“The Israeli practices have brought us to this miserable moment, and what is happening now is the result of an accumulation of [Israel’s] policies meant to perpetuate the illegal occupation,”  Shoukry told the UNSC’s emergency and special session on the conflict.

Egypt’s top diplomat called for an immediate, sustainable and non-conditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a cessation of all practices aimed at the forced displacement of the Palestinians from their land.

Such practices constitute a “grave” violation of international law and amount to war crimes, Shoukry asserted.

Shoukry also urged instantaneous international protection for the defenceless Palestinians and safe, swift, and sustainable access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, requesting Israel to assume its international responsibilities as an existing occupying power.

Furthermore, he called for the formulation of a binding framework to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in line with the agreed-upon parameters established by the UNSC and international legitimacy.

These parameters call for ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state along the pre-June 4, 1967, borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Shoukry spotlighted the warnings Egypt has recently repeated regarding continued and intensified Israeli practices. These practices include undermining the Palestinian Authority, dividing the West Bank and Gaza, imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip, and repeatedly storming the West Bank cities.

The Israeli practices also included assaulting the holy sites, and backtracking on any agreements reached to de-escalate the situation on the ground, he added.