A high official of the United Nations has warned that the expansion of Israeli military operations within Gaza would risk “catastrophic consequences”. An expansion of the war “would risk catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians and could further endanger the life of the hostages left in Gaza”, said Miroslav Jenca, assistant to the United Nations Secretary for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, during a meeting of the Security Council. “There is no military solution to the conflict in Gaza or the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, at the UN for the discussion to the Hostage Security Council, criticized the Western countries that announced that they wanted to recognize the Palestinian state soon. “These countries – he said – must understand the consequences of their actions. I warned precisely from this stage that recognizing a virtual Palestinian state would have led to the destruction of the possibilities of reaching an agreement on the hostages and the fire. This is exactly what happened, “Sàar accused.