Guterres calls for protecting Gaza journalists
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that the Israeli army’s killing of journalists in Gaza is “unacceptable”, calling for their protection from the genocide Israel is committing in the Gaza Strip.
Guterres’s remarks were made in a message sent to the UN International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East 2024 held at the UN office in Geneva on Friday.
He stated that the war on Gaza completed its first year last month and that this symposium is being held under “profoundly difficult circumstances” due to the violations extending to Lebanon.
The secretary-general pointed out that the deteriorating situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Israeli military operations, the construction of settlements and the increasing intensity of settler attacks continue to weaken the possibility of reaching a two-state solution.
Guterres also criticised the continued Israeli ban preventing international journalists from entering Gaza, noting that journalists in Gaza: “Have been killed at a level unseen in any conflict.”
He shared that journalists covering developments in the occupied West Bank were also killed or injured by the Israeli army.
The UN secretary-general called for the protection of journalists and renewed his call for an end to the Israeli attacks and occupation: “It is high time for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon with the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, the effective delivery of humanitarian aid, and irreversible progress to a two-state solution.”
After clashes with factions in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, beginning after Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip on 7 October, 2023, killing and wounding more than 145,000 Palestinians, Tel Aviv expanded the scope of the genocide since 23 September to most areas in Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, through air strikes, and also began a ground invasion in the south.
The aggression on Lebanon resulted in the killing of 2,865 and the wounding of 13,047, including a large number of women and children, in addition to about 1,400,000 displaced persons. Most of the victims and displaced persons were recorded after 23 September, according to Anadolu Agency’s monitoring of the latest official Lebanese data announced Thursday evening.
Tel Aviv continues to commit its massacres, ignoring the UN Security Council’s decision to end them immediately and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.