Cuba advocates at UN for ceasefire in Gaza

 

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 21 (ACN) Gerardo Peñalver Portal, first deputy minister of foreign affairs and permanent representative of Cuba to the United Nations, called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and called on the United States to stop hindering the action of the Security Council.

At a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the humanitarian situation in Palestine on Monday, the diplomat warned that every moment of passivity, double standards or silence will cost more innocent lives, the Cuban foreign ministry reported today.

Peñalver Portal affirmed that the indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population and United Nations workers, the bombing of hospitals, ambulances and schools, and the massive destruction of homes and vital infrastructure constitute collective punishment and serious violations of International Humanitarian Law.

In spite of this urgency, he maintained, the Security Council has shown itself incapable of being up to the circumstances, since it has only managed to approve a Resolution that omits the call for a cease-fire and a humanitarian truce, in order to evade, in this way, the veto of the United States.

In this regard, the Cuban deputy foreign minister denounced that Israel is violating all the resolutions of the United Nations and all its obligations as an occupying power by virtue of the Fourth Geneva Convention.