United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called Wednesday for Israel and Hamas to prolong a temporary truce, saying a “true humanitarian cease-fire” is needed in the eight-week-old war. Meanwhile, a last-minute deal was struck on Thursday between Israel and Hamas to continue their cease-fire for a seventh day.
Israel, whose military operations following the October 7 atrocities have led to humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, faces massive international pressure to extend the truce further to free additional hostages and allow more humanitarian assistance to reach hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering in the tiny territory.
“The people of Gaza are in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe before the eyes of the world,” António Guterres told a ministerial-level meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation that coincided with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. “We must not look away.”
He welcomed the numerous aid trucks and fuel deliveries that have flowed into Gaza — both south and north — during the pause that began on Friday. Since then, at least 60 hostages held by Hamas and 180 Palestinian prisoners have been released.
But Guterres said “much, much more” is needed to address the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. He urged Israel to open more than just the single border crossing that is available now and called for the private sector to restart commercial activities.
"Gaza needs an immediate and sustained increase in humanitarian aid including food, water, fuel, blankets, medicines and healthcare supplies," the Secretary-General said.
Noting that United Nations facilities are sheltering more than 1 million civilians seeking protection, Guterres said that the number of UN employees killed in Gaza represented the largest loss of personnel in the Organization’s history.
Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killed some 1,200 people in Israel during their brutal October 7 attacks. Gaza officials have put the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s war against Gaza at more than 15,000. More than two thirds of those killed are reported to be children and women.
“In a matter of weeks, a far greater number of children have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza than the total number of children killed during any year, by any party to a conflict since I have been Secretary-General,” said Guterres, who began his tenure in January 2017.
Thousands more are missing beneath collapsed buildings. On Monday and Tuesday, local health officials said 160 bodies were recovered from the rubble. At least 60 percent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip, a densely populated area, have been either destroyed or damaged since the start of the hostilities.
Among those killed are at least 112 UN staff, 198 health workers and 70 journalists. Up to 1.8 million people in Gaza - nearly 80 percent of the population - have been displaced due to the attacks by the Israeli military. More than 1 million civilians are sheltering in 156 UN installations in increasingly dire conditions.
Wednesday marked the UN’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki charged that 75 years after what Palestinians call the “Nakba,” or catastrophe — the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War — Israel is trying to “finish the job.”
“So many lives turned to names on plastic bags, leaving this Earth way too early,” Malki said of the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed since October 7.
He welcomed the temporary truce negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States but said it must be turned into a permanent cease-fire.
“The massacres cannot be allowed to resume. This is not a war. It is a carnage that nothing and no one can justify. It must be brought to an end,” Malki told a chamber packed with diplomats and many Arab and Muslim foreign ministers.
Malki vowed that despite the destruction leveled on Gaza, the territory would not be erased and its residents would not be uprooted.
“There is no Palestine without Gaza,” Malki said. “Gaza bleeds. Gaza suffers. Gaza aches. But Gaza lives. And Palestine lives.”
Israel’s envoy, noting that Wednesday, marked 76 years since the General Assembly decided to partition Palestine into two States, one Arab and one Jewish, said the United Nations had been co-opted by those that had no real interest in a solution. “Every UN body has been weaponized against Israel,” he said.
Other council members worried what would happen if the pause ends.
“Resumed fighting would only most likely turn into a calamity that devours the whole region,” said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who chaired the session as council president for November.
“China strongly hopes that the past days of pause will not be a hiatus before a new round of offensive, but rather the beginning of further diplomatic efforts for a comprehensive and lasting cease-fire,” he added.
There were also calls for relaunching a peace process.
“We should translate this dark episode into an opportunity to address the root cause of the conflict, otherwise the symptoms that we see today will be more catastrophic tomorrow,” warned Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Several Arab ministers called for full recognition of Palestine as a state at the United Nations. Currently, it holds observer status.
The humanitarian pause has enabled a major increase in the delivery of basic supplies into and across Gaza, primarily by the Palestinian and the Egyptian Red Crescent Societies, as well as UN agencies. But humanitarians have warned that despite the pause in fighting, much more aid is needed, urgently, as the level of aid to Palestinians in Gaza remains completely inadequate to meet the huge needs of 2.3 million people.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there has been almost no improvement in the access of residents in the north to water, as most of the main water production facilities remain shut down, due to the lack of fuel and some also due to damages. Dehydration and waterborne diseases loom due to water consumption from unsafe sources.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Reporting on Resolution 2712 (2023) Implementation, Secretary-General Warns Security Council People of Gaza in Midst of Epic Humanitarian Catastrophe, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council, delivered November 29, 2023
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm22055.doc.htm