The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on Tuesday said the “clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable”, as he called for more aid access throughout the Gaza Strip.
“The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history,” the UN chief told the UN Security Council’s high-level debate on the Middle East Crisis.
“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
The secretary-general told the Council that the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave was “appalling” and that “the people of Gaza not only risk being killed or injured by relentless bombardments, they also run a growing chance of contracting infectious diseases like hepatitis A, dysentery, cholera.”
“I am also deeply troubled by reports of Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians detained during military operations,” he said.
Guterres again appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The meeting on peace and security in the Middle East is taking place amid a widening of the conflict beyond Gaza with regular exchanges of fire between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and increasing air strikes led by the US and UK on Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea, as an act of solidarity with Palestinian Hamas.
With the humanitarian crisis in Gaza showing no signs of abating and initiatives to see hostages released in exchange for a humanitarian pause struggling to gain traction, calls for an end to the carnage in the enclave are growing louder.
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