Israel accused UN Secretary General António Guterres of “a new level of moral lowliness” after an unprecedented call to the Security Council for a ceasefire in Gaza and assessed his mandate as “a danger to world peace”.
“This is further evidence of the Secretary General’s moral distortion and bias against Israel. The Secretary General’s call for a ceasefire is in fact a call to maintain Hamas’s reign of terror in Gaza,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN argued on Wednesday. , Gilad Erdan, on platform X (formerly Twitter).
“I once again call on the Secretary General to resign immediately. The UN needs a Secretary General who supports the war on terror, not a Secretary General who acts according to a script written by Hamas,” added Erdan, who has previously called for Guterres’ resignation.
For the first time since assuming leadership of the United Nations in 2017, António Guterres invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter on Wednesday, which states that the Secretary-General “may draw the attention of the Council to any issue which, in his opinion, could threaten the maintenance of peace and security in the world”.
In this sense, Guterres sent an unprecedented letter to the UN Security Council, calling on the body to “insist on preventing a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, reiterating his calls for a ceasefire that “potentially irreversible consequences” for the Palestinians.
The “magnitude of the loss of life in Gaza and Israel, in such a short time,” prompted Guterres to exceptionally resort to Article 99 of the UN Charter, his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.
“The Secretary General is invoking one of the rare powers granted to him by the Charter,” said Dujarric, describing the move as “dramatic” as the article in question has not been invoked “for decades.”
“We would like to see the Security Council call for a humanitarian ceasefire,” he added.
According to Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Guterres should have chosen to “explicitly point out Hamas’s responsibility for the situation and call on the terrorist leaders to surrender and return the hostages, thereby ending the war.” , accusing the UN leader of joining the “Hamas movement.” game.”
However, despite Israel’s accusations, the letter Guterres sent to the Security Council explicitly called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of the Islamic group’s hostages.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also commented on Guterres’ letter to the Security Council, ruling that the former Portuguese prime minister’s mandate is “a danger to world peace.”
The invocation of Article 99 of the UN Charter and Guterres’ call for a ceasefire in Gaza “constitute support for the terrorist organization Hamas and the murder of the elderly, the kidnapping of babies and the rape of women,” wrote the minister on platform X. .
António Guterres had already been the target of intense criticism from Israel after stating that Hamas’ attack on October 7 “did not come out of nowhere” and that the Palestinian people were “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” Following these statements, the Israeli government even called for Guterres’ resignation from the UN leadership.
Israel has been carrying out a major ground offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 27, after three weeks of intensive bombing, in response to the attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,200 people. ., mainly civilians, 5,000 wounded and about 240 hostages.
Israeli military operations, overseen by Hamas, have already caused more than 16,000 deaths in the Gaza Strip, 70% of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health.
Source: DN
