“Nothing justifies the collective punishment” imposed by Israel on the population of the Gaza Strip, who are suffering “unimaginable” suffering, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, complained yesterday, Monday, during an interview he gave to the French Agency.

“The level of suffering in Gaza is unimaginable, the level of death and destruction beyond compare since I became Secretary-General” of the international body, said Mr Guterres, in office since 2017.

“Obviously, we condemn all the terrorist acts of Hamas, as well as the kidnapping of hostages”, but, in any case, “the truth is that nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian population, and we see this in a dramatic way in Gaza”, he underlined , referring to the death, destruction, famine and disease faced by the inhabitants of the besieged coastal enclave.

On October 7, 2023, members of Hamas’s military arm launched an attack of unprecedented ferocity from the Gaza Strip into southern Israeli territory, killing 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on in official Israeli data, which includes victims killed while held hostage.

In retaliation, Israel’s political and military leadership vowed to wipe out Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007; and large-scale air and ground operations in the enclave since then have killed at least 41,226 people. , according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Islamic Movement.

This tally includes more than 200 workers in humanitarian organizations, most of them UN agencies.

When it comes to civilian deaths, it is “absolutely necessary that there be accountability,” Antonio Guterres insisted. Both on Israel’s side, for the “massive violations” of international law, and on Hamas’s side.

The UN chief has not stopped calling for an immediate ceasefire, but indirect negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US remain deadlocked, with both sides, the Israeli government and Hamas, blaming each other that they don’t want to make an agreement.

“They are endless”, Antonio Guterres commented yesterday, estimating that it will be “very difficult” to conclude an agreement, although he added that he maintains hope.

With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer answering his phone calls since October, the Secretary-General does not expect a rekindling of the personal relationship ahead of the week of high-level contacts and speeches at the General Assembly, during which heads of state and governments.

“If I understand correctly, he has already said publicly that he has no intention of asking to meet with me. So there probably won’t be a meeting,” Mr. Guterres said.

But that is not the most important thing, he continued. “What counts is the suffering of the people,” he said, “what counts is the absence of a political solution, what counts is the permanent denial of the two-state solution, the undermining of that solution by actions on the ground, by land grabbing , with displacements, with new settlements, all of which are being built illegally.”

Furthermore, he considered it “unlikely” that his proposal to deploy a mission to “monitor” its implementation in the event of a cease-fire agreement would become a reality, as it is not accepted by both parties.

UN missions are a necessary condition to have secured the consent of the host countries in order to develop.

Partly for this reason, the Security Council mandated a year-long multinational mission led by Kenya—not under the United Nations flag—to help Haitian police tackle the scourge of gang violence, as the Caribbean country suffered painful experiences in previous blue helmet operations.

However, with only a few hundred police deployed and the multinational mission facing an acute funding problem, the US is proposing to transform it into a UN mission.

The Organization will do what the Security Council and Port-au-Prince ask, Mr. Guterres assured. But “I find it strange that it is so difficult to fund such a small police operation,” he added: “It is absolutely unacceptable.”

Asked also about the criticism that the UN is powerless, that it fails to intervene effectively to end the armed conflicts in the Gaza Strip, in Ukraine and elsewhere, Antonio Guterres reminded that it is the member states, especially the 15 member states of Security Council, those who are responsible “for the decisions that are made” — or not made.

The Security Council and international financial institutions are “outdated, dysfunctional, unfair” institutions, he reiterated.

“We are trying to find solutions to wars, but the problem is that we don’t have the power, sometimes not even the resources, to do it,” he added.