Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I declare open the 430th meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The provisional agenda for the meeting has been distributed by the Secretariat for your consideration. If I hear no objections, the agenda is adopted. It is so decided. Agenda item two, update by the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. As is customary, we will begin our meeting with an update from the mission of Palestine. I now have the pleasure of giving the floor to His Excellency, Mr. Riad Mansour, who will provide an update on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, as well as on other recent political developments. Your Excellency, you have the floor, Mr. Mansour.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for organizing this meeting for the committee. I would like to share with you that The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the three components of the land of the state of Palestine, by that I mean the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem, and occupied Gaza Strip, is extremely dangerous and dire. The Israeli occupying authorities and the Israeli government is executing and implementing their well-known plan. They want to take the maximum amount of Palestinian land in Gaza. They're occupying 70% of the land now. And in the Gaza, in the West Bank, they are attempting to annex, and they're annexing the, of course, they did East Jerusalem, which is illegal. and they are attempting to annex the 60% of the occupied West Bank. And therefore, they are implementing their plans for the annexing the maximum amount of the land of the Palestinian people in the occupied land of the state of Palestine and to expel the largest number possible of the Palestinian people from their land. That's why you see back again making the situation in Gaza as horrible as you can imagine and are not embarking in any practical steps to provide, for example, durable housing in the Gaza Strip since winter is around the corner. so that people in the Gaza Strip who are cramped in 30% of the Gaza Strip to go through a stage that it is almost impossible for them to survive the harsh conditions of winter in flimsy tents and to push them in the direction of expelling them from the Gaza Strip. The intensification of the terrorism of settler groups in the West Bank is reaching unprecedented levels. And settlers are attacking and killing Palestinian villagers, you know, at a very high level that we haven't seen in a long time in the occupied Palestinian territory. And they, the intentions of the settlers, including, you know, besieging certain villages such as Asira in the Nablus district to make life hell against the Palestinians in the West Bank for the objective also of pushing them outside the land. I am sure that you were able to see the report by a crew of NBC reporters two days ago or three days ago in one of the villages in the West Bank in which settlers who were covering their faces came in vans, attacked the villagers, attacked the crew of NBC, injured the crew, and destroyed their vehicles. So this is, you know, the plan of the Israeli side. And therefore, it is our collective duty to do everything that we can to support the Palestinian people for the survivalship of the state of Palestine, its structure, its government, and the Palestine National Authority since it is the concrete illustration of the state of Palestine. So therefore, you know, also here at the UN, we engaged in intensive activities with the Security Council in the month of July, and there were about six meetings, formal, informal, concentrating on these different aspects of the situation of the Palestinian people, including the attempts of Israel of implementing their declared plan of no to the two-state solution, meaning no to end this illegal occupation and to allow for the independence of the state of Palestine. And also, they are engaging in activities either to destroy the Palestine National Authority or to weaken it. And a concrete example of that is the stealing of the $6 billion of taxation money of the Palestinian people and government to put the Palestinian government in a situation that it is not able to address the needs of the people of Palestine in the occupied land of the state of Palestine and not to pay the salaries of its employees, hoping that it will collapse from within. So that the meetings, you know, the six meetings in July and the two very important meeting lately in August concentrated on these issues along with the extreme danger of the announcement of the Israeli government that they will put in the market bids for building more than 1,200 units of E1 plan, which is a plan to sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the land of the state of Palestine and to cut the West Bank in half, north and south, to destroy the continuity of the land of the state of Palestine. All these are examples and policies declared openly and being implemented openly during this season, election campaign season in Israel, in which all Jewish, you know, political parties are campaigning openly against the two-state solution, and they are debating whether destruction of the national authority or weakening the national authority so that they, the debate or the competition for seats is related to who is the one that will destroy the authority or who is the one who will make it so weak that it will be not able to carry out its responsibilities. So within that context, of course, we are, we announced the, election, the legislative election on the 28th of November. Of course, the Israeli election will take place in October before us. And there will be other elections during the same period of time. But for us, this election is extremely important because it will reaffirm through this election in the three parts of the land of the state of Palestine, West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, the unity and the territorial integrity of the land of the State of Palestine, to face the Israeli plan in which it is fragmenting the Gaza Strip, fragmenting the land of the West Bank, and therefore taking concrete and practicing concrete steps to try to attempt to try to destroy the aspirations of the Palestinian people and the two-state solution. And so that for us, the election to take place in these three parts, it will be to reaffirm and to show the whole world that there is a unity, territorial integrity, and therefore sovereignty. of this land for the people who live on this land so that when those people in this land elect their representatives in the Palestinian legislative council, it would be a form of exercising self-determination. We define the land of the state of Palestine And the people who live in the land are selecting their representative who are saying this illegal occupation has to end and we want to live in freedom and dignity. So in essence, our election would be as an expression of our self-determination of rejecting occupation, defining the land of the state of Palestine, and saying that the people who live in it, not the occupiers who do not have any sovereignty over this land, have no legitimacy, they have to end. And for the international community who stood with us and still standing with us, and the millions of, the hundreds of millions of people who demonstrated in the streets in all cities throughout the globe saying, you know, no to occupation, ceasefire, and free Palestine. This is the moment to help us to put an end to this illegal occupation as characterized by the ICJ and to allow the Palestinian people to win their freedom and independence and dignity in their own independent state of Palestine. After the genocide in Gaza, business should not go back to normal. as it was after this genocide and what is happening in the West Bank, what should happen after that, especially after the elections, the many elections that I refer to and others, then that should be the moment of changing course and in essence implementing the New York Declaration, which has all of the details of what I am talking about. and also the implementation of President Trump's 20-point plan, starting from the ceasefire, humanitarian assistance, no to displacement in Gaza and in other places, no to annexation, end of occupation, and end of settlement activities, and then moving to point 19, which is the political horizon to guarantee for the Palestinian people exercise of self-determination and their state. So we are at a critical moment. There will be important meetings taking place in the margin of the General Assembly this year. One of them will be on the 24th of September, ministerial meeting. under the leadership of Saudi Arabia, the European Union, and Norway to celebrate two years since the formation of the global alliance for the two-state solution. And the other part of it, a meeting for those who will be invited, everyone I suppose, under the leadership of Saudi Arabia and France for the 17 roundtable leaders to also celebrate and to remember the one year of the adoption of the New York Declaration. These are important things. We don't know what France has in mind in this month since they will be presiding over the Security Council in connection with these important developments that have taken place during the course of the last few years, including here at the United Nations. We are grateful for the committee, for what it does in this connection, including the remarkable conference, the very successful conference that have taken place in Cairo with the collaboration of the OIC, support of the League of Arab States, and also collaboration with the government of Egypt on the issue of Jerusalem. And we understand that there will be also another meeting on the 25th of September for the countries that met at the ministerial level in Amman on Jerusalem, that there will be another ministerial meeting similar to that in here that includes the OIC and the League of Arab States. to also to keep bringing the subject of Jerusalem to the table. It's not only what is happening in the West Bank and what is happening in the Gaza Strip, also what is happening in the third component of the land of the state of Palestine, which is occupied East Jerusalem and the holy sites and the desecration of the holy sites in East Jerusalem. All these things are happening. And I am sure that the committee will be heavily involved in all these activities. We are grateful for the committee and the leadership of the committee and you, Mr. Chairman, and for the division who facilitate the work of the committee. We are grateful to them under the able leadership of my sister Yasmeen and all the members of that team. I am very grateful to my colleagues, the leaders, the Bureau of the Committee for putting the time for advancing the cause of Palestine and for implementing the mandate given to the Committee by the General Assembly to help the Palestinian people to attain their inalienable rights. We are very grateful to you. We thank you and we will continue to work with you for advancing the cause, the just cause of Palestine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I thank Minister Mansour for his briefing. I would like to open the floor for comments and questions, if any. If there are no requests for the floor, we can move to the next agenda item. Thank you very much. We shall now move to agenda item three, election of the bureau member. In light of the departure of the former Permanent Representative of Malaysia and Vice-Chair, Mr. Ahmad Faisal Mohamad, the Committee will elect a new Bureau Member, Vice-Chair, to fill this vacated post for the duration of the unexpired term. Committee Members interested in submitting the candidature of their respective Permanent Representatives for this position of Vice-Chair, in the CRP Bureau were encouraged to send a note verbal to the Division for Palestinian Rights by August 25th. The Secretariat of the Committee has received the candidature of His Excellency Mrs. Nazira Osman, Permanent Representative of Malaysia, as Vice-Chair, the only nomination received by the Division for Palestinian Rights, the Committee Secretariat. I now invite the committee to consider this candidature for the post of Vice Chair. Before we proceed with the election, are there any comments or questions? No questions, no comment. I shall take it that the committee approved the proposal just made and unanimously elect Excellency Mr. Najira Osman permanent representative of Malaysia to the United Nations as Vice chair of the committee on the exercise of the inel right of the Palestinian people it is so decided I congratulate Ambassador Osman on being elected and joining the Bureau as vice chair you have the floor Madame Ambassador.

Malaysia expresses its sincere appreciation for the trust and confidence placed in us by members of the committee through my election as vice chair and member of the bureau. We also take this opportunity to thank all committee members for the cooperation and support extended to my predecessor, His Excellency Ahmad Faisal Mohamad during his tenure. In assuming this responsibility, Malaysia remains firmly committed to upholding the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their rights to self-determination, right of return, and the right to statehood. Malaysia also reaffirms its support for the establishment of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. In this regard, Malaysia strongly supports the admission of the State of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations. This would advance the legitimate aspirations and equal rights of the Palestinian people. Against this backdrop, Malaysia looks forward to working closely with the Bureau, all Committee members and observers, as well as the Division for Palestinian Rights in fulfilling the Committee's important mandate. Malaysia will continue to contribute constructively to our collective efforts to uphold the inalienable of the Palestinian people and achieve a just lasting and comprehensive solution to the question of Palestine thank you

thank you for your remarks Ambassador Osman and welcome to the Bureau we look forward to working closely with you excellencies ladies and gentlemen we can now move to the next agenda item consideration on an adoption of the draft annual report of the committee to the general assembly document A/81/35. The committee is requested to consider and adopt the draft annual report of the committee for submission to the General Assembly at its 80th session. A copy of the draft was circulated by the committee secretariat ahead of today's meeting. I now have the pleasure of giving the floor to His Excellency Mr. Penda Palanenda, Permanent Representative of Namibia and Vice-Chair of the Committee, who will serve as rapporteur for this session and will introduce the annual report of the Committee for the submission to the General Assembly at its 80th session. Excellency, you have the floor, if you are ready.

Thank you, Mr. President. Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, as rapporteur of the Bureau, of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I have the honour of presenting the annual report of the Committee for 2026, contained in document A/81/35. The report covers developments relating to the question of Palestine in the Committee's work between 2 September 2025 and 31 August 2026. The report is structured in seven chapters. Chapter 1 contains the introduction, which outlines the structure and content of the report. Chapter 2 provides a brief overview of significant political developments during the reporting period that served as a context for the committee's work program and activities. Specifically, this chapter highlights key critical developments in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. It covers renewed international support for the two-state solution through the New York Declaration and increased recognition of the State of Palestine, as well as efforts to implement the Gaza ceasefire and support post-recovery, post-conflict recovery. The chapter also examines the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, deepening occupation-related developments in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and growing challenges facing UNRWA. and humanitarian operations. In addition, it reviews significant international legal and human rights developments and continued international support for Palestinian self-determination and just and lasting peace. Chapters three and four outline the mandate entrusted to the committee by the General Assembly in the organization of the committee's work during the year, including the composition of the committee's membership and officers. Chapter five details the work of the committee as well as the activities concluded on its behalf by the Division for Palestinian Rights around four significant aspects of the mandate. One, mobilization of the diplomatic community. two, raising awareness; three, cooperation with intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and UN entities; and four, capacity building. This chapter highlights significant strides made during the reporting period marked by active engagement and outreach by the Bureau of the Committee in support of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Key achievements include covering eight Bureau and five Committee meetings, and the delivery of four Security Council statements on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. The Committee organized nine conferences and events, including with partner CSOs and conducted four outreach delegation visits with member states and regional organizations. Additionally, the committee issued six press statements on its website and social media platforms continue to serve information on the situation in the OPC, including East Jerusalem, to a fast growing international audience. Furthermore, the Committee conducted four capacity-building activities for Palestinian officials, reinforcing its commitment to supporting Palestinian governance and capacity. Chapter VI reports on the activities of the Special Information Programme of the Department of Global Communications on the question of Palestine. The last and final chapter, VII, contains the recommendations of the committee to relevant actors, specifically the following. The committee welcomes the New York Declaration and growing recognition of the state of Palestine, reaffirming the two-state solution and calling for Palestine's admission as a full member state of the United Nations. It urges the implementation of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, and the delivery of unrestricted humanitarian assistance. The committee reiterates that annexation of any part of the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, is illegal and urges the implementation of the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of the 19th of July 2024. It calls on Israel to cease settlement expansion, land confiscation, demolition, forced displacement of all and all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition status and character of the occupied territory. The committee calls on Israel to respect the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem ensure peaceful religious practice practices and lift the ongoing land air and sea blockade of Gaza the committee calls on the security Council and the general assembly to to advance implementation of the relevant United Nations resolutions and support efforts by the secretary general the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to promote accountability and a just resolution of the question of Palestine. It further urges consideration of practical measures to ensure compliance with international law. The committee urges member states and regional organizations to take collective and individual action consistent with international law to protect Palestinian civilians, support a permanent ceasefire, advance Palestinian self-determination, and help bring an end to the Israeli illegal occupation. It also encourages support for Palestinian institutions, reconstruction efforts in Gaza, and measures addressing settlement activity and settler violence. The Committee strongly reaffirms its support for UNRWA and its indispensable role in assisting Palestinian refugees. It calls on Israel to comply with its obligations towards the Agency, reverse actions affecting its operations and facilities, and urges Member States to provide sustained political and financial support for UNRWA's mandate and activities. The committee expresses gratitude to the UN Division for Palestinian Rights for supporting its work and recommends continuing the special program of the United Nations Department of Global Communications and its media and public awareness support efforts. Thank you, Mr. President.

I thank Ambassador Nanda for introducing the draft Committee annual report for the period 2025-2026. I would like now to open the floor for comments and questions, if any. We will go chapter by chapter to ensure the Secretariat can take down any potential comments. Before doing so, I would like to give the floor to delegations that wish to make comments of a general nature on the report. If there are no comments, we will now move to the consideration and adoption of the draft report by the committee members chapter by chapter. Let us begin by with the chapter, chapters one and two, introduction and overview of the political context relating to the question of Palestine. Are there any comments on these first two chapters? If there are no further comments, I take it that the Committee approved chapter one, chapters one and two. It is so decided. Chapters three, four and five, mandate of the Committee, organization of work and action taken by the Committee and the Division for the Palestinian Rights. Are there any comments on this section? If there are no further comments, I take it that the committee approves chapters three, four, and five. It is so decided. Chapter six, action taken by the Department of Global Communications in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 77/24. Are there any comments? If no, I take it that the committee approves chapter six. It is so decided. Chapter seven, conclusions and recommendations of the committee. If there are any no comments, I will take it that the committee decide to approve chapter seven. It is so decided. excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, we have thus concluded the consideration of the draft annual report. If there are no other comments, may I take it that the committee wishes to adopt the draft annual report of the committee for submission to the General Assembly? It is so decided. I would like to take this opportunity to call upon all governments and organizations continue extending their full cooperation and support to the Committee in the discharge of its mandate, particularly in the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report just adopted, and to maintain their support, in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions, for the Palestinian people in the realization of their right to self-determination. In accordance with the established practice, the adopted report will be transmitted to the Secretary-General for submission to the General Assembly. The report is scheduled to be presented to the General Assembly at its 81st session during its consideration of the question of Palestine. Let's now move to agenda item five, briefings by Mr. Michael Saad, Deputy Director and Officer in Charge Crisis Response Division of OCHA and Mrs. Joanne Salim, National Coordinator of Palestine Shelter Cluster. The first briefer is Mr. Michael Saad who will be presenting us an overview of the humanitarian situation in the OPT. Mr. Saad is Deputy Director and Officer in Charge of the OCHA Crisis Response Division. Mr. Saad, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Excellencies. Good morning, colleagues. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Ambassador Mansour. Thank you for the committee for the invitation to brief you today. Thanks also to the division, from the director to all the colleagues who made this happen today. I will be providing a short brief on the humanitarian situation ahead of my colleague from the shelter cluster afterwards. The humanitarian situation across the OPT remains deeply alarming. There are few words that can convey the scale of suffering present in Gaza, where people continue to endure very difficult conditions. Most of the population of 2.1 million people remains displaced, while ongoing airstrikes and hostilities continue to cause civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure. Humanitarian needs remain immense, and humanitarian organizations face continued constraints on our ability to bring in certain items to move into certain areas and to operate smoothly. These occur alongside significant funding shortfalls, where only 40% of our annual funding request has been met, with only four months left for this year. Most of the population in Gaza today is confined to less than 40% of the strip, as the Israeli authorities continue imposing access restrictions on the Gaza Strip's area beyond the so-called orange and yellow lines. Children are among those most affected. They have experienced repeated displacement, exposure to violence, loss of family members, psychological distress, and disruption of nearly every aspect of daily life. We will hear shortly about the devastating shelter situation, so I will not speak to that, but I can confirm that the conditions remain very, very dire. Health needs remain staggering. Damage to health facilities, shortages of equipment and medicine, and repeated displacement continue to undermine access to care. Widespread displacement and overcrowding combined with limited access to safe water, overstretched sanitation services, accumulating solid waste are driving persistent rat and pest infestations, heightening public health risks and contributing to disease outbreaks across Gaza. Meanwhile, restrictions on the entry of heavy machinery and essential equipment to remove debris and denied access to sanitation landfills prevent adequate and sustainable solutions to these public health risks. Education remains severely compromised with damage to schools and educational infrastructure and insecurity limiting learning opportunities. As we approach the cold and rainy season, the risks facing the population are becoming even more urgent. Last winter, for example, more than 70%, seven zero percent of families experienced flooding, many on multiple occasions. Aid agencies are working to support at risks families, but efforts are being hampered by restrictions on the entry of critical supplies, limited access to land, and serious funding gaps. We need more shelter supplies along with equipment, spare parts, and engine oil, all of which are critical to help protect people from flooding, hypothermia, and disease during the winter month. In spite of these challenges, humanitarian partners continue to deliver assistance wherever possible. from health care to food distributions to shelter and support to provide safe drinking water. But what we are able to do is nowhere close to meeting the massive need levels we see in Gaza. Turning to the West Bank, humanitarian concerns continue to intensify as the situation rapidly deteriorates and many Palestinians face a near complete lack of protection. Operations by the Israeli forces, settler violence, demolitions, displacement and movement restrictions are creating insecurity and humanitarian needs across many communities. Demolitions and displacement continue to disrupt life and access to services. Education remains under pressure. with schools facing demolition proceedings and movement restrictions hindering access for students and teachers alike. To mention but a few figures, since the beginning of the year 2026, 79 Palestinians, including 19 children, have been killed and about 1,870 injured in the West Bank. Of these, 23 Palestinians were killed and over 1,040 injured in the context of settler attacks. Over 900 movement obstacles impede Palestinian access to essential services and places of work. Plans for construction of the E1 settlement create additional risks threatening to displace the residents of some 18 Palestinian Bedouin communities and further fragment the West Bank. Already in 2026, more than 3,700 people have been displaced in the West Bank due to demolitions, settler violence and access restrictions. 47 communities have been completely displaced since 2023. The recent developments in Kusrah in the Nablus governorate highlight just how alarming the situation has become. The establishment of a new settlement outpost in early August near three Palestinian households has been followed by increased presence of Israeli forces and settlers, damage to water and electricity infrastructure, and restrictions on Palestinian movement and access. While humanitarian partners work to meet needs, they are also forced to cut assistance due to lack of funding. Our colleagues from the World Food Program just announced yesterday that funding shortfalls are forcing them to cut food, cash, and nutrition assistance by half, from 400,000 people per month to 200,000 people targeted for assistance. This is happening while the need for food assistance has actually doubled. Colleagues, we cannot allow further deterioration of the situation in the OPT. People in need cannot wait. Their needs are immediate and their vulnerabilities are growing. Allow me please to conclude with three urgent asks. First, civilians must be protected. in line with international humanitarian law. Second, humanitarian access must be enabled and sustained. And third, as was echoed by Ambassador Mansour earlier, the humanitarian response must be adequately funded, particularly ahead of the winter season, which is just at our doorsteps. The international community must act with urgency and resolve. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Saad, for your very important briefing. Our second briefer is Mrs. Jihan Salim, who will join us via VTC. Mrs. Salim is the National Coordinator of Palestine Shelter Cluster and representative of the Norwegian Refugee Council. She will be briefing us on the shelter situation in both Gaza and the West Bank. Mrs. Salim, you have the floor.

Thank you, the committee, for the invitation to brief you today on the situation on behalf of the shelter cluster. I just want to make sure everything is clear as I'm joining remotely. I'll briefly go over the newly released comprehensive assessment in Gaza and give a brief update of the shelter situation in the West Bank. The shelter cluster has recently conducted a comprehensive assessment using the global shelter security classification framework. Our findings reveal that 1.98 million people, or 98% of the population in Gaza, require urgent shelter and household assistance. Yet our survey, sorry, I have to, yeah, to show you. Our survey found that only 10% have received shelter or household items in the previous month since the survey. 58% of the household face critical catastrophic shelter needs, meaning that the living condition are unsafe and in many cases are life threatening. Around two thirds of household are living in tents and makeshift shelters. For many families, the temporary shelter has now become a long-term reality for almost after three years. More than half of the people living in tents have received it more than a year ago, and over 50% of those tents are in very poor condition, meaning they endured the last winter in such a condition. Almost 98% reported environmental hazards within 10 meters of the shelter, These hazards are including rotten stray dogs, solid waste, septic tanks, and sewage. At the same time, 70% reported flooding across all shelter typologies, not only tents, but collective shelters, residential buildings, tents, and makeshift shelters. When flooding occurs, these hazards can enter directly into the living spaces, creating a major public health risk. We also assess the living condition, which means household's ability to cook, sleep, store food and water, stay warm, cold, or maintain hygiene. More than 80% of household are living critical catastrophic conditions. This means denying families basic needs. More than 70% reported difficulty sleeping, and the two reasons for it, primarily because they lack sleeping items such as bedding, mattresses, And the second is extreme overcrowding. Meanwhile, the shelter cluster pipeline has more than 100,000 mattresses awaiting at the corridor, repeatedly delayed or rejected. And even if they were entered, they still would not meet the scale of the need. When the ceasefire began last October, we were optimistic we could start repairing homes, but the possibility of returning to adequate housing continues to shrink. UNICEF assessment estimated more than 82% of structure is damaged. This includes over 300,000 housing units. For displaced families, this means fewer homes to return and fewer structures can be realistically repaired. Light repairs are one of the few viable ways forward, but the materials needed to carry out the repair are being systematically blocked. More than 400,000 timber pieces remain stranded at the Jordan corridor, which can support over 5,000 temporary shelters, and over 30,000 pieces of timber are stuck at the Egyptian corridor. Shelter assistance is falling behind. Kerem Shalom remains a sole operation cargo crossing, and approval processes remain entirely unpredictable. Recently, basic kitchen sets were rejected because they included butter knives. Essential toolkits turned back because they included nails. Shelter partners have purchased over 30,000 tents still awaiting at the corridors to enter. But this does not meet the estimated requirement, which is over 130,000 required just only for winter to respond to the flooding. Tents are not the only shelter solution. We need diverse options, but access restrictions are preventing even basic shelter assistance from reaching the people at the scale required. The shelter cluster estimates over 500 million USD for the emergency response, which includes 165 only for the acute emergency. So far, only a quarter of that has been funded as of August. Member state must press the predictable entry, a sustained entry of shelter repair materials, and for access to land where safer and repairs are possible. Without swift movement on both access and resources, Gaza faces another winter of severe shelter failure. A crisis that is entirely preventable. At the same time, we can't forget West Bank. The situation in West Bank has deteriorated in 2026 with displacement are continuing and increasingly beyond the northern refugee camps. By August, approximately as mentioned by Mr. Michael Saad, around 3,800 people have been displaced by settler violence, demolitions, and evictions, and nearly half of them are children. And the restriction of physical movement obstacle are creating another hindered process for us to reach those people in need while settler attacks continue to expand beyond Area C. Israeli authorities demolished approximately over 870 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C in East Jerusalem in this year alone. In East Jerusalem, 200 households, around 900 people face immediate eviction, largely driven by settler organization. In the north, The camps of Jenin and Tulkarem and Nur Shams illustrate how emergency displacement became protracted. More than 34,000 Palestinian refugees remain displaced, while access restriction prevented our teams from conducting assessment and rehabilitating the homes. Emergency cash and temporary shelters items are vital, but they can never substitute for structural repair and safe return. and the E1 corridor tendering for more than 1,200 settlements directly threatens 18 Bedouin communities with permanent loss of their land, losing not only their homes, but the land and services that make life possible. Members say should press to end the demolition and forced eviction, protection from settler violence and related access restriction, and continue humanitarian access for communities at risk. Also for displaced families in the northern camps to regain access to their homes so they can assess damage, undertake repairs, and return safely. Across both contexts, the immediate risk is that temporary displacement becomes permanent loss of home. In Gaza, housing destruction, compressed space, and material blockades leave families without adequate emergency shelter and prevent recovery. In the West Bank, violence, demolition, eviction, and settlement expansion make remaining in or returning home increasingly impossible. The agenda is clear from the shelter cluster. Do not simply fund the consequences of displacement. Act on the conditions producing and prolonging it. Protect the abilities of people to remain, restore the possibility of safe return, and remove the administrative restriction that prevents shelter assistance from reaching the scale required. Otherwise, humanitarian actors will continue desperately replacing what is lost while displacement becomes permanently fixed. Thank you guys for allowing me to brief you today.

I thank Mrs. Salim for her briefing and appreciate her clear presentation of the issues before us and the importance of sustained international attention. Thank you also, Mr. Saad, for your very insightful briefing. I shall now give the floor to distinguished delegates for comments or questions to either of our guests. If there are no comments or questions, Ambassador Riyad, please, Mansour.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the two briefers, Michael Saad and Jihan Salim, for their extremely important and useful briefing about the details of the reality of our people in the occupied land of the State of Palestine, very specifically the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including the northern part of the West Bank, Jenin, Tulkarem, and the refugee camps there. And in my briefing, I did not dwell much on the details of the situation, and I'm grateful for the two of them that gave you enough information to see the extremely difficult reality that the Palestinian people are facing, which is a crystal clear illustration of the policies and practices of the occupying authorities, this current Israeli government, in which to make the life of our people in the occupied territory even more miserable as it was described by the two distinguished briefers. The objective, as I said, is that for the Palestinian people to have no choice but to leave their homeland and therefore to accomplish the declared openly position of the Israeli government and the legislations that took place in this regard in the Knesset, in which in 2018, they legislated that between the river and the sea, only Jews are allowed to exercise self-determination, meaning that the Palestinian people are foreigners, And if they don't behave, then they will be expelled or not allowed to live in their national homeland. So I think that the details that OCHA has is one of the remarkable agencies of the United Nations in which they give us the details of the reality. And if anyone to dispute that reality, then by all means allow the Security Council to go and visit and see with their own eyes. I am sure that the committee would be delighted if they are allowed to go and visit the Gaza Strip and the different parts of the West Bank. to see the reality of the Palestinian people and to come back and to report. So again, you know, I just want to thank the briefers for this very important information that they gave us, and I'm sure that they will be generous with us to come to the committee and to brief as often as possible, along with the UNRWA. And UNRWA is a remarkable organization. And the Security Council members, almost all of them were outraged about the latest attacks against the Qalandia Vocational Training Center of UNRWA in the edge of East Jerusalem. in which the occupying authorities took it over and to try to stop it from continuing its noble role and training that they have undertaken since 1952, in which tens of thousands of Palestinians youth were able to acquire a vocation. And I believe that the the hiring percentage was extremely high of those who graduated from Kalender refugee camps. And also we salute UNRWA in this regard that they're, you know, willing, you know, to continue their training and the function of this training center. I'm just only giving examples of the different UN agencies that are heavily involved in helping the Palestinian people until we succeed in putting an end to this illegal occupation and to attain our inalienable rights, including our right to self-determination, statehood, and the right of refugees to return to their homes and properties. And I am sure that the Palestinian people, who are so resilient and creative, an illustration of it is look at the resiliency of the two point plus millions in the Gaza Strip enduring during the course of the last year a genocide and all the difficulties that the briefers gave us samples of it today. Once we put an end to this illegal occupation and enjoy our freedom and dignity in our own independent state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, I am confident that our people will show remarkable creativity and rebuilding the land of our state and our cities and our refugee camps and villages and be able, you know, to take massive leaps forward in building a remarkable independent Palestine in the Middle East, not only to be doing great things for the people of Palestine, but also serving the entire Middle East with a remarkable way as we have done always, especially in the fields of education, medicine, engineering, and so many different fields. Just ask our brothers and sisters in the Gulf states during the course of the '50s and '60s and '70s until today of how the Palestinian people in a remarkable way are contributing, you know, to the remarkable things that are happening in the Middle East. Again, thank you for the two briefers, and I encourage our colleagues, if you have questions, remarks, and anything, please do so with these two wonderful individuals who shared with us what they shared and, more importantly, what they do in trying to help the Palestinian people on the ground. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mansour. Let me once again thank our two briefers for their compelling and highly informative presentations, which shed important light on the dramatic situation faced by Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I shall now give the floor to our distinguished delegates for interventions and remarks. Thank you very much. This is the agenda item six, the last one. Indonesia, you have the floor, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to extend my warmest welcome to Ambassador Nazira Osman of Malaysia. Welcome to the Bureau of the Committee. I should also like to thank Minister Mansour, Mr. Michael Saad, and Ms. Jihan Salim for their briefings. They confirm our understanding that the latest developments in Palestine remain deeply alarming. Therefore, this committee must continue to translate international solidarity into concrete action. If the General Assembly is where we express the political aspirations of the international community, This committee has a particular responsibility to sustain those aspirations through consistent advocacy, engagement and action. We must strengthen cooperation with Member States, regional groups, civil society and other partners to amplify Palestinian voices, mobilize political will and push back against measures that would undermine the Palestinian rights and the two-state solution. We will therefore continue working with the committee to protect Palestinian civilians and to uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ambassador, for your statement. and I give the floor to Namibia Ambassador you have the floor.

Thank you chair and Namibia takes this opportunity to reaffirm our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people and we reiterate our support for their right to self-determination and statehood I thank Minister Mansour for the update on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. Let me also thank Mr. Michael Saad and Ms. Jehan Salim for their briefs about the challenges faced by the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory. It would be remiss of me if I do not welcome and congratulate Ambassador Osman of Malaysia in her appointment as member of the Bureau of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. We remain deeply perturbed at the intensification of illegal settlement activities in the West Bank and the continued killing of the Palestinians in Gaza. The cruel, inhumane and discriminatory home demolitions and forced displacement perpetrated by Israel in the occupied territory is unacceptable. and we call upon the international community to take decisive action to halt these acts of genocide. Since the ceasefire agreement in October 2025, more than a thousand Palestinians have been killed and many thousands more injured. This number includes civilians, women and children. The loss of life is alarming and we call on the occupying power to immediately cease with practices which are a flagrant violation of international law, including the principle of respect for human dignity, which is the basic underpinning explaining the reasons for the very existence of international humanitarian law and human rights law. In conclusion, Chair, we call on the Israeli government to respect the boundaries within which the lasting peace solution should be negotiated in accordance with the two-state solution along Israel's P-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and for the admission of Palestine as a full member state of the United Nations without any further delay. I thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much, Ambassador. And I'll give the floor to Cuba.

Thank you very much, Chair. We're very grateful for the informative briefings given by the speakers, as well as the update given by Ambassador Mansor with regard to the situation on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. We'd also like to congratulate the Permanent Representative of Malaysia on their election as a member of the Bureau. Equally, we are grateful for the presentation of the annual report, which summarises the work done by the committee over the last year in mobilising the international community to support the Palestinian cause and its interaction with various governmental actors, civil society, parliaments, the United Nations system, amongst others. Despite these efforts, the update that we have heard today confirms the tragic situation that persists in the occupied Palestinian territories following decades of a criminal annexation and genocide policy. The violations of the Gaza ceasefire and military incursions, including in the north of the West Bank, and the illegal plans for annexation of Palestinian land are all unacceptable and they are part of a systematic occupation strategy of settlement to, by force, prevent the recognition of a Palestinian state. The fight for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to have an independent state that is sovereign on the basis of the two state solution, and their right to be a full member of the United Nations, and is a fight for justice, for humanity, peace and multilateralism. Cuba reaffirms its unwavering support for the just Palestinian cause and our firm commitment to continue to, in this committee, defend these rights in this forum and other fora in order to find a solution to the Palestinian issue that provides lasting peace in the Middle East. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Cuba. I give the floor to Liberia.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, let me take this time to thank the briefers for their presentation. I also want to congratulate the PR of Malaysia on her ascendency as Vice Chair to the Committee. Mr. Chair, Liberia would like to thank the Committee for convening this important meeting and for its continued efforts to keep the question of Palestine on the international agenda. When Liberia addressed this Committee in June, we observed that humanitarian management could not substitute for political resolution and that the rights, dignity, and statehood aspirations of the Palestinian people alongside Israel's legitimate right to live in peace and security were not competing claims, but mutually reinforcing foundations for lasting peace. Today, we must honestly ask what significant changes have occurred since then? Unfortunately, while diplomatic efforts have continued, the fundamental realities on the ground remain deeply troubling. The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains severe, the ceasefire remains fragile, and tensions in the West Bank continue to rise amidst displacement, violence, and expanding settlement activities. The persistence of this crisis carries consequences far beyond the immediate parties. Human suffering in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territory is not only a humanitarian concern, it is increasingly a matter of international peace and security. Instability continues to reverberate across the wider region, affecting neighboring countries, maritime security, trade routes, food supplies, energy markets, and the livelihoods of vulnerable populations far from the conflict itself. As a maritime nation and a member of the Security Council, Liberia recognizes that regional instability rarely remains regional for long. Mr. Chair, There is a troubling irony in our repeated discussion of this issue. The international community has become remarkably efficient at counting the consequences of conflict, yet far less successful at removing its causes. We have become experts at measuring despair, while hope remains chronically unfunded, underfunded, excuse me. The child session for clean water, The family waiting for humanitarian assistance, the hostage longing to return home, and the parent living in fear of the next attack care little about the eloquence of our debates. They judge us by whether their lives become safer. Liberia therefore reiterates its support for a balanced and principled approach grounded in international law and relevant United Nations resolutions. We call for full protection of civilians by all parties, sustained safe and unhindered humanitarian access, the release of hostages and humane treatment of detainees, an end to actions that undermine the viability of a two-state solution, renewed serious and time-bound political engagement aimed at achieving two states, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace, security, mutual recognition and dignity. Liberia remains convinced that a two-state solution is not merely a diplomatic formula. It remains the most credible pathway through which Palestinian self-determination and Israeli security can be realized together. Liberia will continue to engage constructively of all partners in pursuit of a just, comprehensive, and durable peace. I thank you.

Thank you very much, Liberia. No more requests for the floor. We are now reaching the last agenda item for today. Are there any issues or other matters that committee members wishes to raise? If none, we would like to thank you very much for your presence and this meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you very much.