Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy at a UNSC Briefing on the Humanitarian Situation in the Gaza Strip
Madam President,
We would like to thank Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher for his detailed briefing on the current situation in Gaza, which is a man-made human catastrophe.
When the delegations of Algeria and Somalia requested our briefing today so as to discuss the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, they could hardly have predicted that on the eve of the meeting the situation would dramatically escalate and that all ceasefire agreements would basically come to naught.
In the early hours of March 18, the Israeli aviation resumed airstrikes on Gaza, which resulted in new casualties. According to the information we have, over 400 people were killed, and the IDF is reported to be preparing for a land operation in the enclave. Thus, the ceasefire regime has been violated and the tragedy of ordinary Palestinians has taken on a new dimension.
This tragedy has been unfolding before our very eyes for a year and a half. In the course of Israel's military operation, there is basically nothing left of the Strip except for the smoldering ruins, with Gaza’s civilian death toll having passed 48,000. The humanitarian crisis in the enclave has attained truly biblical proportions, which is attested to by the assessments that were presented today by the UN humanitarians. Hospitals and virtually all basic living infrastructure have been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been surviving for months in the open, out on the streets among rubble, suffering from acute shortage of food, insufficient sanitation and lack of basic necessities. At the same time, people are in despair, they have no idea what they are in for – Will the hostilities stop? Will someone rebuild their homes? How will their children survive? Unfortunately, those questions have become even more pressing today, as Israel's actions plunged us back into uncertainty.
This uncertainty has enveloped not only Palestinians but also those Israelis who are waiting for the hostages held in Gaza to return home. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum stated today that “the Israeli government has chosen to give up on the abductees” opting for “the deliberate disruption of the process to return our loved ones from Hamas captivity”. Instead of that, what we are seeing now is the prevailing logic of kicking the Gazans out of their land.
And yet, despite all the deprivations and suffering beyond human endurance, the people of Gaza – as numerous sources show – do not want to leave, as they cannot conceive of their future anywhere else but in their homeland. This is the right that they have suffered for; and the international community is duty bound to make sure that this right is implemented. The Gazans must be given a chance to have a safe and dignified future in the enclave, and the Palestinian people as a whole must be given a chance to establish a State of their own.
Madam President,
Distinguished colleagues,
Under the current circumstances, the UNSC needs to do everything possible to resume the ceasefire and get back to the implementation of the agreements between Israel and Hamas. We must not repeat the mistakes of the past. After all, the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza over the past year and a half is so high, partly because the UN Security Council was unable to make decisions on an earlier ceasefire. This is a bitter lesson for the members of the Security Council to learn, because no political considerations can justify such a delay, which cost the lives of so many civilians.
Between January 19 and March 2, when the Israeli-Hamas deal came into effect, people of Gaza had a glimmer of hope – access to the enclave was unblocked, the humanitarian effort scaled up, and UN organizations enthusiastically reported on the increase in shipments and on the results of this window of opportunity, even though the likelihood of the deal going forward remained slim.
Unfortunately, that glimmer of hope faded away just as quickly as it had flared up. West Jerusalem has once again tightened the screws, and yet again, for two weeks now, the people of Gaza have been facing a blockade, with no prospects for it to be lifted. Today, the blockade has become even more inhumane. The Israeli authorities are obstructing the work of international humanitarian organizations and agencies, they prohibit the import of any humanitarian supplies and commercial goods, dooming the people of Gaza to even greater suffering. As far as we can tell, the crossings have been closed altogether today.
Cuting off electricity to Gaza's desalination plant on March 9 (some of our colleagues have already mentioned that) is yet another instance of blatant disregard for international humanitarian law on the part of West Jerusalem. This decision, by the way, has no military sense whatsoever, and only brings hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of death by depriving them of access to clean drinking water. Give it some thought, please: today, only one in ten people in the Strip has access to clean drinking water. The consequences of such a situation would be catastrophic, inter alia, because in such conditions there is an extremely high risk of the massive spread of communicable diseases, with medical assistance being largely unavailable.
Madam President,
The continued crisis around UNRWA is what causes our most serious concern. The blatant prosecution of the Agency and the Knesset decisions to ban its operation on what is being called “the sovereign territory of Israel” do nothing but add to the picture of the deliberate undermining of the “humanitarian response” in the enclave. It is impossible to argue with how important UNRWA is to the Palestinian refugees, nor can we deny that this UN body is playing an irreplaceable role in providing assistance to the Gazans. We would like to reiterate once again our unwavering support for UNRWA, and we would like to remind about the role the Agency is playing in the Middle East settlement process, including in dealing with one of the final status issues, namely that of the Palestinian refugees.
Against this background, we have heard the Israeli authorities stating that they have some kind of plan whereby West Jerusalem is to take full control over the supply and distribution of humanitarian aid. There are very few details on this plan, but there is every reason to believe that this plan, if implemented, will not only severely limit the operational capabilities of international structures in the Gaza Strip, but also undermine the “2720 Mechanism”, which was established under the UN Security Council decision. It is also clear that such a plan cannot be a substitute for large-scale United Nations humanitarian efforts.
The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that Israel, as the occupying Power, is refusing to shoulder the responsibility for providing for the needs of the population living under occupation. We can all see that such notions as “care for the people” or “protection of civilians” are not among the principles and methods that the IDF is guided by when conducting their military operations with the use of heavy weaponry and aircraft in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (the situation in the West Bank is something that the UN Security Council is to discuss this Friday).
The UN humanitarian bodies have proven that they are capable – especially in conditions of a ceasefire – of carrying out effective work in the enclave and saving lives. We need to fully support them, and protect humanitarian workers from the prosecution by West Jerusalem, which is purely political in nature. Human suffering must not be used as a weapon of war or blackmail, nor as a leverage against Hamas and the international community as a whole, which is exactly what is happening now.
Madam President,
We strongly condemn the measures introduced by Israel and we believe that the application of such measures is a key obstacle on the road towards alleviating the suffering of two million Gazans. We urge the Israeli authorities to immediately cease hostilities and lift the restrictions on humanitarian action throughout the entire occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
We reiterate our consistent and constant commitment to the imperative of establishing an unconditional and permanent ceasefire, releasing all hostages and detainees, providing unimpeded humanitarian access to the OPT, and relaunching a peace process based on the “two-State solution” formula.
We are convinced that without a just and lasting settlement that ensures the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Palestinians to establish their own State within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the vicious circle of mutual violence and bloodshed in the Middle East will never be broken.
Thank you.
