The United Nations Security Council’s emergency session on Israeli plans to take control of Gaza City has heard condemnation of the move from the majority of member states. They include France, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Pakistan and China, among others.
Non-permanent member Algeria has called for sanctions to be imposed on Israel, while Pakistan urged the deployment of an international force to protect the Palestinian people.
Several council members express a view that an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice that Israel end its illegal occupation be upheld.
The US has accused members of the Council of encouraging and rewarding Hamas’s stance. Washington says it viewed the emergency session as emblematic of the counterproductive role that far too many governments had played in the situation in Gaza. It argues that the war could end today if Hamas were to let the hostages go free.
And while the Security Council has long called for the hostages to be released immediately, the broader view is that for that to happen, a negotiated permanent ceasefire needed to be agreed rather than a military escalation that will only further imperil the hostages, the people of Gaza and worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation where starvation and malnutrition has claimed nearly 200 lives.
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