U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used a not often exercised energy to warn the Security Council on Wednesday of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged its members to demand an instantaneous humanitarian cease-fire.
His letter to the council’s 15 members mentioned Gaza’s humanitarian system was susceptible to collapse after two months of battle that has created “appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma,” and he demanded civilians be spared higher hurt.
Guterres invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which says the secretary-general could inform the council of issues he believes threaten worldwide peace and safety. “The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis,” he mentioned.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric mentioned he expects the secretary-general to deal with the Security Council on Gaza this week and to press for a humanitarian cease-fire.
A brief draft decision circulated to council members late Wednesday by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Arab consultant on the council, would act on Guterres’ letter below Article 99. It calls for “an immediate humanitarian cease-fire” and expresses “grave concern over the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population.”
‘Grave concern’
Earlier Wednesday, the 22-nation Arab Group on the U.N. strongly backed a cease-fire.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, mentioned it’s important that the U.N.’s strongest physique demand a halt to the battle.
But the United States, Israel’s closest ally, has veto energy within the Security Council and has not supported a cease-fire.
On Tuesday, U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood advised reporters that the position of the Security Council within the Israeli-Gaza struggle “is not to get in the way of this important diplomacy going on on the ground … because we have seen some results, although not as great results as we want to see.”
A Security Council decision at the moment, he mentioned, “would not be useful.”
Mansour mentioned a ministerial delegation from Arab nations and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation will probably be in Washington on Thursday to fulfill U.S. officers and press for an instantaneous cease-fire.
Israel fumes
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan mentioned the secretary-general invoked Article 99 to stress Israel, accusing the U.N. chief of “a new moral low” and “bias against Israel.”
“The secretary-general’s call for a ceasefire is actually a call to keep Hamas’ reign … in Gaza,” Erdan mentioned in an announcement. “Instead of the secretary-general explicitly pointing to Hamas’ responsibility for the situation and calling on the terrorist leaders to turn themselves in and return the hostages, thus ending the war, the secretary-general chooses to continue playing into Hamas’ hands.”
In his letter, Guterres additionally denounced the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that noticed 1,200 deaths in Israel and the kidnapping of some 250 individuals.
But Guterres famous the worsening state of Gaza below Israel’s ongoing army motion, which it says is aimed toward obliterating Hamas. More than 16,200 individuals have been killed, and a few 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million individuals have been forcibly displaced into more and more smaller areas.
“Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible,” Guterres warned.
A complete collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, he mentioned, would have “potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region.”
Dujarric, the U.N. spokesman, advised reporters earlier that invoking Article 99 was “a very dramatic constitutional move by the secretary-general.” The solely earlier point out of Article 99 was in a December 1971 report by then Secretary-General U Thant to the council expressing his conviction that the state of affairs in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and the Indian subcontinent threatened worldwide peace and safety, Dujarric mentioned.
“One doesn’t invoke this article lightly,” Dujarric mentioned. “I think given the situation on the ground and the risk of complete collapse, not only of our humanitarian operations but of civil order, it’s something that he felt needed to be done now.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com