one that provides protection for the most vulnerable. The inadequacy of the UN Security Council, which we pointed to, many times - a council that has a mandate derived from the UN Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security - has become a glaring fault in the international system.

The Security Council, due to aggravated politicisation, has not, at the very least, been able to call for a humanitarian ceasefire to allow for much needed humanitarian supplies to go to those that need it most. This, one once again, illustrates the urgent need for the reform of this body. Chairperson, many of us feel helpless looking at the images of the suffering children and other innocent civilians as they are battered.

As South Africans, we need to raise our voices and call for the following concrete actions to end the suffering: One, an immediate comprehensive ceasefire; two, the opening of humanitarian corridors, so that aid and other basic services reach all in need; three, all parties to exercise restraint and to desist from fuelling this patently unjust war and human suffering, including by seizing the supplying of weapons to the various parties; four, the release of all civilian hostages; five, in light of statements on the use of nuclear power, the establishment of a Middle East nuclear weapons free zone, just as we have created on our continent, Africa; six the resumption of a comprehensive dialogue, led and owned by Palestinians and Israelis themselves, and facilitated by the United Nations; and seven, the deployment of a UN rapid deployment force in Palestine, mandated to monitor the implementation of a ceasefire, cessation of hostilities and most importantly, to protect civilians. Chairperson, hon members, our common humanity dictates that all human lives matter, and the time for the international community to stand together and act is now. We, who enjoy the freedom from apartheid, can never ever be the ones who agree to an apartheid form of oppression. It is not merely ourselves who are saying this; it is international organisations that have done research on torture, imprisonment, and killing, who, previously when reporting on other matters, were regarded as credible, but when it comes to Israel, their reports are not accepted. This cannot be tolerated! This brutality should not be accepted! We must call for a ceasefire now, as hon members of the House of South Africa, I thank you, hon Chairperson.

Ms E L POWELL:Chairperson, the Democratic Alliance stands in solidarity with both Palestinians and Israelis who seek a two- state solution. We embrace rationality based on peaceful co- existence for a secure Israel and a free Palestine. We seek the triumph of rational forces committed to peaceful co- existence on both sides of this terrible conflict. That is why we stand united in our condemnation of the brutality unleashed on the Israeli people by Hamas on the 7th of October. This massacre conjured some of the darkest memories of centuries of persecution against the Jewish people. We condemn in the strongest terms the dehumanisation of any person based on their faith, their race, their lineage or their place of birth. But Hamas's actions on the 7th of October also betrayed the people of Gaza, unleashing a calamity that is unprecedented in living memory upon more than two million Palestinians. What is equally true is that the people of Palestine are not defined by Hamas and the people of Palestine cannot and must not be subjected to collective punishment. That is why the DA condemns in the strongest terms Israeli radicals like Minister Amihai Ben-Eliyahu who over the weekend threatened the use of nuclear weapons against the people of Palestine. Dangerous statements such as these are transparent dog whistles, escalation designed to perpetuate an already fractious climate of fear and terror, the disproportionate burden of which is borne by innocent civilians.

The DA remains concerned by the escalation of violence and the rising death toll in both Gaza and on the West Bank. The intense human suffering and the scale of civilian casualties must be brought to urgent conclusion. We again call on Israel to ensure that defensive action is indeed carried out within the confines of international law. Both the indiscriminate killing of civilians through the use of carpet bombing and the vile use of civilians as human shields by terrorists must be condemned as acts of immorality committed by men who betray the foundational principles of the very face they claim to represent.

The DA further calls for the creation of safe zones and for a humanitarian pause in the fighting to