UNITED NATIONS: 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. Pakistan, he added, reaffirms its support for Syria’s sovereignty and reiterates its call for an end to the occupation in accordance with relevant UN resolutions.
“Permanent sovereignty over natural resources is inseparable from the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination,” the Pakistani delegate said. “Israel must cease its unlawful practices, including exploitation of Palestinian natural resources, and comply with its obligations under international law and relevant UN resolutions,” he said.
“Ultimately, our collective efforts must converge on a credible, time-bound and irreversible political process ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent, sovereign, contiguous and viable State of Palestine on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.”
At the outset, while introducing his grim report, Youssef Chaitani, noted that while the ceasefire of 10 October 2025 “remained fragile but continued to hold”, he noted that Israeli military operations have continued. More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed and “in the Gaza Strip, 77 years of human development have been reversed”.
In the West Bank, he said, settler violence reached its highest level since 2006, while as of March 2026; over 9,500 Palestinians were reportedly in Israeli prisons, many without charge or trial. In Gaza, nearly 1.9 million people — 90 per cent of the population — have been repeatedly displaced, “many more than 10 times”, depending “almost entirely on humanitarian assistance”.
In a “high rate” of Israeli settlement activity, Chaitani cited plans for 10,000 housing units in East Jerusalem and more than 26,640 in Area C, with 925 movement obstacles recorded across the West Bank as of December 2025. In Gaza, the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 84 per cent in 2025 compared to 2023, with GDP per capita falling to approximately $161 — “less than 50 cents a day” — while unemployment in the Occupied Palestinian Territory reached 46 per cent.
Meanwhile, around 31,000 Israeli settlers live across some 35 settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan. Calling for “urgent and sustained action to address” the catastrophic situation, he stressed: “Humanitarian aid is not negotiable,” further underscoring that “a lasting and comprehensive peace can only be achieved through a negotiated two-State solution”.
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