2023-10-24 17:23:12
On the precise day of 78 birthday of the entry into force of the United Nations Charterhe Security Council met again this Tuesday in a session dedicated to the crisis between Israel y Palestine. After in the organ two resolutions failed who sought a humanitarian ceasefire, the last for a United States vetothe secretary general of the HIM, António Guterresopened the session by reiterating his “call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
“Even war has rules”, the Portuguese stressed in his speech, who has asked “all parties” to maintain and respect their obligations under international humanitarian law.
Guterres has returned to condemn harshly and unequivocally los attacks of Hamas from October 7but he has also pointed out that “it is important recognize that they did not happen in a vacuum”remembering 56 years of “suffocating occupation” as well as the impact on Palestinians of settlements, violence, economic suffocation, home demolitions and forced displacement.
“The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the terrible attacks by Hamas and these attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” said Guterres, who described “deeply alarming” he “incessant bombardment Gaza by Israeli forces, level of civilian casualties and the total destruction of neighborhoods.”
“Clear violations of humanitarian law”
The Portuguese has also shown himself “deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law what we are seeing in Gaza.” “Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than a million to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, food, water, medicine or fuel and continue bombing the south itself,” he stressed. And although he has celebrated that humanitarian assistance is finally entering Gaza, he has lamented that “it is a “drop of help in an ocean of need”.
The Portuguese’s words have opened a session in which a total of 86 speakers, including several ministers and foreign affairs officials who attended the Council meeting in person. And this arrives two days before the General Assembly the one that addresses the issue of this crisis, an echo of what has happened with Ukraine, where the blockade of the Security Council caused it to be transferred to the body where all the member states are represented, where the pulse of the feelings of the international community is taken. but where the resolutions are not binding.
A devastating portrait
The seriousness of the situation has once again been exposed in the words of Guterres, but also in those of the UN coordinator of the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, and, above all, in those of Lynn Hastings, coordinator of humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territories.
Hastings, for example, has recalled that in the 17 days of attacks Israel In response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas there have been more than double the number of Palestinian victims than in 2014, when the war lasted 50 days. He 62% of these victims are women and children. Hastings has also recalled that there are 1.4 million displaced people, including 600,000 refugees in UN facilities. “There is nowhere to take refuge in Gaza”, he denounced. “When it comes to deciding whether or not to flee and where, civilians are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”
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