Several UN member states ask Security Council to save Rafah from 'looming catastrophe'

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Several UN member states asked the Security Council on Wednesday to assume responsibility for establishing a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

"We believe that the Security Council should shoulder its responsibility and act immediately and stop the fighting, saving Rafah from this looming catastrophe," Palestinian envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour said on behalf of the countries, which included Türkiye and Arab Group members.

"We would love to see the Security Council acting as quickly as possible within its mandate and its power," Mansour told the reporters in New York.

He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Friday declared his intention to invade Rafah and create conditions “to possibly push" millions of Palestinians from Gaza to the Sinai in Egypt.

The Israeli army plans to launch a ground offensive in Rafah to defeat what Tel Aviv calls the remaining "Hamas battalions." The plans have triggered concerns of a humanitarian catastrophe.

"Our effort is to do everything possible to stop Israel and from committing this crime of depopulating the Gaza Strip and stopping the war immediately.

"The guarantee to do that is to have a resolution calling for a cease-fire, and we hope that the Security Council would elevate itself to that responsibility," added Mansour.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, killing at least 28,567 people and injuring 68,291 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.