The war in Gaza reaches the UN Security Council and causes a very harsh clash between Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Israel. So much so that Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, present in New York, refused to meet him, while the Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan called for his immediate resignation. “It is important – said Guterres speaking at the Glass Palace in a heated atmosphere – to recognize that Hamas’ attacks did not come out of nowhere. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” Then he added that certainly, “the suffering of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks of Hamas”, but also that those same attacks “cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”. Guterres then deplored the “clear violations of international humanitarian law” that are taking place in the Strip and insisted on the request for “a humanitarian ceasefire”, which Israel has repeatedly rejected. The first to react was the Israeli representative: «A UN secretary general who shows understanding for the campaign of mass extermination of children, women and the elderly is not fit to lead the UN. I urge him to resign immediately.” “There is no point – Erdan denounced – in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words.” Cohen on : “I will not meet the UN secretary general. After October 7 there is no room for an equidistant approach. Hamas must be eliminated from the world.” Netanyahu’s Foreign Minister also warned that “Europe will be next to be hit by Hamas” and that if it does not act “it will have terrorists at its door”. “The responsibility for 7 October lies with Hamas, only with Hamas. Not with Israel, nor with innocent civilians”, commented the spokesperson of the American National Security Council John Kirby. And Guterres’ words also outraged the families of the 222 Israeli hostages, who called them “scandalous”. The secretary general, they urged, “shamefully ignores the fact that Saturday 7 October was perpetrated genocide against the Jewish people and found an indirect way to justify the horrors that were committed against the Jews.”
The clash between the United Nations and Israel was in a certain sense expected given that the disagreements are obvious: starting with humanitarian aid to Gaza. Israel has repeatedly expressed its fear that these will reach Hamas instead of the civilian population. And he was adamant about fuel supplies, which Guterres instead invoked as necessary for the assistance activities of UNRWA, the UN organization for Palestinian refugees. The UN chief then opposed air raids several times in both the north and south of the Strip, while Israel continued to pound Gaza, increasingly increasing the intensity of the attacks «against the military structures of Hamas and its leaders ». Last night alone, according to the army, over 400 targets were hit in the Palestinian enclave with the elimination of dozens of men. The deputy commanders of the Nuseirat, Shati and Furqan battalions were all killed. The objective, as explained by the military leaders, is to reduce Hamas’s resistance to a minimum in view of entering the Strip by land. The army is pushing for the invasion as soon as possible, repeating every day that it is now “ready”. But the final decision, explained Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, will be taken together with the political power. Who evidently understands the American ally’s fears for a possible escalation of the conflict throughout the Middle East, especially with Iran. Lebanese Hezbollah does not stop attacking northern Israel. And again Halevi cited “tactical and even strategic considerations” among the causes that delayed the ground offensive. “We are however making the most of every minute – underlined the chief of staff speaking to journalists on the southern front, right in front in Gaza – to be better prepared. And we continue to strike the enemy more and more, killing terrorists, destroying infrastructure and gathering more intelligence”. “We are facing the next step, it’s coming”, the prime minister promised the soldiers Benyamin Netanyahu who today received French President Emmanuel Macron in Tel Aviv, with the latter launching the proposal for an anti-Hamas coalition based on the one that fought ISIS. For Israel – which today received a large quantity of rockets from Gaza – there continues to be the conundrum of the hostages, especially after the latest releases by Hamas. Today in the Khan Yunes area leaflets rained down in which the Jewish State asked the local population to help in the search for Israelis held prisoner in the Strip in exchange for “discretion, protection and monetary rewards”. The toll in Gaza, however – where an exhausted population is trying to move further south – has reached 5,791 deaths, of which 2,360 minors and children. According to the local Ministry of Health, 12 hospitals and 32 clinics have already had to close their doors.