Madrid. Israel and the United States have unanimously defended the new plan ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to occupy the Gaza Strip in a tense meeting with the rest of the member countries of the Security Council, who have demanded, along with UN experts, the immediate suspension of these plans in view of the new humanitarian catastrophe that they could represent.
Netanyahu's order involves the occupation of Gaza City and the camps on the country's central coast, which would amount to a further forced expulsion of more than one million Palestinians, presumably to the south of the country. Israeli Army Chief Eyal Zamir reluctantly agreed to the operation despite the potential cost to Israeli forces and the danger it poses to hostages held by Palestinian militias, according to Israeli media reports.
Since the operation was announced early Friday morning, numerous countries and organizations have called on Israel to stop, a request they repeated throughout the meeting. Under-Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, Miroslav Jenca, opened the meeting by warning that this plan will unleash"another calamity in Gaza, with repercussions throughout the region and causing further forced displacement, murder, and destruction."
The representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Ramesh Rajasingham, warned that the operation is taking place at an extremely critical time due to the starvation of the population in the Strip, which is physically incapable of further mass displacement."The few remaining lifelines are collapsing under the weight of sustained hostilities, forced displacement, and insufficient access to life-saving aid. This is no longer an imminent hunger crisis: it is starvation," he warned.
One of the most powerful speeches was delivered by Russia's deputy representative, Dmitri Poliansky, who denounced both the delay in this meeting and a deception by Israel, recalling that his Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar,"addressed this Council on August 5 and shed crocodile tears in this very chamber over the fate of the Israeli hostages" when "he already knew that the Israeli cabinet was going to take this decision."
After Israeli representative Danny Danon insisted on social media that Israel would not halt its operations "until all hostages are returned home" and declared that Sunday's session "is no more urgent than the moral obligation to repatriate those kidnapped 22 months ago," U.S. representative Dorothy Shea declared her full support for Israel and once again cast doubt on the role of some council members bent on benefiting Hamas.
"Today's meeting exemplifies the counterproductive role too many governments in this Council and throughout the United Nations system have played on this issue. Instead of pressuring Hamas, members of this body have actively encouraged and rewarded its intransigence, prolonging the war by spreading lies and handing propaganda victories to terrorists," he said.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Brett Jonathan Miller, also rejected criticism of the Israeli government's plans."This is not a conquest. Israel has no plans or desire to permanently occupy Gaza. This is liberation from a brutal terrorist regime," he said.
Veteran Palestinian representative Riad Mansour also spoke in his usual capacity as observer. He denounced Israel's"illegal and immoral plans," which "require the mobilization of all available instruments to stop them."
"Their goal is the destruction of the Palestinian people through forced relocations and massacres to facilitate the annexation of their territory," Mansur denounced, without explaining"how it is possible that Israel remains seated at this table" of the Security Council.
It's worth recalling that, hours earlier, European members of the Security Council, including France and the United Kingdom as permanent members, also unanimously condemned the new Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip in a statement prior to the meeting.
"We condemn the Israeli government's decision to further expand its military operations in Gaza," representatives of the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Greece, and Slovenia said in a joint statement, denouncing a plan that"could violate international humanitarian law."
"We urge Israel to urgently reverse this decision and not implement it, and we reiterate that any attempt at annexation or settlement expansion violates international law," they added, before asking Israel to allow the Palestinian Authority - which Mansour represents, and contrary to the intentions of the Israeli government, which is committed to an independent civil authority - to play a"central role" in the political future of Gaza.
