Israel's rejection of the idea of a two-state solution with the Palestinians is unacceptable, the UN chief said.
United Nations:
Israel's rejection of the idea of a two-state solution with the Palestinians is unacceptable and could prolong the war in Gaza, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
“The clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution last week at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable,” Guterres said in an address to the Security Council.
“This refusal, and the denial of the Palestinian people's right to statehood, would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security,” Guterres said at the meeting.
Such an outcome “would worsen polarization and embolden extremists around the world,” he added.
Guterres called for the universal recognition of “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own fully independent state.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn global condemnation in recent days – and defied the United States, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid – by rejecting calls for a Palestinian state.
That rejection came as Israel targeted Hamas in Gaza, where the death toll reached nearly 25,500 on Tuesday, with about 70 percent of the women and children killed, according to the territory's health ministry.
The offensive began in response to the unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
The militant group also seized about 250 hostages during the attack, with about 132 remaining in Gaza.
Netanyahu's office said last week that Israel must “maintain security control over Gaza” even after “Hamas is destroyed,” days after the prime minister also rejected Palestinian sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.
He proclaimed Israel's need to have “security control over the entire area west of the (river) Jordan.”
But Guterres walked back that claim, demanding on Tuesday that “the occupation of Israel must end.”
“The entire population of Gaza is experiencing destruction on a scale and speed unparalleled in recent history,” he said, also calling for the establishment of new humanitarian border crossings and the resumption of aid operations in the Israeli port of Ashdod.
International organizations have warned that after three and a half months of brutal airstrikes and a ground invasion, the small strip of land's two million residents face an acute humanitarian crisis, including the threat of famine and disease.
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