The UN on Sunday urged the Palestinian and Israeli sides to reinforce the cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and avoid provocations.
“The ceasefire must be solidified with all avoiding provocation. Those violating international humanitarian law must be held accountable. There must be a political horizon with the root causes of continued conflict being addressed,” the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lynn Hastings, said during a joint news conference in Gaza with the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.
“I reiterate the Secretary-General’s call for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to revitalize serious dialogue to achieve a just and lasting solution for all,” Hastings said.
She noted that the latest escalation worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza caused by the 14-year Israeli blockade and called for the lifting of the siege to allow it to “be reconnected to the rest of Palestine, including East Jerusalem.”
For his part, Lazzarini expressed his deep frustration at the “senseless episode of extreme violence that killed civilians, destroyed infrastructure and threw Gaza back several years.”
Calling on the international community to fund UNRWA’s efforts to address urgent humanitarian needs for Palestinians, Lazzarini said his main mission after leaving Gaza will be “to ensure that stability remains in the lives of Palestine refugees in Gaza through a strong UNRWA.”
He also promised to urge the international community to address “the root causes of the conflict, the occupation, the displacement, of which we had a strong reminder in East Jerusalem and Sheikh Jarrah, the blockade and the cycle of violence – this sense of normality will only be a mirage until the next conflict.”
Tension escalated across the Palestinian territories last month over an Israeli court verdict to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem in favor of settlement groups.
The situation flared up after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque and assaulted worshippers inside.
The tension spread to the Gaza Strip, with Israel launching airstrikes that killed at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, and injured more than 1,900 others. Health authorities in the West Bank have separately confirmed 31 killed in that region, totaling 279 across all Palestinian territories.
Twelve Israelis were also killed in Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The fighting, the fiercest in years, came to a halt on Friday under an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.
*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara
