UN’s Guterres: International community must act to avoid ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres suggests the only thing preventing “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza is the refusal of Palestinians to leave the Strip and of Arab nations to accept refugees, and says the global community must take action on the matter.

“The intention might be for the Palestinians to leave Gaza, for others to occupy it,” Guterres tells the Guardian on the sidelines of the COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia.

“But there has been – and I pay tribute to the courage and the resilience of the Palestinian people and to the determination of the Arab world – [an effort] to avoid the ethnic cleansing becoming a reality,” he says.

“We will do everything possible to help them remain there and to avoid ethnic cleansing that might occur if there is not strong determination from the international community,” Guterres says.

Israel has denied accusations of ethnic cleansing.

Earlier this month, senior cabinet ministers, as well as members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, called for the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza, while others urged the encouragement of Palestinian emigration from the war-ravaged territory.