UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres told a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York that Palestinians have been “subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation” by Israel and the attacks by Hamas on 7 October “did not happen in a vacuum.”
Guterres said he is concerned “clear violations of international humanitarian law” had been committed by Israel in Gaza which has left almost 6,000 Palestinians dead and many more thousands wounded following Israeli strikes.
Gaza is around 27 miles long and about 7.5 miles wide and many have claimed that the Gaza Strip is the worlds largest concentration camp which is home to 2.3 million Palestinians.
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Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said the UK does not support Guterres’s comments, he told Sky News, “We don’t believe Israel has broken international law.
“There is a clear right in international law for a nation to defend itself, and that is what Israel is doing.”
Jenrick was asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain about Guterres’s comments, he said, “No-one, whether deliberately or otherwise, should be implying there is any justification for that.
“In that sense, I think he was wrong. I hope that isn’t what he meant but, if it is, then he should retract that.”
Jenrick added, “I do think it is important we are all very clear that there is no justification for what happened, there is no context that is relevant.
“What happened was an appalling act of evil terrorism and everyone should call that out.”
