2023-10-24 19:08:00
“What world do you live in?” Eli Cohen asked Antonio Guterres at the Security Council
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, denounced violations of international law in Gaza on Tuesday and urged an immediate ceasefire, in a tense session of the Security Council, which provoked an indignant response from the Israeli foreign minister and a call for his resignation. by the ambassador.
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Opening the session, Guterres said there was no excuse for the “appalling” violence by Hamas militants on October 7, but also warned once morest “collective punishment” of Palestinians.
“I am deeply concerned by the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza. Let me be clear: no party in an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law,” Guterres said at a Security Council session, without explicitly naming Israel.
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Guterres stated that the Palestinians have been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” and told the Security Council: “It is important to also recognize that the Hamas attacks did not occur in a vacuum.”
Eli Cohen (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
These statements infuriated Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who, pointing his finger at Guterres and raising his voice, recounted graphic testimonies of civilians killed on October 7 in the deadliest single attack in Israel’s history.
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“Mr. Secretary General, in what world do you live?” Cohen said.
Noting that Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Cohen said: “We gave the Palestinians Gaza every last millimeter. “There is no dispute regarding the land of Gaza.”
Shortly following, Israel imposed a blockade of the enclave, which has been in place since Hamas took power.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called on Guterres to resign, writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the UN chief “has expressed understanding for terrorism and murder.”
Message from Ambassador Gilad Erdan once morest Guterres (automated translation in X)
Hamas militants swept into Israel on October 7 and attacked mostly civilian targets, including families and a music festival, killing at least 1,400 people and taking more than 220 hostages, according to Israeli officials. More than 5,700 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli retaliatory bombings, according to the territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Guterres, who personally traveled to the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in an effort to allow aid in, welcomed the passage of three aid convoys so far through the Rafah border crossing. “But it is a drop of aid in an ocean of need,” Guterres said, warning that U.N. fuel supplies will run out within days.
“To alleviate the epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer, and facilitate the release of the hostages, I reiterate my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
The Security Council session brings together senior diplomats, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has previously rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying it would only allow Hamas to regroup.
The United States vetoed a draft resolution on the crisis last week, saying it did not sufficiently support Israel’s right to self-defense.
Blinken told the Security Council that the United States was introducing a new resolution that “incorporates substantive comments.” He wondered why there wasn’t more outrage over the killings of Israelis.
“We must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and prevent the recurrence of such harm. “No member of this Council, no nation of this entire body, might or would tolerate the slaughter of its people,” Blinken said.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, a Hamas rival, denounced the inaction of the Security Council. “The continued massacres perpetrated deliberately, systematically and savagely by Israel, the occupying power, once morest the Palestinian civilian population subjected to illegal occupation must be put to an end,” he said. “It is our collective human duty to stop them,” he said. “The continued failure of this Council is inexcusable.”
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