The weekend marked 100 days since the 7 October Hamas attacks and the start of the conflict in Gaza. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will speak to reporters about the conflict.
100 days since the start of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Secretary-General António Guterres today (15 Jan) demanded the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.” At the same time, he said, “the onslaught on Gaza by Israeli forces over these 100 days has unleashed wholesale destruction and levels of civilian killings at a rate that is unprecedented during my years as Secretary-General.”
Guterres said hostages “must be treated humanely and allowed to receive visits and assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross,” and “accounts of sexual violence committed by Hamas and others on October 7th must be rigorously investigated and prosecuted.”
He said, “nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets towards civilian targets.”
Noting that the “vast majority” of those killed in Gaza are women and children, he said, “nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
The Secretary-General also warned about the regional implications of the conflict. He said, “the cauldron of tensions in the occupied West Bank is boiling over with heightened violence compounding an already dire fiscal crisis for the Palestinian Authority. Tensions are also sky-high in the Red Sea and beyond – and may soon be impossible to contain.”
Guterres expressed “serious concerns” about daily exchanges of fire across the Blue Line, which “risks triggering a broader escalation between Israel and Lebanon and profoundly affecting regional stability.”
He called on parties to “stop playing with fire across the Blue Line, de-escalate, and bring hostilities to an end in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1701.”
The Secretary-General said, “we cannot see in Lebanon what we are seeing in Gaza. And we cannot allow what has been happening in Gaza to continue.”
Guterres called for immediate humanitarian ceasefire as well as rapid, safe, unhindered, expanded and sustained humanitarian access into and across Gaza.
