UN says international law is being flouted in Palestinian territories

Antonio Guterres says violence is spreading from Gaza into occupied West Bank and beyond

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses a Security Council meeting on September 23. AP Photo

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday that international humanitarian law is being flouted in Gaza and Security Council resolutions are being ignored, as criticism of Israel increased from many fronts at the UN.

“The violence is spreading from Gaza into the occupied West Bank and beyond, including several countries in the region – and recently, even Qatar,” Mr Guterres told a ministerial-level emergency Security Council meeting on Gaza.

He also condemned Israel’s recent approval of settlement construction in the E1 area of the West Bank, warning it would “destroy the territorial contiguity of a Palestinian state".

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Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon described Gaza as a “textbook failure of the international community” and cautioned that findings suggesting acts that may amount to genocide posed a direct threat to peace and security.

“Demands of a large majority of international community are not performative diplomacy,” Ms Fajon said. “I appeal to you: do not let our collective future be defined by the stain of the Gaza genocide. Act now.”

Ahmed Attaf, Algeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said the "genocidal war" in Gaza can no longer be denied.

“The Israeli occupation is opening new fronts of aggression in the region and continues unabated," he added, talking of attacks against Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Qatar.

US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said in the past two weeks alone, Israel has suffered two terrorist attacks in Jerusalem on September 8 and at the Allenby border crossing on September 18.

“Hamas has shown its utter contempt for the people of Gaza,” he said. “They struck the very border crossing through which nearly half of all aid delivered to Gaza between May and September of this year has passed.

"Let me say again: Hamas struck the border crossing through which half of all aid through the better part of this year has passed.”

Israel announced on Tuesday the complete closure of the border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan until further notice after an attack last week that killed two Israelis.

The Allenby Bridge Crossing over the Jordan River, also known as King Hussein Bridge, is the only cargo and passenger crossing available to Palestinians in the West Bank that does not lead to Israel. It is also on a key route for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Mr Waltz dismissed the French-Saudi two-state solution conference as political theatre, warning it would “prolong this tragic war”.

He said the Palestinian Authority leaders from Ramallah are absent from New York this week because they failed to meet their Oslo commitments.

Palestine’s UN envoy Riyad Mansour said that recognition of statehood was “an affirmation that the world rejects the attempts at our destruction and supports our right to existence and self-determination".

"This is not a gift. This is a right.”

He pledged to work with the US, Saudi Arabia, France and others to advance peace.

“Palestinians are not lesser beings. We are entitled to life and liberty and dignity,” Mr Mansour said. “The horrors inflicted by Israel upon our people in Gaza can have no justification. Colonisation and occupation have no justification.”

Saudi Arabia’s UN envoy Abdulaziz Alwasil warned that “repeated aggressions and Israeli violations that run counter to the principles of international law" were the result of a culture of impunity.

“The lack of accountability and the failure of the Security Council and the international community to deter the aggressor and stop their violations has reached a dangerous turn that portends to erase national sovereignty,” he said.

Israel missed the emergency UN Security Council meeting on Gaza because of the Jewish New Year. Its envoy to the UN called the timing “regrettable”.

“Despite Israel's request to the presidency and council members to reschedule, the meeting remains set for that date, one of the most significant in the Jewish calendar, marking the start of the High Holy Days,” ambassador Danny Danon said on Monday.