UN 'deeply Disturbed' After Israeli Strike Kills 11 Civilians In South Lebanon

The United Nations is "deeply disturbed" by attacks on healthcare facilities, a day after Israeli warplanes bombed southern Lebanon killing 10 emergency rescue workers, according to a senior UN official said

UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Mar, 2024) The United Nations is "deeply disturbed" by attacks on healthcare facilities, a day after Israeli warplanes bombed southern Lebanon killing 10 emergency rescue workers, according to a senior UN official said.

“The tragic events of the past 36 hours have resulted in a significant loss of life and injuries in south Lebanon. Up to 11 civilians were killed in a single day, including 10 paramedics,” said Imran Riza, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon.

He was referring to an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday that targeted an emergency and relief center in the southern village of Habbariyeh.

“I am deeply disturbed by the repeated attacks on health facilities and health workers who risk their lives to provide urgent assistance to their local communities,” Riza said.

“Attacks on health care violate international humanitarian law and are unacceptable,” the UN official said in a statement.

Israel has been launching airstrikes against Lebanon since the beginning of its onslaught on the Gaza Strip in early October.

Israel's raids have resulted in retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that Gaza’s health system is ‘barely surviving’ after more than five months of Israeli bombardment.

In a social media post, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that only 10 out of 36 hospitals are now partially functioning in the enclave.

Al-Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis closed on Tuesday, Tedros noted, after media reports indicated that Israeli troops forced medical teams and patients to evacuate.

The development came as the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, underscored that obstacles continue to prevent the flow of humanitarian supplies throughout Gaza and as the UN’s top rights official said it was “plausible” that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in the enclave.

In a tweet, OCHA described the delivery of essential aid as tantamount to a “brutal obstacle course”, calling on Israel to end restrictions.

Some 1.1 million people in Gaza face “an extreme level of food insecurity”, and there is no alternative to the large-scale transportation of aid by land, especially for those facing the prospect of widespread famine in the north.

The UN relief agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, tweeted that the “clock is ticking fast towards famine in Gaza” and that, although the agency is the backbone of the humanitarian operation, its food convoys “are prevented from reaching the north, where famine is imminent”.

Jonathan Fowler, senior communications officer for UNRWA, described the north as the epicentre: “we simply need to have access to get food supplies in.”

On the other hand, high level diplomacy to end the fighting and spillover from the war in Gaza continues in the wake of Monday’s Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan – the first to avoid a veto.

Following the US abstention in the vote, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield referred to the resolution as “nonbinding”, a view reiterated by other senior officials in Washington.

Pedro Comissário, the ambassador of Mozambique to the UN, disputed the US view, saying all States must respect Monday’s Security Council resolution.

Mozambique had introduced the resolution on Monday on behalf of the 10 elected members of the Council (E-10), who drafted the short text.

“Resolutions issued and adopted by the Security Council are, of course, binding and mandatory. This is the reason why we have the Security Council,” he underscored.

“Otherwise, it would have made no sense. Our hope is that all Security Council members, and those to whom the resolution is addressed – I’m talking about Israel, the Palestinian Authority and all other states – will be in a position to respect and implement that resolution. [Not implementing the resolution] is a defiance against the Charter of the United Nations, against our human conscience, against all that makes us human beings”.

Ambassador Comissário referred to the symbolism of the adoption of the resolution and the hope that it will lead to peace: “The main issue is to cease the conflict in Gaza, to free all hostages detained by Hamas and to allow humanitarian assistance to flow so that we can provide an adequate assistance to the Palestinian people and in particular to the people in Gaza”.

Pakistan UN Ambassador Munir Akram supported Mozambique ambassador's stance on the status of UNSC resolutions.

"All resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council are binding in nature under provisions of the UN Charter," the Pakistan envoy said.

"If Israel doesn't implement the resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, the Security Council needs to consider measures to enforce compliance.

"Pakistan will continue to work with OIC and the Arab Group to chart the way forward," Ambassador Akram added.

APP/ift