Israel has demanded the resignation of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from his position over his remarks against the Israeli counteroffensive in Gaza after terror attacks by Hamas on October 7. The Israeli envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan called Guterres “unfit” to lead the UN and called for his resignation, ANI reported.

“The @UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN. I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words,” he stated on social media platform X.

This came after the UN chief said that the attacks by Hamas “did not happen in a vacuum” further adding that the attacks cannot justify the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” the UN chief said at the General Assembly.

He added, “The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.

Addressing the UN General Assembly session on Israel-Gaza crisis, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen said, “Mr Secretary General (Guterres), in what world do you live? Definitely, this is not our world”.

Cohen announced that he won’t be meeting the UN Secretary-General. “I will not meet with the UN Secretary General. After October 7th there is no room for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased from the world!” Cohen posted on X.

Hospitals face a dire lack of medicines, fuel and water not only for the thousands wounded in more than two weeks of the war between Gaza militants and Israel but also for routine patients. “We have currently 120 neonates who are in incubators, out of which we have 70 neonates with mechanical ventilation, and of course, this is where we are extremely concerned, “UNICEF spokesman Jonathan Crickx was quoted as saying.

Power is one of the main worries for the seven specialist wards across Gaza treating premature babies to help with breathing and provide critical support, for example when their organs are not developed enough. Israel ordered a complete blockade of the territory after the Hamas attacks, in which the Islamist group killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

Amid widespread electricity cuts, the World Health Organization warned on Thursday that hospitals had already run out of fuel for generators. The WHO said that about 1,000 people needing dialysis will also be at risk if the generators stop, the report added.

Twenty aid trucks crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Saturday but there was no fuel in the consignment.

Israel fears that fuel could help Hamas, although the limited supplies still in Gaza were being diverted to keep the generators for medical equipment running.

“If they (babies) are put in mechanical ventilation incubators, by definition, if you cut the electricity, we are worried about their lives,” the UNICEF spokesman told AFP.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that 130 premature babies were in danger of dying due to the lack of fuel.

Around 160 women give birth each day in Gaza, according to the UN Population Fund, which estimates there are 50,000 pregnant women across the territory of 2.4 million people. While Israel says its strikes are aimed at Hamas, which perpetrated the worst attack against Israel since its creation in 1948, children make up a huge proportion of the 4,385 dead reported by the Hamas-run health ministry.

Whole families, including pregnant women, have been killed in strikes and each day parents can be seen in devastated streets carrying the bodies of infants in white shrouds. Doctors at Najjar Hospital in Rafah spoke on Thursday of how they had tried in vain to save an unborn infant from a woman killed in an air strike on her family’s home.

Hours earlier, eight children were killed as they slept in a house in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

“The IDF is responsible for the security of the country and its citizens, and on Saturday morning in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, we did not handle it. We will learn, we will investigate, but now is the time for war,” Halevi says from southern Israel.

He also added that Israel will do everything it can to return the hostages taken by Hamas and other groups, The Times of Israel reported.

“We are five days after a murderous, brutal and surprising incident. The slaughter by the murderous Hamas terrorists, the human animals, of our children, our wives and our people, is animalistic, it is inhumane. The IDF is fighting merciless terrorists who have committed unimaginable acts.”

“Yahya Sinwar, the ruler of the Gaza Strip, decided on this horrible attack, and therefore he and the entire system under him are dead men. We will attack them, we will dismantle them, dismantle their system,” he said.

Halevi added that a time will come to investigate how Hamas managed to carry out the attack, The Times of Israel reported.

On the estimated 200 Israelis and foreigners held captive by the terror group in the Gaza Strip, Halevi said: “We will do everything to return the hostages back home.”

“We are killing many terrorists, many commanders, destroying terror infrastructure that supported this terrible, brutal crime,” Halevi continues.

“Gaza will not look the same,” he adds.

Israel’s message to Gazans

Israeli military has started massing up its tanks near the border and ordered the evacuation of civilians from the Gaza city. “Residents of Gaza, move south for your personal safety and your families. Distance yourself from the Hamas terrorists who use you as a human shield. IDF will continue to operate significantly in Gaza City in the coming days, and wishes to avoid harming civilians,” the Israeli Defence Force said. Gaza shares its boundary with Egypt in the south and with Israel in the north and east.

UN’s message to Israel

The UN has called on the Israeli military to take back the mass relocation order for Gazans to avoid the tragedy from turning into a “calamitous situation”. “The UN considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” it said. The UN has moved its operations to southern Gaza after it said the order would be applicable even to UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities like schools and clinics.

US diplomat Antony Blinken visited Tel Aviv on THursday and assured his country’s support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said he was shown horrifying photos of “baby riddled with bullets” and “soldiers beheaded”. The US has confirmed the death of at least 22 Americans in Israel.