Urgent call for ceasefire, accountability, arms embargo – Letter from Palestine (A/ES-10/967-S/2023/857)

10 November 2023

                     Identical letters dated 10 November 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

In the week since my previous letter, at least another 2,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, the occupying Power, in indiscriminate attacks targeting civilian areas all over the Gaza Strip. The death toll has surpassed 11,000 Palestinian men, women and children killed, and 26,905 people injured, as of this writing.

Each day that a ceasefire is delayed, hundreds of Palestinian lives are lost to Israel’s vengeful barbarity against the defenceless civilians under its inhumane occupation, blockade and siege. Every hour, 15 Palestinians are killed, 6 of them children, a staggering toll on human life each hour and day that this criminal aggression continues.

Children and women are nearly 70 per cent of the casualties. More than 4,412 children have been killed and 8,663 wounded. More than 2,918 women have been killed and 6,327 wounded. Also, 667 elderly persons have been murdered, as Israel continues to systematically strike at homes, refugee camps, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches and facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), where 66 people have been killed in Israeli attacks.

The toll on humanitarian workers has also been appalling. As of today, 101 UNRWA staff members have been killed by Israel’s war on Gaza, the highest toll of United Nations casualties in a single conflict in such a short span of time. In addition, at least 150 health workers have been killed, 16 of them while on duty, and 18 emergency service workers have been killed. Thirty-one journalists have also been killed by Israeli attacks, the highest number of journalists killed over a four-week period in any conflict in at least three decades.

Each hour, an estimated 12 buildings in Gaza are destroyed, breaking homes and bodies, burying more civilians under rubble, most left to die horrific deaths as the magnitude of destruction has overwhelmed rescuers with meagre tools and capacities to save lives. Some 2,650 people are missing under the rubble, over 1,400 of them children. The widespread destruction wantonly caused by Israel also continues to cause more displacement of civilians.

The number of persons displaced exceeds 1.6 million people as a direct result of Israel’s bombardments – which have now destroyed 40,000 homes, over 50 per cent of residential units – and its military orders commanding civilians to evacuate the north. Scenes of a sea of thousands of civilians fleeing, carrying babies and whatever life’s belongings they can carry on foot, wheeling disabled and elderly persons, children holding up white cloths, as they try to escape Israel’s attacks, have been shocking, recalling the traumatic scenes of the Nakba, again, 75 years later.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that, in just one day, on 9 November, over 50,000 people fled from areas in northern Gaza, forcing UNRWA to open another two facilities to shelter the displaced, who are now more than 740,000 persons, crowded into 151 schools and other buildings with scarce food, water and other necessities and unsanitary conditions, causing despair and tensions to rise. Civilians also continue to shelter in hospitals, despite ongoing targeting by Israel, with 270 attacks on health facilities thus far, killing hundreds of civilians.

Also, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, violence by Israeli occupying forces and terrorist settlers continues unabated. One hundred and seventy-five Palestinians, including 46 children, have been killed and 2,492 injured since 7 October. In one 24-hour period, a total of 18 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, including in another deadly raid on the Jenin refugee camp. At least 230 settler attacks on Palestinians have been recorded in the past month alone.

Moreover, Israel continues daily mass arrests, with more than 2,000 Palestinians detained since 7 October, added to the more than 6,800 Palestinians who were held in Israeli captivity, suffering constant violence and abuse. Moreover, movement restrictions are being intensified on Palestinian cities, towns and villages through the multiplication of military checkpoints, in addition to restrictions due to the settlements and the wall, which extremist politicians vow to expand. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, since 7 October, at least 111 Palestinian families, consisting of 905 people, including 356 children, have also been displaced amid settler violence and access restrictions.

As General Assembly resolution ES-10/21 is being flagrantly violated by Israel, and as Security Council paralysis persists in the face of this crisis, even as it imperils millions of civilian lives and threatens regional and international peace and security, we must reiterate our calls for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire; for protection of the Palestinian civilian population and an end to their displacement from their homes and to any attempts to forcibly transfer them from their land; and for immediate, unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to them at scale to ensure access to the food, water, medicines, fuel and other necessities for human survival that they have been cruelly deprived of, an abhorrent act of collective punishment.

We implore the international community to act with urgency to implement General Assembly resolution ES-10/21 and all other relevant United Nations resolutions. Even as it waits for the Security Council to fulfil its duties under the Charter of the United Nations, the international community is obligated to act.

We thus reiterate our calls upon all States to uphold their obligations under international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, in the face of this calamity, including for the protection of civilians in armed conflict, including children and women, and call specifically upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to act in compliance with their responsibilities to respect and to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, including in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

Moreover, we again stress the urgency of action for accountability, including through an arms embargo to stop Israel from acquiring more weapons to kill innocent Palestinian children and their families. It is time to consider all measures, in line with international law, to bring an end to Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and State terrorism against the Palestinian people, including its genocidal aggression on the Gaza Strip, and to finally bring an end to its illegal occupation, blockade and apartheid regime.

The present letter is in follow-up to our 812 previous letters regarding 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 2 November 2023 (A/ES-10/964-S/2023/829), 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 being committed against the Palestinian 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