NEW YORK, Wednesday, October 18, 2023 (WAFA) - The Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, today called on the United Nations Security Council to live up to its responsibilities and intervene urgently and immediately to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza.

He said in a press conference held by the Arab Group at the United Nations that the group holds Israel, the occupying power, responsible for the massacre that occurred at the Baptist Hospital and that those responsible for it must face justice, stressing the group’s condemnation of the attack on the hospital.

"We condemn in the strongest terms this massacre, which claimed the lives of at least 500 martyrs, and we call on the Security Council to immediately bring a ceasefire and stop the aggression against the Palestinian people without delay," he said, adding that if the Security Council had shouldered its responsibility, in reference to the failure to adopt a Russian draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of victims today would have been among their families alive, instead of being dismembered as a result of the heinous crime committed by the occupation forces.

Mansour stressed the need to stop the aggression immediately, begin bringing in medical and humanitarian aid that includes the necessities of life, and stop the forced displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

He stressed the need to pursue the criminals responsible for this massacre so that they receive the punishment they deserve.

Mansour thanked the Arab ambassadors for their stance, expressing the readiness of the Arab group in the United Nations to work in unity with every possible effort and around the clock to stop the aggression, through the international community, the Security Council, and other components of the United Nations, and to ensure that criminals are held accountable.

He said that the Arabs are united in the United Nations and stand alongside the Palestinian people as one.

In turn, the spokesman for the Arab Group at the United Nations said that Israel should be held responsible for the crime and everyone who contributed to it should be held accountable.

He stressed that "the Security Council must shoulder its responsibility to stop this war that threatens the Middle East and the entire world."

M.K.