Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations

Bombings and Massacres and Starvation in Gaza

The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, HE Dr Riyad Mansour, has sent identical letters to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the Security Council, and the President of the General Assembly entitled, Bombings and Massacres and Starvation in Gaza.

Identical Letter Ref. SGC. 56/25 is available here, and transcribed below:

Excellency,

Israel, the occupying Power, has escalated its siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip with devastating impact as it carries on with its genocidal war on the Palestinian people.

Every day brings another massacre of innocents as Israeli occupying forces (IOF) bomb all areas of Gaza with a ferocity matching and surpassing the early days of this criminal aggression. More children are being buried, more children are being orphaned, more families are being annihilated and the entire population is being terrorized, threatened with slaughter, as Israel continues unleashing every form of lethal and explosive weaponry in densely populated areas with no regard for civilian life.

Since the Israeli government decided to collapse the ceasefire, its strikes have killed at least 792 Palestinians and has wounded more than 1700 other people. Among the victims are hundreds of children and women. Again, the few remaining partially-functioning hospitals are filling up with the bodies of wounded and dead civilians, even as medical supplies and fuel for operation of hospitals dwindle.

No civilian area, object or structure is off limits for Israel as it breaches every tenet of international law, shockingly claiming that international humanitarian law does not apply in Gaza. IOF continue targeting whatever homes remain standing, in addition to the targeting of hospitals, refugee shelters and humanitarian operations, methodically attacking those whose mission is to save and preserve human life.

This includes the recent bombing of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital on 21 March, destroying the only specialized cancer hospital in Gaza, and the attack on Nasser Hospital on 23 March, killing two patients, including a 16-year-old boy. These attacks follow at least 670 Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and ambulances in Gaza in the past 17 months.

And every day witnesses more terrified families fleeing for their lives, with over 142,000 Palestinians displaced yet again in the week since Israel resumed its bombing attacks on Gaza. Women, men, elderly and children are being forced over and over again to gather their meager belongings, uproot their makeshift tents, and search to find safety in a place where no one and nowhere is safe from the onslaught.

The confirmed toll of Israel’s carnage in Gaza has now exceeded 50,144 Palestinians massacred, many crushed or burned to death in obliterated buildings. Over 113,704 have been injured, many suffering life-altering injuries and who will die of their wounds as Israel continues blocking entry of aid to Gaza for 3 straight weeks, the longest period of zero humanitarian access since the siege began. The killing of so many innocent civilians, not least thousands of children, is a dark stain on humanity and can never be justified.

Now in its 4th week, this cruel, criminal siege is rapidly reversing gains made during the ceasefire by UN and partner humanitarian organizations to alleviate starvation conditions and provide medical care to the sick and wounded. Once again, Gaza’s population has been thrown into uncertainty and desperation as food stocks dwindle, medical supplies are depleted and access to clean water is virtually impossible, all as the world watches on.

Against this backdrop, the decision by the UN to reduce its presence in Gaza, including all UNRWA international staff, at a time of unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and rising needs for the essentials of human survival is a matter of grave concern and demands the international community’s immediate attention. Action must be taken to compel the occupying Power to lift the siege and cease its collective punishment and attempts to starve, destroy and forcibly displace our people from their land.

In this regard, the grim toll on humanitarians and journalists cannot be overlooked. Since Israel resumed its assaults on Gaza, 8 humanitarian workers have been killed. Since October 2023, Israel has murdered 399 humanitarians in Gaza, of them 289 UN staff, the majority UNRWA personnel. And, on 24 March, IOF targeted and killed another two Palestinian journalists, Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour. Nearly 200 Palestinian journalists and media workers, of them 27 women, have been killed by Israel in these harrowing 17 months.

Likewise, Israel continues its onslaught on the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, killing 99 Palestinians, including children, since the start of the year, while seizing property, demolishing homes, forcibly displacing tens of thousands of civilians, and attacking holy sites and worshippers in this holy month of Ramadan.

IOF are being directly abetted by Israeli settler terrorists, who have been emboldened by the government’s rabid settlement colonization and annexation schemes, including entrenchment of dozens of so-called settlement outposts on stolen Palestinian land, and its blatant incitement against Palestinians. In one such attack on 24 March, settler gangs attacked a Palestinian filmmaker, Hamdan Ballal, in a clear attempt to intimidate and harm him for exposing Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. As typical, rather than hold the settlers accountable for the attack, IOF arrested and beat Mr. Ballal, only further bolstering settler impunity.

Daily IOF arrest raids continue adding to the ranks of thousands of Palestinian civilians held captive and tortured in Israeli jails, including children held without charge. On 23 March, a 17-year old boy, Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad, who was abducted by IOF from his home in Silwad in September 2024, died in Israel’s Megiddo Prison, becoming the first Palestinian child known to have died in Israeli prison, and Israel is withholding his body, compounding his family’s anguish.

Palestinian, children, women, and men are in extreme danger, their lives directly threatened by this illegal occupation. The international community, not least the Security Council, is legally bound to stop Israel’s onslaught and protect our people. This requires in the immediate term restoration of the ceasefire and unconditional, immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access. We urge the mediators – Egypt, Qatar and the United States, with the support of all concerned States and organizations, including the Arab League, OIC and EU, to make every effort to restore the ceasefire, ensure implementation of all its phases, in accordance with resolution 2735 (2024) and extend it to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, aimed at securing a permanent ceasefire to open a pathway for realization of a just peace based on the two-State solution.

The Palestinian people and their leadership thus appeal once again to the international community to act now to stop the ethnic cleansing, stop the annexation, stop the genocide and to end this illegal occupation for once and for all.

This letter is in follow-up to our 861 letters on the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which constitutes the territory of the State of Palestine. These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 19 March 2025 (A/ES-10/-S/2025/) constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations against our people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. This illegal colonial occupation and apartheid regime must end now.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the present letter circulated to the Security Council members for their valuable consideration and distributed as an official document of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr. Riyad Mansour
Minister, Permanent Observer