Israel continues pounding Gaza as it claims to hit 150 ‘underground targets,
UN overwhelmingly calls for aid truce between Israel and Hamas,
UNITED NATIONS – Pakistan on Friday reiterated in the UN General Assembly its strong condemnation of the collective punishment of Gaza’s entire Palestinian population by Israeli Occupation forces, saying it amounts to “war crimes and crimes against humanity” as well as a “veritable genocide.”
“Indeed, what we are witnessing on our television screens what the Palestinian people are enduring, may amount to a veritable genocide,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the 193-member Assembly’s emergency session on the Israel-Palestine conflict following the failure of the Security Council to take any action.
“We are witnessing a human tragedy of epic proportions unfold in front of our eyes,” the Pakistani envoy told delegates in the Assembly’s iconic hall.
Israel’s campaign of bombardment and air strikes, he said, has now continued for 20 days, with seven thousand helpless Palestinians – half of them children – killed and 17,000 wounded.
Entire families and neighbourhoods have been wiped out, Ambassador Akram said, adding the essential lifelines of Palestinian people – water, food, fuel – have been cut off. Over a million have been internally displaced. And, even those displaced, cannot hide from Israeli bombs, with forty percent of Gaza city destroyed.
The Pakistani envoy spoke ahead of the vote on a resolution submitted by Jordan on behalf of the 40 Arab and Islamic countries, including Pakistan, The resolution, which among other elements, calls for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce”, all parties comply with international law, and continuous and unhindered aid into the Gaza Strip.
Key issues in the draft include calls for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce”, as well as “demands” that all parties comply with international humanitarian law and for “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of essential supplies and services into the Gaza Strip, the state news agency reported.
It also calls “immediate and unconditional release” of all civilians held captive as well as demanding their safety, well-being and humane treatment in compliance with international law.
An amendment has been proposed by Canada that “unequivocally rejects and condemns the attacks by Hamas” in Israel starting 7 October and the taking of hostages.
Ambassador Akram urged the 193-member to vote for “our resolution” and to reject the “one-sided” Canadian amendment.
Noting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ efforts since the outbreak of conflict and his warming about the risk of its spreading, He said, “We are repelled by the crude and disrespectful Israeli response to the Secretary-General’s circumspect and valid views,” referring to Israeli diplomats attacks on the UN chief.
“The General Assembly should collectively reject these insulting remarks and reaffirm our full confidence in the Secretary-General,” Ambassador Akram added.
“I am sure all of us are also appalled at the vicious and callous way that the Palestinians are being slaughtered – by cowardly aerial bombardment and long-range artillery– they are being crucified not by a militant organization but by the government, which claims to be democratic.
“And, we must be also appalled by those who, by blocking the call for a ceasefire in the Security Council, have enabled the continuation of the Israeli slaughter of innocents,” he added.
In the context of this war, he said, consideration should also be given to some form of an accountability mechanism.
“The crimes being committed, which cannot go unpunished. We have several precedents to choose from.”
“Finally,” Ambassador Akram said, “for the future, we need to consider the ways to prevent a recurrence of this slaughter.”
While,
Israel pounded the Hamas-run Gaza Strip with air and artillery strikes on Saturday after an intense night of attacks when it said 150 “underground targets” were hit.
No official toll was immediately given, but a Gaza civil defence official told AFP a “large number” of dead was feared from one of the most intense nights of attacks in Israel’s war in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7.
Meanwhile, Hamas has pledged to confront Israeli attacks with “full force” after Israel’s military widened its air and ground attacks on the Palestinian enclave, suggesting on Saturday that a long promised ground offensive had begun.
Israel has been building up to a ground invasion since Hamas fighters crossed the border on October 7 and killed 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and took 229 hostages, according to Israel.
More than 7,300 people have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes on the territory, including about 3,000 children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The Hamas-controlled health ministry says that more than 7,300 people have been killed in Gaza, including about 3,000 children.
A thick haze of smoke covered Gaza and southern Israel after the night of heavy bombardment, according to AFP correspondents.
More air raids and artillery shelling were reported after daybreak but less intense than during the night.
The Gaza civil defence official told AFP: “There are a large number of martyrs and a large number of survivors under the rubble, and we cannot reach them,” the official said.
Residents told AFP the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia was damaged by a tank shell and there was major damage around Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza‘s biggest hospital where thousands of people have taken refuge.
The Israeli army has charged that Hamas fighters were using hospitals in Gaza to “wage war” against Israel.
Paramedics said many people were feared dead after an apartment block and nearby houses were destroyed at dawn at the Beach camp.
The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam brigades, said early on Saturday its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gaza’s northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij.
“Al-Qassam Brigades and all Palestinian resistance forces are fully prepared to confront the aggression with full force and thwart the incursions,” it said.
Since the October 7 attacks, Israel warned about 1.1 million people in northern Gaza that they should move to the south.
The Israeli military believes the Hamas leadership and its main infrastructure is concentrated in the north.
An unnamed officer quoted by an Israeli military account on X, the former Twitter, said: “We are bombarding Gaza with an intensity that has never been seen before in the Gaza Strip. From the air, from the ground or from the underground — the IDF (Israeli army) will eliminate every senior or junior terrorist and all Hamas terrorist infrastructure.”
Just before the latest strikes, a senior Israeli officer said the raids did not mark the start of the ground invasion.
“When the war starts, we will know it we will hear it, we will see it,” said Colonel Golan Vach, head of Israel’s search and rescue operation.
“It is going to be lethal and it is going to take time. What you saw in the past two days of small forces movement inside and out of Gaza was for other reasons. Not so much operational but part of the big plan.”
More than eight hours of night attacks on the besieged Palestinian territory into the early hours of Saturday rattled windows and shook the ground in Ashkelon 10 kilometres (6.5 miles) from the Gaza border.
Smoke and the pungent smell of burning material filled the air in the city that has been mainly evacuated since the attacks, an AFP correspondent said.
Israeli military jets continued to fly overhead on Saturday and regular concussive booms could be heard coming from Gaza.
Gaza was under an almost complete blackout, with internet and phone services cut for more than 12 hours by Saturday morning. Telecoms firms and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it was the result of Israeli bombardments.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called on Israel to “immediately stop this madness” and end its “attacks” on targets in Gaza after Israeli forces intensified strikes on the Palestinian territory.
“The Israeli bombardments on Gaza intensified last night and once again targeted women, children and innocent civilians and worsened the ongoing humanitarian crisis,” Erdogan said on X, formerly Twitter.
“Israel must immediately stop this madness and end its attacks.”
Earlier,
Ruters report, The United Nations General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas and demanded aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip and protection of civilians.
The resolution drafted by Arab states is not binding but carries political weight, taking the global temperature as Israel steps up ground operations in Gaza in retaliation for the worst Hamas attack on civilians in Israel’s 75-year-old history.
It passed to a round of applause with 120 votes in favor, while 45 abstained and 14 – including Israel and the United States – voted no. Iraq later changed its vote to yes from an abstention after complaining of a technical difficulty, so the final tally was 121 votes in favor and 44 abstentions.
A two-thirds majority was needed for the resolution to pass, in which abstentions do not count. The General Assembly voted after the Security Council failed four times in the past two weeks to take action.
“It sends the message to everyone enough is enough. This war has to stop, the carnage against our people has to stop and humanitarian assistance should begin to enter the Gaza Strip,” Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan rejected the resolution, saying the U.N. no longer holds any legitimacy or relevance and accused those who voted yes of preferring to support “the defense of Nazi terrorists” instead of Israel.
“This ridiculous resolution has the audacity to call for truce. The goal of this resolution truce is that Israel should cease to defend itself to Hamas, so Hamas can light us on fire,” he told the General Assembly after the vote.
A Canadian-led bid to amend the resolution to include a rejection and condemnation of the “terrorist attacks by Hamas … and the taking of hostages” failed to get the two thirds majority needed, garnering 88 votes in favor, 55 against and 23 abstentions.
As fears grow that the conflict could spark a wider war, the assembly stressed the “importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region” and called on “all parties to exercise maximum restraint and upon all those with influence on them to work toward this objective.”
The General Assembly called on Israel to rescind its order for civilians in Gaza to move to the south of the enclave. Israel ordered some 1.1 million people in Gaza – almost half the population – to move south on Oct. 12.
The General Assembly also “firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.”
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, after the militants killed 1,400 people and took hundreds of hostages in an Oct. 7 attack. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and is preparing a ground invasion. Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 have been killed.
The General Assembly called for “the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians who are being illegally held captive.” It did not name Hamas anywhere in the text.
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