The war between Israel and Hamas has created a crisis in the Middle East “growing more dire by the hour,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a meeting of the Security Council on Tuesday.
“The war in Gaza is raging and risks spiraling throughout the region. Divisions are splintering societies, tensions threaten to boil over.”
The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas into Israel left over 1,400 Israelis killed in the fighting. Israel has responded with a bombardment of Gaza. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 5,700 Palestinians have been killed in the two weeks since the war began.
Guterres condemned the Hamas attack and called for the release of hostages while also noting the attack “did not happen in a vacuum.”
“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” Guterres said.
“The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas, and those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Guterres also called on fuel to be allowed into Gaza, which is currently being blockaded by Israel. He said United Nations efforts to distribute aid would not be possible without fuel for trucks and that Gaza’s hospitals would not be able to function without electricity.
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