“Gaza remains in a perilous state”, Pakistan told the UN Security Council as the 15-member body shifted its focus back to the dire humanitarian situation in the war-shattered enclave, which had been overshadowed by wider regional developments.
“The Council needs to keep the deeply disturbing situation in Gaza under close watch,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said as he highlighted the plight of the people of Gaza who suffered months of Israeli military strikes and ground offensive.
Thursday’s Council meeting, requested by the Council’s ten elected members, featured stark warnings from key UN officials and aid advocates regarding the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Despite the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2803 (2025), the Pakistani envoy said Israeli ceasefire violations continue and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains acute.
“Civilians continue to endure immense hardship, marked by killing, deprivation, displacement and an uncertain future,” Ambassador Asim Ahmad said.
Over 90 per cent of Gaza’s population is displaced, he said. Acute hunger affects hundreds of thousands, while overcrowding and poor sanitation fuel disease outbreaks. All crossings, including Rafah, must be opened and kept fully operational for aid, commercial supplies, and medical evacuations.
“The core issue is the arbitrary denial and delay of humanitarian access”, he said, a recurring pattern of Israeli policy and violation of international law.
“Immediate, unhindered and unimpeded humanitarian access must be guaranteed,” the Pakistani envoy stressed.
He called for resolution 2803 (2025) to be fully implemented, paving the way towards a permanent ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, immediate reconstruction without conditional delays, and a credible, time-bound political process for Palestinian self-determination.
The “core” of the Palestinian question lies in establishing a sovereign, independent, and contiguous State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital, Ambassador Asim Ahmad argued, a vision that enjoys broad international consensus.
Earlier, Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that Resolution 2803 (2025) – and the peace plan it endorsed – “has brought some results”. It has reduced civilian harm from Israeli military strikes on Gaza, brought the return of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas and removed some barriers to humanitarian access.
He underscored, however, that the resolution and United States-backed peace plan are “meant to deliver much more than that”.
These fragile gains, Fletcher said, “reflect movement away from a catastrophic baseline, not the fulfillment of fundamental needs”. He added: “Gaza is being held together by humanitarian workarounds and Palestinian perseverance.”
Stressing that this is “unsustainable”, he reported that Palestinians in Gaza remain deprived of safety, shelter, clean water, healthcare and education. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began, and he declared that Gaza remains “the most dangerous place on earth to deliver aid”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that no hospital is fully operational, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns that water is a daily uncertainty for 1.1 million children.
“It is not enough to silence the weapons – we must restore dignity,” Fletcher declared. To this end, he urged the Council to ensure that civilians are protected, that humanitarians have safe, sustained and unhindered access to civilians across Gaza and that funding to address this crisis is timely and commensurate with its scale.
While the world’s attention has been on other crises in the region, he stressed that civilians in Gaza “cannot wait for a more convenient diplomatic moment to receive the basics for survival.