The UN Security Council held a session last Thursday evening to discuss the outbreak of polio in the Gaza Strip, while a number of delegates to the council condemned the shooting of UN relief workers and called for accelerating polio vaccination campaigns to avoid a new humanitarian disaster.
The Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Msuya, briefed the session that the situation in Gaza was desperate, adding that civilians were hungry, thirsty, sick and homeless, and that they had been “pushed beyond the limits of endurance, beyond what any human being can bear.”
“What we have witnessed over the past 11 months – and continue to witness – calls into question the world’s commitment to the international legal order that was designed to prevent these tragedies,” Msuya said. “It forces us to ask: What has happened to our basic sense of humanity?”
For his part, the Executive Director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, Mike Ryan, said that the polio outbreak in Gaza is “a stark reminder of how quickly infectious diseases can emerge in areas where health systems are compromised.”
He added, in his briefing to the Council via video, that many other diseases are spreading, “while our collective abilities to prevent, detect and respond to them remain hampered.”
Evacuation causes chaos
In turn, the British representative to the Council, James Kariuki, considered – in his speech before the Council – that the Israeli evacuation orders and the lack of safe places are causing chaos in the sector.
Kariuki said that the return of polio cases to the Gaza Strip is a tragedy that can be avoided, and expressed his welcome for Israel’s response to the truces to secure the vaccination campaign, but stressed the need to implement them on the ground.
Robert Wood, the US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, considered the return of polio to Gaza to be a major threat to civilians and children in the Strip, and pledged his country’s full support for the vaccination campaign against the disease, saying: “We urge Israel to stop issuing evacuation orders during the vaccination campaign. Children’s lives depend on its success.”
He expressed concern about reports of targeting of UN workers, and stressed the need for Israel to acknowledge its mistakes and ensure that its forces would not fire on UN personnel again.
He also stressed the need to stop the “verbal attacks” on the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations in Gaza. He said that today’s Security Council meeting stresses that the time has come to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of prisoners.
In turn, the Swiss representative to the Security Council called for the full implementation of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, and considered that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is deteriorating day after day.
She expressed concern about the increase in evacuation orders, and called for respect for the work of humanitarian teams in the Gaza Strip to ensure the delivery of aid, stressing the need for the Security Council to be prepared to act if the implementation of the vaccination campaign in Gaza is obstructed. She called on Israel to respect its obligations under international law and respect the lives of individuals.
For his part, China’s representative to the Security Council, Geng Shuang, accused Israel of restricting the work of UN teams in the Gaza Strip, condemned the Israeli military operation in the West Bank, and called for not allowing the Gaza tragedy to be repeated in the West Bank.
Zhuang pointed out that Israel continues to violate international law and Security Council resolutions, increasing settlements and intensifying searches, arrests and invasions.
He explained that since last October, more than 600 Palestinians have lost their lives in the West Bank, and yesterday Israel began large-scale military operations targeting Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarm and other areas in the West Bank, which led to deaths and injuries, strongly condemning these operations.
He pointed out that senior officials in the Israeli government spoke about the approach in the West Bank being similar to the approach followed in Gaza, expressing his shock upon hearing this and his concern about these extremist statements from the Israeli side.
Nassim Gouaoui, Deputy Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations, said that the catastrophic situation in the occupied Palestinian territories can only be effectively addressed through a ceasefire. He renewed the call for “an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and holding the Israeli occupier accountable for its crimes and systematic and flagrant violations of international humanitarian law.”
Guterres’s speech
Prior to that, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres considered that the Israeli evacuation orders defy the requirements of international humanitarian law.
Guterres stressed that the Israeli operations in Gaza had damaged the headquarters of the United Nations and others belonging to humanitarian organizations, and pointed out that the United Nations teams in Gaza had been fired upon last week and had lost their offices and warehouses. He added that the World Food Program workers had been fired upon two days earlier and had narrowly escaped.
Regarding Israel’s military operations in the West Bank, Guterres called for an immediate halt, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.
The Secretary-General expressed his deep concern about recent developments in the occupied West Bank, including Israel’s launching of large-scale military operations in Jenin, Qalqilya and Tubas on Wednesday, which included air strikes and resulted in casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Dujarric said the Secretary-General “strongly condemns the loss of life, including that of children.”
Guterres said that these dangerous developments fuel the already explosive situation in the West Bank, and further weaken the Palestinian Authority, and called for an immediate halt to these operations, according to the spokesman.