Special report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts
by Xinhua Writer Gu Zhenqiu
UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly (GA)Friday concluded a two-day emergency special session by sending a strong message to the world demanding an immediate end to the Gaza conflict, which raged on for three weeks and left more than 1,000 Palestinians killed despite a new Security Council resolution calling for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire.
A GA resolution adopted at the end of the meeting demands full respect for the Security Council resolution, known as the resolution 1860, and calls upon all parties, including the 15-member Security Council, to "use all means at their disposal to ensure full and urgent compliance with the resolution."
The resolution, though legally non-binding, shows a strong moral support of the 192-member General Assembly to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council in their painstaking efforts to put an early halt to the ongoing Gaza fighting.
Ban is in the Middle East to join the international diplomatic efforts to strive for an early truce Gaza. The Security Council resolution remains unheeded by both Israel and Hamas.
Representatives from some 70 countries took the floor at the special session, which was convened at the request of 118 members of the NON-Aligned Movement (NAM) despite the Israeli efforts to seek canceling the special session on procedural grounds.
The special session came just hours after Israeli shells damaged the main United Nations compound in Gaza which was sheltering 700 Palestinians. The resulting fire destroyed a warehouse full of medicine and food aid and injured three people.
Since Israel launched military attacks on Gaza on Dec. 27 to stamp out the firing of rockets into southern Israel by Hamas militants, more than 1,000 Palestinians, including 355 children, have been killed and at least 5,000 others injured, reports said.
ISRAEL UNDER FIRE AT UN
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, president of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (GA), went on with opening the special session despite Israel's effort to block it, saying that "it's ironic that Israel is trying to silence the General Assembly."
"The relentless assault continues," the GA president said. "Gaza is ablaze."
"During this assault, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, one-third of them children. More bodies remain buried under the rubble, out of reach of humanitarian workers because the shelling is too intense -- the living would be killed trying to reach the dead," he said. "If this onslaught in Gaza is indeed a war, it is a war against a helpless, defenseless, imprisoned population."
"It seems to me ironic that Israel, a state that more than any other owes its very existence to a (1948) General Assembly resolution, should be so disdainful of United Nations resolutions," the GA president said.
Asha-Rose Migiro, the UN deputy secretary-general, told the special session of the General Assembly that the UN secretary-general, during his current visit to Israel conveyed "his strong protest and outrage" to Israeli leaders and demanded an explanation after the Israeli shelling of the UN compound in Gaza.
"There is no question that the civilian population of Gaza faces an acute and deepening humanitarian crisis," she said. "Entire families had perished in the violence, including women and children, United Nations staff and medical workers."
"We need to reiterate: the time has come for the violence to stop and for us to change fundamentally the dynamics in Gaza," she said. "There is no more time to lose. The civilian suffering must end now."
Speaker after speaker blasted Israel for its violation of the international humanitarian and human rights law, and for its military actions in Gaza, which resulted in the destruction of homes, hospitals, mosques and public infrastructures, rendering life even harder for the already helpless Palestinians.
French UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, speaking at the special session in his capacity as president of the Security Council for January, condemned the ongoing violence and said that there could be no victor from the current situation, and civilians are suffering.
"The current violence is impacting an already worrying humanitarian situation," he said. "Daily reports from humanitarian agencies are alarming."
Meanwhile, he voiced his hope that the emergency special session will fully support the implementation of resolution 1860, notably through completion of diplomatic efforts and the French-Egyptian plan.
Speaking on behalf of NAM, Cuban UN Ambassador Abelardo Moreno said he strongly condemns Israel's massive military aggression and its disregard of resolution 1860.
The Cuban ambassador demanded that Israel unconditionally comply with its obligation under the Fourth Geneva Convention, related to the protection of civilian persons in the time of war.
Ugandan representative Francis Butagira, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said: "The grave and worsening humanitarian crisis there is unacceptable, particularly as civilians bear the brunt of the attacks."
Malaysian UN Ambassador Hamidon Ali said: "No justification could support this wanton killing of innocent civilians, children, women and the elderly. It is totally unacceptable and goes beyond common decency that any government would condone this massacre."
Such countries as India, Indonesia, Venezuela, Egypt, Qatar, Argentina and Sudan all expressed their grave concerns at the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza in the wake of the three-week Israeli military offensive, and called for an immediate and full implementation of the Security Council resolution.
POLITICAL SOLUTION URGED
Brazil, Syria, Turkey, Yemen and Vietnam voiced their strong support to the UN secretary-general's ongoing efforts to work with Middle East countries to press for the early implementation of the resolution 1860, called upon all parties concerned to return to negotiation table to seek a lasting and just settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Liu Zhenmin, the deputy Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, said that China always opposes the settlement of disputes by force, and stressed that it is unacceptable that Israel exercises the excessive and disproportionate use of force.
The Palestinian-Israeli problem is very complicated, and there is no way out trying to achieve the settlement through military means, he said, adding that China is willing join the international community in urging all parties concerned to return to negotiation table at an early date for a peaceful, just and durable solution of the problem.
Czech UN Ambassador Martin Palous, on behalf of the European Union, said: "The European Union reiterates the need to step up the peace process."
"We are convinced there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Gaza and elsewhere," he said. "The solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be based on the process set out in Annapolis (Maryland, U.S.) and in accordance with the terms of reference of the Madrid Conference, in particular land for peace, the relevant UN Security Council resolution and the Quartet's roadmap."
"It must lead toward the establishment of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian State in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip existing side by side with Israel in peace and security," he said.
For her part, UN Deputy Secretary-general Migiro said: "We must return to the road to peace, to end the occupation that began in 1967, attain the establishment of a Palestinian state which coexists alongside Israel in peace and security, and to achieve the goal of a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, based on Security Council resolutions."
"It is clear that a return to the status quo ante cannot be an option," she said. "If a ceasefire is to be sustainable, we need arrangements to ensure a halt to the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, the reopening of the crossings, the reuniting of Gaza with West Bank under its legitimate leadership."
At the same extraordinary GA session, Baso Sangqu, South Africa's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said: "Israel cannot expect security for its people and political normalcy as long as it occupies Palestinian lands and continues its attempt to impose its permanent rule over the Palestinians by military force."
