India Calls For Gaza Ceasefire, Asserts 'Intermittent Pauses Are Not Enough'
New Delhi: India has demanded a complete ceasefire in Gaza while asserting that the ‘intermittent pauses in hostilities are not enough’ to address the scale of humanitarian crises that the Palestinian people are confronting for nearly two years.
Flagging concerns over the dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged strip, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, pointed out that people in Gaza grapple with acute shortages of food and fuel, and the inadequate medical services and lack of access to education on a daily basis. He emphasised that ongoing human suffering must not be allowed to continue in the war-ravaged strip.
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Harish was speaking at an open debate in the UN on the ‘Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.’ The event held on July 24 was conducted against the backdrop of a deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza. During the debate, he highlighted India’s consistent position for the cause of Palestinians.
“We have always stood by them and our commitment to the Palestinian cause is unwavering,” Harish said, adding that the country was the first non-Arab country to recognize the State of Palestine. He drew attention to the health and education situation in Gaza, calling it ‘particularly troubling’, noting that around 95 percent of all hospitals in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, citing World Health Organization estimates.
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“Humanitarian assistance needs to be facilitated in a safe, sustained and timely manner. There is no substitute for peace. A ceasefire must be put in place. All hostages must be released. Dialogue and diplomacy remain the only viable paths to achieving these objectives. There are no other fixes or solutions,” the Indian representative at the debate said.
The high-level meeting, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, was scheduled to take place from June 17-20 but was postponed due to a rise in tensions in the region. Speaking at the conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that it is essential to keep alive the two-state solution.
