United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned "clear violations of international human law" in Gaza amid the conflict.
As the Israel-Hamas conflict intensified, the UN chief's remarks also came as he renewed his calls for a ceasefire in the embattled region. Israel has recently bombarded the besieged Gaza Strip with relentless attacks since Oct. 7.
Clear Violations of International Law in Gaza
Following the Hamas militant group's assault on the Middle Eastern country, which killed more than 1,400 people, Israel cut off supplies of water, food, fuel, and electricity to the enclave's roughly 2.3 million residents. This was a move that the UN has called a form of collective punishment.
Israel also launched an assault on the territory that has resulted in the death of more than 5,700 people. The conflict has displaced more than one million people as Jerusalem ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the southern parts of the region. However, as per Aljazeera, Israeli air raids have continued to rain down throughout the territory.
On Tuesday, Guterres pleaded to the 15-member UN Security Council to protect civilians and warned that the conflict risked a wider conflagration in the region. He noted that it was important to recognize that the attacks made by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.
The UN chief said the Palestinian people have been subjected to more than five decades of suffocating occupation. However, he argued that the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks made by the Hamas militant group. He added that these assaults cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Without naming the Middle Eastern country, Guterres criticized Israel by saying that protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate the south. There is no shelter, food, water, medicine, or fuel in that particular region, and then proceed to bomb the area anyway.
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Criticizing the UN Chief's Remarks
The UN chief's comments immediately drew ire from Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who called the speech "shocking." According to the Financial Times, the latter then called on Guterres to resign while Foreign Minister Eli Cohen canceled a meeting with the secretary-general in a supposed protest.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also addressed the security council and blamed the Hamas group for using civilians as human shields. However, he also called for "humanitarian pauses" in Israel's air strikes against targets located in Gaza to allow civilians to get out of harm's way.
The situation comes as the Pentagon is supposedly planning stages of sending Iron Dome missile defense systems and has positioned F-16 fighter jets as the Israel Defense Force (IDF) battles Hamas.
A defense official said that the U.S. will start flowing additional Iron Dome support to Israel later to support its war against the terrorist group. The official added that the New Jersey Air National Guard's 119th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron arrived within the U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility, said Fox News.
