U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on Wednesday invoked one of the few powers available to his office under the U.N. charter to urge the Security Council to “help avert a humanitarian catastrophe” and “appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared” in Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Guterres’s actions, and the call for a cease fire in Gaza, constitute support of Hamas. Guterres issued the call as Israeli forces penetrated deeper into the Gaza Strip, driving south in an incursion that marks the beginning of a new phase of the war. The Israeli army is present “in the heart of the Khan Younis region” in southern Gaza, as well as the Jabalya and Shejaiya regions in the north, said Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, who leads the Israel Defense Forces’ southern command. Palestinians in southern Gaza — many of whom came from the north after Israel said the south would be safer — say they have few safe places to which they can flee.
