“I do not have the power to stop the war and suffering in Gaza”

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ has expressed frustration over the war in Gaza and the sufferings of people there.

He said, “And that is my worst frustration. To see suffering at such a large scale and to know that I have not the power to stop it. But it is a reality. I have not the power to stop it. I can raise my voice and I do it. I can sometimes convince, but people need to be willing to be convinced. But indeed, the biggest frustration I have is not to have the power to handle these conflicts we have been discussing or at least to create the conditions for people to respect international law and International Humanitarian Law.”

The UN Secretary-General said this while addressing an interview with Saudi Arab based media Arab News on Friday (February 9).

He said, “What I say is that, looking into the situation in Rafah, where you have now more than half of the population of Gaza that were pushed there — they didn’t go because they wanted. They were pushed there. Looking at that situation, I consider that it is time to have humanitarian ceasefire before a gigantic tragedy develops in Gaza, if we have the same kind of intensity of military operations in Gaza that we.”

I think that we should push to avoid the tragedy, instead of pushing for things to facilitate the tragedy, he added.