United nations: Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Minister Riyad Mansour, sent three identical letters on Monday to the UN Secretary-General, the President of the UN Security Council for this month (the United Kingdom), and the President of the UN General Assembly, warning of the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s continued violations of the ceasefire and international humanitarian law.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA, Mansour reported that Israeli occupation forces targeted several civilian areas in Gaza on 31 January, resulting in the deaths of at least 31 Palestinians, including women and children. He further detailed that between 14 and 28 January alone, ongoing airstrikes claimed the lives of 43 more Palestinians, including children and three journalists, while leaving dozens wounded. Hospitals are struggling with severe shortages of essential medical supplies.
Mansour emphasized that since the ceasefire came into effect over three months ago, Israel has killed at least 509 Palestinians and injured over 1,405 others. The overall death toll since the beginning of the Israeli military operations against the Palestinian people has exceeded 72,000, with more than 171,000 wounded, many of whom have sustained permanent disabilities, and thousands remain missing.
He questioned the international community’s tolerance of such actions and the lack of accountability for the repeated violations of UN Security Council Resolution 2803, the International Court of Justice’s orders, and international humanitarian and human rights laws.
Mansour highlighted additional issues, such as Israeli policies of siege, closure, and collective punishment, along with violence by the Israeli army and colonist militias in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. He cited the abductions, arrests, and torture of thousands of Palestinian civilians, land and resource theft, and Israel’s campaign against UNRWA and other UN and international organizations operating in Palestine, which aim to undermine Palestinians’ survival and force them off their land.
In closing his letters, Mansour urged the international community to fulfill its legal, political, and moral obligations by acting immediately to enforce a permanent ceasefire, end the violence against the Palestinian people, and ensure the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid by the United Nations, including UNRWA, and other international organizations.
He stressed the urgency of accelerating efforts to establish a political pathway that ends Israel’s illegal occupation and secures the Palestinian people’s rights to freedom and independence, leading to an independent, sovereign State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with UN resolutions and international law.