By Janet Ekstract
NEW YORK -On Wednesday, at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York City, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there is something “clearly wrong” with Israel’s operations against Hamas in terms of the number of civilians killed. As Guterres remarked: “There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong.” Guterres added: It is also important to make Israel understand that it is against the interests of Israel to see every day, the terrible image of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.” “That doesn’t help Israel in relation to the global public opinion.” The U.N. chief warned, people need to distinguish the difference between Hamas and the Palestinian people. He said that “if we don’t make that distinction, I think it’s humanity itself that will lose its meaning.”
In his most recent press conference, the U.N. chief said that Gaza was becoming a “graveyard for children” and called it “a crisis of humanity.” Guterres added that “no one is safe,” emphasizing that “the protection of civilians must be paramount.” The U.N. leader reiterated that “no party to an armed conflict is above international, humanitarian law.” He lauded those humanitarian workers who remained in Gaza to assist and highlighted the fact that more U.N. workers and more journalists have been killed in this conflict than any other conflict in history which Guterres commented: “This makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour.”
