The United Nations chief appealed on Sunday to Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza to immediately stop the “utterly appalling” escalation in fighting and “senseless cycle of bloodshed, terror and destruction” at the start of a high-level emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the virtual meeting that “the United Nations is actively engaging all sides towards an immediate cease-fire.”
He warned that the most serious escalation in violence in Gaza in years “only perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair, and pushes farther to the horizon any hopes of coexistence and peace.”
Guterres said he is “appalled by the increasingly large numbers of Palestinian civilian casualties” from Israeli airstrikes, and deplores Israeli casualties from rockets launched from Gaza.
He called the destruction of media offices in Gaza “extremely concerning,” stressing that “journalists must be allowed to work free of fear and harassment.”
The Security Council met privately twice last week over the worsening violence, but has so far been unable to agree on a public statement because the United States did not believe it would be helpful, diplomats said.
