Here’s what world leaders said during the annual UNGA session about Israel’s war on Gaza.
Prime ministers, presidents, and other world leaders from around the world gathered in New York City this month for the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
War in Gaza was one of the issues that topped the agenda of speeches – here are some snippets.
The speed and scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza are unlike anything in my years as secretary-general. More than 200 of our own staff have been killed, many with their families.
Gaza is a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it.
The international community must mobilise for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the beginning of an irreversible process towards a two-state solution.
In Gaza and the West Bank, we are witnessing one of the greatest humanitarian crises in recent history, now spreading dangerously to Lebanon.
The right to defence has become the right to revenge, which prevents an agreement to release hostages and postpones the ceasefire.
Innocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell. Thousands and thousands killed, including aid workers. Too many families dislocated, crowding into tents, facing a dire humanitarian situation.
As we look ahead we must also address the rise of violence against innocent Palestinians on the West Bank and set the conditions for a better future, including a two-state solution where the world where Israel enjoys security and peace and full recognition and normalised relations with all its neighbours, where Palestinians live in security, dignity, and self-determination in a state of their own.
I put forward with Qatar and Egypt a ceasefire and hostage deal. It’s been endorsed by the UN Security Council. Now is the time for the parties to finalise its terms, bring the hostages home, secure security for Israel, and Gaza free of Hamas’s grip, ease the suffering in Gaza, and end this war.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
As a result of the Israeli attacks, Gaza has become the largest cemetery for children and women in the world: Over 17,000 children have been the targets of Israeli bullets and bombs.
It often feels that there was not a moment when our world was not in turmoil. And yes, I cannot recall a time of greater peril than this.
For nearly a year, the sky blue flag flying over UN shelters and schools in Gaza has been powerless to protect innocent civilians from Israeli bombardment. So it’s no surprise that both inside and outside this hall, trust in the UN’s cornerstone principles and ideals is crumbling.
The harsh reality many see is that some nations are above international law, that global justice does bend to the will of power, and that human rights are selective; a privilege to be granted or denied at will.
That richest 1 percent of humanity, the powerful global oligarchy, is the one that allows bombs to be dropped on the women, elderly, and children of Gaza, Lebanon, or Sudan.
The power of a country in the world is no longer exercised by the type of economic or political system it has or its ideology but power is wielded according to how much capacity one has to destroy humankind.
That is why we are not listened to when we vote to stop the genocide in Gaza. Even though we are the majority of the presidents of the world and represent the majority of humanity, we are not listened to by a minority of presidents who can stop the bombing.
Every year I stand on this podium and begin my speech by talking about the Palestinian cause, the absence of justice, the perils of believing that it can be neglected, and the illusions of making peace without a just solution.
The ongoing Israeli aggression for nearly a year is nothing but a result of the absence of a sincere political will, deliberate international failure to resolve the Palestinian issue with a just solution, and insistence of the occupying Israeli authorities to impose a fait accompli on the Palestinians and the world with all types of force.
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