October 6, 2024, 10:24 AM
October 6, 2024, 10:24 AM
UN Secretary General António Guterres called this Saturday (05/10/2024) for an immediate end to the “shocking violence and bloodshed” in Gaza and Lebanon, in a statement on the eve of the anniversary of the attack by the Hamas group on October 7, 2023.
Monday marks one year since the devastating attack against Israel that triggered the current war in Gaza, in which Lebanon has also been involved and for which world leaders warn of a possible regional crisis.
“This is a day for the international community to repeat with the loudest voice its absolute condemnation of the abhorrent acts of Hamas, including the taking of hostages,” declared Guterres, in an anniversary message published this Saturday night.
While demanding the “immediate and unconditional release” of the hostages, Guterres also implored Hamas to allow those held to be visited by Red Cross personnel.
Hamas militants kidnapped 251 people on October 7, 97 of whom remain captive in Gaza, including 33 who have died, according to the Israeli military.
Guterres also expressed concern about the extension of the conflict to Lebanon, where Israel has hit the Hezbollah group, an ally of Hamas, in recent days, killing more than a thousand people and forcing more than a million to flee their homes.
“Creepy bloodshed”
“The war that followed the terrible attacks a year ago continues to destroy lives and inflict profound human suffering on Palestinians in Gaza, and now on the people of Lebanon,” Guterres declared.
The Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 41,825 people, most of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in Hamas-ruled Gaza, whose data is considered reliable by the UN.
“Since October 7, a wave of shocking violence and bloodshed has erupted,” Guterres said.
“It is time to free the hostages (…) Time to silence the weapons. Time to put an end to the suffering in which the region has been plunged. Time for peace, international law and justice,” he said.
