Prime Minister says Israeli self-defence cannot turn into massacre of innocent children

Malta’s prime minister Robert Abela appealed once again for a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East hostilities prompted by the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens on 7 November.

Abela, addressing a Labour Party rally in Raħal Ġdid, said Malta was backing a “permanent” pause, and not simply a temporary humanitarian pause in its call for peace for Palestinians and Israelis.

In a speech to party faithful that delved into the government’s Budget measures, Abela delved into a call for stability as the world faced both economic challenges as well as threats to its immediate security.

“We are in favour of actions that safeguard the lives of innocent people... and I will keep appealing for actions that safeguard the lives of innocent children and their families. There is no doubt that we condemn Hamas’s terror attack on Israel. But no terrorist attack, or rather, no act of self-defence can ever turn into a retaliation that massacres innocent children and their parents, civilians, and causes such incalculable loss of life.

“I appeal for a pause – not pauses – but a permanent ceasefire, as well as a two-state solution for the Middle East, so that peace can reign,” Abela said.

Malta’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vanessa Frazier, has circulated a new resolution amongst Security Council members, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The new resolution is being drafted with a focus on children, in the hopes that all 15 members of the UNSC can agree on protections for children in the ongoing conflict.

Malta is one of 10 elected members of the Council and has been the penholder on children in armed conflict since 2022. This position gives Malta the opportunity to play a leading role in the UNSC’s efforts to protect children in conflict zones.

With the Maltese resolution, a key question that might come up for debate is the duration of the pauses in fighting.

Humanitarian groups, and even US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have said the four-hour pauses that Israel has agreed to are currently not enough to ease humanitarian suffering meaningfully. However, it is unclear whether the US will agree to pauses that last several days at a stretch.

The UN General Assembly – which represents all of the UN member states – has expressed its clear opinion, calling for a humanitarian truce that passed on October 27 with 120 votes out of the 193 members. Such a resolution is not binding but has moral weight as a temperature check of the world’s mood.

Previous UNSC draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have failed. Two resolutions drafted by Russia did not get enough votes, with the US amongst the countries that voted against them. Even though a resolution proposed by Brazil received 12 votes out of the 15 member states, the US vetoed the draft. And, Russia and China vetoed a resolution drafted by the US.

While the five permanent members of the UNSC – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US – have the power to veto any resolution that they do not like, it remains reasonably rare.

The US and Russia are the two countries that have exercised their veto power the most in the past. In recent years, the US has mostly used its veto to protect its ally Israel.