Pakistan urges execution of Gaza peace plan

Highlighting the massive Israeli destruction of Gaza, Pakistan has called for the full, good-faith implementation of Security Council Resolution 2803 alongside the New York Declaration to protect Palestinian territorial integrity and ensure a viable pathway to statehood. 'In Gaza, The scale of devastation is staggering,' Pakistani delegate Muhammad Faheem told the UN General Assembly's Second committee, which deals with economic and financial matters. Faheem, a second secretary in the Pakistan Mission to the UN, was commenting on a report before the Committee submitted by Youssef Chaitani, Chief of the Economic Affairs Section in the Governance and Prevention Cluster of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), on 'Economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan.' 'Beyond denying the Palestinian people their fundamental rights, Israel's policies and practices have devastated their economy, deprived them of their land and natural resources, and systematically undermined the foundations of their development and future prosperity,' the Pakistani delegate underscored. The report notes that the economy contracted by 84 per cent compared with 2023. Reconstruction needs stand at $71.4 billion over the next decade, while human development has been set back by 77 years. Croplands, water systems and fishing livelihoods have been destroyed, and soil and groundwater contaminated. An entire generation is being robbed of its future. In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, he noted, illegal settlement expansion, land seizures and forced displacement continue unabated. The E1 settlement project threatens Palestinian territorial contiguity. Despite the Gaza Peace Plan, the Pakistani delegate, pointed out that ceasefire violations continue – more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed and restrictions on humanitarian access persist. 'The ceasefire must be fully upheld, aid delivered unhindered, UNRWA supported, and recovery and reconstruction advanced without delay. All settlement activities must cease, and measures advancing annexation reversed.' In the occupied Syrian Golan, Faheem said illegal settlements continue to expand, while agricultural land and water resources are exploited.