The UN urges Israel and Palestine to an immediate ceasefire to avoid an "uncontrollable" regional conflict

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, addressed a dramatic call to Israelis and Palestinians this Sunday for an immediate cessation of hostilities, given the risk that the spiral of violence could end up engulfing the region in addition to causing a human crisis of unstoppable consequences. At the opening of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the third this week but the first open to observers, Guterres described the level of violence as "absolutely appalling", urging the parties to dialogue.

“The carnage has continued today, this unhinged cycle of bloodshed, terror and destruction must stop immediately. The rockets and mortars [from Hamas] on the one hand and the aerial and artillery bombardments on the other must cease ”, stressed the secretary general, while also equating the loss of life on both sides. Guterres had already warned this Saturday that "indiscriminate attacks against civilians violate international law." The military escalation has claimed the lives of at least 181 Gazans as of this Sunday (including 52 children and 31 women), and caused 1,200 wounded; and 10 other people in Israel (including two minors), with a balance of 200 injured.

Guterres warned of the risk of violence fueling extremism on both sides, as evidenced by attacks between Israeli Arabs and Jews in mixed-population cities, as well as increasingly bitter clashes between security forces and Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem. East, where half a dozen Palestinian families are threatened with eviction. “In Israel, violence by vigilante groups and mobs has added a more horrendous dimension to an already deteriorating crisis. Leaders of all parties have a responsibility to curb inflammatory rhetoric and defuse mounting tensions, ”he stressed.

The conflict can lead to an "uncontrollable" regional crisis, Guterres warned, for which he has encouraged international mediators - Egypt, Qatar and Jordan, pushed by the US - to redouble their efforts to achieve an immediate ceasefire.

After pledging the UN's active cooperation in forging a truce, Guterres has given the floor to his special envoy for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, who has described specific cases of civilian deaths in Israel, such as those of a father and his daughter on the outskirts of Lod, of "unjustified." "The indiscriminate firing of rockets by Hamas and other militias" from civilian areas "violates international humanitarian law and must stop immediately," he said, while urging the Israeli authorities to comply with international law that prescribes the use of force. proportional to the threat and the exercise of maximum containment. "Children should not be the target of violence," he concluded.

“Israel uses its missiles to protect its children.

Hamas uses its children to protect its missiles, ”replied Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, with the usual argument that Islamist militiamen use civilians as human shields.

"Every time Israel hears a foreign leader talk about his right to defend himself, he becomes even more emboldened to continue murdering entire families while they sleep," Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al Malki said by videoconference, alluding to the support shown to Israel by US President Joe Biden, among other leaders.

The meeting of the 15 member countries of the Council, chaired by China, was held remotely, after successfully convincing the United States, one of the five permanent countries and with the right of veto, of the urgency.

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Diplomatic multi-party activity is intensifying to wrest from the parties at least the intention of declaring a ceasefire. Hady Amro, Biden's special envoy, met with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz this Sunday, with no known results. Washington has to appoint its new ambassador to the country, a vacancy that complicates dialogue with the parties. The US promised in April that it would resume its contacts with the Palestinian Authority (PA), but it has no communication channel with Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group, which is why Biden's appeal to Mahmoud Abbas, president of the PA, Saturday, to pressure the Islamist movement that governs

de facto

since 2007 the Gaza Strip seems doomed to failure.

Other international forums, from the European Union to the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, have shown their intention to contribute to mediation efforts. The EU foreign ministers will meet this Tuesday in an extraordinary way, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, announced on Twitter, who acknowledged on Thursday that Brussels does not have the capacity to resolve the current conflict and that only the United States can do it. However, the high representative for EU foreign policy has maintained in recent days contacts with the parties involved, including President Abbas and the Israeli Foreign Minister, Gabi Ashkenazi.

In a virtual meeting of the member countries of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OCI), this Sunday, Turkey proposed sending interposition forces to the Palestinian territories to guarantee the "physical protection" of the civilian population. The Arab Parliament, an organ of the increasingly inoperative Arab League, criticized "the silence and inaction" of Brussels and its "policy of double standards".