Today (Thursday), the Palestinian Authority welcomed the initiative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, to call for a session of the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, based on Article 99 of the United Nations Charter.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that this initiative is a “very necessary step” that is consistent with the tasks assigned to the UN Security Council and institutions of international legitimacy.

The Ministry condemned "the attack and incitement carried out by Israel against the Secretary-General of the United Nations," and considered it "political terrorism to discourage Guterres from performing his role and carrying out his duties, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, international law, and human rights principles."

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry called on world leaders and countries to support Guterres’ initiative and rally around it to push the Security Council to fulfill its obligations and decide to cease fire in the Gaza Strip.

Guterres announced yesterday that he had sent a letter to the President of the Security Council in which he activated - for the first time - Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which states that “the Secretary-General may alert the Security Council to any matter that he deems may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

Guterres said on the X platform, "In the face of the grave danger of the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Security Council to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and I call for the declaration of a humanitarian ceasefire."

This is the first time that Guterres has activated Article 99 of the Charter since he became Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2017.

Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) that left more than 17,000 Palestinians dead, after the Palestinian movement launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel that, according to the Israeli authorities, claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis.