Amman, Nov. 10 (Petra) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that Israel was placing numerous obstacles in the way of implementing the peace plan for the Gaza Strip and impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid, while warning of moves to annex more territory in the occupied West Bank.

Speaking to Türkiye's Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of the 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31), held in the Turkish province of Antalya, Guterres said the international community had failed to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, stressing that certain parties bore responsibility for this failure.

He said the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip was not being respected, adding that children continued to lose their lives and describing the humanitarian situation in the territory as horrific.

Guterres described developments in the occupied West Bank as wholly unacceptable, citing continued settlement expansion, forced displacement, and settler attacks. He noted that these attacks targeted not only Palestinians but also journalists and diplomats.

He warned of a clear Israeli drive to seize more Palestinian territory, saying these practices indicated that the ultimate objective was to annex those lands and bring them under Israeli sovereignty.

Guterres stressed that annexation must be prevented by all available means and that the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state must be preserved.

He reaffirmed that the two-state solution remained the only path to lasting peace in the Middle East, calling for efforts to safeguard its prospects for implementation.

//Petra// AF