Guterres urges nations not to be intimidated by Israel over Palestinian statehood

Alternatives to two-state solution unacceptable, says UN Secretary General as Palestine issue set to dominate General Assembly next week

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged countries not to be intimidated by Israel’s threats to annex the occupied West Bank in response to growing calls for Palestinian statehood.

“We should not feel intimidated by the risk of retaliation,” Mr Guterres said in an interview with AFP at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday.

Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, as well as settlement expansion and increasing attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, have sparked international outrage and a groundswell of support for a two-state solution to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ten countries, including Britain, France, Canada, Australia, Portugal and Belgium, are expected to formally recognise the Palestinian state in coming days as UN member states convene for the annual General Assembly. The meeting of more than 140 heads of state and government is likely to be dominated by the future of the Palestinians and the war in Gaza.

“People say the two-state solution is difficult,” Mr Guterres said. “But what is the alternative? A one-state solution in which millions of Palestinians will either be expelled or under a system of subjugation and discrimination without rights? Is that acceptable in the 21st century? I think it is not.

“With or without doing what we are doing, these actions would go on, and at least there is a chance to mobilise the international community to put pressure for them not to happen.”

Mr Guterres expressed horror at the situation in Gaza after nearly two years of war in the Palestinian enclave.

“What we are witnessing in Gaza is horrendous,” he said.

Smoke rises above northern Gaza after an Israeli air strike on Saturday. AP Photo

“It is the worst level of death and destruction that I've seen in my time as Secretary General, probably my life, and the suffering of the Palestinian people cannot be described – famine, total lack of effective health care, people living without adequate shelters in huge-concentration areas.”

Israel's actions during its military offensive in Gaza, which was launched after an attack on southern Israel led by the Hamas militant group on October 7, 2023, amount to genocide, according to a report released by a panel of independent UN experts.

The Israeli campaign is currently focused on seizing control of Gaza city. The military warned on Friday that it would operate with “unprecedented force” after intensifying attacks on the northern city in recent days. It ordered the city's estimated one million residents – about half of the territory's population – to leave and move south at the start of the operation.

About 480,000 people have already fled since the assault began last month, according to the Israeli military, despite concerns about a lack of space and infrastructure to support such a large influx, and the continuing Israeli attacks there.

A Palestinian woman walks south on Saturday after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza city to leave. Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the war will end only with the defeat of Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 hostage during its October 2023 attack.

Mr Netanyahu said the Gaza city assault also aimed to recover about 50 hostages, of whom only about 20 are believed to be alive.

More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, most of them women and children, and more than 156,000 injured, according to Gaza health authorities.

Palestinian media reported attacks across Gaza city on Saturday, including an air strike on a school near the Yarmouk Stadium that killed two children.

The official Wafa news agency said the Israeli army continued to bomb residential buildings in the city, while also attacking the Al Sabra neighbourhood in the north-west with drones, artillery fire and remotely operated vehicles packed with explosives.

Israeli warplanes also launched a series of raids on the Tel Al Hawa area in the city's south-west, while artillery targeted the northern areas of the Al Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.