More reactions from UN Security Council members
Here are what some of the members of the UN Security Council said at the emergency meeting on the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh:
- China: “This act was a blatant attempt to sabotage peace efforts. [China urges Israel] to halt all its military operations in Gaza and immediately stop its collective punishment of the people in Gaza.”
- France: “We call for the utmost responsibility and restraint in order to avoid a regional conflagration.”
- Guyana: “The history of colonialism has shown us, Mr President, that no people consent to subjugation and certainly not of the kind that Israel has visited on the Palestinian people. The desire for freedom is innate.”
- Malta: “Efforts towards an immediate and permanent ceasefire to the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza must not cease.”
- Russia: The “political assassination [of Ismail Haniyeh] … strikes a serious blow, primarily for the mediated negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Lebanon warns UNSC that war would ‘spread to the whole world’
Lebanon’s Charges d’Affaires for the UN, Hadi Hachem, has warned the UNSC that a conflict in the Middle East would have global repercussions.
He said that while the exact circumstances behind the attack on Majdal Shams were still unknown, it could have taken place because “Israel has occupied the area since 1967” while failing to implement numerous UN resolutions calling for it to withdraw from the Golan Heights and other occupied territories.
“Israel’s claim that it seeks to protect the population it occupies is a display of hypocrisy,” Hachem said.
“The real goal of Israel is to prolong and escalate the hostilities and it is ironic that the killer of tens of thousands of children in Gaza sheds tears for the children of the occupied Syrian Golan.”
Hachem also warned the international community to prevent the outbreak of a regional conflict. “What starts in the Middle East will spread to the whole world,” he said.
Incidentally I'm currently listening to the (Canadian) news broadcast. The tone has certainly changed. They're talking about the US has to change course "The US is not a bystander" "This war could not be waged without the active and enthusiastic support of the United States" "The path Israel is on is something akin to pyromania across the region"
Summary of today since everything is moving so fast
What happened on Wednesday?
- Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
- Hezbollah confirmed its top commander Fuad Shukr was killed in Tuesday’s Israeli strike on Beirut.
- An Al Jazeera journalist and a camera operator were killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza. Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi – both 27 – were killed in the Shati refugee camp in an Israeli strike on their vehicle.
- Several countries, including Germany and the US, have urged their citizens to either leave Lebanon or not visit at all at this time.
- Protests have erupted in the occupied West Bank, Tunisia and Turkey to condemn Haniyeh’s killing.
- Yemen’s Houthis have said that Israel should expect a “wave of retaliation” following Haniyeh’s assassination.
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced strikes on Beirut and Tehran as a “dangerous escalation”.
