Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the United Nations expressed sadness on Sunday for the Security Council’s inability to insist on a truce in the Gaza Strip and denounced the divides that have “paralysed” the organization.
Speaking at Qatar’s Doha Forum, Guterres claimed that the council was “paralysed by geostrategic divisions” that were impeding efforts to find a resolution to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which broke out on October 7.
Two days after the US vetoed a resolution urging a ceasefire in Gaza, he stated that the body’s “authority and credibility were severely undermined” by its tardy response to the violence.
“I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared,” he told the forum.
“Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it,” he added. “I can promise, I will not give up.”
In the aftermath of two months of warfare that claimed the lives of over 17,700 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, Guterres called an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council, which is headed by Hamas.
The secretary-general called the council’s attention to “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security” by using the seldom-used Article 99 of the UN Charter.
The rule had not previously been invoked by a UN chief in decades.“We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system,” Guterres told the Doha Forum.
“The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region.”
The Israel-Hamas war was triggered by deadly attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.
The militants poured over the border into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240 others, according to Israeli officials.
