Israel must withdraw from Palestine and Lebanon territories: Egypt to UNSC

Ahram Online , Wednesday 30 Oct 2024

Egypt’s Permanent United Nations Ambassador Osama Abdel-Khalek stressed on Tuesday evening that Israel must withdraw from the territories of Palestine and Lebanon and urged its compliance with the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

Ambassador
Egypt's UN envoy Ambassador Osama Abdel Khalek during his speech at the UNSC briefing on the situation in the Middle East.

 

During a UNSC briefing on the situation in the Middle East, Abdel-Khalek stressed that the security council should pass a resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, mandating Israel to cease fire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and to withdraw from these territories.

He added that this also involves reopening all border crossings, allowing unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid, and ending forced displacement and targeting UN personnel and institutions.

Chapter VII addresses the maintenance of international peace and security, allowing the Security Council todetermine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression.”

"We must all work to prevent Israel's attempts to undermine the two-state solution,Abdel-Khalek noted, emphasizing that Egypt will continue its efforts to support legitimate Palestinian rights.

Egypt's UN envoy also said that Israel has killed over 42,000 people in the Gaza Strip and has forcibly displaced civilians multiple times.

Moreover, he explained that Israel would not have been able to continue its actions for an entire year without the security council's leniency in enforcing its resolutions.

Overall, Israel has killed at least 43,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, injured over 100,000, damaged most of Gaza’s infrastructure, and displaced the majority of the population since October 2023.

Abdel-Khalek also urged the security council to implement a temporary truce and facilitate aid entry into the Gaza Strip.

Egypt, along with the US and Qatar, has been mediating indirect talks between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal during the more-than-one-year Israeli war on Gaza.

In a phone call on Tuesday evening, the foreign ministers of Egypt and Qatar discussed their efforts to secure an immediate ceasefire.

On Sunday, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi unveiled an Egyptian initiative for a two-day ceasefire in Gaza, during which four Israeli captives would be exchanged for several Palestinian prisoners. The proposal is a preliminary step for a lengthier ceasefire.

War of revenge
 

Addressing the UNSC, Abdel-Khalek stated that Israel is conducting a war of revenge against the Palestinian people, carrying out a campaign of murder, starvation, expulsion, and settlement while also implementing plans to destroy the occupied Palestinian state.
This includes enacting legislation by the Israeli Knesset that undermines the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)'s ability to carry out its UN mandate, Abdel-Khalek explained.

https://x.com/EgyptPRNewYork/status/1851424951074766880

On Monday, the Israeli Knesset passed a bill prohibiting UNRWA from operating in Israel, following years of intense Israeli criticism of the agency, which has intensified since the onset of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023.

Egypt condemned the approval as part of a lengthy pattern of Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law.

UNRWA, which operates in several countries, was established in 1949 to assist Palestinian refugees displaced during the Nakba following Israel's creation in 1948.

Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, over 200 staff members of the UN agency have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, and two-thirds of its facilities have been damaged or destroyed.

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