Guterres tells UNSC two-State option near point of no return

A boy stops in front of a destroyed building in Gaza. © UNFPA

29 April 2025 - The Security Council met on Tuesday on the situation in the Middle East, where Secretary-General António Guterres told ambassadors that irreversible action must be taken to finally put a two-State solution in place for Israel and Palestine. The discussions took place as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, with reports from the UN Palestine refugee relief agency (UNRWA) that children are "going to bed starving" amid the two-month Israeli aid blockade and continuing bombardment. 

• UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the two-State solution is “near a point of no return,” urging Member States to take irreversible steps to implement it. He emphasised that peace in the Middle East hinges on a future where Israel and Palestine living side by side, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.

• He described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “beyond imagination” with food, fuel and medicine blocked for nearly two full months, depriving more than two million people of lifesaving relief. He reiterated that Israel must protect civilians and allow full humanitarian access, including the work of UNRWA.

• Addressing recent attacks on UN personnel, Mr. Guterres demanded accountability, stressing that all parties must respect international humanitarian law and that UN premises, property and staff must be protected without exception.

Russia deplores use of aid ‘as a bargaining chip’

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip is worsened by the nearly 60-day blockade of food and medicines.

He noted that this has led to supplies running out, despite 3,000 trucks from UN Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) being ready to enter the enclave.

Humanitarian organizations are also warning about an impending famine, particularly among children.

“We must not forget that these actions of Israel are directly impacting the detention conditions of the hostages in the Strip,” he said.

“It is totally unacceptable to use humanitarian assistance as a bargaining chip in negotiations.”

The situation is “artificially exacerbated by Israel's ban on UNRWA’s work,” he added, noting that the agency “plays a key, irreplaceable role in conducting humanitarian operations on the ground and providing comprehensive assistance to Palestinians.”

Mr. Nebenzya said undermining the work of UNRWA “is complicating an already difficult situation” for people in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and he urged Israel to reconsider its decision to cease cooperation with the agency.

Impose an immediate ceasefire before it is too late: Algeria 

Amar Bendjama, the Ambassador of Algeria, said that despite the UN Secretary-General’s “tireless efforts to ease the suffering of the Palestinian people,” the international community and the Security Council have both failed to “extend the level of support required to make these efforts impactful.”  

“The absence of collective action, the lack of accountability, and the double standard have emboldened the Israeli occupying power to act with total impunity,” he said, adding that the crisis in Gaza is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation.  

“Today the notion of a Palestinian state feels more like a fading delusion,” the Algerian Ambassador said.

He stated that despite waves of dispossession and despite the immense suffering, the Palestinian people have never surrendered and continue to cling to their homeland, culture and aspirations.

“With the support of the International Community, and through steadfast resilience, the Palestinian people will achieve their inalienable right to self-determination,” he added.

UN rights chief calls for international action to prevent catastrophe in Gaza

With the Israeli blockade of aid into Gaza entering a ninth week UN human rights chief Volker Türk warned on Tuesday that the situation in Gaza is reaching unprecedented crisis levels.

He cautioned that Israel’s reported plan to designate Rafah in southern Gaza as a "humanitarian zone" would force displaced Palestinians to relocate in order to receive aid, leaving vulnerable groups—including the sick, injured, and disabled—without access to food, effectively deepening the humanitarian crisis.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces have continued to attack locations where civilians have sought refuge, targeting residential areas, healthcare facilities, and infrastructure critical to humanitarian operations, such as water trucks and excavation equipment.

Mr. Türk stressed that such actions obstruct relief efforts, worsen public health conditions, and delay rescue operations, further endangering civilians. Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe, he declared, could escalate beyond anything seen up to now.

ICJ: Saudia Arabia condemns Israel’s ‘blatant violations of international law’

At the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court, countries and organizations are delivering statements in a case brought against Israel by the General Assembly, related to Israel’s obligations as the occupying power in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territory.

Saudia Arabia’s representative, Mohamed Saud Alnassar, said that Israel is obliged to allow the UN and international organizations to provide aid to Gaza, which “could truly make a difference between life and death for many people.”

Mr. Alnassar declared that blocking of aid to Gaza and continued bombardments that have affected large numbers of civilians are “bringing about the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip, displacing or killing the Palestinian population to make room for Israel to settle and annex the territory.”

Gaza: UN official warns of 'assault on dignity' 

"We know that people are hungry and that malnutrition rates are rising. Our warehouses are empty. Our bakeries are closing," Jonathan Whittall, Head of Office for the UN aid coordination office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told journalists in Gaza City at the weekend. 

Status quo is untenable: Pakistan

Pakistan's Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said the tragedy unfolding in Gaza is “without precedent” – both in its scale and its inhumanity.

“This is not merely a humanitarian crisis, it is the systematic destruction of a people and the erasure of a nation’s right to exist,” he said, describing the Israeli strike on al-Ahli Hospital earlier this month as “a horrific massacre.”

He said that the deliberate targeting of civilians and essential infrastructure, the use of starvation and burning of displaced families in tents “are not collateral damages of war, they are methods of war.”

He added that Israel’s unilateral breach of the ceasefire agreement, brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the US, “was a deliberate choice of return to war over diplomacy”.

“In the face of this gloom and devastation, the world must act. The status quo is untenable,” he said, calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, full and unhindered humanitarian access, and a clear political horizon grounded in Palestinian statehood.

Denmark calls for end to Gaza aid ban

Danish Ambassador Christina Markus Lassen highlighted the worsening situation in Gaza, where no humanitarian aid has been allowed in for almost two months.

She also voiced alarm over reports that the World Food Programme (WFP) has depleted all its food stocks. Furthermore, families “are reporting utter exhaustion from moving numerous times due to Israeli-issued evacuation orders.”

Ms. Lassen said Israel has experienced extreme trauma following the Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October 2023 and has the right to defend itself, and that Denmark will continue to condemn such attacks.

 “We will also continue to remind Israel that it must defend itself within the parameters of international law, including international humanitarian law,” she added.

'Siege on Gaza is the silent killer of children': UNRWA

“The siege on Gaza is the silent killer of children, of older people,” said Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA: “Families - whole families, seven or eight people - are resorting to sharing one can of beans or peas.”

In an update to journalists in Geneva, Ms. Touma stressed that thousands of trucks carrying relief supplies continue to be denied entry to Gaza. “We have just over 5,000 trucks in several parts of the region with lifesaving supplies that are ready to come in,” she explained. 

ICJ: Israel ‘acts with impunity’ in occupied Palestinian territory, says South Africa

Meanwhile, at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, South Africa accused Israel of acting with impunity, during proceedings launched by the General Assembly.

The country’s representative, Zane Dangor, the Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, told the Court that "under the world's watchful eye, Palestinians are being subjected to atrocity, crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide”.

Mr. Dangor also declared that countries which try to hold Israel accountable are “subject to countermeasures and sanctions from which the UN and this court has not been spared." – UN News