Israel/Palestine: Secretary-General to Brief on Escalating Violence in Gaza
Today (10 July) the Security Council will hold a public meeting on the situation in Israel/Palestine. The meeting was requested by the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Palestinian Rights Committee at the UN in response to the severe escalation of violence seen in recent days. It seems there were divergent views about the meeting’s format. However, in the end it was decided that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will brief the Council in public with representatives from both Israel and Palestine participating, followed by closed consultations.
On 8 July, the Secretary-General called on all actors to exercise maximum restraint and avoid further civilian casualties and overall destabilisation, and added that the unsustainable situation in Gaza will also need to be addressed in its political, security, humanitarian and development dimensions as part of a comprehensive solution. At today’s briefing, Ban while updating the Council on the latest developments is also likely to reiterate some of the points made at a press conference yesterday where he expressed alarm at the wave of violence and warned of the risk of violence expanding. He also stressed that “ Gaza, and the region as a whole, cannot afford another full-blown war”. In addition, he may provide information on his conversations yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Secretaries-General of the OIC and the Arab League.
On 8 July, Secretary-General of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi called for a meeting of the Security Council over what he called the “dangerous Israeli escalation” in Gaza. Yesterday, Council President Ambassador Eugéne Richard Gasana (Rwanda) met with several Arab Group representatives, including Jordan, the Arab Group representative in the Council, as well as with chairs of the OIC, NAM and the Palestinian Rights Committee. Following the meeting, the ambassadors of Palestine, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia informed the press that they had conveyed their displeasure with the Council’s inaction to Ambassador Gasana. They also urged the Council to meet and produce an outcome in response to the collective punishment being exacted on Palestinians in contravention of international humanitarian law. Israel’s ambassador held a press conference immediately afterwards, in which he asserted that the escalation in violence was started by—and is being prolonged by—Hamas.
In the past few days violence has intensified, as Israel continues a major air assault on Gaza, and militants in Gaza continue to launch far-reaching rockets into Israel. The outbreak in violence—related to the recent murder of a Palestinian teenager, massive Israeli security sweeps largely targeting Hamas members following the earlier abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers, as well as already mounting tensions due to the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation after the collapse of US-mediated peace talks—marks the worst fighting there since 2012. Yesterday alone, the Israeli military said it had carried out more than one hundred air strikes in Gaza and that militants fired some 80 rockets at Israel, including one that reached the city of Hadera for the first time, 70 miles away from Gaza. There have been no reports of Israelis killed. Media reports today indicated Palestinian officials are suggesting a death toll of at least 67 people, including civilians and children. At least 300 others have been seriously wounded, more than half of them women and children.
Last week, Council members, in particular Jordan and the US, had difficult negotiations over how to address the kidnapping and killing of the Israeli teenagers, an event which provided an impetus to this latest crisis. The US circulated a press statement regarding the Israeli deaths late on 30 June with silence lasting only an hour. Jordan broke silence with amendments to reflect that any actions Israel took to bring the perpetrators to justice needed to adhere to the rules of international humanitarian law and for all parties to refrain from disproportionate use of force and acts of collective punishment in the occupied Palestinian Territories. The negotiations were too tense to be agreed in New York, and had to be worked out between Washington DC and Amman. In the end, only the general reference to international humanitarian law remained. References to Israel’s disproportionate use of force, collective punishment and referring to the Palestinian territories as occupied were unacceptable to the US. The press statement (SC/11460), issued on 1 July, condemned in the strongest terms the killing of three Israeli teenagers and urged parties to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and to refrain from steps that could further destabilise the situation. The day after the Israeli teens were buried, 2 July, a Palestinian teenager from East Jerusalem was abducted and killed in an apparent retaliatory attack, to which the Council responded with another press statement (SC/11462) expressing sorrow and condemnation for the killing and calling for immediate calm.
The rapid deterioration of the situation following the disappearance of the Israeli teens on 12 June has led to worry about the Israeli-Palestinian situation spinning out of control as it appears likely to continue to escalate. Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon said yesterday that the campaign against Hamas would expand in the next few days and will “exact a huge price”. Israel has also warned it may send ground troops into Gaza. In reaction, Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, said that fighters from Hamas’ military wing were ready to face off with Israel’s “coward” soldiers in Gaza. Hamas has also said that all Israelis were now targets.
Council members will likely discourage escalatory acts, encourage parties to exercise restraint and possibly call for a ceasefire. Some may emphasise the importance of resuming negotiations on a two-State solution. However, given the dynamics in the Council on the Israel/Palestine issue, most recently demonstrated in the negotiations over the 1 July press statement, and the difficulties that would be encountered in defining the conflict and apportioning blame for the escalation, agreeing on any unified Council outcome may prove prohibitively challenging. However, if there is pressure from Palestine or the situation escalates further, it may become more difficult for the Council to not react.