Governor of Chang'an Street, WeChat*** Reporter Meng Jiang.
A letter seeking a ceasefire and peace has once again made UN Secretary-General António Guterres the target of attacks from the Israeli side.
On the 6th local time, in a letter to the Security Council, Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter to urge the UN Security Council to take action to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.
This is a "rare move" – as UN Secretary-General, Guterres invoked Article 99 for the first time;For the record, the last time Article 99 was invoked was decades ago.
However, the letter quickly angered the Israeli side. Elie Cohen harshly criticized Guterres' approach, and Gilad Erdan, the permanent representative to the United Nations, issued an angry rebuke and called for Guterres' resignation.
And this is the first time in more than a month that Erdan has once again publicly called for Guterres' resignation.
Guterres posted.
I have just invoked Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations — for the first time since I assumed the post of Secretary-General. Given the grave risk of the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe and call for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared. ”
Guterres posted on the social platform X (formerly Twitter) on the 6th, with a picture of his letter to the rotating president of the Security Council.
"The hostilities, which have been going on for more than eight weeks, have caused appalling suffering, destruction and trauma throughout the occupied territories of Israel and Palestine," Guterres wrote in the letter. ”
The civilian population in the Gaza Strip is in extreme danger, with more than 15,000 deaths as a result of continued Israeli bombardment and military operations in the Gaza Strip, a dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, a paralyzed health system and a collapse of public order. ”
Guterres also said that "more than 1,200 Israeli deaths were caused by terrorist acts by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on October 7," which he "has repeatedly condemned." The letter also called for "the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees".
Guterres said that it is the responsibility of the international community to use all its influence to avoid further escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He stressed that the humanitarian system and social order in the Gaza Strip are facing a "complete collapse", which will have "irreparable consequences" for the peace and security of Palestine and the entire region.
Guterres data map.
Why is the invocation of Article 99 a rare move?
Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations provides that the Secretary-General of the United Nations may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which, in his opinion, may threaten international peace and security.
According to the Secretary-General's Spokesman, Stefana Djarric, this provision has rarely been invoked by the Secretary-General since the founding of the United Nations.
This is the first time Guterres has invoked this provision since he became UN secretary-general in 2017. The last time "Article 99" was cited was more than 50 years ago, when it was cited by then-Secretary-General U Thant in 1971.
Xinhua news agency reported that Guterres' move underscored the seriousness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On the 1st of this month, the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended, and the Israeli army immediately resumed its attacks on the Gaza Strip, and on the same day it again launched air strikes in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. On the 6th, Israeli ground forces entered the center of Khan Younis, an important town in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to data released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health on the 7th, since the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip have resulted in 17,177 deaths.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Near East said on the 7th that more than 1.9 million** people in the Gaza Strip have been left behind, accounting for more than 85% of its total population. Of these, more than 1 million displaced people are concentrated in 98 shelters in Khan Younis and Rafah in central and southern Gaza Strip.
Shelter doesn't mean safety. The Israeli army continued to carry out air strikes and shelling in many places in the southern Gaza Strip early on the morning of the 7th, and the shelling in Rafah killed 16 Palestinians in two residential areas. On the same day, the Israeli army also shelled the Nuserrat refugee camp and the Magazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing and injuring civilians.
It is in this situation that Guterres wrote in the aforementioned letter that there is "no safe place" in the Gaza Strip.
The serious humanitarian crisis is not only due to the homelessness of people** and large numbers of refugees, but also to the dire medical conditions.
The governor of Chang'an Street (WeChat ID: Capitalnews) previously reported that Ahmed Mandari, WHO's regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, pointed out at a press conference this week that Israel's intensified ground military operations in southern Gaza, especially in Khan Younis, could lead to thousands of people not being able to access medical care.
Even the medical institutions themselves are difficult to preserve. According to data given by WHO on the 6th local time, there have been 212 attacks on medical institutions in the Gaza Strip since October 7. "It is unprecedented and unacceptable for such a number of attacks to occur in such a short period of time," Mandari said of previous attacks on health facilities. ”
That's why Dijarric said: "The Secretary-General will not invoke this clause lightly, and given the current situation in the Gaza Strip, where humanitarian action and social order are facing a total collapse, he [Guterres] feels that it needs to be done now." ”
I believe that this is arguably the most important appeal, and in my view, it is the most powerful tool that the Secretary-General has. Dijaric said.
On December 7, local time, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestinians, mourned their loved ones killed in Israeli bombing. Source: Visual China.
However, as soon as Guterres made a move, he angered the Israeli side.
Israeli Foreign Minister Cohen said on X: "Guterres' term of office poses a threat to world peace. He demanded the activation of Article 99 of the UN Charter and called for a ceasefire in Gaza, which is support for the Hamas 'terrorist organization'. ”
Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN Erdan issued a statement in which he lashed out at Guterres himself, saying that "today, the moral level of the (UN) Secretary-General has fallen to a new low."
Erdan slammed Guterres for using this rare clause only when he was "putting pressure on Israel, which is fighting Hamas", further proving his "moral distortion" and "bias" against Israel.
"The UN Secretary-General's call for a ceasefire is in fact a call for Hamas to continue its reign of terror in Gaza," Erdan claimed. Instead of making it clear that Hamas is responsible for the situation and calling on Hamas leaders to turn themselves in and return the hostages, thus ending the war, the Secretary-General has chosen to continue to give Hamas what it wants. ”
Erdan also demanded that Guterres "resign immediately", saying that the UN needs a secretary general who "supports the war on terror" and not a secretary general who "acts according to the script written by Hamas".
Erdan data map.
This is Erdan's second public call for Guterres' resignation in more than a month.
On October 24, at a public debate on Israel, Guterres pointed out that "Hamas's attacks did not come out of nowhere, and the Palestinian people have been under a suffocating occupation for 56 years", triggering discontent in Israel.
At that time, Erdan demanded that Guterres resign "unless he apologizes immediately" and threatened to suspend the issuance of UN** visas.
Erdan was born in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in law and served in the IDF Adjutant Corps. Back in 1996, he served as an adviser to Netanyahu.
Erdan has long been a member of the Knesset as a member of the right-wing Likud party, and has also held a number of ministerial positions, including environmental protection minister, communications minister, and interior minister.
In May 2020, Netanyahu announced that Erdan would serve as the country's permanent representative to the United Nations, and in the same year Erdan was also appointed as Israel's ambassador to the United States, holding a dual role. In 2021, Erdan announced his resignation as ambassador to the United States.
Since the outbreak of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Erdan has made controversial remarks in front of ** many times, such as in the CNN program, he once said that "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza".
In addition to publicly demanding the resignation of Guterres, the Israeli permanent representative to the United Nations has also frequently made shocking words and deeds at the United Nations.
At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on October 30, Erdan publicly wore a yellow six-pointed star symbolizing the Nazi treatment of Jews and defiantly declared that he would continue to wear it as long as the Security Council did not condemn Hamas.
Danny Dayan, director of Israel's Yadvesim Memorial Museum, issued a message condemning this, and Dayan said that Edan's actions "humiliated the victims of the Great ** and the State of Israel."
On November 22, the UN Security Council held a public meeting on the situation in the Gaza Strip. After UN Women and other agencies gave a briefing on the situation in the Gaza Strip, Erdan was dissatisfied on the spot and said that "UN Women is too shameful"!
Such insulting remarks were interrupted on the spot by Zhang Jun, the rotating chairman of the UN Security Council and China's permanent representative to the United Nations.
Zhang Jun said: "Distinguished representative of Israel, I would like to remind you that you can fully express your different views in your speech, but please maintain a minimum of respect for the briefers invited to the meeting, which is the consistent practice of the UN Security Council and the rules that everyone should abide by. ”
Erdan wears a yellow six-pointed star symbol. Data map.
The governor of Chang'an Street (WeChat ID: Capitalnews) noted that this time, despite the continuous criticism of Guterres by Erdan and others, Guterres' invocation of "Article 99" has been welcomed by many parties.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus** echoed Guterres' post and wrote: "I support this letter from Secretary-General Guterres to the Security Council, which invokes Article 99 of the UN Charter and calls for a ceasefire. Gaza's health system has been paralyzed and almost completely collapsed. For the sake of health, we need peace. ”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez issued a message in support of Guterres, saying: "The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is intolerable. I fully support the move by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to invoke Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations. I fully endorse the reasons for your appeal to the Council. ”
China's permanent representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, also tweeted Guterres' post and said: "Gaza is in the worst possible situation. Every effort must be made to put an end to the killing of civilians. The Council should make full use of its powers to declare an immediate ceasefire. ”