Resumption of Israel’s war on Gaza after temporary truce – Letter from Palestine (A/ES-10/972-S/2023/946)

December 1, 2023

Identical letters dated 1 December 2023 from the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Security Council

As underscored in our previous letter dated 27 November (A/ES-10/971-S/2023/914), even in the days of temporary “truce”, Israel’s aggressions against the Palestinian people never stopped. It persisted with its killing, maiming, siege and terror campaign across Occupied Palestine, whether in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Israeli occupying forces continued to murder Palestinian civilians, including children, to arrest and detain hundreds and to violate homes and bodies.

The fact is that Israel never respected the truce, and never respected a single tenet of international law, not least its obligations as the occupying Power under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Repeated reminders to it that “even wars have rules” are falling on deliberately deaf ears. Israel is telling the world plainly: it has zero regard for international law, does not fear consequences, expects to continue being shielded from accountability and will lash out at and attack anyone who does not go along with this scheme.

In just the first few hours of its “resumed” military aggression on Gaza, its bombs, missiles and bullets have killed over 175 Palestinians, among them women and children. Hundreds more civilians have been wounded and are being rushed to hospitals that are already collapsing under the strain of massive casualties, lack of supplies and fuel, and repeated Israeli attacks on them.

Israel is deliberately striking at civilian areas in north Gaza and in the centre and south, where most of the population has fled in fear from the lethal assaults and evacuation orders. Millions in southern Gaza, yet again, face imminent danger to their lives. Do not believe Israel’s false claims that it is “doing everything to spare civilian lives”. The facts prove otherwise. Casualty figures and mass graves do not lie.

More than 15,240 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s attacks on Gaza thus far, and children and women are 70 per cent of the casualties. Each day of the past week, hundreds of dead bodies of Palestinian civilians were pulled from the rubble and taken for burial alongside the thousands of others whose lives were taken by Israel. Thousands more remain under the rubble, awaiting the minimal dignity of burial.

Children also continue to be targeted in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where at least 249 Palestinians, including 60 children, have been killed by Israeli occupying forces and settlers since 7 October. The shocking murders of an 8‑year-old boy and a 15-year-old boy, shot directly in the head and chest by Israeli soldiers as they played outside in Jenin refugee camp on 29 November, when the truce was supposedly in place, are just further examples of the occupying Power’s savagery.

Israeli settler incitement, violence and terror also have not ceased for a single minute. They continue to be armed by Israel and given free rein to raid Palestinian towns and villages and assault civilians, including shepherds and children. This was a fact before, during and after the truce. At the same time, even as 240 Palestinian women and children were released from Israeli captivity during the seven-day truce, Israel detained 260 Palestinians, persisting with its non-stop arrest campaign.

Alongside the massacres of Palestinian civilians, Israel carries on with its mass ethnic cleansing campaign in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The risk of forced transfer of Palestinians from Gaza remains gravely high as Israel persists with its attempts to depopulate Gaza. In this regard, as it carries on with deadly and destructive assaults against our vulnerable, defenceless and desperate civilian population, Israel keeps demanding the evacuation of civilians from all areas. Today, Israeli occupying forces have dropped hundreds more leaflets, including into cities in the south, demanding that people leave these areas, frightening and traumatizing civilians repeatedly displaced, with no place to go for refuge and terrified for their survival.

More than 1.8 million people have already been forcibly displaced from their homes, equating to over 80 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza, three out of every four people, the majority refugees. Over 1.1 million of the displaced are sheltering in 156 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) facilities, overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe as Israel continues targeting them, thus far killing 218 Palestinians and injuring 900 people at UNRWA sites.

Faced with displacement again, a young woman in Gaza, Jehan Alfarra, posted today: “My mom is telling me we are left with one option, to accept death. It doesn’t matter if we move or not, any minute now is our last. They say leave Khan Younis for Rafah then strike Rafah. We have nowhere to go. If we die at least we die in the house not out on the streets…”

For more than seven weeks, it has been said, and it must be said again: there is nowhere safe for civilians in Gaza from Israel’s genocidal onslaught and ethnic cleansing campaign. Who will protect Palestinian families from the Israeli war machine? Who will stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their land? When will Security Council resolution 2712 (2023) and General Assembly resolution ES-10/21 be implemented? When will all other relevant resolutions be upheld? When will the demands for compliance lead to actual accountability for Israel’s violations of international legal obligations?

Every day, in words and deeds, Israel proves its absolute hatred and dehumanization of the Palestinian people who have had the unfortunate fate being tormented by this craven colonial occupation and apartheid regime for decades. Allowing and enabling this abhorrent, illegal situation is a grave mistake made for far too long by the international community. It is past time to urgently rectify course.

This must begin with unequivocal demands for an immediate ceasefire. The international community, not least the Security Council, cannot continue to fail its responsibilities. Pauses are insufficient; a full, sustained ceasefire is crucial for saving human lives and facilitating unimpeded humanitarian access to alleviate the massive suffering caused by the humanitarian catastrophe inflicted by Israel. Moreover, we reiterate our calls for international protection for the Palestinian people and for accountability for all the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel, the occupying Power.

The present letter is in follow-up to our 817 letters on the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which constitutes the territory of the State of Palestine. These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 27 November 2023 (A/ES-10/971-S/2023/914), constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations against our people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the present letter distributed as a document of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 5, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Riyad Mansour

Minister

Permanent Observer