United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has endorsed Hamas terror through his invocation of Article 99, a rarely used mechanism that allows him to prompt a United Nations call for an immediate ceasefire to the Gaza war, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said.
“Guterres’ tenure is a danger to world peace,” Cohen stated after the Secretary-General sent a letter to the Security Council under the auspices of Article 99, in which he argued that action was needed to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.
Cohen said that Guterres’ actions “constitute support of the Hamas terrorist organization and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women.
“Anyone who supports world peace must support the liberation of Gaza from Hamas,” Cohen stated.
Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said, “The UN needs a Secretary-General who supports the war on terror and not a Secretary-General who acts according to the script written by Hamas.”
UN pushing for a ceasefire
The United Arab Emirates, which is one of 15 Security Council members, submitted a draft resolution for a ceasefire.
“The UAE draft resolution has the support of the Arab and OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) group. This is a moral and humanitarian imperative and we urge all countries to support the call of the Secretary-General,” the UAE mission to the UN posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Diplomats said the UAE aims to put the text to a vote on Friday when the council is due to be briefed by Guterres on Gaza. To be adopted, a resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the five permanent members – the United States, Russia, China, France, or Britain.
Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Wood, said the United States does not support any further action by the Security Council.
“However, we remain focused on the difficult and sensitive diplomacy geared to getting more hostages released, more aid flowing into Gaza, and better protection of civilians,” Wood told Reuters.
Guterres in his letter to the UNSC warned, “I expect public order to completely break down soon [in Gaza] due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible” as a result of the war.
“We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system. The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region. Such an outcome must be avoided at all costs,” he wrote.
In his letter, Guterres condemned Hamas’ October 7 infiltration of southern Israel, in which the terror group killed over 1,200 people and seized some 250 hostages.
Some 110 of those hostages have been freed and Guterres in his letter called for the release of the remaining captives.
“Accounts of sexual violence during the attacks are appalling,” he added.
Guterres in his letter spoke of the at least 15,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza due to war-related violence, in a way that implied that all of them were civilians. Israel has said that some 5,000 of those are Hamas terrorists.
The Security Council has passed only one resolution since the start of the war, in which it has called for a pause in the fighting and it has yet to condemn Hamas.
Israel has argued that a sustained military campaign led to the release of 105 hostages last month, 81 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that its military campaign to oust Hamas from Gaza was the only step that would ensure a second hostage deal.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said that Guterres had fallen to a “new moral low” through the use of Article 99 against Israel, charged that it was yet one more proof of his “distorted bias” against Israel.
His call for a “ceasefire is a call to keep Hamas’s reign of terror in Gaza” when he should have been insisting that Hamas lay down its arms and return to the captives to end the war, Erdan stated.
Instead, he is “continue playing into Hamas’ hands” by calling for a measure that would only prolong the fighting by giving Hamas hope that if it holds out long enough the international community would force an end to the war.
The United States and its ally Israel oppose a ceasefire because they believe it would only benefit Hamas. Washington instead supports pauses to protect civilians and allow for the release of hostages taken by Hamas in a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour said Arab ministers would discuss the draft Security Council resolution with US officials during a visit to Washington this week.
“On top of the agenda is this war has to stop,” he told reporters as Arab UN ambassadors stood with him. “A ceasefire has to take place and it has to take place immediately.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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