(SNews) – The head of the United Nations, Secretary-General António Guterres, has blasted Israel’s military operations while citing data provided by Hamas terrorists.
Guterres condemned Israel’s offensive in Gaza as “clearly wrong” on Wednesday, citing Hamas-provided civilian death tolls.
Guterres made the comments in an interview with Reuters.
The UN chief argues that Israel is doing itself no favors concerning “global public opinion.”
Israel has rejected international calls for a “ceasefire” and vowed to destroy Hamas in Gaza.
“There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields,” Guterres said.
“But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong.
“It is also important to make Israel understand that it is against the interests of Israel to see every day the terrible image of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said.
“That doesn’t help Israel in relation to the global public opinion.”
Guterres didn’t provide any other evidence to support the claimed death tolls provided by the terrorist group, however.
The Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza has claimed more than 10,000 people have been killed by the Israeli offensive, 40% of them children.
Those figures cannot be independently verified, however.
Also, Hamas does not distinguish between civilians and terrorist fighters.
Guterres told Reuters the thousands of children said to be killed in Gaza is greater than the highest number of killings of children by state actors in conflicts around the world reported annually to the U.N. Security Council.
“We have in a few days in Gaza thousands and thousands of children killed, which means there is also something clearly wrong in the way military operations are being done,” he said, describing the situation in Gaza as a “catastrophic humanitarian crisis.”
Again, Guterres provided no other supporting evidence.
On Wednesday Israel denied that there is a humanitarian crisis within Gaza, despite reports from Hamas claiming otherwise.
The United Nations has been working to increase humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.
Guterres said that in the past 18 days, only 630 trucks had been able to enter via the Rafah border crossing from Egypt.
The UN also wants to be able to use the Kerem Shalom border crossing, controlled by Israel.
“We are in intense negotiations with Israel, with U.S., with Egypt, in order to make sure that we have an effective humanitarian aid to Gaza,” Guterres said.
“Until now it has been too little, too late.”
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