ICRC calls for ‘maximum influence’ to halt Mideast violence
GENEVA: World leaders should use “maximum influence” to stop the spiralling conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the ICRC said on Sunday ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on the violence.
“The populations in Gaza and Israel are facing the most intense cycle of hostilities in years,” the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.
“Ahead of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Sunday, the ICRC calls on the concerned leaders to exert maximum influence to stop the hostilities between Gaza and Israel,” it said.
“The intensity of the conflict is something we have not seen before, with non-stop airstrikes in densely populated Gaza and rockets reaching big cities in Israel. As a result, children are dying on both sides,” said Robert Mardini, ICRC director general.
“For people in Gaza, access to hospitals and other vital infrastructure has become very complicated because of the incessant airstrikes and major damage to roads and buildings.”
The heaviest fighting since 2014, sparked by unrest in Jerusalem, erupted last Monday and has since killed 181 people in the crowded coastal enclave of Gaza and 10 people in Israel, according to authorities on either side.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis on Sunday said the loss of innocent lives in violence between Israel and Palestinians was “terrible and unacceptable”, warning that the latest conflict could get even worse. “In these days, violent armed clashes between the Gaza Strip and Israel have taken over, and risk degenerating into a spiral of death and destruction,” said the pope following his Sunday Regina Caeli prayer in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
“Numerous people have been injured, and many innocents have died. Among them there are also children, and this is terrible and unacceptable,” the 84-yearold pontiff said.
“I ask myself: where will hatred and revenge lead? Do we really think we will build peace by destroying the other?
“I appeal for calm and, to those who have responsibility, to stop the din of arms and to walk the paths of peace, also with the help of the international community,” he said.