New York – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Tuesday for international pressure against a possible military operation by Israel in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Guterres said in a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York, “The military attack on Rafah would be an intolerable escalation, leading to the killing of thousands more civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to be displaced.”
He appealed to “all those who influence Israel” to “do everything in their power to prevent the attack.”
He pointed out that “all members of the UN Security Council, and many other governments, clearly expressed their opposition to the operation.”
In another context, the Secretary-General of the United Nations said, “The war has destroyed the health system in Gaza, with two-thirds of the hospitals and health centers not working, and many of the remaining ones have been severely damaged.”
He added, “Some hospitals in Gaza have become like cemeteries,” referring to reports of the discovery of mass graves in the Shifa Hospital complex in northern Gaza, and the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, according to what was reported by the “United Nations News” website.
Guterres said there were “conflicting accounts about many of the mass graves, including serious allegations that some of those buried there were unlawfully killed.”
He stressed “the need for independent international investigators, with expertise in forensic science, to be allowed immediate access to the sites of these mass graves, to determine the exact circumstances in which hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives and were buried or reburied.”
Guterres stressed the need to protect hospitals, health workers and all civilians, and to respect the human rights owed to all.
In response to a question about dealing with student demonstrations at American universities protesting the war in Gaza, the Secretary-General stressed “the necessity of ensuring freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration,” stressing at the same time “the rejection of hate speech.”
He said: “It is up to university authorities to use wisdom in dealing with such situations appropriately.”
On April 18, students who rejected the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip began a sit-in on the campus of Columbia University in New York, demanding that its administration stop its academic cooperation with Israeli universities and withdraw its investments in companies that support the occupation of Palestinian territories.
With the intervention of police forces and the arrest of dozens of students, the state of anger expanded and the demonstrations extended to dozens of universities in the United States, including leading universities such as Harvard, George Washington, New York, Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and North Carolina.
Later, the unprecedented student movement in support of Palestine in the United States expanded to universities in countries such as France, Britain, Germany, Canada and India, all of which witnessed demonstrations in support of their counterparts in American universities and demands to stop the war on Gaza and boycott the companies that supply weapons to Israel.
Anatolia
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2024-05-01 08:14:37