World leaders condemned Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, calling for global action at the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
“We will not sit silent and watch as apartheid is perpetrated against others," said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, addressing the General Assembly, evoking his country’s decades-long fight against apartheid, which finally ended with success in the 1990s
He also welcomed the international support for the genocide case South Africa has filed against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
“The only lasting solution is the establishment of a Palestinian state, a state that will exist side by side with Israel, with East Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
In his remarks, Ramaphosa also called for sweeping reforms to the UN Security Council, criticizing its current structure as outdated.
He argued that it cannot remain an “exclusive club of five nations.”
Colombia
Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday for Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip during his speech to the UN General Assembly.
"It is in this inequality...that we find the logic of the mass destruction unleashed by the climate crisis and the logic of the bombs dropped by a criminal like Netanyahu on Gaza," said Petro.
“When Gaza dies, all of humanity will die,” he said. “Today, we have 20,000 dead children. Presidents laugh at this situation in the UN General Assembly.”
Petro said only the voices of world powers are heard on the international stage.
“The power of a country in the world is no longer exercised by political and economic power, but by destroying humanity. Those of us who have the power to sustain life speak without being paid attention to. That is why they do not listen to us when we vote to stop the genocide in Gaza. The presidents who can destroy humanity do not listen to us,” he said.
Qatar
The Emir of Qatar called for the Israeli wars against Gaza and Lebanon to stop, vowing to continue mediation efforts “until a permanent cease-fire is reached” in Gaza.
In his speech at the opening session of the 79th UN General Assembly, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said Gaza cease-fire mediation is “a strategic political choice at the regional and international levels and a humanitarian duty before being a political one.”
“We will continue to make efforts with our partners until a permanent cease-fire is reached, securing the release of prisoners and detainees, taking the path of a just solution in accordance with the resolutions of the international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative, and enabling the Palestinian people to obtain all their legitimate rights, the foremost of which is their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders.”
“Despite the daunting challenges, obstruction attempts and the aspersions we are subjected to, we will continue our mediation efforts to resolve the disputes through peaceful means,” he added.
“There is no Israeli partner for peace during the current government's tenure and no peace process taking place, but rather a genocide.”
Jordan
Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned Israel's actions in Gaza as “unprecedented atrocities” that cannot be justified.
His remarks came during the opening session of the UN General Assembly.
“Over the past quarter century, I have stood at this podium amid regional conflicts, global upheavals and humanitarian crises that have profoundly tested our global community,” he said, according to a statement by the Royal Court.
“It often feels that there was not a moment when our world was not in turmoil. And yet, I cannot recall a time of greater peril than this,” he said.
The King noted that “for nearly a year, the sky-blue flag flying over UN shelters and schools in Gaza has been powerless to protect innocent civilians from Israeli military bombardment.”
“UN aid trucks sit motionless just miles away from starving Palestinians. Humanitarian workers who proudly wear the emblem of this institution are disparaged and targeted. And the rulings of the UN’s International Court of Justice are defied, its opinions disregarded,” he said.
“The attacks of Oct. 7 on Israeli civilians last year were condemned by countries all over the world, including Jordan, but the unprecedented scale of terror unleashed on Gaza since that day is beyond any justification,” said the Jordanian monarch. “Israel has killed more children, more journalists, more aid workers, and more medical personnel in the Gaza Strip than any other war in recent memory.”
The UN General Assembly session, gathering world leaders, is set to continue until Sept. 30.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Nearly 41,500 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and around 96,100 injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.
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