THE UNITED Nations Security Council has been urged to address Israel’s attacks on press freedom and escalating military actions in Lebanon and Gaza, as world leaders called for immediate de-escalation and respect for international law.
On Wednesday, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu implored the 15-member body not to overlook the targeting of journalists and the closure of Al Jazeera’s bureaus during Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. ‘There are journalists from Palestine, Lebanon, and Al Jazeera who Israel has killed or closed their offices while they risk everything to ensure we don’t all return to a world where children and babies die in silence, perish in darkness,’ Muizzu told the council.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), more than 110 journalists and media workers — including four Al Jazeera reporters — have been killed in Israeli attacks since the war began in October last year. Authorities in Gaza have put the figure at 173. Israel denies targeting journalists.
In addition to destroying Gaza’s media infrastructure, Israeli authorities have shut down Al Jazeera’s bureaus in Israel and the occupied West Bank in recent months.
The CPJ condemned these actions, stating that ‘Israel’s efforts to censor Al Jazeera severely undermine the public’s right to information on a war that has upended so many lives in the region’. The closures have drawn widespread condemnation from press freedom groups and rights activists.
Muizzu said the attacks against journalists, reminding members that it was the Security Council that established the architecture of a ‘world order based on justice’.
He warned: ‘That architecture is now crumbling under the rubble of destroyed homes, hospitals, and schools, disintegrating under the weight of the bodies of innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.’
He called for the abolition of veto powers held by the council’s five permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States – stating: ‘The veto continues to paralyse the council from stopping Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.
‘The veto has allowed Israel to continue with impunity, in practising brutal occupation and risking regional security. The veto continues to enable the massacre of innocent people.’
Muizzu’s speech echoed his address at the UN General Assembly the previous day, during which he said Israel was attempting to cover up its crimes by targeting Palestinian and Lebanese journalists, including by closing Al Jazeera offices.
‘How can we interpret this as anything other than brutal attempts to prevent the world from knowing the crimes taking place?’ he asked on Tuesday. ‘Israel must be held accountable for these acts of terrorism, for these violations of international law and UN resolutions.’
Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati also addressed the Security Council, urging immediate action as Israel’s bombardment of his country has killed at least 620 people. ‘Israel is violating our sovereignty by sending their warplanes and drones into our skies,’ Mikati told the emergency meeting.
He emphasised the urgent need for de-escalation, saying: ‘I hope to come back to my country armed with your explicit stance calling for the cessation of this aggression and for the respect of the sovereignty and safety of my country.’
An urgent meeting of the Security Council was called on Wednesday by France, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot unveiling efforts with the United States to reach a temporary pause in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
‘In recent days, we’ve worked with our American partners on a temporary ceasefire platform of 21 days to allow for negotiations,’ Barrot said.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, expressed hope that the ceasefire proposal would ‘lead to calm and enable discussions to a diplomatic solution’. He added: ‘Nobody wants to see a repeat of the full-blown war that occurred in 2006.’ However, Wood also directed blame for Israel’s attack on Lebanon to Hezbollah’s ‘build-up of weapons, many of which are supplied by Iran’.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that his country supports Hezbollah and that Tehran would not remain indifferent if the attack on Lebanon escalated. ‘We support all efforts to bring about a ceasefire, but we cannot ignore the aggression against Lebanon,’ Araghchi said.
In response to the escalating tensions, Israel’s military chief, Herzi Halevi, announced preparations for a possible ground assault in Lebanon. Addressing soldiers in northern Israel on Wednesday, he said: ‘We are preparing the process of a manoeuvre, which means your military boots will enter enemy territory, enter villages that Hezbollah has prepared as large military outposts.’
He added: ‘Hezbollah has expanded its range of fire, and later today, they will receive a very strong response. Prepare yourselves.’ The Israeli army stated it was calling up two brigades of reservists to the north to continue fighting Hezbollah and to facilitate the return of thousands of civilians displaced by crossfire — the stated aim of this week’s deadly offensive into Lebanon.
Hezbollah fired dozens of missiles at Israel on Wednesday, including a longer-range projectile that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and across central Israel. The group said it had fired a ballistic missile at the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, which it accused of being responsible for the targeted killing of its senior leaders. Israel stated that the missile was intercepted and later said it struck the launch site in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Health Minister reported that at least 72 people were killed on Wednesday alone, raising the death toll to 615 over the past three days, with more than 2,000 wounded. UN Secretary-General António Guterres described it as the ‘bloodiest day in Lebanon in a generation’. ‘The violence must stop. The cycle of destruction and bloodshed is intensifying, and civilians are paying the highest price,’ Guterres said.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New York on Thursday to make a case at the UN for his government’s military operations. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, confirmed Netanyahu’s address to the General Assembly and told reporters: ‘We are grateful for all those who are making a sincere effort with diplomacy to avoid escalation, to avoid a full war.’
Danon told the Security Council that Iran was the nexus of violence in the region and that peace required dismantling the threat. ‘Iran is the puppet master pulling the strings of Hamas and Hezbollah,’ he said. ‘The international community must recognise this and act accordingly.’
More than 90,000 people have fled southern Lebanon to seek shelter in the north, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Aid groups have called for blood donations, and schools have been turned into shelters. Long queues of cars fleeing southern towns have jammed the streets.
The IOM said the World Health Organisation and the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health are preparing for mass casualty events and maintaining essential services, including mental health support, despite critically low health stock levels.
- In Gaza, Al Jazeera has been providing extensive coverage of Israel’s nearly year-long war, which has killed more than 41,400 Palestinians, and of a parallel surge in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Last Sunday, Israeli soldiers raided the bureau of the Qatar-based network in Ramallah and ordered its closure for 45 days. The order came from the Israeli military authority despite the bureau being in Area A, an area delineated as being under Palestinian control in the Oslo Accords.
