Israel was hit by an unprecedented rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7, with Hamas movement's troops infiltrating border areas. On October 8, the Israeli government announced that it had invoked Article 40 of the Basic Law, which means the country was officially in a state of war.

UNSC Must Uphold Mandate Without Double Standards: Palestinian Foreign Minister

17:43, 24 October 2023

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, related to the territorial interests of the parties, has been a source of tension and clashes in the region for many decades. The creation of two states - Israel and Palestine - was decided by the UN in 1947. However, only the Israeli one was created.

Sputnik

Palestinian Authority Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki said on Tuesday that the UN Security Council (UNSC) must uphold its responsibility to fulfil its mandate and council resolutions without double standards toward Palestine.

"Is it not the Security Council's duty to maintain international peace and security and preserving the principles and purposes of the UN Charter that have guaranteed to our peoples to save the generations from the scourge of war and taking these joint and effective measures to prevent the causes that threaten peace as per the principles of international law and justice? Or is it difficult for your security council to uphold its responsibility and its mandate and resolutions without selectivity or double standards when it relates to Palestine," al-Maliki told the UNSC meeting on the Palestinian question.

The minister addressed members of the international community asking whether their "human conscience" were not offended by the crimes committed by the Israeli government over the time of its colonial occupation, or by what he characterized as terrorist practices of killing, destruction, and starvation of the Palestinian people.

Al-Maliki further noted that the current war waged on Gaza by the Israeli side is only a continuity of the occupation and colonization of Palestine.

"Peace and Security cannot and will not be achieved by crushing the skulls of infants," he added.

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The minister went on to say that the failure of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to help resolve the crisis between Israel and Palestine is inexcusable.

"The ongoing massacres... perpetrated by Israel, occupying power, against the Palestinian civil population under illegal occupation must be stopped. The Security Council has a duty to stop them. The international community is obliged under international law to stop them. It is our collective human duty to stop them. Now, continued failure of this [UN Security] Council is inexcusable," al-Maliki said.

On October 7, Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise large-scale rocket attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip and breached the border, killing and abducting people in neighboring Israeli communities. Israel launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to more than 2 million people, cutting off supplies of water, food and fuel. The blockade was later eased to allow trucks with humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The escalation of the conflict has resulted in thousands of people killed and injured.