‘Nowhere is safe in Gaza’

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres invoked a rarely used UN article to call for a permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war as the Palestinian territory faces “a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system.”

Guterres warned that “nowhere is safe in Gaza” in a letter to the president of the UN Security Council as IDF continues to hammer the Palestinian enclave with airstrikes.

He penned the urgent note, utilizing Article 99 in Chapter XV of the UN Charter which states the UN “may bring to attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion, may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

Guterres warned that the ongoing battle has already killed 16,200 — including 15,000 in Gaza with 40% of those being children — and forcibly displaced 80% of the 2.2 million Gazans.

There is nowhere left to hide with hospitals turning into battlegrounds and UNRWA facilities suffering from “overcrowded, undignified, and unhygienic conditions,” according to the secretary-general.

“Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible,” Guterres wrote.

He stressed the desperate urgency of the situation with many more lives and international peace at risk.

“The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region,” he said in the letter. “Such an outcome must be avoided at all cost.”

Guterres also acknowledged the atrocities of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack as well as the “appalling” accounts of sexual violence and the immediate need to release the remaining 130 hostages held by the terrorist group.

He noted that the relentless bombardment of Gaza, however, has made it impossible for “meaningful” humanitarian operations to happen in the territory.

“The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis,” Guterres wrote. “I urge the members of the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. I reiterate my appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared. This is urgent. The civilian population must be spared from greater harm.”

He said a cease-fire would allow humanitarian assistance can be restored across the Gaza Strip.