The Albany Gazette - Israel's Gaza plan risks 'another calamity,' UN official warns

The United Nations Security Council held a rare emergency weekend meeting after Israel said its military would "take control" of Gaza City in a plan approved by Prime Minister Netanyahu's security cabinet that sparked a wave of global criticism.

"If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction," UN Assistant Secretary General Miroslav Jenca told the Security Council.

The UN's humanitarian office OCHA said 98 children had died from acute malnutrition since the start of the conflict in October 2023, with 37 of those deaths since July, according to Gaza's authorities.

"This is no longer a looming hunger crisis -- this is starvation, pure and simple," said OCHA's coordination director Ramesh Rajasingham.

Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said Sunday "over two million victims are enduring unbearable agony," calling Israel's plans for Gaza City "illegal and immoral," and for foreign journalists to be allowed into Gaza.

Netanyahu announced on Sunday a plan to allow more foreign journalists to report inside Gaza -- accompanied by the Israeli military.

- Sanctions calls -

Britain, a close ally of Israel which nonetheless pushed for an emergency meeting on the crisis, warned the Israeli plan risked prolonging the conflict.

"It will only deepen the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This is not a path to resolution. It is a path to more bloodshed," said British deputy ambassador to the UN James Kariuki.

But Netanyahu said Sunday his country was "talking in terms of a fairly short timetable because we want to bring the war to an end," as he insisted Israel did not want to occupy Gaza.

Outside the meeting at UN headquarters in New York, a small but noisy protest calling for an end to the conflict was met by a large police presence.

The United States, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, accused those nations who supported Sunday's meeting of "actively prolonging the war by spreading lies about Israel."

"Israel has a right to decide what is necessary for its security and what measure measures are appropriate to end the threat posed by Hamas," said US envoy to the UN Dorothy Shea.

Israel's deputy ambassador to the UN Jonathan Miller said "pressure should not be placed on Israel, who suffered the most horrific attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, but on Hamas."

Algeria's ambassador Amar Bendjama called for sanctions on Israel in response to its Gaza City plan.

"The hour has come to impose sanctions on the enemy of humanity," he said.

"If it was another country, you would have been imposing sanctions a long time ago," the Palestinian envoy Mansour said.

(L.Thomas--TAG)