UNITED Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres has told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that he invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter for the first time since 1971 because “there is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza”.
That article allows a UN chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security.
Guterres warned that the Gaza Strip is at “a breaking point” and desperate people are at serious risk of starvation. He said the UN anticipates this would result in “a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt”.
He said that at least 135 UN staff had killed in Gaza, whilst telling members the Rafah crossing had never been constructed for the extent of aid seen in the last few months.
The council was scheduled to hold a meeting on Friday to vote on a resolution by the United Arab Emirates demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The UAE is the Arab representative on the 15-member body.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, as wells as the UK have not supported a ceasefire.
The vote will take place after a ministerial delegation from the Arab League and OrganiSation of Islamic Co-operation, led by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, meets US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.
The UN secretary-general told the Security Council that Hamas’s brutality against Israelis on October 7 “can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.
He stressed that “while indiscriminate rocket fire by Hamas into Israel, and the use of civilians as human shields, are in contravention of the laws of war, such conduct does not absolve Israel of its own violations”.
The meeting came as footage showing a large group of men in northern Gaza on the ground stripped, blindfolded and handcuffed had been widely shared online. The first video appears to be filmed from the vantage point of a soldier guarding the men.
The brother of Palestinian journalist Diaa Al-Kahlout, who was said to be among the group, said he recognised his brother in the footage.
He said the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) had come to their neighbourhood in Beit Lahia, where his brother had stayed to look after their elderly mother who could not move, and demanded over loudspeaker for all men to come down to the street.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 17,400 people in Gaza — 70% of them women and children — and wounded more than 46,000, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which says many others are trapped under rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Hamas and other militants killed about 1200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and took more than 240 hostages.
More than 130 hostages remain in Gaza, predominately soldiers and civilian men, after more than 100 were freed, most during a ceasefire last month. The military says 93 of its troops have been killed in the ground campaign.
