{"id":141,"date":"2023-11-30T07:40:24","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T07:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/?p=141"},"modified":"2023-11-30T07:40:24","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T07:40:24","slug":"un-chief-urges-world-not-to-look-away-and-ignore-epic-humanitarian-catastrophe-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/?p=141","title":{"rendered":"UN chief urges world not to look away and ignore \u2018epic humanitarian catastrophe\u2019 in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-highlight\">\n<ul>\n<li>Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan says current temporary truce in the conflict is not enough and again calls for a permanent ceasefire<\/li>\n<li>He tells Security Council meeting in New York the time is ripe for recognition of Palestinian state and calls for it to be granted full UN membership<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content\" data-io-article-url=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2417641\/world\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that a \u201cfar greater\u201d number of children have been killed by Israel in Gaza in a matter of weeks during the current conflict than the total number of children killed \u201cduring any year, by any party to a conflict since I became secretary-general.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The people of Gaza are in the midst of \u201can epic humanitarian catastrophe before the eyes of the world. We must not look away,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>As he welcomed the ongoing, last-minute negotiations taking place in an attempt to extend the truce in the war, Guterres once again stressed the need for \u201ca true humanitarian ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during a meeting of the Security Council, he said it is imperative that the people of the region are given \u201ca horizon of hope\u201d in the form of efforts to move in a \u201cdetermined and irreversible\u201d way toward a two-state solution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFailure will condemn Palestinians, Israelis, the region and the world to a never-ending cycle of death and destruction,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The high-level Security Council meeting, which took place on the annual UN-organized International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinian People, was chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi. China holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member council this month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should work toward a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire with the greatest urgency and as the utmost priority,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened between Palestine and Israel over the decades shows, time and again, that resorting to military means is definitely not a way out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that China hopes the pause in military operations over the past few days will not prove simply to be a brief hiatus before a new round of violence, warning that \u201cresumed fighting would only, most likely, turn into a calamity that devours the whole region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia\u2019s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, lamented the lack of any international mechanism for ensuring accountability for actions during the war, and the Security Council\u2019s inability to take any steps to prevent Israeli violations of the rules of war and international law.<\/p>\n<p>He told council members that the Nov. 11 summit in Riyadh adopted a resolution that reflected the will of Arab and Islamic peoples to \u201cstem the bloodshed, deliver assistance, put an end to violations, overcome this unjustified suffering in Palestine, and stand with the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate demands to take back their occupied territory and establish an independent state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prince Faisal called for the ongoing implementation of Security Council Resolution 2712 and for efforts to build on it to achieve \u201ca comprehensive and immediate ceasefire.\u201d The resolution, adopted by the council on Nov. 15, calls \u201cfor urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip \u2026 to enable \u2026 full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, accused the foreign ministers \u201cof some Arab countries\u201d of coming to New York to support a \u201cterror organization that aims to annihilate Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He equated calls for a ceasefire with support for Hamas and its \u201ccontinued reign of terror\u201d in Gaza. \u201cDon\u2019t you see the contradiction here?\u201d Erdan asked council members. \u201cCalling for both a ceasefire and peace is a paradox.\u201d He added that \u201cmore food, water and medical supplies will not bring us closer to a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prince Faisal asked the council: \u201cWhat will help us reach a solution, according to Israel? More bloodshed? More death?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Urging Israel to heed Arab calls for peace, he added: \u201cThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia presented an Arab peace plan in 1982. We also had the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut in 2002. And the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) recognized the State of Israel in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere is the Israeli peace plan? Where is the Israeli recognition of the State of Palestine? We are peace-loving nations and peace has always been our strategic choice, but we also want it to be the choice of Israel as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prince Faisal said the time has come for the world to recognize an independent Palestinian state, and called for Palestine to be granted full membership of the UN. Currently it has observer state status.<\/p>\n<p>He also called for an international peace conference to take place, under the auspices of the UN, with the aim of developing and implementing a two-state solution.<\/p>\n<p>He told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York: \u201cThe danger is that if \u2026 this truce expires we will return to the killing at the scale that we have seen, which is unbearable. So we are here to make a clear statement that a truce is not enough. What is needed is a ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The prince added that a glimmer of hope can be found in the fact that public opinion worldwide is beginning to shift as people become increasingly aware of \u201cthe unfolding catastrophe\u201d in Gaza, and that violence is not the answer.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether Arab nations should help ease the current pressure on Palestinians and their suffering by taking them in as refugees, he said they \u201cdo not want to leave their land. We won\u2019t encourage them or force them to leave their land and we are not going to work with anyone who has that agenda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Palestinians have a right to their land, and they have a right to live in safety and security and dignity on their land, and that is what we will push for and work toward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Riyad Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister, told the Security Council that anyone who is still not sure about whether they oppose the war in Gaza or the need for it to end should \u201ccheck their humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The current truce must become \u201ca permanent ceasefire,\u201d he said, because \u201cthe massacres cannot be allowed to resume.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cOur people are faced with an existential threat. Make no mistake about it. With all the talk about the destruction of Israel, it is Palestine that is facing a plan to destroy it, implemented in broad daylight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-gtm-vis-recent-on-screen109681369_148=\"446385\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen109681369_148=\"446385\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time109681369_148=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired109681369_148=\"1\">The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said her country has urged Israel \u201cto take every possible measure to prevent civilian casualties as it exercises its right to safeguard its people from acts of terror.\u201d The use of civilians as human shields by Hamas \u201cdoes not lessen Israel\u2019s responsibility,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan says current temporary truce in the conflict is not enough and again calls for a permanent ceasefire He tells Security Council meeting in New York the time is ripe for recognition of Palestinian state and calls for it to be granted full UN membership NEW YORK CITY: UN [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headline","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alnasnews.com.jo\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}