The Palestinian foreign affairs minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, has called on the international community to take concrete steps to end Israeli impunity for abuses in Gaza, emphasizing that the ongoing situation is a genocide. “The international community must ‘shoulder its responsibility’ and take action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” Aghabekian Shahin told newsmen ahead of an emergency United Nations Security Council session.
In the interview, Aghabekian Shahin stressed that the 15-member council must uphold international law when discussing the situation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. “I expect that the international community stands for international law and international humanitarian law,” she said. “What has been going in Palestine for the last 22 months is nothing but a genocide, and it’s part and parcel of Israel’s expansionist ideology that wants to take over the entirety of the occupied State of Palestine”.
The Israeli security cabinet’s plan to seize Gaza City has drawn widespread condemnation from world leaders, with Palestinians rejecting the Israeli push to force them out of the city. Human rights groups and the UN have warned that the plan will worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and lead to further mass casualties. Israel has pledged to push ahead with its plans despite growing criticism, saying it wants to “free Gaza from Hamas”.
Aghabekian Shahin emphasized that Palestinian rights must be taken into account if a solution is to be reached. “There will be no peace in Israel-Palestine, or the region for that matter, or even the world at large, if the rights of the Palestinians are not respected,” she said, noting that this means a Palestinian state must be established. The minister also criticized recent remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the future governance of Gaza, saying it’s up to Palestinians to decide who should govern them.
Aghabekian Shahin condemned the international community for failing to act as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have faced a surge in Israeli military and settler attacks in the shadow of the country’s war on Gaza. “It is the inaction that has emboldened the Israelis, including the settlers, to do whatever they are doing for the last six decades, since day one of the 1967 occupation,” she said. “The times are very dangerous now, and it’s important that the international community shoulders its responsibility. The impunity with which Israel was happily moving should stop”.
UN experts have also warned that states face a defining choice: end the unfolding genocide in Gaza or watch it end life in the enclave. “The decision is stark: remain passive and witness the slaughter of innocents or take part in crafting a just resolution,” they said. The experts emphasized that continuing to support Israel materially or politically risks complicity in genocide and other serious international crimes.