Pakistan has called on the U.N. Security Council to demand that Israel immediately halt its military attacks in Gaza and push for an “indefinite and continuous” ceasefire in the besieged enclave so as to restore humanitarian access.
Speaking during a debate on the humanitarian situation in Gaza in the 15-member Council, Ambassador Munir Akram highlighted that over 90% of Gaza’s population faces starvation due to Israel’s blockade, with newborn babies are dying.
“Civilian structures – hospitals, schools, and mosques – are being destroyed on the pretext of targeting combatants, and every principle of international law, including international humanitarian law, has been violated”, Ambassador Akram said in his last statement to the Council as he completes his term on March 30.
“But”, he said, “Israel has vowed to continue the slaughter irrespective of its consequences for Palestinian civilians. It is doing so with impunity – knowing well that the world, and this Council, will be deterred from taking any action to enforce its resolutions calling for a ceasefire and an end to the mounting atrocities.”
“Daily military raids, settler violence and illegal land annexations are part of a systematic effort to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people in the West Bank,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“The Security Council, and the world community, cannot sit back and watch this ongoing ethnic cleansing,” Ambassador Akram said.
“A failure to halt this brutal war will unleash the worst instinct of powerful and predatory States,” he said, urging the elected Council members to initiate measures to end “this cruel war”.
The 10 elected members on the Council are: Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, and Somalia
Denouncing the Israeli blockade of humanitarian supplies to Gaza, he underscored the need for providing full access to the UN and other humanitarian agencies and organizations to meet the needs of suffering people.
“Starvation of civilians cannot be used as a weapon of war,” the Pakistani envoy told delegates.
He said that Gaza genocide is now being extended to the West Ban, with Israel’s large-scale military operations, which began in Jenin and other areas of the northern West Bank on 21 January 2025, have expanded to Nur Shams, Tulkarm and Jenin Camps, causing the largest population displacement since 1967.
According to OCHA, between 7 October 2023 and 4 March 2025, 896 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed in the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 90 Palestinians since the start of this year.
“The ongoing expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem flagrantly violate the international law and UN Security Council resolution 2334 and constitutes a clear breach of the Charter,” Ambasssdor Akram said.
“Security Council resolutions are binding and cannot be ignored or selectively implemented.”
Briefing the Security Council, Sigrid Kaag, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said, the “relentless expansion of Israeli settlements is dramatically altering the landscape and demographics of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, presenting an existential threat to the prospect of a contiguous, viable, independent Palestinian State.”
Presenting the latest Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) — a measure calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” — she pointed out that settlement activity has nevertheless continued at a high rate, with Israeli planning authorities advancing or approving approximately 10,600 housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank, including 4,920 in East Jerusalem.
Demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned structures accelerated across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, she continued, reporting that Israeli authorities demolished 460 structures and displaced 576 people, including 287 children and 149 women, because they did not possess Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain.
Meanwhile, Ms. Kaag said that “alarming levels” of violence continued, with 123 Palestinians, including 6 women and 19 children, killed amidst Israeli forces’ air strikes, operations, armed exchanges and other incidents.
“Most Palestinians were killed in the context of Israeli operations in Area A, including during exchanges of fire with armed Palestinians,” she said.