Calling for an Emergency Session of the Security Council on the Gaza crisis – Letter from the State of Palestine – (A/ES-10/999-S/2024/447)

9 June 2024

Identical letters dated 9 June 2024 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

         Just two days ago we warned of the grave ramifications of Israel’s slaughter and terror campaign in breach of every law and every moral principle known to humankind. Tragically, our appeals for action to bring a halt to this savagery and protect the Palestinian people have been to no avail, allowing Israel to carry on with this genocide.

Yesterday, 8 June, Israel committed yet another massacre of Palestinian civilians as Israeli occupying forces, under the direct instructions of Israel’s political and military leaders, launched an invasion of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers killed 274 children, women and men and wounded 698 others in what can only be termed a bloodbath.

It is a certainty that the death toll will only continue to rise as many of the wounded will not survive their life-threatening conditions. As Israel, the occupying Power, continues to deprive Gaza of medicines and essential equipment, water, food and fuel, hospitals and medical staff are unable to care for the hundreds of casualties, struggling to cope with the traumatic injuries caused by Israel’s onslaught, perpetrated with absolutely no regard for human life, specifically Palestinian lives.

The trail of death and destruction left by the Israeli occupying forces in Nuseirat is shocking. In this regard, the United Nations humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, has stated: “Nuseirat refugee camp is the epicenter of the seismic trauma that civilians in Gaza continue to suffer. The images of death and devastation following Israel’s military operation there prove that each day this war continues it only grows more horrific”.

Yet Israeli officials, including the Prime Minister, for whom an arrest warrant on war crimes charges has been requested by the International Criminal Court prosecutor, is boasting about this invasion as justified for the recovery of four Israeli hostages. To this, we must reiterate unequivocally: there is absolutely no military solution for the current catastrophic crisis in Gaza, nor for this grave, historic injustice in its entirety.

The solution to end this crisis and end the decades of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people can only be found in respect for international law and human rights. The solution is not in the bombs, missiles and bullets that Israel continues to be endlessly supplied with by its allies, despite glaring proof that it uses this weaponry to kill and maim defenceless civilians, including children, and to wantonly destroy another people and their society.

Let it be put on record that Israel has deliberately chosen to massacre Palestinian civilians – from 1948 to the present day, with the Jabaliya massacre, Beit Hanoun massacre, Flour massacre, Al-Shifa massacre, Rafah Tent massacre and now the Nuseirat massacre, among countless others, added to the litany of war crimes and crimes against humanity systematically committed by Israel against our people.

Let it be put on record that Israel always chooses to kill and destroy, rather than respect international law and commit to peaceful solutions to protect both Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli politicians and military commanders know full well that this crisis could have ended long ago and tens of thousands of lives could have been saved, had Israel respected the global calls to cease fire and comply with international law, including humanitarian law and the obligations to protect civilians.

But instead, Israel has again chosen the path of bloodshed and terror and dehumanization of the Palestinian people, flagrantly violating, inter alia, Security Council resolutions   2712 (2023), 2720 (2023) and 2728 (2024), General Assembly resolutions ES-10/21 (27 October 2023), ES-10/22 (12 December 2023) and ES-10/23 (10 May 2024) and the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures orders of 26 January 2024, 28 March 2024 and 24 May 2024, and all despite the unequivocal calls demanding both an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages, detainees and all civilians being illegally held captive, as well as demanding unfettered humanitarian access for the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza and Israel’s respect for international law.

But instead, Israel chooses to distort, attack and ignore the Security Council, General Assembly, International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, Human Rights Council and the calls by States, international organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, and millions and millions of people across the world to stop this genocidal onslaught. And, most recently, Israel blatantly and cynically chose to ignore the proposal made by the United States, Egypt and Qatar on 31 May 2024 for a ceasefire and release of hostages and end to this catastrophe.

Such deliberate decisions, including in contempt of binding legal obligations, have led not to solutions, but to only more loss, more tragedy, more despair, more danger, with no end in sight, leading to a casualty toll in Gaza exceeding 37,084 Palestinians killed, the majority children and women, and 84,494 injured, and millions of lives devastated.

How anyone can claim that this is a solution for anything, that this can ever lead to peace and security, is inexplicable. It is only a path to more disaster for both peoples, for the region and for the international community as a whole, which is watching Israel decimate international law and undermine the United Nations every single day, threatening the international legal order painstakingly built since World War Two.

We call on the Security Council to convene immediately an emergency session to address this grave crisis. The massacre committed by Israel in the Nuseirat refugee camp cannot go unanswered. We demand accountability. The binding International Court of Justice provisional measures orders must be respected and implemented forthwith. Security Council and General Assembly resolutions must be respected and implemented forthwith. The Fourth Geneva Convention must be respected and complied with by the occupying Power.

There can be no more excuses, caveats or delays, millions of lives are at stake. Israel cannot remain a State above the law; it is not exceptional, regardless of the boastful claims of its leaders, it is bound by international law like all other States and its failure to comply demands consequences, including sanctions and an arms embargo. There must be an end to Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Palestinian people. We appeal once again to the international community to act now to protect our people and stop this abomination.

The present letter is in follow-up to our 839 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 7 June 2024 (A/ES-10/998-S/2024/451) 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