BAMRO

Security Council meets over widening Middle East crisis

The UN relief chief told ambassadors that any Gazans forced to flee the enclave must be allowed to return "as international law demands", while a senior political affairs official warned that the cycle of violence over Red Sea shipping lanes risked major repercussions in Yemen and the wider region.

6:30 PM

That's a wrap from us at UN News on these latest emergency meetings called to address the widening crisis focused on the war in Gaza. Here are the key points from the afternoon:

HIGHLIGHTS
“Any persons displaced from Gaza must be allowed to return, as international law demands,” said UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths, reiterating his call for a ceasefire
Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, said “compelled evacuations, failing to meet the necessary conditions for lawfulness, therefore potentially amount to forcible transfer, a war crime”
Council members pointed to a “catastrophe” in Gaza, with some calling for an immediate ceasefire and others worrying about the conflict’s spillover into the region
“Silence is complicity,” said Algeria’s Ambassador, echoing calls for a ceasefire
“The Palestinian people are here to stay; the lesson of the Holocaust is not that you should defend Israel when it is committing atrocities, but rather that one should stand against atrocities regardless of who commits them and who endures them,” said the Permanent Observer of the observer State of Palestine, adding that “this is a Nakba that the world is watching unfold”
Israel’s Ambassador said “there is no forced displacement; Israel has no intention of displacing the population in Gaza”
Senior official from the UN political and peacebuilding affairs department, Khaled Khiari, said escalating confrontation between Houthi rebels and a US-led coalition defending international shipping in the Red Sea was cause for alarm, urging de-escalation
For summaries of this and other UN meetings, visit our colleagues at the UN Meetings Coverage in English and French
6:00 PM

Houthi strikes, necessary and proportionate: US
US Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said the strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen overnight Thursday were to “disrupt and degrade” the group’s “reckless attacks” against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden.

These strikes were necessary and proportionate, she added, noting that “they were consistent with international law and in exercise of the US’ inherent right to self-defence, as reflected by Article 51 of the UN Charter.”

Informing the Security Council of the allies' reasons for the strikes, she emphasized that no one is immune, including Russia, from the attacks perpetrated by Houthis against ships and vessels.

“So long as any one of our ships is vulnerable, all of our ships are vulnerable,” she said, noting that, since November, over 2,000 ships have had to be diverted in the face of Houthi threats and that the rebels have attacked and taken hostage mariners from over 20 countries.