Palestinian official demands accountability at UN for assassination of Hamas leader
Feda Abdelhady Nasser, the deputy permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, has told the Security Council that “Israel has been the oppressor, tormentor and murderer of Palestinians for decades, and it is the longstanding destabiliser of our region”.
“We demand accountability for Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, as we have continually demanded accountability for the wanton murder and injury of over 130,000 Palestinian children, women and men across these past 300 days of horror and hell in Gaza,” she said.
“We demand accountability for Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, as we have continually demanded accountability for the wanton murder and injury of over 130,000 Palestinian children, women and men across these past 300 days of horror and hell in Gaza and call for… pic.twitter.com/Jvig7VYH3J
— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) July 31, 2024
Iranian military adviser Milad Bidi also killed in Beirut blast
Milad Bidi, an Iranian military adviser in Lebanon, was also killed in the Israeli attack on Beirut, Lebanon on Tuesday night, Iran’s IRNA news agency has reported. Israel has claimed responsibility for the missile strike, which killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least five civilians were also killed, including children, after half of the targeted buildings in the densely populated neighbourhood collapsed and a nearby hospital suffered minor damages.
Alarm raised at UN Security Council over risk of all-out war in region
Japan’s deputy UN representative, Shino Mitsuko, pushed for increased international efforts to prevent a regional conflict at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, which was called in response to the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah officials in Iran and Lebanon.
“We fear the region is at the brink of all-out war,” Mitsuko told the meeting in New York on Wednesday evening.
The assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran occurred less than 24 hours after Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, Fuad Shukr, was killed in an Israeli missile strike, described as an “assassination operation”, in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the UN, told the council meeting that failure to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza was responsible for worsening regional tensions.
“Countries with major influence must put more pressure and work more vigorously … to put out the flames of war in Gaza,” he said.
