Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on the humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip
Mr.President,
Colleagues,
Together with the delegations of the UAE and China, we called this urgent meeting against the backdrop of dramatic developments in Gaza. Yesterday a missile strike destroyed Al-Ahli Hospital in the central part of the Gaza Strip. We are deeply shocked by this incident.
The Anglican hospital was one of the 20 in northern Gaza that had received an evacuation notice from the Israeli military. However as Mr.Griffiths said earlier, this instruction could not be fulfilled due to the unstable situation, critical condition of some inpatients, as well as a lack of ambulances, personnel, hospital beds, and escape shelter for evacuees. According to the latest updates, the hospital attack has killed or injured more than 800 people. We demand an impartial investigation of this crime and accountability for the perpetrators.
Mr.President,
Colleagues,
That is the price for deferment on the part of Council members, many of whom have been procrastinating for the past 11 days since the escalation around Gaza began. And we warned you about this as early as Monday, when a number of Security Council members, guided by "purely humanitarian" but in fact political considerations, did not support the Russian draft resolution on a ceasefire. Our document outlined a number of concrete urgent measures to stop the violence and suffering of civilians, release hostages, prevent a looming humanitarian disaster in that part of Palestine, and avoid the spillover of the conflict to other countries in the region. Given the extremely tense situation, action had to be taken without delay. That is why the draft we presented did not contain any political elements or assessments or references to one or the other side of the conflict, which could complicate endorsement process.
Nevertheless, Security Council, the main body for maintenance of global peace and security, has failed – in front of the entire global community – to take a decision that could have prevented the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. The Council failed to send a clear, strong and collective message calling for an immediate, durable and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire. Today, we reap the bitter fruit of that delay.
Once again, it has become obvious that the position of Washington and other Western capitals has hindered a natural and logical solution, though in the current circumstances this was an absolute humanitarian imperative and a moral duty of all conscientious members of the international community. However, they had no regard either for humanitarian considerations, or for norms of international law, or for the root causes of the unresolved Palestinian question, which we had repeatedly and insistently pointed out for years.
Mr.President,
The death toll in Israel already stands at 1,400 people; 3,900 have been injured. In Palestine, the number of casualties has exceeded 3,500 with more than 10,000 injured. As we speak, figures keep growing. According to UN data, about 450 children have died in Gaza, 750 more remain under the rubble of air-bombed houses.
Over 2 million people in Gaza have no access to water, food, medical care, fuel and electricity. Rafah, the only crossing on the border with Egypt, has again been hit by rockets. It did not open to let in humanitarian goods and let out the civilians. Some 1,000 Russian citizens and members of their families have become hostages of the Gaza siege.
Against this alarming backdrop, WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA unanimously condemned the attack on Al-Ahli Hospital and called for immediate effective protection of civilians and medical infrastructure. At a briefing on the developments in Gaza yesterday, Deputy Head of UN OCHA, Joyce Msuya, said that the death toll of this escalation that has continued for 11 days has already exceeded that of the 2014 hostilities, which lasted more than 7 weeks before a ceasefire was made. This is truly horrifying. Humanitarian workers are dying too. The number of people who had to flee their homes in Gaza stands at 1 million. Humanitarian blockade of the Strip makes its people, who in fact are being sacrificed, struggle for survival.
Mr.President,
We call on the Israeli side to uphold international humanitarian law, which has at its core the lives of Palestinian civilians and critical medical infrastructure which was very modest in the first place. Humanitarian access must be granted immediately. We call for an urgent ceasefire, opening of corridors for delivery of humanitarian aid to the affected areas of Gaza and the exit of civilians, and for an immediate cessation of violence against civilians, regardless of where they live.
Mass unrest has started in some Arab and European states against the backdrop of Israel’s missile attacks. In this connection, we condemn attacks on foreign diplomatic presences.
Mr.President,
All this is happening while the UN Security Council idles. The Council is paralyzed – only to serve egoistic interests of certain countries whose unilateral actions not just have failed but triggered the largest-scale escalation of violence in the Middle East.
Mr.President,
We are extremely concerned about the unprecedented scale of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and the high risks of conflict spillover. Since the UN Security Council has been unable to give a clear response to these challenges, we initiate the resumption of the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on the Protection of Palestinian Civilians for a comprehensive discussion of the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone and ways to resolve it. A letter to the President of the General Assembly on this matter has already been signed and will be submitted immediately.
Thank you.
