UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the UN Security Council that a deal is urgently needed to achieve a humanitarian ceasefire and the release of hostages.
The Security Council met on Thursday at UN Headquarters in New York on the situation in the Gaza Strip, wracked by months of unrelenting war and tensions spilling into the wider Middle East region, with no solutions on the horizon to stop the fighting.
Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator, told ambassadors that “there is still no end in sight” as the war approaches its 140-day mark.
Wennesland visited Gaza this week and described the humanitarian situation there as shocking, unsustainable and desperate.
Internally displaced Palestinians are facing acute shortages of food, water, shelter and medicine, while communicable diseases are rising sharply unsanitary conditions and there is a “near total breakdown” in law and order.
He added that the UN Humanitarian Coordinator has a plan to deliver the essentials – food, shelter, medicine and water/sanitation – but the UN’s convoys and compounds must not be hit and its equipment needs clearance.
The only long-term solution for Gaza is political,” according to Wennesland.
He called for a time bound political framework to end the occupation and negotiate a two-State solution.
Also briefing the Council was Christopher Lockyear, Secretary General, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders.
Fearful of further deadly Israeli attacks, he said he was “appalled” by the United States’ repeated use of its veto power to obstruct efforts to adopt a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
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