Pakistan Urges UNSC to Act Against Ethnic Cleansing and Carnage in Gaza, Warns of Grave Consequences of Inaction

Pakistan has stated that the combined effect of mass killing, displacement, famine, settlements, and destruction of habitable land in Gaza leaves no ambiguity about the fact that Israel is carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in plain sight.

In a powerful statement during the UN Security Council briefing on the Middle East, including the Question of Palestine, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, asked the UN Security Council not to remain a bystander, adding that every moment of inaction deepens the suffering, multiplies the grief, and tears apart the very fabric of international law.

“The world is watching. History will not forgive delay. It will not forget inaction. The Council must rise to its Charter duty - and act,” he said.

Ambassador Asim said that Israeli occupation forces have deliberately and systematically dismantled the civilian life. He referred to the reports carried by the international media and said that even Israel’s own military data admits that 83% of those killed are civilians.

“How can this ever be justified or defended? This cannot be collateral damage. It is mass carnage,” he emphasized.

He said that it has now been 691 days of unrelenting tragedy in Gaza. He reminded the Council that during this period, Israel has trampled upon every principle of international law and international humanitarian law with utter impunity.

He said that more than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed, among them over 19,000 children, 10,000 women, at least over 270 journalists, and over 360 UN aid workers.

“There are those who shield Israel, and try to silence this Council into inaction. What else is complicity? In fact, impunity has become Israel’s shield – and this Council’s silence, its enabler. The occupying power’s apologists must introspect, and objectively assess the consequences of their policies,” he said.

The Pakistan UN Ambassador said that as if bombs were not enough, hunger is now a weapon of mass destruction. He quoted the latest IPC analysis, which confirms that famine is now present in Gaza City, threatening over half a million people.

“The use of starvation of civilians as method of warfare may constitute a war crime,” he warned.

Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that Pakistan condemns Israel’s so-called “military operation” and planned full occupation of Gaza City - which is nothing but a blueprint for further humanitarian catastrophe, threatening to displace once more up to one million people.

He said that the E-1 settlement plan is a deliberate attempt to bury the two-State solution and expressed Pakistan’s strong condemnation of this action, which, he said, constitutes a clear violation of international law, including Security Council resolutions.

He said that the Security Council must demand:

• First, an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire across Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

• Second, an immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and its safe and unhindered distribution;

• Third, release of all hostages and exchange of Palestinians prisoners.

• Fourth, a halt to Israel’s declared intent to occupy Gaza City; and

• Fifth, an end to forced displacement, illegal settlement expansion, and annexations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Ambassador Asim said that nothing will be achieved by criticizing and pressurizing the United Nations and its senior officials, or by denying and rejecting the findings of the ICJ, and global human rights and humanitarian organizations or by silencing the media, adding that it is only by accepting the reality that we can build peace.

He said that the OIC, at its 21st extraordinary session of the Council of Foreign Minister on 25 August, adopted a resolution that speaks with moral clarity. It has urged this Council to act promptly, under Chapter VII, to stop the brutal aggression by the Israeli occupation and its violations, which threaten the prospects for achieving a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the region and hinder the implementation of the two-State solution.

He said that it has also urged the Council to hold Israel, the occupying power, accountable for all crimes and violations that clearly breach international law and international humanitarian law.

The Pakistan Permanent Representative termed the High-Level Conference on peaceful settlement of the Palestinian Question and implementation of the Two-State Solution, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France last month in New York, was a timely initiative. He said that it represented the will of the international community, which must be respected.

He demanded that the Conference must be followed by concrete, and coordinated international action to finally achieve the long coveted peace and stability in the Middle East.