New York, October 26 (RHC)-- Rosalia Cúe Delgado, second secretary of the Cuban permanent mission to the UN strongly criticized Israel for depriving the Palestinian people of their right to development by stripping them, among other things, of the sovereign right over their natural resources.

Addressing a debate on the sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Cuban diplomat said that the report submitted by the UN Secretary-General on the issue clearly confirms that over 51 years of Israeli occupation have had a detrimental effect on the social and economic development of the population in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

She enumerated several of the harmful effects of the Israeli occupation, including Israeli almost totally control over drinking water resources; movement and travel restrictions and land confiscations that prevent the Palestinians and Syrians of the Golan from having access to and using agricultural land, the destruction of forests and marine ecosystems.

Cúe Delgado also illustrated the situation of residents in Gaza, where nearly 2 million Palestinians continue to live under the Israeli blockade, 54% of the population lives in poverty and 140,000 children under 5 suffer from malnutrition and chronic growth retardation.

On behalf of Cuba, the official condemned Israel's continued military occupation of the Palestinian territory, the illegal policies and colonizing practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights, the human rights violations and the systematic war crimes that cause great suffering to that people.