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Palestinian envoy to UN says unity of territory must be preserved
Riyad Mansour has warned the Security Council against any efforts to separate Gaza from the West Bank before the long-awaited second phase of the ceasefire.
“Gaza is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory and of the State of Palestine, as affirmed by this council. The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip constitute a single territorial unit. Their unity, integrity and status must be preserved,” Mansour said.
“Israel must fully and without delay withdraw from the Gaza Strip, as affirmed by this council. This is essential for the success of any international stabilisation force,” he said.
He referred to reported comments last week by the Israeli army chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, who said the “yellow line”, which demarcates the area of Gaza still occupied by Israeli forces, is Israel’s new “borderline” with Gaza.
“Israel is confessing its aim to transform the yellow line into a border and to partition and annex Gaza and continues to pursue the forced displacement of its population,” Mansour said. “This must end.”
UN rights office says civic space ‘steadily shrinking’ in occupied territories
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in occupied Palestinian territory says the “space to monitor and document human rights violations and abuses, seek accountability for injustices, or organise and advocate for human rights is steadily shrinking”.
It pointed to intensified repression of journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and local and international nongovernmental organisations.
That has included the killing of at least 289 journalists in Gaza by the Israeli military throughout the war, according to the report. It also includes Israel using a 2016 counterterrorism law and emergency defence powers against Palestinian organisations to “justify raids of their offices, constrain funding and operations, and arrest staff”.
The report added that the Palestinian Authority is partially to blame “through its unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, arbitrary detentions, torture and other ill-treatment of journalists, human rights defenders, and government critics”.
