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Inaction on Middle East peace process comes at a cost, UN envoy says

Xinhua, November 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, warned on Wednesday that the inaction in moving forwards the Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts has a cost, measured in human lives and suffering.

"The situation on the ground is changing steadily and dangerously, as proponents of Israeli settlement expansion feel emboldened, internal divisions among Palestinians flare up and the prospect of a future Palestinian state comes under threat like never before," Mladenov said while briefing the UN Security Council on the current situation in the Middle East.

He said he visited Nablus in the West Bank twice this month, and saw the harsh conditions there that was combined with regular Israeli incursions and the lack of a permanent home, creating potential tension for violence.

What people need, he said, were courageous Israeli and Palestinian leaders who together could chart a clear strategy to peace and security.

For his part, Stephen O'Brien, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and UN emergency relief coordinator, also briefed the Security Council, saying that 70 percent of the population in the Gaza Strip currently receives some form of international assistance -- "yet our ability to deliver that assistance has become increasingly restricted."

In the West Bank, the pace of demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian property by the Israeli authorities has far exceeded previous years on record -- more than double this year compared to 2015, he said.

Israel had repeatedly banned the shipment of cements and other construction materials to the Gaza Strip, claiming that it is used by militants to build up tunnels used for carrying out attacks into Israel.

The Middle East peace process has been idle since U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry failed to broker negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians in April 2014. Enditem