The United Nations chief has stressed the urgency of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where, he said, an Israeli war has caused the worst death and destruction he has seen in his more than seven-year tenure.
Antonio Guterres made the remarks in an interview with The Associated Press, as more than 11 months of the Israeli onslaught has killed a shocking number of Palestinians and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged territory.
“The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my mandate as secretary-general of the United Nations,” he stated.
“I’ve never seen such a level of death and destruction as we are seeing in Gaza in the last few months.”
Guterres further noted that it’s “unrealistic” to think the UN could play a role in Gaza’s future, either by administering the Palestinian territory or providing a peacekeeping force, because Israel is unlikely to accept a role by the world body.
However, he added, “The UN will be available to support any ceasefire.”
He also expressed the United Nations’ readiness “to do whatever the international community asked for us.”
Israel waged its brutal Gaza offensive on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
So far, the occupying regime has so far killed at least 41,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 94,825 others.
In its aggression, Israel has deliberately targeted hospitals and schools sheltering displaced Palestinians, destroying more than 80 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip.
Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Gaza onslaught.
Additionally, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a different court in The Hague, has issued arrest warrants for Israeli officials over their war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Elsewhere in his interview, Guterres said that the so-called two-state framework is not only viable, but “the only solution” to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The two-state solution is, in my opinion, a must if we want to have peace in the Middle East,” he emphasized.
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