UN chief condemns Gaza ‘violations’

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UN chief António Guterres yesterday condemned “clear violations of international law” in Gaza as the US added to mounting pressure on the Israeli government to pause its bombardment of the besieged coastal enclave and allow in more aid.

In his toughest remarks so far about the conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip, Guterres told the UN security council that the safety of civilians was paramount.

“Protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields,” the secretary-general said, adding that it “does not mean ordering more than 1mn people to evacuate to the south, where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel, and then continuing to bomb the south itself”.

Guterres also said that the deadly assault by Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel on October 7 “did not happen in a vacuum”.

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” he added, though he said their grievances could not justify the “appalling attacks”.

His remarks triggered a furious response from Israel. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, described Guterres’s comments as “shocking” and called on him to resign, while foreign minister Eli Cohen cancelled a meeting with the secretary-general in protest.

Also addressing the security council, US secretary of state Antony Blinken blamed Hamas for using civilians as human shields but also called for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s air strikes against targets in Gaza to allow civilians to get out of harm’s way. Here’s the latest on the Israel-Hamas war.

Iran: The US is making moves to deter Iran ahead of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, amid fears that Tehran is preparing to step up attacks on American targets using regional proxies.
Visual story: With its leafy boulevards, beauty salons and shopping malls, the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City was known for its buzz. Here’s how Israeli air strikes reduced much of it to rubble.
‘I went through hell’: Yocheved Lifshitz, the 85-year-old Israeli hostage freed by Hamas, described her experience being held captive in the tunnels beneath Gaza.
Postwar plan: Israel has yet to agree a detailed plan for postwar Gaza, raising fears that a land invasion could begin without adequate preparation for its aftermath.
‘Davos in the Desert’: Saudi Arabia’s flagship investment conference has steered clear of the Israel-Hamas conflict, as Riyadh hopes to send a business-as-usual message that it remains open for investment.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

Economic data: The Ifo Institute releases its business climate index for Germany.
Sunak’s anniversary: The UK marks one year since Rishi Sunak became prime minister.
Results: Carrefour, Dassault Systèmes, Deutsche Bank, Heineken, Porsche, Reckitt Benckiser and Santander report.

Five more top stories

1. The pension scheme that looks after the retirement savings of Britain’s MPs is shunning UK companies. The scheme invests just 1.7 per cent of its fund in UK-listed companies, or 2.8 per cent of its overall quoted shareholdings, far less than the average for UK-defined benefit pension schemes, in spite of efforts by chancellor Jeremy Hunt to funnel more cash into domestic investment.

2. A new UK travel documentation scheme risks disrupting tourism on the island of Ireland. The scheme, which begins this week, could affect 1mn visitors a year, politicians and tourism officials have warned, with legislators from the UK and the Republic of Ireland urging the British government to pause the scheme.

3. Former UK Conservative party chair Sir Brandon Lewis has taken a job at LetterOne, a London-based investment vehicle co-founded by Russian oligarchs. Billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven were placed on western sanctions lists following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Tory MP and former security minister will become a senior adviser to LetterOne.

4. Microsoft received an unexpected financial boost from generative AI while Google struggled with sagging growth in cloud computing, a core part of its business, quarterly results showed yesterday. The contrasting performance of two of the tech industry’s biggest arch-rivals underline the early lead Microsoft has taken in the AI race.

5. The chair of UK-listed Ukrainian miner Ferrexpo has urged Kyiv to spare the company, as Ukrainian prosecutors seek damages from its billionaire founder, who is wanted for alleged embezzlement involving a now-collapsed bank. Ferrexpo chair Lucio Genovese said the legal actions risked undermining investor confidence in Ukraine.

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