ITUC - Israel/Palestine: UN Ceasefire Call Must Be Respected

International Trade Union Confederation
Originally published 14 July, 2014

The ITUC has called for urgent implementation of the UN Security Council’s call for a ceasefire as the death toll in Gaza continues to mount. The Security Council has called for a “de-escalation of the situation, restoration of calm, reinstitution of the November 2012 ceasefire and respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.”

Around 170 Palestinians in Gaza, three-quarters of them civilians according to the UN, have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in the past week by more than 1,200 Israeli airstrikes. No fatalities in Israel have been reported from the 900 rockets fired from within Gaza.

“An immediate ceasefire and urgent humanitarian assistance to Gaza must be followed by renewed international pressure to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and find a negotiated settlement to respect the 1967 borders between Israel and a Palestinian state. The world cannot allow the injustice to continue, nor can it accept the prospect of yet more violence causing the deaths of innocent civilians,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.