SOUTH African government Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, has called on all parties to the Israeli-Hamas conflict to exercise restraint and to desist from fuelling a “patently unjust war and the suffering of innocents”.
She was addressing a United Nations Security Council Ministerial Open Debate on the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
Pandor called on the international community to work hard through the United Nations to create two states, living side by side in peace and security, with a Palestinian state created along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Pandor echoed calls from others for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza as she lamented the blatant targetting of civilians on both sides of the conflict.
She highlighted that the killing of civilians and the subsequent destruction of infrastructure goes against the tenets of international law. And with the conflict between Israel and Hamas continuing, civilians particularly those in Gaza are now bearing the brunt.
Earlier, the Israel Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, cancelled a meeting with the Secretary-General over his comments that the Hamas attack did not happen in a vacuum while the Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan called for the UN Chief Antonio Guterres to resign.
All this as a US-drafted resolution calling for humanitarian pauses appears increasingly imperilled after Russia’s Ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, signalled they could not support the text because it didn’t call for an immediate ceasefire – informing council that they would introduce a separate draft to that effect.
And while diplomacy stumbles from pillar to post in New York, there’s little reprieve for civilians caught in what the SG has described as a godawful nightmare.
Twenty aid trucks due to enter Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt did not enter yesterday, with a UN spokesperson expressing hopes that those trucks will make it across on Wednesday.
Only 54 trucks have made it into the enclave since Saturday. The UN says they need at least 100 trucks per day to meet the needs on the ground.
No fuel has entered the enclave since aid deliveries began trickling in, leaving much of the region without power and in darkness.
More details in the report below:
Source: SABC News
