UN Security Council ‘paralyzed’ by divisions over Gaza: Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Security Council is “paralyzed by geostrategic divisions,” which hinders the formulation of effective solutions to end the war in the Gaza Strip.

Addressing Qatar’s Doha Forum on Sunday, Guterres expressed his disappointment regarding the Council’s inability to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

“UNSC is paralyzed by geopolitical divisions, its credibility undermined by the inability to pass a resolution urging a Gaza ceasefire,” Guterres said.

“Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it…I can promise, I will not give up,” he said two days after the UN Security Council vote on a humanitarian pause, which the US vetoed, and the UK abstained from.

“We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system,” Guterres told the Doha Forum.

He added that the situation is becoming “catastrophic” in Gaza and warned against “irreversible implications” for Palestinians.

“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.”

Also speaking at the Doha Forum, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh blamed the United States for Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza.

“For the United States to block a United Nations Security Council resolution, one should hold the Americans responsible” for the deadly violence, he said.

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‘Unprecedented humanitarian disaster’

Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, also told the forum that the ongoing situation in Gaza has turned into an “unprecedented humanitarian disaster.”

The situation in Gaza was making people around the world ask “some legitimate questions about the nature of the international systems and the efficiency of the legal instruments and its principles,” Al Thani added.

“These questions become more important and more pressing as we continue to see the horrifying scenes that we might sometimes have to look away from,” he said.

He added that it was important to stand up to those “who want to reformulate the conflict in the form of a religious war.”

“This conflict was and still is an issue of the occupation and its demands. Over the decades, the option of peace was on the table, but it was the victim of procrastination and formation,” he said.

‘Hell on earth’

The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) also spoke at the forum warning of an urgent need for a humanitarian ceasefire to end the “hell on earth there.”

“By any description, it is the worst situation I have ever seen,” Philippe Lazzarini said. 

“People are coming to the UN to seek protection, but even the blue flag is not protected anymore. By any account, the situation has reached a catastrophic nature,” he added.

Israeli strikes have so far killed more than 17,700 people, most of them women and children, and injured nearly 48,800 others in its relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza since October 7.

According to the UN, around 80 percent of the inhabitants of Gaza are displaced, nearly 1.8 million people, and more than 1.1 million are seeking refuge in UNRWA shelters.

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