The Palestinian Ambassador to Vienna, Salah Abdel Shafi, gave his final briefing on the Gaza Strip at the UN on Thursday because, he said, there was no point – the Americans and Europeans continue to pursue their policy of transferring billions of dollars to Israel for weapons and ammunition and are doing nothing to stop the genocide, the diplomat said.
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“Today was the seventh and last briefing on the topic of Gaza (at the UN office in Vienna ), for one simple reason: because there is no point in coming here once a month and talking about the number of victims – 5 thousand or 15 thousand, and then , and another is terrible, all of these are people whose deaths their families suffer, each of them has their own story, it is unfair and too painful to talk about these victims as statistics And besides, the one who wants something. know, can find out, we live in a modern world today where anyone can know about this genocide… the problem is that the world order and the UN have failed to stop the genocide And for this reason I stated that. We will no longer hold briefings as we did before,” the Palestinian ambassador in Vienna said.
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He added that “every responsible state that would like to stop this genocide can do so.”
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“But the global North – the Americans and Europeans – are doing nothing to stop it. They say yes, we sympathize with the civilian population, but at the same time they are transferring billions of dollars to Israel for weapons and ammunition. It is very insulting. The one who really cares about the civilian population, does not send weapons and money to Israel,” the diplomat explained.
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At the same time, he added that the Palestinian side will continue to discuss this topic within the framework of UN events, and if the Arab states want to organize something with the participation of Palestine, its representatives will speak there.
On October 7, 2023, Israel was subjected to an unprecedented rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. After this, fighters from the Palestinian Hamas movement entered the border areas, opened fire on military and civilians, and took more than 200 hostages. According to authorities, about 1.2 thousand people died.
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The Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Iron Swords in the Gaza Strip, which included attacks on civilian targets. Israel announced a complete blockade of the enclave: supplies of water, electricity, fuel, food and medicine were stopped. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 34 thousand people were killed and over 77 thousand were injured.
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The Gaza Strip has effectively been divided into southern and northern parts, and Israel is preparing for a ground operation in Rafah, which is considered the last stronghold of Hamas.
