Gaza: UN reiterates call for immediate ceasefire and release of all hostages
Hibapress
The United Nations reiterated on Tuesday in New York its call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the unconditional release of all hostages.
“We need an immediate, total and comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza,” the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, stressed at a Security Council meeting.
The UN official also called for continued and unhindered access to deliver large-scale aid throughout the Gaza Strip, in line with Security Council Resolution 2735.
She further called for “lasting peace between Israel and a fully independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian state.”
At a press conference in New York in late June, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a “real path” toward a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
“We continue to press for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages and a genuine path towards a two-state solution,” the UN chief stressed.
The new call comes after the Security Council adopted a resolution presented by the United States calling for an “immediate, total and complete” ceasefire in Gaza.
The text urges both parties to the conflict to implement “without delay and without conditions” the terms of the peace plan proposed on May 31 by US President Joe Biden.
The resolution provides for three stages to ensure a “durable and complete end to the fighting.” The first phase includes “an immediate, total and complete ceasefire with the release of hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, the return of the remains of some hostages and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners.”
The second phase calls for a definitive end to hostilities “in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip.” The third phase, for its part, provides in particular for “a major multi-year reconstruction plan for Gaza.”
