UN Middle East Envoy warns "Gaza could implode again"

  
The crisis in Gaza is far from over and the window of opportunity to address critical needs and stabilize the situation is short.

That's what Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told members of the Security Council on Tuesday.

Gaza could implode again and the two-State solution for Israel and Palestine could slip irreversibly away, Serry warned.

He assured the Council he was not "crying wolf" and urged them to not under-estimate the dangers.

"The devastation unleashed by this most recent round of conflict has left civilians on both sides feeling, once again, battered and embittered. Yet the inter-dependence of these two peoples has only been deepened, not lessened, by the disaster. If they fall into a new round of violence, they will be even more inter-twined yet even more distrustful in its surely appalling aftermath. We -they- all of us must act now and set a wiser and more responsible course."

Serry said he hoped the Council would also have the occasion to make its own position on the issue clear.

"Fresh thinking" was needed from the parties and the international community, the special envoy noted, to end the current dynamics and retain the two-State solution.

SOURCE: Jocelyne Sambira, UNRadio.