Security Council must demand an immediate ceasefire to halt Israel’s aggression – Letter from the State of Palestine (A/ES-10/1030-S/2025/221)

10 April 2025

Agenda item 5

Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Identical letters dated 10 April 2025 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

We have continually warned, and the dismal, ever-worsening situation in Occupied Palestine warrants its repetition: the gravest concerns and condemnations alone will never be enough to halt Israel’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people and compel its compliance with the rule of law.

Israel does not care what any country on Earth says. It has made clear its disdain for the international community, its contempt for international law and its belief that it is a State above the law and will never be held accountable for its defiance. Only serious and bold action to enact consequences for its rogue behaviour can break this abhorrent cycle of crimes and bring an end to its illegal occupation.

The international community cannot continue to delay any further. The Security Council cannot justify continuing to solely monitor, comment on and lament the situation, while Israel massacres Palestinian civilians every single day, violating all international legal prohibitions and moral norms.

Yesterday, 9 April, the Palestinian people marked a painful date in their history, the seventy-seventh remembrance of the Deir Yassin massacre in 1948 when Zionist militias murdered 250 Palestinian men, women and children, attacking the village as part of a blatant attempt to terrorize the population, accelerate the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and seize more territory. And yesterday, 9 April, yet another massacre against our people was committed by Israeli occupying forces (IOF), this time in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Israel assaulted Shujaiya with missile strikes, knowingly, deliberately and savagely targeting desperate civilians. Initial reports indicate that at least 35 Palestinians were murdered in this assault and another 55 people were gravely wounded, among them many who were mutilated and maimed. Eighty children, women and men in Shujaiya are still missing in the massive devastation caused by the bombardment, in addition to thousands of unrecovered civilians beneath the rubble and debris as Israel persists with its levelling of Gaza. And today, another 21 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza.

Seventy-seven years of non-stop ethnic cleansing, carnage and erasure of Palestinians by Israel – from Deir Yassin to Tantura, Qibya, Kafr Qasim, Khan Younis, Jenin, the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, Jabaliya, Nuseirat, Rafah, the Ahli hospital massacre, the flour massacre, the Al-Fakhoura school massacre, the Al-Tabaeen school massacre, the tent massacre, the 18 March massacre, the Palestine Red Crescent Society massacre, to Shujaiya and countless other massacres.

Seventy-seven years of denial by Israel of the self-determination of the Palestinian people and the use of every criminal means to prevent it. Seventy-seven years of denial by Israel of the existence of the Palestinian people and of the use of every criminal means to eliminate it. This is genocide.

This injustice, this endless Nakba against the Palestinian people, cannot be allowed to go on. All political, legal and economic tools at the international community’s disposal must be used to pressure Israel, the occupying Power, to cease its war crimes and crimes against humanity in Occupied Palestine. Every effort must be mobilized by the mediators – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – and by all concerned regional and international partners to immediately restore a ceasefire and bring a halt to this genocide.

Israel cannot continue to be exempted from the rule of international law. The provisional measures orders of the International Court of Justice must be respected. The authoritative determinations of the International Court of Justice in the relevant advisory opinions must be respected. Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions must be respected. The impunity wrongly granted to Israel for so long has only made it more callous and contemptuous.

Thus, the continued devastation caused to Palestinian families through mass forced displacements, mass incarceration, mass starvation and the wanton destruction of every aspect of Palestinian life. Thus, the continued piling up of bodies of Palestinian babies, children, women, men, humanitarian workers, doctors, paramedics, journalists in Gaza in mass graves, funerals every single day in Gaza and across Occupied Palestine for innocent civilians slain by Israel’s soldiers and settlers at the behest of its politicians and military commanders.

As warned by the heads of United Nations agencies (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO)) on 7 April: “More than 2.1 million people are trapped, bombed and starved again, while, at crossing points, food, medicine, fuel and shelter supplies are piling up, and vital equipment is stuck … We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life.”

This depravity and inhumanity must be stopped. Israeli war criminals cannot continue to get away with their crimes. The Security Council must demand an immediate ceasefire to halt Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians; the lifting of the siege on Gaza and unfettered humanitarian assistance to immediately provide food, water, medicines, shelter and fuel to the population; accelerated efforts to implement all phases of the ceasefire and ensure its permanence in Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem; and the full respect of international law and implementation of its resolutions, including resolutions 2735 (2024) and 2334 (2016).

Stopping this genocide must be a collective priority for the international community and an obligatory step towards fulfilling the outstanding legal obligations to bring a complete end to this illegal colonial apartheid occupation and to finally enable the Palestinian people to realize their rights and to live as a free people in peace and security in their homeland with the establishment of a just peace settlement based on the two-State solution, in accordance with international law and the relevant resolutions.

The present letter is in follow-up to our 863 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 4 April 2025 (A/ES-10/1029-S/2025/210), 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. This illegal colonial occupation and apartheid regime must end now.

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