Global Courant
Antonio Guterres is calling for civilians to be protected in the war between Israel and Hamas, saying the fighting increases the risk of a broader regional conflagration.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has renewed his demand for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying international law was being violated in the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
Israel has relentlessly bombed the besieged Gaza Strip since October 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli authorities.
Following the attack, Israel cut off water, food, fuel and electricity supplies to the enclave’s 2.3 million residents, an act the UN calls a form of collective punishment. Authorities in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, also launched an attack on the territory, killing at least 5,791 people, according to authorities.
More than a million people have been displaced after Israel ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate south, but Israeli airstrikes continued across the area.
In a speech to the 15-member UN Security Council on Tuesday, Guterres pleaded for the protection of civilians and warned that the fighting threatened to spark a wider conflagration in the region.
“It is important to also recognize that Hamas’ attacks did not occur in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” Guterres said.
“But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify Hamas’ abhorrent attacks. And these abhorrent attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he said.
Guterres also criticized Israel without naming it, saying that “protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than a million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and there is no fuel, and then to continue bombing. the south itself.”
The secretary general’s comments angered Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who called the speech “shocking.”
“His statement that ‘Hamas’ attacks did not take place in a vacuum’ showed understanding for terrorism and murder,” Erdan wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s really sad that the head of an organization that emerged after the Holocaust has such horrible views.”
In his speech, Guterres called Hamas’s attack “heinous and unprecedented” and demanded the release of the approximately 200 people captured and held by Hamas.
Plea for emergency aid
Earlier, United Nations agencies called “on our knees” for emergency aid to enter Gaza unhindered, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed.
A small trickle of humanitarian aid has entered Gaza from the Egyptian side since Saturday, but Guterres called this limited aid “a drop of aid in an ocean of need.”
