Stop the bombs and save lives: Palestine envoy at UN

New York [US]: Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s permanent observer to the United Nations, on Thursday said while the world body was holding a meeting, fellow Palestinians in Gaza were living in fear of bombs.

Voicing concern over the rising civilian death toll in Gaza, Mansour, in his address at the ongoing special session of the United Nations General Assembly, called on the international community to save lives.

Mansour said, “We are meeting here while Palestinians in Gaza are under the bombs. Remember, that you are speaking while families are being killed, while hospitals are coming to a halt, while neighbourhoods are being destroyed, while people are fleeing from one place to another with nowhere safe to go.”

“I urge you to choose your words carefully and to act accordingly for all those mobilised against an even greater manmade humanitarian catastrophe or of a regional spillover and these are worthy goals we say stop the bombs or both will happen. Stop the bombs and save lives as the president of the general assembly has indicated all lives, lives of children, of civilians, of 2.3 million civilians in the Gaza Strip,” he added.

Further, in his emotional address, the Palestinian observer at the UN said 3,000 children have been killed in Hamas-controlled Gaza over the past three weeks.

“A man embraces his mother and pleads like a child come back I beg you come back and I will take you wherever you want. He hugs her and can’t let go but there is no time to mourn. More death is on the way. 1,700 women were killed by Israel in the past two weeks,” he said.

“If you do not stop it for all those who have been killed, stop it for all those who can be saved,” he added, calling on the international community to vote to stop the killing.

“I appeal to all of you. Vote to stop the killing. Vote for humanitarian aid to reach those whose very survival depends on it. Vote to stop this madness you have a chance to do something to give an important signal. Choose justice, not vengeance choose to defend the law not justify its breach. Choose peace, not more wars,” Mansour urged.

“Vote to put an end to two almost three weeks of the worst double standards we have seen in decades to restore some credibility of this place and the rules it is supposed to embody do not miss this chance lives are hanging in the balance and every life is sacred please save lives,” he added.

Noting that Palestinians have survived 16 years of a blockade and five wars in Gaza, he stressed that the “answer to the killing of Israelis and Palestinians is not more killing”, as he urged the United Nations membership to uphold UN principles and keep future generations from the scourge of war.

He said, “The only path forward is justice for the Palestinian people.”