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Palestine's UN envoy vehemently condemned on Thursday recent strikes on civilians in Gaza and rejected any justification for collective punishment, as Israel resumes ground operations in the enclave.
“We saw Israelis calling for and cheering on genocide. We saw Israelis signing bombs to be dropped on the heads of Palestinian families. We saw Israelis block humanitarian aid to a starving population. We saw Israelis attack innocent Palestinians,” Riyad Mansour told the UN Security Council. “But we do not attribute these acts generically to Israeli civilians. Nor do we use these actions as justification for indiscriminate killing and maiming.”
Israeli troops resumed ground operations in Gaza on Wednesday, with Defence Minister Israel Katz warning that attacks on Hamas targets in the territory would increase until the militants free all hostages. Mr Mansour said that the suffering of all civilians must end.
US President Donald Trump's administration, which took credit for helping to broker the ceasefire that took effect in mid-January, has voiced full support for Israel. “The President has made it very clear that he wants all of those hostages to come home, and he fully supports Israel,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters when asked if Mr Trump was trying to get a Gaza ceasefire back on track.
Mr Mansour called out the double standards on Israelis and Palestinians. “We have a right to life, too – a right to liberty and dignity, a right to live in peace in our ancestral land,” he said. “Israel has a right to kill and maim, to arbitrarily detain and torture, to displace and destroy and devastate, and we have the right to die and disappear. That is not how international law works.”
The Israeli military has restored a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza city, that it has maintained for most of the war. It warned residents against using the main motorway to enter or leave the north and said the only permitted passage to the south would be via the coastal road.
Meanwhile, an Israeli who was recently freed after more than a year in captivity in Gaza has shared the brutal conditions he endured. Eli Sharabi, who was held underground, described being chained, starved, beaten and humiliated by his captors. The chains they kept me in tore into my skin from the moment I entered to the moment I was released,” Mr Sharabi said. “I was treated worse than an animal.”
Mr Sharabi also said he saw Hamas militants consuming stolen humanitarian aid while he and other hostages suffered from severe deprivation. “Where was the UN, the Red Cross, the world?” he asked, pointing out the glaring absence of humanitarian agencies throughout his ordeal.
Mr Sharabi, who was released early last month, revealed he weighed only 44kg at the time of his release – less than his youngest daughter, who, along with his wife and older daughter, was killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Speaking on behalf of 24-year-old Alon Ohel, a fellow hostage still held captive, and in memory of his older brother Yossi, who was killed, Mr Sharabi demanded action from the UN’s most powerful body. “Bring them all home. Now!”
