United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 22, 2026
UNITED NATIONS secretary-general Antonio Guterres pleaded for “a world built on interdependence” yesterday as he made his final address to the general assembly gathering of world leaders.
The UN chief has long called on leaders not to give up on co-operation and shared decision-making in the face of accelerating global challenges and increasing competition between the major powers.
His message took on additional urgency because he leaves office at the end of this year.
He said: “The fault lines in our world are widening,” citing raging wars, rising temperatures and artificial intelligence, among other matters.
Instead of letting the future continue to veer toward fragmentation, transactionalism and mistrust, he called for “a world built on interdependence — and sustained by a dense web of economic, political, social and technological connections.”
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Palestinians attend the funeral of Nasrullah Mohammed Jamal Abu Siyam, who was killed after Israeli settlers opened fire during a raid on the town of Mukhmas, northeast of East Jerusalem, on February 19, 2026. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
The UN chief condemned the killing of a 19-year-old dual Palestinian-American citizen in the occupied West Bank, his spokesman said Friday, Anadolu reports.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “a prompt, thorough and transparent” investigation into the circumstances of the incident and for those responsible to be held to account, Stephane Dujarric told a news conference.
His remarks came a day after Nasrallah Abu Siyam was shot and beaten in an attack by Israeli settlers in the village of Mukhmas in the occupied West Bank.
“In the same attack, settlers shot and injured three other Palestinians. The secretary-general extends his heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of the victim,” he said.
Guterres urged Israel “to take concrete steps to halt and prevent all acts of violence by Israeli settlers against (the) Palestinian population” in line with its “obligations as the occupying power,” Dujarric added.
On Feb. 3-16, Dujarric said Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, bringing the total number in 2026 to nine, including two children.
“Overall, since January 2023, and as of 16 February, some 880 Palestinian families – that’s over 4,700 people – have been displaced across the West Bank due to settler attacks and access restrictions,” he added.
Israel has intensified operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since launching its military campaign in Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023. Palestinians view the escalation – including killings, arrests, displacement, and settlement expansion – as a step toward formal annexation of the territory.
In a landmark opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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Displaced Palestinians, who struggle with hunger, wait to receive hot meal, distributed by charity organizations, in al-Mawasi region of Khan Yunis, Gaza on December 17, 2025. [Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency]
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday warned that while famine in the Gaza Strip has been averted, the humanitarian situation remains extremely fragile, with more than 75% of the population facing acute food insecurity and critical risks of malnutrition, Anadolu Agency reports.
“Famine has been pushed back. Far more people are able to access the food they need to survive,” Guterres told a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York. “Gains are fragile, perilously so.”
He said 1.6 million people in Gaza, more than 75% of the population, are projected to face “extreme levels of acute food insecurity and critical malnutrition risks.”
“And in more than half of Gaza, where Israeli troops remain deployed, farmland and entire neighborhoods are out of reach. Strikes and hostilities continue, pushing the civilian toll of this war even higher and exposing our teams to grave danger,” he said.
Guterres also renewed calls for “a durable ceasefire,” saying: “We need more crossings, the lifting of restrictions on critical items, the removal of red tape, safe routes inside Gaza, sustained funding, and unimpeded access, including for NGOs.”
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) released its news findings on Friday, noting that famine conditions in the enclave have been temporarily offset following a reduction in hostilities and improved access for humanitarian and commercial food deliveries. The latest report, however, warned that the overall situation in Gaza remains critical.
The UN chief also touched on Israel’s refusal to move onto the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan until the return of the remains of a final deceased hostage.
“It is essential to move to phase two, and I don’t think that we should have any pretext to avoid it,” said Guterres.
“It’s very important to move with the peace process as a whole. And it’s not only phase two. It’s to make sure that phase one, and namely the ceasefire, are fully implemented,” he added.
ICJ ruling on occupied West Bank ‘must be implemented’
On the situation in the West Bank, Guterres warned that “we cannot lose sight of the rapidly deteriorating situation” in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.
He stressed that Palestinians face “escalating Israeli settler violence, land seizures, demolitions and intensified movement restrictions.”
“Tens of thousands have been displaced following operations by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank,” he added.
Guterres emphasized that provisional measures indicated by the International Court of Justice “are binding and must be implemented.”
He also reaffirmed his support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), calling it “an indispensable role in serving the Palestinian people.”
Saying that the crisis in Palestine is “born of human decisions,” the UN chief urged for an end to “perverse and prolonged suffering.”
“Palestinians need a horizon of hope. The ceasefire must be implemented in full. The endless cycle of violence must be broken,” he said.
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Vote Labour for Genocide.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hold a press briefing on the 9th African Union–United Nations annual conference at UN Headquarters in New York City, United States on November 12, 2025. [Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday that there was a “fundamental wrong” in Israeli management of its military operation in the Gaza Strip. He added that there are “strong reasons” to believe war crimes have been committed there.
In an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, Guterres said: “I think there was something fundamentally wrong in the way this operation was conducted with total neglect in relation to the deaths of civilians and to the destruction of Gaza,”
He also stressed that ending the Russian-Ukrainian war should abide by international law and the territorial integrity of states,” adding: “I believe we are still far from a solution.”
Regarding recent US strikes on ships near Venezuela, Guterres said they were not compatible with international law.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres discusses climate change at U.N. headquarters in New York City on July 27, 2023.
“Facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe and appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared.”
With over 16,000 Palestinians dead just two months into Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday demanded immediate action by the U.N. Security Council.
For the first time since becoming secretary-general nearly seven years ago, Guterres invoked Article 99, a rarely used section of the U.N. Charter empowering him to bring to the attention of the council “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that Guterres was invoking Article 99 “given the scale of the loss of human life in Gaza and Israel, in such a short amount of time.”
“I think it’s arguably the most important invocation,” Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters, “in my opinion, the most powerful tool that he has.”
“The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis.”
Guterres wrote to José Javier De la Gasca Lopez Domínguez, the Ecuadorian president of the Security Council, that “more than eight weeks of hostilities in Gaza and Israel have created appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.”
The U.N. chief reaffirmed his condemnation of the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel—in which around 1,200 people were killed and over 200 others were captured—that led to the war. He called accounts of sexual violence “appalling” and stressed that the remaining hostages “must be immediately and unconditionally released.”
He also emphasized that “civilians throughout Gaza face grave danger,” with the Israeli airstrikes and raids damaging more than half of all homes and displacing about 80% of the 2.3 million residents. Over a million of them have sought shelter at U.N. facilities, “creating overcrowded, undignified, and unhygienic conditions,” while others “find themselves on the street.”
“The healthcare system in Gaza is collapsing,” he noted, pointing out that only 14 of 36 hospitals are operating at all. “I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible. An even worse situation could unfold, including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into neighboring countries.”
Already, conditions in Gaza are making “it impossible for meaningful humanitarian operations to be conducted,” Guterres added. “The capacity of the United Nations and its humanitarian partners has been decimated by supply shortages, lack of fuel, interrupted communications, and growing insecurity.”
I've just invoked Art.99 of the UN Charter – for the 1st time in my tenure as Secretary-General.
Facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe & appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared. pic.twitter.com/pA0eRXZnFJ
“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. Such an outcome must be avoided at all cost,” the U.N. leader warned. “The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis.”
“I urge the members of the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” he wrote. “I reiterate my appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared. This is urgent. The civilian population must be spared from greater harm.”
The United States—a supporter of Israel’s war and one of the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members—vetoed a mid-October resolution condemning violence against civilians in Israel and Gaza and urging “humanitarian pauses” for aid delivery.
Roughly a month later, the Security Council approved a Gaza resolution that calls on all parties to abide by their obligations under international law and advocates for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors.”
Dr. Christos Christou, international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said at the time that “the unacceptably jumbled and sluggish process finally led to the adoption of a text that does not come close to reflecting the severity of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, September 22, 2026
