UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres landed in Tel Aviv on Sunday for a set of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders - his first visit since taking office in January 2017.
Israeli diplomats greeted Guterres at Ben Gurion airport, since then he has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday.
The three-day visit included a visit to the Gaza Strip on the morning of 30 August. Guterres delivered a speech at a UN School in Beit Lahia in the Northern Gaza Strip highlighting the divide between Hamas-governed Gaza and the governance of the Palestine Authority in the West Bank. "Yesterday, I was in Ramallah. Today, I am in Gaza. They are both parts of the same Palestine. So, I appeal for the unity... The division only undermines the cause of the Palestinian people," stated Guterres.
The Secretary General also referenced the current humanitarian crisis facing the almost two million residents of Gaza who are suffering with limited electricity and medical supplies. The UN recently donated $2.5 million amid concerns that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will further reduce funding to Gaza if Hamas fails to relinquish Gaza to Fatah’s control.
Since April, Gaza’s residents have lived on less than four hours of electricity a day. Israel began decreasing Gaza’s power supply after the PA decided to reduce funding. In April, according to the Times of Israel, the PA decreased its contribution to Gaza’s fuel needs from 40 million shekels ($11 million) to 25 million shekels ($7 million) a month. The PA claimed that the funding cut was due to Hamas’ refusal to pay back their electricity debts.
Robert Piper, UN coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities, warned that a “serious decline in living conditions in Gaza continues,” and that the “humanitarian plight and the human rights of Gaza’s civilian population - over half of them children – appear to have disappeared from view.”
Prior to his visit, Hamas called on Guterres to make "all efforts to lift the siege on the strip and end the suffering for two million Palestinians living in the largest prison in the world." Demonstrations were held around Gaza, with one group of 25 people holding a fake coffin with a sign saying "Welcome to the largest prison in the world".
Israel has previously accused the UN Human Rights Committee of unfairly singling it out for criticism. Pro-Palestinian rights groups maintain that this is not unfair treatment, it is simply that Israel is one of the world’s gravest human rights abusers, with more United Nations General Assembly and United Nations Security Council resolutions against it than any other country in the world.
In June 2017, Guterres stressed that the 50-year-long Israeli occupation has imposed a "heavy humanitarian and development burden on the Palestinian people" and "fueled recurring cycles of violence and retribution."
