Mumtaz Hussain
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to act decisively to end the ongoing carnage and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, warning that continued inaction will have grave consequences for peace, international law, and the credibility of the Council itself.
Speaking at the Council’s briefing on the Middle East and the Question of Palestine, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, underscored that the scale of killings, forced displacement, famine, settlement expansion, and systematic destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure leaves no ambiguity that Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in plain sight.
He highlighted that in the past 691 days of unrelenting tragedy, more than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 19,000 children, 10,000 women, 270 journalists, and over 360 UN aid workers.
Referring to international media reports and even Israel’s own military data, he noted that 83 percent of those killed are civilians. “How can this ever be justified or defended? This is not collateral damage. It is mass carnage,” he emphasized.
Ambassador Asim further warned that hunger is now being weaponized. Citing the latest IPC analysis, he pointed out that famine has already emerged in Gaza City, threatening more than half a million people.
“The use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare may constitute a war crime,” he cautioned.
Condemning Israel’s so-called military operation and its declared plan to fully occupy Gaza City, he described it as a blueprint for further humanitarian catastrophe and the displacement of yet another one million people.
He also denounced the E-1 settlement plan as a deliberate attempt to bury the two-State solution and a blatant violation of international law, including relevant Security Council resolutions.
The Ambassador stressed that the Security Council must demand an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire across Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, along with the lifting of all restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid.
He called for the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, a halt to Israel’s declared intent to occupy Gaza City, and an end to forced displacement, illegal settlement expansion, and annexation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
He reminded the Council that scapegoating the United Nations, dismissing the findings of the International Court of Justice, discrediting global humanitarian organizations, or silencing the media cannot obscure reality. Instead, he said, it is only by accepting the truth and acting upon it that peace can be built.
Ambassador Asim recalled that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in its 21st Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers on 25 August, adopted a resolution urging the Security Council to act decisively under Chapter VII to halt Israeli aggression and to hold the occupying power accountable for its crimes. He also welcomed the High-Level Conference on the Two-State Solution, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France in New York last month, describing it as a timely initiative that represents the will of the international community.
He stressed that this conference must be followed by concrete and coordinated international action to finally achieve peace and stability in the Middle East.
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