NEW YORK : Addressing an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Qureshi said Israel had mounted a relentless onslaught on the people of Palestine, resulting in scores of deaths and limited access to food, water, hygiene and health services.
Hospitals and hygiene services depended on electricity but fuel for the power plants had almost run out, he pointed out.
The 193-member UNGA met to discuss the renewed violence, but no action was expected.
“As we speak, people in Palestine are being killed with impunity. Death echoes in every home in Gaza. The enclave is plunged in darkness literally and metaphorically; the only light is of Israeli explosions,” Qureshi said.
“This is Palestine where, in full view of the world, Israeli air strikes bring down entire buildings to kill and terrorise innocent Palestinians and even silence the media,” he added, referring to Israel’s destruction of a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the offices of The Associated Press, Al Jazeera and other media outlets on Saturday.
“It is time to say enough. The voice of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be silenced. We, the representatives of the Islamic world, are here to speak with them and for them.”
The foreign minister said it was “appalling” that the UN Security Council had been “unable to exercise its primary responsibility” of maintaining international peace and security, adding that it had “failed to demand even a cessation of hostilities”.
The countries preventing the UN from putting forth a resolution demanding an end to the violence bore a heavy responsibility, Qureshi said.
The US mission to the United Nations on Wednesday expressed opposition to a French push for a Security Council resolution on the conflict. France has circulated a draft text to council members, diplomats said. The United States has traditionally shielded its ally Israel at the UN.(Dawn)
