New York: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution last week at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable.
He added, during a meeting of the UN Security Council, which was held tonight at the ministerial level to discuss the situation in Palestine, that the Israeli rejection of the two-state solution was despite strong appeals even from Israel’s friends and allies, including those sitting around this table.
He said that “this rejection and the denial of the Palestinian people’s right to establish a state would prolong the conflict indefinitely, which has become a major threat to global peace and security.”
Guterres added that “everyone must recognize the right of the Palestinian people to build their fully independent state, and that any refusal to accept the two-state solution by any party must be firmly rejected,” stressing that the two-state solution is the only way to meet the legitimate aspirations of both
Israelis and Palestinians.
The UN Secretary-General said that the role of the international community is clear: we must unite to support Israelis and Palestinians in taking firm action to advance a meaningful peace process, noting that over the past decades, the two-state solution has been distorted and undermined and left to die several times.
Guterres said that “the two-state solution will remain the only way to achieve lasting and just peace in Israel, in Palestine, and in the region.”
Guterres also pointed to the killing of more than 25,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the operations carried out by the Israeli forces, while more than 60,000 others were injured.
He said that in recent days, the Israeli military attack in Khan Yunis has intensified, resulting in the deaths of many victims, adding that all residents of Gaza are suffering from destruction on a scale and speed that has never been seen before in recent history.
Guterres stressed that nothing can justify the collective
punishment of the Palestinian people.
He said that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire, as winter is nearing, 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are facing dire and inhumane conditions, simply struggling to get through another day without adequate shelter, without heating, without sanitary facilities, or food, or drinking water.
Guterres added that “everyone in Gaza is suffering from hunger, with more than half a million people suffering from catastrophic levels of food insecurity, and there are nearly 1.5 million people crammed into the Rafah governorate, where disease is spreading as the health system collapses, and only 16 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially operational.”
Source: Jordan News Agency