Palestinians have been subjugated for 56 years: Antonio Guterres

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that Palestinians have been subjugated for 56 years and their land has been shrinking continuously.

He came up with the remark at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York.

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to suffocating occupation for 56 years. They have seen their lands continually shrink from colonization and battered by violence. Their economy has collapsed. People have been displaced and their homes destroyed. Hopes for a political solution to their case have disappeared”, he said.

Antonio Guterres said “the October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel did not happen in a vacuum.”

He added “the suffering of the Palestinian people cannot justify the attacks of Hamas, just as those attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

It has been more than two weeks since the two-pronged attacks began and thousands of people have died, in Gaza and in Israel.