NEW YORK, (PIC)
Members of the UN Security Council called for a surge in humanitarian aid to Gaza, warning of the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Strip.
A session of the Security Council was held Monday night at a high diplomatic level, as requested by the UK, which is currently chairing the Council.
Tor Wennesland, the UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the session that the region reached a dark point after more than a year of the Israeli war and bloodshed in Gaza, appealing to the international community to move quickly to stop the war.
In the preparatory memorandum of the meeting, the UK indicated that it decided to focus on holding the meeting at the level of foreign ministers, believing that “ending the conflict in Gaza and Lebanon is an urgent priority, with the need to focus on reducing broader regional escalation by stopping the flow of weapons to the non-governmental armed actors and ending the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.”
For his part, the UN envoy Wennesland focused on the humanitarian situation and described it as a nightmare, noting that the Israeli war “caused massive destruction and heavy losses.”
He described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as catastrophic, specifically in northern Gaza, calling what is happening as “apparently disregarding the international humanitarian law … Gaza has been witnessing the worst conditions since the war began and we do not expect it to improve soon.”
Wennesland mentioned the “violence and despair that the West Bank is witnessing,” warning that continued Israeli military operations and settlement activities in the Palestinian cities and camps in the West Bank, lead to more tensions and chaos.
The UN official finally warned of the consequences of Israeli decisions adopting bills prohibiting UNRWA operations.
