The UN Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace warned on Tuesday that the region is at its “most dangerous juncture” in decades, as the war between Israel and Iran-backed groups risks turning into a wider conflict.
“We have now entered the second year of this horrific conflict and the region is on the brink of another serious conflict,” Tor Wennesland told the Security Council.
His comments came just days after Israel carried out airstrikes on military sites in Iran in response to Tehran’s October 1 missile attack, which was retaliation for the killing of Iran-backed militant leaders and a Revolutionary Guard commander.
He said, “Every effort – by all of us – must be made to de-escalate the situation and establish a different trajectory towards greater peace and stability in the region.”
A year after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 began the devastating war in Gaza, which has now spread to Lebanon, the deadly violence “shows no sign of abating”, Wennesland said.
“We are witnessing not only a horrific humanitarian nightmare, but also the rapid unraveling of the prospects for a lasting solution to this conflict.”
He said he had visited Gaza last week, where he saw “the enormous toll this war has taken on the population.”
“I saw massive destruction – of residential buildings, roads, hospitals and schools. I saw thousands of people living in makeshift tents, with nowhere to go as winter approached.”
Israeli counterattacks have killed at least 43,020 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers credible, triggering warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe Is.
During the October 7 attack, Palestinian militants captured 251 hostages, including soldiers and civilians, 97 of whom are still in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of them have been killed.
The attack killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
And in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, at least 1,700 people have been killed since September 23, when fighting escalated as Israel launched air and ground attacks against Hezbollah, which supports Hezbollah. I was doing rocket attacks. Hamas.
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