Diplomats call for urgent ceasefire for Gaza war

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Diplomats on Tuesday called for an urgent solution to the Palestinian cause on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), over 11 months since the Israel-Gaza war began and with risks of a regional spillover greater than ever. 

“We are insisting very much on the urgent need of the ceasefire in Gaza … and we have insisted on the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza. I mean the situation there has to stop,” Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren Stork told Rudaw's Diyar Kurda in New York, on the sidelines of the 79th UNGA session. 

His remarks were echoed by his Botswanan counterpart Lemogang Kwape, who said that the Palestinian people “deserve to have their own state alongside Israel” and called on the international community to “sit at a table” and work towards a solution for the Gaza issue. 


Honduran Secretary of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina expressed similar comments, saying his country is “very deeply concerned on the situation of the Palestinian people.”

“We have to take conscious about that, and also we understand the situation with security in Israel, and the situation of the attempts by the terrorist activities that we condemn, but I think the situation of people, particularly children and women, are very important to deal with,” said Reina. 


Risks of a regional spillover from the war in Gaza are higher than ever after Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, which killed at least 492 and injured 1,645 others, according to the Lebanese health ministry. 


The conflict between Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, backed by Iran, and Israel has intensified since October 7, when Palestinian Hamas militants launched a large-scale incursion into southern Israel, killing more than 1,170 people, according to Israeli figures. Israel responded with a massive ongoing offensive on Gaza, killing over 41,455 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry.