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SvennoJ on 29 May 2024
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‘Brutal and senseless occupation’ of Palestinian land: Algeria ambassador

At the UN Security Council, Algeria presented a draft resolution that “demands an immediate ceasefire respected by all parties” and the release of all captives in Gaza.

Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s ambassador to the United Nations, described the need for Israel to end its devastating war on Gaza, but he also raised the continuing violence in the occupied West Bank.

“This grim reality reflects the brutal and senseless nature of the Israeli occupation,” he told the council. “Addressing the symptoms without tackling the root cause – the occupation of Palestinian land – will not lead to lasting peace.”

He said the Security Council has the “primary responsibility” to ensure the implementation of relevant resolutions relating to Palestine, including on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, where 800,000 Jewish settlers currently live.


Algeria pushing for Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN Security Council

Algeria, supported by the Arab Group, put forward this draft resolution. It essentially calls for an end to the Rafah offensive and a ceasefire, and the release of all captives from Gaza.

We know from speaking to the United States ambassador on the way into the council that there’s little chance of this being adopted by the UN Security Council.

The US continues to voice its position that such a resolution would not be helpful, that any way forward has to come by Israel and Hamas sitting down and negotiating … a ceasefire that they can agree to. And of course, the United States emphasised the release of all captives as key to those efforts.


Palestinians ‘in constant battle with death’: Palestine’s UN envoy

Majed Bamya, the State of Palestine’s deputy permanent observer to the UN, has delivered a powerful address to the Security Council, urging the world to take action to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

  • “If the Israeli assault stopped today, and we decided to hold a funeral every single day for each Palestinian killed in the last eight months, it would take us 100 years to honour them all.”
  • “There is barely anything left in Gaza; Israel has destroyed everything. But there is everything left still in Gaza: 2.3 million people who have been in a constant battle with death for the last eight months.”
  • “You have learned to live with Israel’s irrational and racist behaviour – but we die because of it.”
  • “The incitement by the Israeli representatives against the UN has real-life consequences, cannot be tolerated any longer. The signal to their soldiers, to their extremists, that the UN is an enemy and a legitimate target – this explains why this is the deadliest conflict for UN personnel.”
  • “When will it be enough? What other level of cruelty must be reached before this assault is finally brought to an end? There is no red line imposed by legality, rationality, humanity that Israel has not crossed.”



Israeli UN representative defends ‘precise’ attack that killed dozens of civilians

Brett Jonathan Miller, an Israeli representative at the UN Security Council, says the attack on Gaza is a “just and moral war Israeli is fighting against the bloodthirsty, genocidal terror organisation of Hamas”.

“This war began with Hamas carrying out the most heinous of atrocities wrought upon Israelis in history, and it continues because the very same terrorists are still holding 125 innocent hostages in Gaza while continuing to fire rockets on Israel’s towns and cities,” said Miller.

“Israel has been very clear from the outset this war can end tomorrow without one more shot being fired. All that is required is for Hamas to release the hostages and put down their arms. These are our conditions and we’re not asking for anything more.”

He called Sunday’s air raid on Rafah that killed 45 people “precise”, saying two Hamas officials were killed in the attack. He added the war is not against the people of Gaza, only Hamas.

“Where is the condemnation for Hamas using civilians as human shields and civilian sites as weapon depots?” Miller said.

Where is the condemnation for the IDF using Palestinians as human shields and setting up military bases in hospitals and schools. Whatever Israel accuses anyone of is merely and admission of what they do. The human shield theory has long ago been debunked as nothing more than declaring any civilians inside an active battle zone as a human shield. However the tent massacre was outside an active battle zone, outside an evacuation area, so that doesn't even hold up. Nor is there any proof there were Hamas officials present among the dead.

Nothing but lies, the whole statement from start to finish.



US scolds Israel for ‘continued pattern of significant civilian harm’ in Gaza

Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza and should “remove all barriers to the flow of aid at scale through all crossings and routes”, the United States told the UN Security Council.

“The continued pattern of significant civilian harm resulting from incidents like Sunday’s air strikes undermines Israel’s strategic goals in Gaza,” Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the 15-member council.

Algeria on Tuesday put forward a draft UN resolution ordering Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive” in Rafah. On Wednesday, Wood told reporters Washington is reviewing it, but UN action is unlikely to be helpful or change the situation on the ground.

The US said on Tuesday that Israel’s actions in Rafah did not amount to a major ground operation that could change US policy towards Israel.

Say one thing, support the opposite, that's the US in practice



Gaza war could spark Middle East conflagration: UN envoy

Tor Wennesland told the UN Security Council the occupied West Bank “remains a pressure cooker of negative trends,” and there are continuing exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as between Syria and Israel around the Golan Heights.

The risk of “a regional conflagration” is mounting every day as the seven-month war on Gaza continues, the UN’s Middle East envoy warned.

“In addition to the deeply concerning escalation between Israel and Iran witnessed last month, aerial attacks toward Israel from militants in the region and Houthi attacks against international shipping in the Red Sea persisted. This is a combustible mix.”

Wennesland said nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, many of them multiple times, and some 100,000 Israelis have been displaced in the country’s north and south.

“Agreement on a deal to achieve a ceasefire and secure the release of hostages is blocked, and as Israel rolls out a significant ground operation in and around Rafah the devastation is only intensifying. This trajectory must change if we are to avoid further catastrophe.”