Gaza.
“There is no speech that can convey the shouts of a child being amputated or dealing with severe burns, the silent agony of a father watching his child turning into bones before his eyes until all life leaves his body, the tears in a doctor’s eyes as he counts the days and hours in lives he could not save,” he said, describing the horrors in the Strip. Refugees are running from one death to another as every school or tent sheltering them has been bombed. “In a parallel world, Netanyahu stood before the [United States] Congress and claimed Israel was not killing or starving Palestinians,” he stated. While conducting barbaric attacks against the civilian population, he paradoxically described the conflict as “a clash between civilization and barbarism”.
Noting that anyone who refuses this diktat is dubbed a terrorism supporter and an antisemite, he pointed out that anonymous Israeli sources are now criticizing United States Vice-President Kamala Harris for speaking with compassion about Palestinian victims. Reiterating the need to implement resolution 2735 (2024), he said this horrific assault on Palestinians must end and the opinion of the International Court of Justice — which spelled out the obligations of Israel and all UN Member States — must be fully upheld towards a more just, free and secure Middle East.
The representative of Israel said: “What an absurdity to again be called to this Council to again discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza.” Rather, the Council should be discussing Hamas and its agenda, orchestrated by Iran, to destroy Israel. Noting the recent recovery of the bodies of five hostages “from a humanitarian zone”, he stated that the Council has yet to hold a formal meeting on what started the war or on ways to advance the release of hostages. “This fact disgraces the Council,” he said. “Israel is, and will always be, committed to our extensive humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip,” he went on to say, spotlighting Israel’s allowance of 828,000 tons of aid, over 42,000 trucks via land routes, 9,931 pallets of aerial drops and 432 trucks through maritime routes to enter the Strip. Israel has also established 11 field hospitals — with another 3 under construction — and since 7 October 2023, has consistently ushered in food, water, fuel, medical supplies and other essentials.
However, while Israel meets its obligations, he said that the world is being fed casualty numbers and data by the Hamas-run health ministry. And not only does the UN falter in its duty to coordinate aid distribution, but “UNRWA is complicit in the perpetuation of this conflict”, he stated. Stressing that Hamas has twisted much of the aid intended for civilians into weapons of war, he said: “Where we see a water pipe, Hamas sees a rocket; where we see a hospital, Hamas sees a headquarters; where we see a school, Hamas sees terror tunnels.” Meanwhile, Hamas continues to strike Israeli villages, Hizbullah rains down rockets and the Houthis recently struck Tel Aviv. “Until you address the head of the snake in Tehran, there is no way to bring stability to the region,” he underscored. Noting that 115 hostages are still held captive by “Hamas Nazis”, he emphasized that the “most crucial element for the end of this conflict has been excluded from this conversation”.
The representative of the Russian Federation, Council President for July, took the floor again to state that any Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza implies discussing the issue of hostages, “which was the case today”. He added that Council members “do know what the formula is” to end the conflict — “a ceasefire is needed”.
The representative of Iraq, speaking for the Arab Group, said that “the only way to save civilians in the Gaza Strip is an immediate and sustainable ceasefire”. However, Israeli military attacks against Gaza have continued unabated with the scarcity of medical and health care, the spread of disease and the lack of food, medicine and shelter. The humanitarian suffering in Gaza must be addressed more decisively and seriously, he said, stressing: “We cannot remain idle just watching this shocking suffering in the Gaza Strip as Israel continues to close and destroy crossing points.” He called on the Council to bring pressure to bear on Israel towards a ceasefire and allow relief operations in Gaza to be conducted safely, reaffirming the need for immediate action “before it’s too late”.