After numerous appeals for a ceasefire, Guterres has taken formal steps to put more pressure on the Security Council over Gaza.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres had never taken such a clear-cut stance until now. Faced with the ongoing massacre in Gaza, for the first time in his mandate — which began in 2017 — Guterres has invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter in pursuit of a ceasefire. This is the strongest diplomatic instrument at his disposal, with which the Secretary-General effectively places the Security Council on alert over situations that may threaten international peace and security, urging it to act. The decision was also welcomed by the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.
Over the past few days, the Israeli offensive has shifted to the south of the Gaza Strip. After the bombardment of the north and a week-long ceasefire, operations are now focusing on Khan Yunis, the main southern city — the very place where people displaced from the north had sought refuge.
The death toll from Israeli bombardment has resumed after a brief pause, surpassing 16,000. Some 1.8 million Palestinians — effectively almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip, now concentrated in the south — have nowhere left to flee. And this new front of the war, which amounts to a total invasion, risks having even more dramatic humanitarian consequences for civilians, while the bombardment of the north has surpassed that carried out by the Allied powers on certain cities of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
It is no coincidence that, six years into his mandate, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has invoked for the first time Article 99 of the United Nations Charter. "The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security," the provision states. This is the strongest diplomatic instrument in Guterres's hands; until now he had issued numerous appeals for a ceasefire without ever taking formal steps.
The Security Council is the only United Nations body that can take binding decisions, which member states of the organisation are obliged to comply with. Resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza had already been passed, but by the General Assembly, which has only advisory powers and can therefore set out lines of action without non-compliance entailing any sanctions.
Guterres has now decided to increase pressure on the Security Council to bring about a binding imposition of a ceasefire. In his letter invoking Article 99, Guterres stresses that two months of conflict "have created appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory," with hospitals turned into battlegrounds and civilians left without the means to survive.
The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, backed Guterres's decision to invoke Article 99 and called on EU member states sitting on the Security Council to support it. In any case, it is unlikely that the UN body will take a binding decision on a ceasefire, given the veto power held within it by close allies of Israel such as the United States.
