UN Secretary-General Invokes Article 99 Over Gaza War

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Facts

  • UN Secretary-General António Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter on Wednesday regarding the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, marking the first time the diplomatic tool — which is used to call the Security Council's attention to any situation the chief is concerned may threaten 'international peace and security” — has been used since 1989.1
  • Israel's UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, responded to the action by saying that the UN chief had “reached a new moral low” and should resign immediately. Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said that the move was 'an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women.'2
  • This came as Israel said it would open the Kerem Shalom Crossing between Israel and Gaza so that the amount of aid entering the strip is increased. Israeli forces will inspect aid trucks at Kerem Shalom, but they will still have to enter the strip via the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Israeli forces already inspect aid going through the Rafah crossing, and this move is only meant to expedite aid delivery via Rafah.3
  • Aid delivery throughout the strip has become increasingly limited as thousands of Palestinian civilians continue to flee the fighting toward the Egyptian border. According to the UN, aid groups have only been able to distribute minimal supplies in and around Rafah over the last few days — mainly just flour and water.4
  • Meanwhile, images and footage circulating on social media appeared to show Israeli forces rounding up dozens of men, stripped down to their underwear, blindfolded, and with their hands behind their backs. Israeli media claimed that the images showed possible Hamas fighters who had surrendered, but the New Arab reported that one of the detained men was a correspondent for the publication's Arabic version, along with several of his relatives and other civilians in northern Beit Lahia.5
  • Gaza's health ministry reports that the conflict has left over 17K people in the Gaza Strip dead, many of which it claims are children. The official Israeli death toll stands at 1.2K people and there are still over 100 hostages being held in the Gaza Strip.6

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2CNN, 3The Times of Israel, 4Associated Press, 5The New Arab and 6Washington Post.

Narratives

  • Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by The Jerusalem Post. Though this has been a tragic war, Israel cannot allow Hamas to survive. Hamas seized upon last week's temporary pause to mark Israeli positions and prepare itself for continued attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza. Israel will have to work intelligently in its campaign in the south of the strip to fully eliminate the terrorist group so it can never launch an attack like Oct. 7 again — the UN chief's rare move only seeks to impede Israel's right to defend itself.
  • Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle East Eye. Israel continues to demonstrate that its war is not against Hamas but against the Palestinian people as a whole. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and Israel has effectively rendered the north of the strip unlivable. Unfortunately, the temporary ceasefire only gave civilians a few days of relative rest, and now Israel has returned to killing Palestinians at an unprecedented rate. Guterres is right to exert more pressure to end the war.