Letter from the State of Palestine calls on international community to act urgently for justice and peace (A/ES-10/1047-S/2025/631)

08 October 2025

Identical letters dated 8 October 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

While the rest of the world exerts all efforts to stop the bloodshed, Israel, the occupying Power, persists with its genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Under command of Israel’s political and military leaders, its occupying forces continue to kill, wound, maim and destroy wantonly and wilfully, with blatant disregard for human life and abandoning even the pretence of human decency.

As it has done for the past two years since launching this war on our people, Israel continues to disrespect the global demands for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and to secure release of hostages and prisoners, stop the forced displacement of the Palestinian people, ensure Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza and enable urgent humanitarian relief, including unfettered access by United Nations agencies led by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and recovery and reconstruction to get under way. Instead, Israel obstructs and delays, all while continuing its attacks, siege and other crimes across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

As it did prior to October 2023, and until this very moment, Israel insists on its criminal path of collective punishment of the Palestinian people and the denial of their rights, the destruction of Palestinian society and the colonization and annexation of the Palestinian land. Undeterred, Israel continues to undermine all efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United States as mediators, rejecting the path of peace and choosing instead to wage war on our people and entrench its illegal occupation at any cost.

Thus, despite glimmers of hope offered by the International Conference convened by the General Assembly, with an overwhelming majority of countries supporting the peaceful settlement of the Palestine question and implementation of the two-State solution, and efforts by the President of the United States along with partner Arab and Muslim countries and the rest of the international community to end this war, the bloodshed, trauma and misery in Gaza regrettably continue.

Palestinian civilians continue to fall victim to the Israeli war machine, their homes, communities and cities continue to be decimated, their forced displacement continues, famine is raging through the population as humanitarian access continues to be blockaded, and the Israeli occupation forces continue to abduct and detain Palestinians, now numbering at least 10,800 people in Israel’s jails.

The casualty toll since October 2023 has surpassed at least 237,000 Palestinians in Gaza alone, the slain bodies of innocent children, women and men piling up, the wounded and maimed left without minimal medical care, as Palestinians continue to be denied the protections they are entitled to under international law, their fundamental right to life grossly violated.

As of today, nearly 68,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed by Israel’s military attacks and infliction of conditions of starvation, malnutrition and disease since October 2023. Shocking estimates are that 5 out of 6 casualties have been civilians. The majority of victims remain women and children; 20,000 children have been killed and tens of thousands injured, disabled and orphaned. Thousands more bodies under the rubble have not been counted. In the same period, 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by the Israeli occupation forces and terrorist settler attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where Israeli violent raids and illegal settlement activities continue unabated.

The toll on humanitarian, medical and rescue workers over the past two years also shocks the human conscience. More than 1,722 medical personnel and humanitarians – the majority Palestinians – have been killed in Israeli attacks, among them at least 370 UNRWA staff, as Israeli occupation forces openly targeted Agency personnel and facilities. The number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel in Gaza now stands at 270, an open war waged by Israel on the truth while it continues to bar international media from accessing Gaza. Moreover, still blockading humanitarian access, Israel continues to prevent peaceful international initiatives to aid our besieged civilian population in the face of this illegal, inhumane situation, its abduction and abuse of the civilians in the Global Sumud Flotilla being the most recent glaring example.

Alongside all of this has been Israel’s violent, repeated forced displacement of nearly the entire population of Gaza, terrorizing them, stripping them of their homes, possessions and livelihoods and erasing communities and entire cities as Israeli occupation forces have bombed and destroyed over 90 per cent of homes and other civilian infrastructure – schools, hospitals, universities, mosques, churches, water, sanitation and electricity networks, agricultural land, food production, businesses and all that sustains life in Gaza.

This all-out assault on Palestinian existence risks being replicated in the West Bank, where over 40,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced by Israel’s attacks on and destruction in refugee camps and by ongoing settler terror pushing Palestinian families off their lands.

Israel’s degradation of life and of international law must be halted. On this tragic second anniversary, we reiterate: this genocide must be stopped.

We thus call again on the international community – from the Security Council, to the General Assembly; to the countries recognizing the State of Palestine; to those acting for accountability, including through arms embargoes, sanctions and the pursuit of justice at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court; to those pledging political, financial and humanitarian support; to those pledging protection; to the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee; to the members of The Hague Group and Madrid Group; to the countries endorsing the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution and joining the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution – to act with urgency to save lives, avert further catastrophe and suffering, and truly work to end this illegal occupation and to realize the Palestinian people’s rights, justice and lasting peace and security.

The present letter is in follow-up to our 876 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 16 September 2025 (A/ES-10/1045-S/2025/581) 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 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