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NEW YORK: The US ambassador to the UN stood as a lone voice in support of Israel on Monday, as he repeated accusations that the countries that recognized Palestine last week had “rewarded Hamas.”

Mike Waltz was addressing a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East as US President Donald Trump was set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Waltz accused the UNSC of having an “obsessive focus” on Israel. “The US continues to work tirelessly to free all 48 hostages and end the war … If we want to end the war, we need to place accountability where it belongs, with the terrorist organization known as Hamas,” he said.

“Members of this body rewarded Hamas for its horrible atrocities, including Oct. 7, by unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state.”

Hamas “sees actions like that as winning and as a win for them,” Waltz said, calling on the council and UN member states to “pressure Hamas to end the bloodshed.”

A stable West Bank “keeps Israel secure, and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region,” Waltz said.

Last week, Trump reportedly promised Arab and Muslim leaders at a closed-door UN meeting that the US will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.

In Monday’s meeting, Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, outlined the status of Resolution 2334, adopted in 2016, which calls for an end to Israeli settlement building in the Occupied Territories, among other stipulations.

This year, from June 18 to Sept. 19, Israeli planning authorities advanced or approved about 20,810 housing units in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, he said.

“Demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned structures also accelerated … Israeli authorities demolished, seized or forced people to demolish 455 structures in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, displacing 420 people, including 175 children and 118 women,” he added.

During the same period, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported the deaths of at least 7,579 Palestinians and at least 37,201 injured, mostly women and children, Alakbarov said.

Despite the world’s focus on events in Gaza, violence in the West Bank is continuing “at an alarming rate,” he added.

Alakbarov described a series of incidents across cities in the West Bank, notably Tulkarem and Jenin, in which large-scale operations by Israeli forces killed Palestinian children.

“After 23 months of fighting, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is beyond breaking point,” he added.

Alakbarov shared the views of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the implementation of Resolution 2334.

“Israeli settlement expansion continues to accelerate alongside the proliferation of outposts and steps in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) promoting the annexation of the West Bank,” Guterres said.

“Israeli settlements have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions.

“They’re systematically shrinking the territory of the Palestinian state and further entrenching Israel’s unlawful occupation.

“I’m appalled at the horrific humanitarian situation in Gaza, with unbearable levels of suffering and untenable living conditions. Famine in Gaza is a man-made disaster.”

The UNSC meeting included remarks from permanent and non-permanent states, including Russia, France, China and Slovenia.

The latter, which recognized Palestine last year, is serving as a non-permanent member of the council for 2024–2025.

Samuel Zbogar, Slovenia’s ambassador to the UN, said “the horrors of Gaza dominated all discussions” at the UN General Assembly over the past week, highlighting the almost unanimous message that “the suffering in Gaza must end.”

He said Slovenia supports the Palestinian Authority and the UN Relief and Works Agency as crucial bodies in any postwar governance of Gaza.

Zbogar described UNRWA as an “indispensable part of the fiber of Palestinian society that “must be protected.”

Each national recognition of Palestine over the past week — which included France, the UK, Canada and Australia — strengthens the “legitimacy of Palestine and moves us closer to a just settlement,” he said.

“I want to underline that we also hear voices for peace in Israel … We hear families of hostages calling for ceasefire,” Zbogar added.

“We hear voices of so many Israelis understanding that their safety and future is intertwined with the safety and future of Palestinians … We hear Jewish voices around the globe emphasizing that peace can’t be achieved through war.”

Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, told the council meeting that Israel continues to violate Resolution 2334 “with impunity.”

Israel’s use of “systematic military operations, illegal settlements and forced displacement” are aimed at “extinguishing the very prospect of a two-state solution,” he said.

“The people of Palestine can’t wait. The cause of peace, and the credibility of this council, depend on what we do in this moment.”

LONDON: Palestine faces “erasure” unless the international community does more to ensure the end of the conflict with Israel and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, Algeria’s foreign minister told the UN General Assembly on Monday.

This, and the threat Israel poses to its neighbors, are the most important issues on the agenda at the global forum, said Ahmed Attaf.

“Palestine faces the greatest threat ever today, which is the threat of erasure through annexation and displacement, as well as through suffocating the legitimate institutions that represent the Palestinian question, and that may also eliminate the two-state solution that has been the consensus on the issue,” he added.

“The threat isn’t limited to Palestine … The Israeli occupation is now loud and proud in its intention to revive what it calls Greater Israel.

“This situation makes it incumbent on the international community as a whole to uphold (its) responsibilities.”

Attaf said: “It’s the responsibility (of the UN) to work in order to prevent Palestinian neighbors — in particular Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan — (suffering) the horrors of what Greater Israel promises.”

He called on UN members to push ahead with support for Palestinian statehood, saying: “It’s (our) responsibility to seek to preserve the two-state solution, and to build a Palestinian state that’s sovereign and independent on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, as a just and lasting settlement for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” 

He added: “We appreciate the increasing recognition of the State of Palestine, and we also reiterate the call, launched by our President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to empower the State of Palestine with full-fledged membership in the UN.

“The entire world ... must realize that the establishment of the State of Palestine isn’t a choice but a necessity, and it’s not a favor but a right, an integral right of the Palestinian people.

“It’s not a hope but a necessary condition that’s indispensable, and it can’t be evaded in order to restore security and stability in the Middle East as a whole.”

Attaf called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with fighting in the Palestinian enclave approaching its third year since the invasion by Israeli forces in October 2023.

“Algeria follows with great concern the ongoing negotiations under the auspices of the US in order to end the tragedy in Gaza,” he said.

“Algeria encourages these efforts and hopes they’ll lead to an end to the Nakba, the catastrophe in Gaza … as a step on the road to a final settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Attaf said: “The Libyan crisis deepens and complicates further day by day, while the international community is losing interest in Libya, and while any practical prospects for a peaceful settlement is absent. 

“Fourteen years after the start of the crisis, this sisterly nation remains trapped in divisions that are fueled and invested by foreign interventions, as per plots that don’t desire the best for Libya or desire Libya’s stability or security.

“If the matter was left to the Libyans alone, they’d have reached an end to their divisions by now and would’ve charted a path forward that ends the crisis a long time ago. 

“It’s high time to end the foreign interventions in Libya, in order for the resilient Libyan people to heal and reunite.

“Only then would we have paved the road to a consensus leading to a settlement and elections by which the Libyans would choose their representatives — representatives who are loyal to the Libyan nation and the Libyan people.”

Attaf reiterated Algeria’s commitment to the security of the Sahel region, highlighting the importance of maintaining peacekeeping efforts in various parts of Africa and of fighting terrorism, a “scourge” to which the continent is “vulnerable.”

He emphasized the importance of cooperation between African and European countries on security in the Mediterranean, noting Algeria’s continued role as a “constructive” and “reliable partner that’s fully engaged in all the efforts that aim to achieve security and prosperity in this shared Mediterranean space.”

He called for European nations to make “economic development on the southern front a shared priority in a strategic and urgent manner, and that will restore the balance of rules so that the countries of the north (can) be a driver for growth and development within a balanced partnership based on investment and technology transfer … expanding the prospects of shared prosperity.”