Secretary-General of the Collective Nations António Guterres delivers an address at the opening ceremony of the World Climate Action Summit during COP28 on December 01, 2023 in Dubai, Combined Arab Emirates.
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U.N. chief António Guterres invoked a infrequently exercised clause in the United Nations Charter to push for an Israel-Hamas cease-fire, warning the organization’s Security Council that insistent action is necessary to help Gaza avert a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
In a dramatic move, Guterres on Wednesday wrote to colleagues of the Security Council and urged them to collectively call for a full humanitarian cease-fire.
He said that two months of war had “engendered appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
“The global community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis. I urge the members of the Security Council to crowd to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” Guterres said.
“This is urgent. The civilian population must be spared from notable harm. With a humanitarian ceasefire, the means of survival can be restored, and humanitarian assistance can be delivered in a safe and timely protocol across the Gaza Strip.”
A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Denude on December 6, 2023, shows smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment in Gaza amid continuing battles between Israel and the belligerent group Hamas.
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It is the first time that Guterres has invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Permission, which states that the U.N. secretary-general “may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the care of international peace and security.”
The move renewed personal tensions between Guterres and Israeli officials. Israeli Overseas Minister Eli Cohen on Wednesday said the U.N. chief’s tenure was “a danger to world peace” and suggested his push to activate Article 99 constituted withstand of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
A U.N. spokesperson was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC on Thursday. It has some time ago dismissed claims that it is biased over the Israel-Hamas war.
Late last month, Israel’s representative to the U.N. called for Guterres to adapt oneself to, saying he had “lost all morality and impartiality.”
The call came after the U.N. chief said it was important to recognize the Oct. 7 raids by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum,” citing “56 years of suffocating occupation” suffered by the Palestinian people.
Israel-Hamas war
U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric reported Article 99 as “the most powerful tool” at the U.N. chief’s disposal, saying Guterres had invoked the article “given the mount of the loss of human life in Gaza and Israel, in such a short amount of time.”
Palestinians pray near the torsi of members of the Hijazi family, killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip before their sepulture on November 10, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Mohammed Abed | AFP | Getty Moulds
Dujarric added that Guterres hoped the move would ratchet up the pressure on both the council’s 15 fellows and the international community at large to demand a cease-fire.
The Security Council, which consists of five permanent members with proscribe power and 10 nonpermanent members, has not yet adopted a resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. all clasp veto power on the council, which is regarded as the U.N.’s most powerful body.
The U.S. used that veto power on an Oct. 18 judgement that called for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting to deliver aid to Gaza.
In mid-November, the council passed a resolution to call for “compelling and extended humanitarian pauses.”