‘Voice of Palestinian people cannot be silenced,’ FM Qureshi tells UNGA emergency meeting

https://www.omgphotobooth.com.au/6yxq6gdnl https://urbanresearchnetwork.org/owppiw4 Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday addressed an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) called to discuss Israel’s devastating violence against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Qureshi noted that Israel has mounted a “relentless onslaught” on the people of Palestine, resulting in limited access to food, water, hygiene and health services.

“As we speak, people in Palestine are being killed with impunity. Death echoes in every home in Gaza. [The enclave] is plunged in darkness literally and metaphorically; the only light is of Israeli explosions.

https://timinglap.com/zmp10lf “The voice of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be silenced,” he stressed.

https://thewonderlist.net/hq3u0hms The foreign minister said it was “appalling” that the UN Security Council had been “unable to exercise its primary responsibility” to demand the cessation of hostilities.

“We must not fail the Palestinian people at this critical juncture,” he said and expressed the hope that the UNSC would issue a call for the violence to stop.

https://techzinglive.com/page/1871/bfd7jt9xi The foreign minister arrived in New York on Wednesday evening on a Palestine peace mission and to attend the UNGA emergency meeting, called by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League.

Pakistan has joined hands with Palestine, Sudan and Turkey to take a united stance at the UNGA session. This is the first UN meeting that has seen the physical presence of foreign ministers since the Covid-19 pandemic paralysed the world. Prior to this, the UN had been holding virtual meetings in the wake of the pandemic.

Soon after his arrival in New York, Qureshi hosted a working dinner of the foreign ministers of OIC member states to discuss the situation in Palestine.

“We hope the UNGA meeting will send a strong message … to end the Israeli aggression and to take concrete steps to find a solution to the Palestine issue,” said the foreign minister while addressing the dinner.

A statement issued by Pakistan’s UN mission said that the foreign minister’s visit to New York was part of Pakistan’s intensive diplomatic outreach to mobilise international support for ending the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.

The UNGA session follows an intensive international effort to secure a ceasefire in the occupied Palestinian territories after a week of deadly cross-border violence.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed 230 Palestinians, including 65 children, according to the Gaza health ministry, leaving vast areas in rubble and displacing tens of thousands in the crowded territory.

Israel’s army has meanwhile said Hamas and other Islamist armed groups in Gaza have fired 4,070 rockets towards Israel, the overwhelming majority of them intercepted by its Iron Dome air defences. The rockets have claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child, with one Indian and two Thai nationals among those killed, the police said.