Featured Image Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Topics: Ukraine, Israel, World News
Joe Yates
As fears mount over the possible escalation of conflicts raging across the globe, the head of the UN has warned that the continued abrasive behaviour of some world leaders threatens humanity.
“The principles of the United Nations that you have established are under siege,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told those gathering in the auditorium inside the General Assembly, located along the East River in New York City, today (September 23).
“We have entered in an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering,” he said in his annual state of the world speech.
“The pillars of peace and progress are buckling under the weight of impunity, inequality and indifference.”
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He went on to reference the onslaught on the Gaza Strip while falling short of naming Israel.
He explained how the scale of death and destruction is the worst in his nearly nine years as secretary-general, and that 'nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people'.
The Portuguese chief insisted that only a court is able to determine whether Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, while referring to the case South Africa brought to the UN’s highest court under the genocide convention by name, and stressed its legally binding provisional measures, first and foremost to protect Palestinian civilians.
President Donald Trump is set to speak today, with White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt noting how he will 'touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order'.
Yesterday, the General Assembly heard how Gaza was garnering support for the long-standing idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The meeting ended with several countries, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco, announcing or confirming their recognition of a Palestinian state, a day after the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal did.
Others, such as Germany, Italy and Japan, took part in the conference but did not recognise such a state. Around three-quarters of the UN’s 193 member countries now do.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas - an armed Palestinian group and political movement - launched an attack on Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking a further 251 hostage.
In response, Israel has dropped bomb after bomb on the Gaza Strip, reducing it to rubble, while restricting the entry of food, water, fuel, electricity and medicine into Gaza, according to aid agencies. Over 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks, according to Gaza's health authority.