| General Assembly? | ? | Security Council? |
| Tenth emergency special session?
Agenda item 5? Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory? ? |
? | Eighty-first year? |
?
Identical letters dated 7 January 2026 from the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, the President of the General?Assembly?and the President of the Security Council?
I regret to inform you of the ongoing grave situation being faced by the Palestinian people as Israel, the occupying Power, persists with its colonial, racist and genocidal?policies?and crimes against them.??
In full view of the world, Israel is entrenching its foreign occupation of the State of Palestine, an illegal occupation appallingly nearing its fifty-ninth year, depriving the Palestinian people of their inalienable human rights, foremost their right to self-determination and freedom.?
The new year has thus tragically begun as the last ended ¨C with the continuation of Israeli military and settler attacks, killing and injuring Palestinian civilians, destroying property, terrorizing entire communities and forcibly displacing more Palestinian families; the arrest, abduction and detention of Palestinians, including children, adding to the over 10,000 persons held captive in Israeli jails; and the construction of more Israeli settlements across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in grave violation of international law, United Nations resolutions and International Court of Justice rulings. That Israel is allowed to commit such crimes without consequence only emboldens its impunity.?
This crime spree has been accompanied by an intensifying Israeli campaign against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA) and international non-governmental organizations in Occupied Palestine, targeting those providing humanitarian aid, including to refugee families and children, women, youth and disabled persons.?
This illegal campaign is aimed at denying support to our people, including essentials for survival, such as food, water, medical?care?and shelter. The most acute illustration is in Gaza, where humanitarian conditions?remain?catastrophic. There, most of the population is still displaced, with many dying from hypothermia in the harsh winter weather, left without sufficient aid despite the ceasefire of October 2025,?affirmed in Security Council resolution?, which Israel has violated hundreds of times.??
On 28 December, Israel enacted further legislative measures targeting Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA, including directives to cut water,?electricity?and communications to its facilities, and granting itself authority to expropriate United Nations properties. Following on from October 2024 legislation against Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA, the violent seizure of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA compound ¨C a United Nations property ¨C in Occupied East Jerusalem and the closure of its schools in the city, the banning of its international staff, and a defamatory campaign despite all investigations proving otherwise, such measures openly aim to cripple the Agency¡¯s operations, especially in Gaza.??
These actions are grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including obligations incumbent on the occupying Power, as well as violations of the Charter of the United Nations, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, including the mandate for Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA, the International Court of Justice provisional measures ordering immediate, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza to save Palestinians from the plausible risk of genocide, and the 22 October 2025 advisory opinion.??
Israel has followed these illegal measures with a cynical decision to ¡°deregister¡± international non-governmental organizations in Occupied Palestine. This decision effectively halts assistance by at least 37 humanitarian organizations?that have long provided support to the Palestinian people across various sectors, including healthcare, food security, shelter provision and repair, water and sanitation services, psychosocial care, remedial education and recreation for children and youth, support to women, and aid to persons with disabilities.?
As such, Israel is not only wantonly violating its international humanitarian law obligations, it is obstructing aid by others from reaching the Palestinian people to address urgent needs specifically caused by its illegal occupation, including as a result of the ongoing bombardment and siege of Gaza, including refusal to open the Rafah crossing with Egypt to humanitarian access. That such Israeli measures target Gaza in particular reflects an undeniable intent by Israel to deny sustenance to the population, further reflecting its genocidal aims, either by forcing starvation, illness and death on our people or forcing their departure by depriving them of the means to survive should they remain in their homeland.?
Likewise, Israel is intensifying its illegal policies in the rest of Occupied Palestine with the explicit intent to make life unbearable and drive our people off their land. In addition to daily military raids, abductions and incitement and attacks by terrorist settlers on the Palestinian civilian population, Israel is pressing ahead with its seizure of vast tracts of Palestinian land, home demolitions, ethnic cleansing of entire communities and the construction of over 3,400 more settlement units to which hundreds?of?thousands more Israeli settlers will be transferred. This includes plans to colonize the ¡°E-1¡± area that will sever the north and south of the West Bank and further isolate East Jerusalem from its natural Palestinian environs.?
Israeli officials do not hide their intentions; they declare their plans to destroy the two-State solution. If implemented, these plans will not only undermine Palestine¡¯s sovereignty and territorial?integrity, but?actualize Israel¡¯s threats to annex our land and prevent Palestinian self-determination.?
The international community must unequivocally condemn and reject all such illegal Israeli actions in Occupied Palestine. This must be accompanied by action to stop these crimes, including accountability measures in line with international law and United Nations resolutions, including General Assembly resolution??of 18 September 2024, to compel Israel to cease its illegal policies and atrocities, to?abide by international law, to respect the Palestinian people¡¯s inalienable rights and to end its colonial, apartheid occupation. Another year must not pass with the existence of this illegal occupation.?
Swift and resolute international action, including by the Security Council, to end this unlawful situation is crucial for Palestine, but also crucial for maintaining international peace and security, preserving the international legal order and salvaging multilateralism in the face of Israel¡¯s deliberate attempts to erode and dismantle them to the detriment of the international community as a whole.?
The present letter is in follow-up to our 880 letters on the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which?constitutes?the territory of the State of Palestine. These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 () to 12 December 2025 (), constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For?all of?these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations against our people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators brought to justice. This illegal colonial occupation and apartheid regime must end now.?
I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the present letter distributed as a document of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 5, and of the Security Council.?
(Signed) Riyad?Mansour?
Minister?
Permanent Observer?
?
Document Type: Letter, Palestine letter (Situation in the OPT since 29 September 2000)
Country: Palestine (State of)
Subject: Armed conflict, Assistance, Casualties, Children, Gaza Strip, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Humanitarian relief, Internally displaced persons, Two State solution, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA, West Bank, human rights violations
Publication Date: 07/01/2026