Following a discussion with the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Dr Husam Zomlot on Tuesday afternoon, Foyle MP Mr Eastwood said that the international response to the conflict must change and must be focussed on protecting civilian life in the region.
THE SDLP leader’s call were replicated by many representatives from different nations at a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.
The attacks on Israel on October 7 saw over 1,400 people killed and around 220 people taken hostage. Israel has launched a constant bombardment on the Gaza Strip since, while sporadic rockets are being fired from Gaza into Israel.
Foyle MP, SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood.
The charity Save The Children said on Monday that at least 2,000 children are among those who have been killed in Gaza over the previous 17 days, with a further 27 killed in the West Bank, while a further 27 children were killed in Israel, according to Israeli media.
Hospitals and aid workers in Gaza are running out of fuel and other essentials such as water, food and medicines after a blockade was imposed by Israel, with the already dire humanitarian crisis getting worse by the hour, sparking calls for the blockades to be lifted and for truckloads of humanitarian aid gathered at the Egyptian border with Gaza to be allowed through at scale.
Colum Eastwood said: “The horrifying violence that has been inflicted on innocent civilians in Gaza and southern Israel is as close to Hell as many of us could ever imagine. There has been no rest for people who face a daily threat of air strikes, rocket attacks, abduction or the most unthinkable forms of murder.
“There can be no resolution to this conflict without an immediate ceasefire, a humanitarian intervention to protect those living in these horrendous conditions and a diplomatic effort to reach a two-state solution."
KHAN YUNIS, GAZA - OCTOBER 24: Palestinians injured in Israeli air raids arrive at Nasser Medical Hospital on October 24, 2023 in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Gaza. Two weeks after a deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel that sparked a retaliatory siege of Gaza, in which thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced, aid trucks have started entering the Palestinian territory via Egypt carrying food, water and medicines. The UN agency UNRWA, or the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, says the initial aid is a "drop in the ocean" of what is needed. (Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)
Mr Eastwood said that a ‘partisan approach’ adopted by many in the international community ‘has been an active impediment to a peaceful resolution’ and warned that this ‘must change’.
“A new approach must be relentlessly focussed on peace, immediate security for civilians, the release of all hostages and humanitarian aid for communities that have been reduced to ash. World leaders must move from being partisan actors cheerleading destruction to active agents for peace.”
Those gathered at the UN meeting on Tuesday were told that the situation in the Middle East grows more dire by the hour, with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warning the Security Council that the war in Gaza is raging and risks spiralling throughout the region, as he called for humanitarian aid without restrictions and an immediate ceasefire.
“At a crucial moment like this, it is vital to be clear on principles — starting with the fundamental principle of respecting and protecting civilians,” Secretary-General Guterres said, during a day-long ministerial debate on the Palestinian question, amid an escalation of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
10/24/2023, Photos of some who have been kidnapped at a demonstration in front of the President House in Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo by Yahel Gazit / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)
Recalling his unequivocal condemnation of the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel, he called for the immediate release of the hostages. As well, he stressed the need for humanitarian aid to be delivered without restrictions.
He added: “To ease epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer, and facilitate the release of hostages, I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
The attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum, he noted, with the Palestinian people being subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation, during which they saw their land devoured by settlements; their economy stifled; their homes demolished; and their hopes for a political solution vanishing. However, the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas, he said. “And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he added, emphasizing: “Even war has rules.”
At this critical hour, he appealed to everyone to pull back from the brink before the violence claims even more lives and spreads even farther.
Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, said that Hamas’ abhorrent 7 October attack and Israel’s ongoing military operation in Gaza have taken a staggering toll on civilians.
He outlined the devastating impact of Israel’s ongoing air strikes, with Gaza’s Ministry of Health reporting more than 5,000 Palestinians killed, including over 1,100 women and 2,000 children, as well as journalists, medical workers and first responders. One million Palestinians have been displaced, with entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools and hospitals — many sheltering displaced Palestinians — having been hit. Warning of a significant risk of a regional spill-over with the already worrying violence in the occupied West Bank having increased since the outbreak of war, he stressed the need to advance a negotiated peace that fulfils the long-held vision of two States, in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements.
Also briefing the Council was Lynn Hastings, Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, who said that nearly 1.4 million people were displaced in the Gaza Strip, nearly 600,000 of whom are sheltering in UNRWA facilities “in increasingly dire conditions”.
“There is nowhere to seek refuge in Gaza. When it comes to decisions on whether and where to flee, civilians are damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” she said. Citing figures from the Gaza Ministry of Housing, she said that at least 42 per cent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have been either destroyed or damaged since 7 October, calling into question the ability of people to return to their homes.
Gaza remains under a full electricity blackout and hospitals are on the brink of collapse. Deliveries into the besieged city via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, while welcome, amounted to no more than 4 per cent of the daily average volume of commodities entering Gaza prior to current hostilities and do not include fuel, those gathered were told.
“No fuel means no functioning hospitals, no desalination of water and no baking,” she said. Pointing out that people are drinking saline groundwater, increasing the risk of cholera and other health issues, she called on Israel to bring water and electricity supplies back to pre-conflict levels and work with her teams to find a secure way of bringing fuel into Gaza. “It will be important also that the Israeli crossings for the movement of people and goods are opened,” she added.
During the day-long debate, over 80 Heads of State, ministers, Government officials and representatives voiced alarm at the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, stressing the need for water, fuel and medicine to enter the besieged enclave. Many delegates underscored the urgent need to avoid a regional conflagration and to recommit to a two-State solution.
Riad Al-Maliki, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine, called for the attacks on Gaza to stop. “The Security Council has a duty to stop them. Continued failure at this Council is inexcusable,” he said, calling on the 15-member organ to call for a ceasefire, secure humanitarian access in all parts of Gaza, end the forced displacement, provide international protection for the Palestinian people, and achieve justice through accountability.
“The fate of the Palestinian people cannot continue to be dispossession, displacement, denial of rights and death,” he said, pointing out that over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past two weeks, almost all of them civilians.
Eli Cohen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Israel, held up a collage with pictures of the hostages held by Hamas, stressing: “These children and babies have not caused evil, but they are victims of evil.” On 7 October, more than 1,500 terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad infiltrated Israel and killed over 1,400 men, women and children, those gathered were told. They went from house to house, slaughtering entire families in their beds, people on their way to synagogues, raping women, burning them alive, he said.
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States, asserting that Israel has “the right and indeed the obligation to defend itself” against terrorism, said: “Every one of us has a stake and responsibility in defeating terror.”
He also said that food, medicine and water must flow into Gaza, and humanitarian pauses must be considered, he said, noting that his country has prepared a resolution containing practical steps to address the crisis, building on the text by Brazil.
The representative of the Russian Federation, said that “the scale of the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip has exceeded all of our worst imaginations”, and said that the world is expecting a call for a swift and unconditional ceasefire from the Council, which is not in the current draft resolution from the United States.
Meanwhile, the speaker for Iran said that the Council has faced obstacles in taking decisive action on the situation mainly due to the United States, which has vetoed over 40 resolutions. “The United States’ unwavering support for occupation and aggression has rendered it an active part of the problem,” he said.
The delegate of Jordan, speaking for the Arab Group, said that the international community’s common humanity is being put to the test today, pointing to a spiral of violence based on despair over decades of occupation, injustice and oppression and “a raging war that is razing Gaza to the ground”.
Calling on the Council to adopt a resolution for a ceasefire to stop the war, he noted that the 15-member organ was established to apply international law and maintain that there is no State above the law.
Egypt’s representative, deploring that “the war machine continues indiscriminately to claim lives without any distinction”, asserting that “silence in this case is tantamount to giving blessings”.
The solution to the Palestinian question is not military action or forced displacement but granting the Palestinians their legitimate rights and letting them live in peace and safety on their own territories, he said, adding: “Egypt will not accept for the Palestinian people to be forcibly displaced and we will not accept any liquidation of the Palestinian question at Egypt’s expense.”
