NEW YORK CITY: The rapidly deteriorating situation in the West Bank threatens to undermine the fragile progress so far on the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, the UN Security Council heard on Tuesday, as speakers offered starkly differing visions of the possible paths ahead.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, warned the council during its regular briefing on the region that events in the West Bank were “compounding the already alarming conditions across the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with a wider escalation increasingly likely unless immediate steps are taken to reverse course.”
Alakbarov, who recently visited Gaza, said humanitarian conditions in the territory had “improved somewhat” but progress remained “far too slow,” pointing to continued displacement, overcrowding and near-daily casualties as a result of Israeli military operations.
He cited the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report, published last week, which revealed improvements in food security, but cautioned that most Gazans were still entirely dependent on humanitarian aid, while the looming winter is narrowing the window to address shelter needs.
