Gaza: Collective efforts must consolidate the ceasefire - Briefing | United Nations

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said, “We cannot afford half measures. The US-led Comprehensive Plan must be implemented fully, alongside urgent action to de-escalate and reverse the dangerous trajectory in the occupied West Bank.” Addressing the Security Council, DiCarlo said, “The Board of Peace meeting in Washington, D.C., tomorrow is an important step. We have a responsibility to work collectively to implement Phase II of the Gaza ceasefire and advance efforts toward a credible political path leading to a negotiated two-State solution.” she also said, “Despite the ceasefire, Gaza is still not at peace. In recent weeks, the Israeli military intensified strikes across Gaza, hitting densely populated areas and killing dozens of Palestinians.” she highlighted, “In the occupied West Bank, meanwhile, the situation is deteriorating rapidly. There, Israeli forces continued large-scale operations across the West Bank, frequently involving live fire and raising serious concerns about the use of lethal force.” She continued, “Attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, and confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, have also continued. Israeli authorities also expanded operations in areas around Jerusalem and extended their operations in the northern West Bank, exacerbating displacement and access restrictions, and raising concerns about forced transfer. These developments unfolded alongside continued settlement expansion, rising settler violence, and accelerated demolitions and evictions in East Jerusalem. We are witnessing the gradual de facto annexation of the West Bank, as unilateral Israeli steps steadily transform the landscape.” She stressed, “Israel should immediately reverse these measures. All Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their associated regime and infrastructure, have no legal validity. They violate international law and UN resolutions.” Yvette Cooper, United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, said, “Britain remains steadfast in our support for the security of Israel and its people because a two-state solution can be the gateway to transform the region with normalization, regional integration and peaceful coexistence. But security cannot be achieved by an indefinite and humiliating occupation that denies security and sovereignty to the Palestinian people.” Mike Waltz, US Representative to the United Nations, informed, “The Board will announce tomorrow over 5 billion dollars in pledges for rebuilding. Colleagues, the Board is not talking, it’s doing.” Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador, asked, “Israel had to choose between annexation and peace. It chose annexation. We all reject annexation. So how are we going to stop Israel?” He also said, “Palestine, notably Gaza, is ground zero of the assault on international law. What is accepted there is normalized everywhere. The two-State solution must not become the two-State illusion. If you believe it is the only way forward, then you must end the occupation and save the Palestinian State to save peace.” Gideon Saar, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated, “There's constant the truth is simple; we are the indigenous people in the land of Israel.” He then raised a map of the British mandate, stressing that the Balfour Declaration reestablished a national home for the Jewish people in their land. He said, "We will not abandon our heritage, security and future to ease other countries' domestic political difficulties." He also said to the Council, “You invented a so-called state of Palestine, as if such a state exists or ever existed. But the truth is simple: there has simply never been a Palestinian state. You speak of occupied territories…how can they be taken from an entity that never existed by a nation that was always there?” Earlier this afternoon, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs talked to the media and said, “Amazingly so many countries say that Jewish presence in our ancient homeland violates international law. The opposite is true. No other nation in any other place in the world has a stronger right than our historical and documented right to the land of the Bible.”


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