Middle East: Security Council calls for ways out of ‘vicious cycle of despair’

Many speakers called for an immediate ceasefire and implementation of Security Council resolutions, including some calling for a humanitarian pause to ensure polio vaccines can be safely delivered to the besieged and bombed region, where the disease has recently re-emerged after being eradicated 25 years ago.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Here are some highlights from our live coverage:

• Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said the war in Gaza with all its human tragedies, the risk of serious escalation in the region, the unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine and the continued occupation are combining to create a highly explosive situation in the region.
• “We need a ceasefire now,” Mr. Wennesland said.
• Dr Louisa Baxter, speaking in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, said the area was “surrounded by terrible devastation”.
• More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and “move through streets filled with rubble, garbage and sewage,” she said.
• “We are seeing a deliberate and persistent obstruction of humanitarian assistance in Gaza,” said Dr. Baxter, noting that her team had been waiting for life-saving medicines for four months, with supplies “held at border crossings under a myriad of rules and restrictions, many of which are unwritten and arbitrary.”