United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, yesterday, rejected accusations by Israel that, in a statement to the Security Council, he had justified attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.
“I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statement … as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite,” he told reporters, without specifically naming Israel.
Guterres on Tuesday pleaded for civilians to be protected in the war between Israel and Hamas, voicing concern about “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s UN Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, described Guterres’ speech as ‘shocking’ and called on Guterres to resign immediately, while Israel’s visiting Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, said he would not meet with Guterres on Tuesday as planned. Guterres instead met with family representatives of the hostages held in Gaza.
Guterres told the 15-member UN Security Council that it was vital to be clear that war has rules, starting with the fundamental principle of respecting and protecting civilians.
“It is important to also recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.
“But 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 said.
Guterres noted, yesterday, that in his statement to the Security Council he ‘condemned unequivocally’ the October 7 Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people, saying: “Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.”
Referring to his statement yesterday, he said: “I believe it is necessary to set the record straight, especially out of respect for the victims and their families. World leaders have called for a halt to fighting to allow aid into the besieged enclave, which is running out of water, food, fuel and medicines.”
Meanwhile, Gaza residents, yesterday, said with so many bodies, Palestinians are burying the unidentified dead in mass graves, with a number instead of a name. Some families are using bracelets in the hope of finding their loved ones should they be killed. They are buying or making the bracelets for their children or writing their names on their arms.
Mass burials have been authorised by local Muslim clerics. Before burial, medics keep pictures and blood samples of the dead and give them numbers. Israel launched the heaviest bombardment of Gaza after Hamas militants attacked Israeli towns on October 7 in a rampage that killed 1,400 people and hostages were taken.
A total of 756 Palestinians, including 344 children, were killed in the past 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said, yesterday, at press time. It said, at least, 6,546 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli bombardment since October 7, including 2,704 children.
An Israeli military spokesperson said: “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been encouraging residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move southward and not to stay in the vicinity of Hamas terror targets within Gaza City.
“But, ultimately, Hamas has entrenched itself among the civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip. So wherever a Hamas target arises, the IDF will strike at it to thwart the terrorist capabilities of the group, while taking feasible precautions to mitigate the harm to uninvolved civilians.”
The El-Daba family has tried to reduce the risk of being struck down during the Israeli air strikes. Ali El-Daba, 40, said he had seen bodies ripped apart by the bombing and were unrecognisable.
He said he decided to divide his family to prevent them from all dying in a single strike. He said his wife, Lina, 42, kept two of their sons and two daughters in Gaza City in the North and he moved to Khan Younis in the South with three other children.
El-Daba said he was preparing for the worst. He bought blue string bracelets for his family members and tied them around both wrists. “If something happens,” he said, “this way I will recognise them.”
Meanwhile, Qatar’s prime minister said, yesterday, that negotiations the Gulf Arab state is leading to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are progressing and he is hopeful there will soon be a breakthrough.
Qatar’s foreign ministry urged de-escalation and warned that an Israeli ground assault on the densely populated enclave would make freeing hostages ‘much more difficult’.
“There is some progress and some breakthrough and we remain hopeful,” said Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, at a press conference in the Qatari capital.
Wealthy gas-producer Qatar has had an open dialogue with both Israel and Hamas, which has brought about the release of four hostages captured in the October 7 rampage Hamas led into southern Israel, including two Israeli women on Monday.
“If they are able to get along between the two parties, I think we will see some breakthroughs hopefully soon,” said Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the minister of foreign affairs and who was speaking alongside his Turkish counterpart.
Qatar foreign ministry officials said an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza would complicate efforts to free the hostages.
“Obviously, a land incursion into Gaza would make it difficult to maintain the safety of the hostages, and in our efforts at mediation with both sides, we urge all parties in this conflict to de-escalate immediately,” said Majed Al Ansari, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson.
Also speaking in Doha, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said an Israeli ground operation into Gaza would turn the fighting there into a massacre. Fidan said those supporting Israel’s actions under the pretence of solidarity were ‘accomplices to its crimes’.
In another development, Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, in his strongest comments yet on the Gaza conflict, said, yesterday, the Palestinian militant group Hamas was not a terrorist organisation but a liberation group fighting to protect Palestinian lands and people.
NATO member Turkey condemned the civilian deaths caused by Hamas’ October 7 rampage in southern Israel, but also urged Israeli forces to act with restraint. As the violence and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza have worsened, Ankara has strongly criticised Israel’s bombardment of the territory.
“Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, it is a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people,” he told lawmakers from his ruling AK Party, using an Arabic word denoting those who fight for their faith.
Unlike many of its NATO allies and the European Union, Turkey does not consider Hamas a terrorist organisation and hosts members of the group on its territory. Ankara backs a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Erdogan also slammed Western powers for supporting Israel’s bombing of Gaza and called for an immediate ceasefire, the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and for Muslim countries to work together to stop the violence.
“The perpetrators of the massacre and the destruction taking place in Gaza are those providing unlimited support for Israel. Israel’s attacks on Gaza, for both itself and those supporting them, amount to murder and mental illness,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan’s comments drew a swift rebuke from Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, who said they were “grave and disgusting and did not help with de-escalation.”
He urged Italy’s foreign minister to lodge a formal protest with Ankara.
The fighting in Gaza comes at a time when Turkey is working to mend its ties with Israel after years of acrimony, focusing on energy as an area of cooperation.
Indicating that those normalisation efforts were now suspended, Erdogan accused Israel of taking advantage of Turkey’s ‘good intentions’ and said he had cancelled a previously planned visit to Israel.
“I shook the hand of this man’ named Netanyahu one time in my life,” Erdogan said, referring to his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister’ Benjamin Netanyahu’ on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month.
“If he (Netanyahu) had continued with good intentions, our relations might have been different, but now, unfortunately, that will not happen either because they took advantage of our good intentions,” he said.
Erdogan accused the West of hypocrisy for failing to respond to what he called Israel’s ‘intentional massacre’ in Gaza with the same decisiveness as it did to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
