UN Secretary-General: ‘This Must Be the Last Time to Rebuild’ in Gaza
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EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said during a session on the death and destruction in Gaza on Wednesday that the world has been “shocked and shamed” by the clashes and that “this must be the last time to rebuild.”
The secretary-general spoke out against the attacks on U.N. Relief and Works Agency facilities, including schools. “Our U.N. flag must be respected,” Ban said. “U.N. shelters must be safe zones, not combat zones.”
He noted that in the most recent example of an Israeli shelling of U.N. facilities, the Israeli military had been informed of the facility’s coordinates “33 times.”
Ban insisted that Israel does have the right to defend itself from rockets being fired by Hamas, but that “the horror that was unleashed on the people of Gaza” brings about questions regarding their respect for international law.
Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor adamantly denied assertions by U.N. Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay that Israel’s actions “may amount to war crimes,” insisting instead that the U.N.’s “double standards” are “absolutely appalling…it gangs up on the only democracy in the Middle East.”
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