Cuba demanded before the United Nations (UN) Security Council the protection of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed on its website.

Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, Cuba’s permanent representative to the UN, called on the 15-member body not to remain inert in the face of the ongoing massacre and on the international community not to stop its call to halt the Israeli offensive.

Addressing the open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, the Cuban ambassador reiterated his demand for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the illegally occupied territories.

He insisted on an end to collective punishment, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed with impunity by Israel, with the complicity of the US government.

Soberón Guzmán called for an end to the forced displacement of Palestinians from the land that rightfully belongs to them and to ensure the provision of urgent and sufficient humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.

The Caribbean representative called for support for the humanitarian work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa).

During his intervention he called for the urgent dispatch to the Gaza Strip of an International Protection Mission, authorised by the UN General Assembly, to contribute to the safety and protection of the civilian population and to facilitate the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid, including food and water.

It considered it urgent for the Security Council to comply with its own resolutions to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to ensure the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to an independent and sovereign state.