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UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday alleged violations of international law in Gaza and urged an immediate ceasefire as Israeli bombings killed over 700 people since Monday night — the highest 24-hour death toll after Israel started bombing the besieged enclave on Oct 7.
A total of 5,791 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardments, including 2,360 children.
The crisis has left the Security Council deeply divided. Israel voiced anger over the UN chief’s plea before a high-level session of the Security Council, where the Palestinian foreign minister denounced inaction by the international community over the killing of civilians.
Opening the session, Antonio Guterres said there was no excuse for the “appalling” raid by Hamas in Israel, but also warned against collective punishment of the Palestinians.
“I am deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza. Let me be clear: no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law,” Guterres told a Security Council session, without explicitly naming Israel.
The UN chief said that the Palestinians had been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation, telling the Security Council: “It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”
His remarks infuriated Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen who, pointing his finger at Guterres and raising his voice, recounted accounts of civilians killed in the Hamas raid on Oct 7.
“Mr Secretary General, in what world do you live?” Cohen said. Pointing out that Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Cohen said: “We gave the Palestinians Gaza till the last millimetre. There is no dispute in regards to the land of Gaza.”
Guterres, who personally travelled to the crossing between Egypt and Gaza last week in a push to let in assistance, welcomed the passage of three aid convoys so far through Rafah.
“But it is a drop of aid in an ocean of need,” he said, warning that UN fuel supplies will run out within days.
“To ease epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer, and facilitate the release of hostages, I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
The Security Council session has brought together top diplomats including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has previously rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying it would only allow Hamas to regroup.
The United States last week vetoed a draft resolution on the crisis, saying it did not sufficiently support Israel’s right to self-defence.
Blinken told the Security Council that the United States was putting forward a new resolution that “incorporates substantive feedback”.
He questioned why there was not “more outrage over the killings of Israelis”.
“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such harm from repeating itself. No member of this Council, no nation in this entire body, could or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” Blinken said.
But the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki denounced inaction by the Security Council over the killing of innocent people in Gaza.
“The ongoing massacres being deliberately and systematically and savagely perpetrated by Israel – the occupying power against the Palestinian civilian population under illegal occupation _ must be stopped,” he said.
“It is our collective human duty to stop them,” he said. “Continued failure at this council is inexcusable.”
Aid agencies ‘desperate’
United Nations agencies said they were “on our knees” for emergency aid to be allowed unrestricted into Gaza, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed to support the Palestinian population after two weeks of Israeli bombardment.
The Israeli military claimed it had hit over “400 Hamas targets” and killed several of its fighters.
With international aid agencies warning of a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the tiny, impoverished strip, one of the world’s most densely populated places, French President Emmanuel Macron flew to Israel to offer his support.
Macron told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that France stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Israel, but that it must not fight “without rules”.
Netanyahu said Israel would try to protect civilians as it worked to ensure they “will no longer live under Hamas tyranny”.
The World Health Organisation, in the latest of increasingly desperate UN appeals, called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” to allow safe deliveries of aid.
Biden, Prince Salman discuss diplomacy
US President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman on Tuesday discussed efforts to prevent the Gaza situation from widening, the White House said.
They agreed in a call to pursue broader diplomatic efforts “to maintain stability across the region and prevent the conflict from expanding”, the White House said.
Biden and the Saudi crown prince welcomed the delivery of humanitarian assistance from Egypt into Gaza and recognised that “much more is needed for civilians” to have sustained access to food, water and medical assistance, according to the White House.
They welcomed efforts to secure the release of prisoners held by Hamas and called for their immediate release, the White House added.