While a ceasefire has been achieved between Israel and Hezbollah, the brutal was continues in the Gaza Strip with no end in sight to the miseries of the strip’s population. Fourteen months of Israeli strikes and military operation have reduced large swathes of the Gaza Strip to rubble and its population of over two million people has been displaced multiple times. The war has left at least 44,532 people dead in the strip, according to Gaza health ministry. Another 105,538 people have been wounded in the war.
Disturbingly, there has also been an uptick in deadly Israeli military raids and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza war. Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 788 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health ministry.
The ceasefire in Lebanon was a welcome step, but peace in Gaza and all the Palestinian territories is a must for lasting regional stability. Qatar has been at the forefront of global efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, especially those in the Gaza Strip, through humanitarian operations and ceasefire efforts.
Qatar has reiterated that the only path to stability and prosperity in the region is through a comprehensive, just solution to the Palestinian cause based on international law, UN resolutions, the end of occupation, the cessation of settlement activities and the affirmation of the two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations H E Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani also stressed the need to renew international efforts to ensure the fair and rightful step of accepting Palestine as a full member state of the United Nations. Qatar also called on the UN General Assembly to address the crisis facing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which represents the backbone of humanitarian assistance in Gaza.
The UN agency announced on Sunday it was halting aid deliveries to Gaza via a key crossing point with Israel.
Separately, Qatar has also called on the international community to diligently work to provide all kinds of ample support for humanitarian operations for the Palestinian refugees and displaced people so as to mitigate their suffering and ensure they receive adequate support that helps them live a dignified life, in addition to enabling UNRWA to undertake its mandate. Qatar has expressed its rejection of any attempts to either terminate or reduce the role of UNRWA, strip Palestinians of their refugee status, or liquidate their cause.
