ACCORDING to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 100 Palestinians have been killed and over 600 injured in Israel’s assault on the besieged coastal enclave.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Dr Riyad Mansour, addressed the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.
He said: ‘We call on the Security Council to act immediately to protect civilian lives, which are being lost and destroyed with each passing minute of the Israeli military aggression being waged against the Palestinian people in Occupied Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip. . .
‘This illegal, inhumane Israeli occupation is unjustifiable under any context and contravenes all principles of international law, human decency and moral conscience. It is an occupation, including armed forces and terrorist settlers, that intentionally perpetrates the murder, burning and maiming of children; the killing and wounding of women, men and elderly persons; extrajudicial executions; the destruction of homes; the theft and colonisation of another people’s land; the forced displacement and dispossession of civilians, rendering them homeless and impoverished; the desecration of holy sites, especially in Occupied East Jerusalem; and the abduction, imprisonment and detention of thousands of civilians, including children.
‘It is an occupation that proves again and again its racist, aggressive, expansionist agenda and lack of respect for the sanctity of life and rights of the Palestinian people, who history has condemned to the misfortune of suffering under this occupation. . .
‘I come before the Security Council to say: Enough of the bloodshed of the Palestinian people, enough of their oppression under the Israeli occupation, enough of this injustice, and enough of this violence and conflict that is inflicting so much suffering on innocent people on both sides and undermining regional and international peace and stability.’
He urged: ‘The Security Council cannot remain paralysed and marginalised as Israeli war crimes continue against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip and in the rest of Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem.’
He concluded: ‘It is high-time that Israel, the occupying power, be held accountable for its countless human rights violations and war crimes, including the killing of Palestinian civilians, the wanton destruction of Palestinian property and the malicious colonisation of the Palestinian land.
‘We call on the Security Council to act now to stop the bleeding in Occupied Palestine, including this latest Israeli war on Gaza, and to revive our dying hopes in the prospects for an end to the occupation, an end to this tragic conflict and the achievement of peace and for the realisation of the Palestinian aspirations for their freedom, rights and justice that have been too-long denied.’
