{"id":246912,"date":"2023-10-30T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=246912"},"modified":"2023-10-29T10:30:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T10:30:28","slug":"un-chief-says-clear-violations-of-international-humanitarian-law-in-gaza-israel-demands-his-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/10\/un-chief-says-clear-violations-of-international-humanitarian-law-in-gaza-israel-demands-his-head\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Chief Says \u2018Clear Violations of International Humanitarian Law\u2019 in Gaza&#8211;Israel Demands His Head"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Israel&#039;s ambassador calls for UN chief to resign after comments about Hamas-Israel war | SBS News\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wk8n3sXCp-E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Antonio Guterres pleads for civilians to be protected in Israel-Hamas war, says the fighting increases risk of a wider regional conflagration.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>24 Oct 2023<\/em> &#8211; United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/program\/newsfeed\/2023\/10\/18\/un-chief-demands-immediate-gaza-ceasefire\" >renewed his demand<\/a> for a ceasefire in Gaza and said that international law was being violated in the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>Israel has bombarded the besieged Gaza Strip relentlessly since October 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killling at least 1,400 people according to Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n<p>After the attack, Israel cut off supplies of water, food, fuel and electricity to the enclave\u2019s 2.3 million residents, an act the UN has called a form of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/18\/un-chief-guterres-condemns-collective-punishment-of-palestinians\" >collective punishment<\/a>. It also launched an assault on the territory, killing at least 5,791 people, according to authorities in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>More than one million people have been displaced, as Israel ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south, but Israeli air raids <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/20\/war-crime-israel-bombs-gaza-church-sheltering-displaced-people\" >have continued throughout<\/a> the territory.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking before the 15-member UN Security Council on Tuesday, Guterres pleaded for civilians to be protected and warned that the fighting risked a wider <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/15\/iran-warns-israel-of-regional-escalation-if-gaza-ground-offensive-launched\" >conflagration<\/a> in the region.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt 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,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/11\/horrific-scenes-as-dozens-of-bodies-found-in-israels-kfar-aza-near\" >appalling attacks<\/a> by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Guterres also criticised Israel without naming it, saying \u201cprotecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The secretary-general\u2019s comments drew ire from Israel\u2019s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who called the speech \u201cshocking\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis statement that \u2018the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum\u2019 expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder,\u201d Erdan posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. \u201cIt\u2019s truly sad that the head of an organisation that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his speech, Guterres called the attack by Hamas \u201chorrifying and unprecedented\u201d and demanded the release of the roughly 200 people captured and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/20\/hamas-releases-two-american-hostages-from-gaza\" >held captive<\/a> by Hamas<\/p>\n<p id=\"plea-for-emergency-aid\"><strong>Plea for emergency aid<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Earlier, United Nations agencies called \u201con our knees\u201d for emergency aid to be allowed unimpeded into Gaza, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed.<\/p>\n<p>A small trickle of humanitarian aid has <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/22\/second-aid-convoy-enters-gaza-as-israel-steps-up-bombardments\" >entered Gaza<\/a> since Saturday from the Egyptian side, but Guterres called such limited assistance \u201ca drop of aid in an ocean of need\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.defenddemocracy.press\/un-chief-says-clear-violations-of-international-humanitarian-law-in-gaza\/\" >Go to Original &#8211; defenddemocracy.press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>24 Oct 2023 &#8211; Speaking before the UNSC today, Guterres said that, \u201cIt 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.\u201d Guterres&#8217; comments drew ire from Israel\u2019s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan who demands his resignation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":246913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[1036,1854,87,865,1029,88,2416,427,880,124,965],"class_list":["post-246912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight","tag-antonio-guterres","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-palestine","tag-state-terrorism","tag-united-nations","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246912"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247187,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246912\/revisions\/247187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}