The Secretary General of the UN, the Portuguese António Guterres, was not intimidated by the challenge of the Israeli Government.
Guterres gave a devastating description of the situation in Gaza due to the bombings by the army commanded by Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu. However, the Security Council delayed putting to a vote a resolution in favor of an immediate humanitarian ceasefire due to Washington's warning that it would use the right of veto. “If Israel unilaterally lays down its weapons, as some Council members are calling for, Hamas will continue to hold hostages, continue to be a threat to Israel and dominate Gaza,” said US Representative Robert Wood. “This is a threat that none of our governments would allow,” he added.
There is another version. “The brutality perpetrated by Hamas cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres stressed in his speech to the Security Council to establish this immediate ceasefire. “And while Hamas indiscriminately launches missiles into Israel and uses civilians as human shields, which contravenes the laws of war, this conduct does not absolve Israel of its own violations,” he continued.
The leader of the United Nations Organization appealed that “the world and history are watching us,” after insisting that the citizens of Gaza “are looking into the abyss.”
“The international community must do everything possible to end this agony. “I urgently ask the Security Council to spare no effort to immediately implement a humanitarian ceasefire, for the protection of civilians and to be able to distribute aid to save lives,” he claimed.
He justified his exceptional use of Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations, which has led the Government of Israel to classify him as a “danger to world peace.” His request only has three precedents in the history of the institution. This article indicates that the Secretary-General may report to the Council on matters that he believes threaten international peace and security.
In his speech yesterday, Guterres painted a brutal portrait. He warned, at a general level, that there is an increasingly greater risk that the conflict will spread throughout the region. And specifically he detailed the level of the catastrophe in Gaza, with more than 17,000 dead, the absence of protection for civilians, the destruction of hospitals, schools, mosques, shelters, more than 60% of homes destroyed or seriously damaged, a massive number of people sleeping on the streets and hundreds of thousands of displaced people. “There is no protection for civilians in Gaza,” he said. They even have to queue to access a toilet, he explained.
A crossroads in which, in addition, the entry of humanitarian aid is impossible and there is no medicine or food, so many find themselves without the possibility of feeding themselves. “There is a risk of complete collapse of the humanitarian aid system in Gaza,” he stressed, a risk that is increased by the death of 130 UN employees.
“Everything I have just described represents an unprecedented situation that has led me to the unprecedented decision to invoke Article 99, urging the members of the Security Council to put pressure on and abort this humanitarian catastrophe, so I appeal that a ceasefire is declared,” he reiterated.
Israel's ambassador, Gilad Erdan, retorted angrily. He disgraced Guterres because neither the war in Ukraine nor the war in Yemen led to resorting to Article 99. Erdan said that he has more mercy for Hamas, despite the atrocious attack on October 7, than he does for his country.
