Israel's conduct of war in Gaza 'fundamentally wrong,' says UN chief

There was something "fundamentally wrong" with how Israel conducted its military operation in the Gaza Strip and there are "strong reasons to believe" that war crimes have been committed, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Reuters on Wednesday.

"I think there was something fundamentally wrong in the way this operation was conducted with total neglect in relation to the deaths of civilians and to the destruction of Gaza," Guterres said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York.

"The objective was to destroy Hamas. Gaza is destroyed, but Hamas is not yet destroyed. So there is something fundamentally wrong with the way this is conducted," he told Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the enclave's health ministry, during the two-year-old conflict between Israel and Hamas.

When asked if war crimes had been committed, Guterres said: "There are strong reasons to believe that that possibility might be a reality." A fragile truce has been in place since Oct.10, but Israel has continued to strike Gaza and conduct demolitions against what it says is Hamas infrastructure. Hamas and Israel have traded blame for violating the US-backed agreement.

Guterres praised the United States — an ally of Israel — for being instrumental in improving aid access in Gaza, where a global hunger monitor said in August that famine had taken hold.

"There is an excellent cooperation in the humanitarian aid between the UN and the US, and I hope that this will be maintained and developed," he said.

The UN has long complained of obstacles to delivering and distributing aid in Gaza, blaming impediments on Israel and lawlessness.

FIVE MORE GAZANS KILLED

Also during the day, Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP that an Israeli strike on the Palestinian territory killed five people including two children.

"Five citizens, including two children, killed and others injured, some seriously, as a result of an Israeli missile strike" in Al Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The agency said the strike hit near the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Khan Younis and "targeted" a shelter camp.

The hospital also reported that five people, including two children aged eight and 10, were killed and another 32 were wounded.

A security source in Gaza told AFP that at around 4pm local time (1400 GMT), "very heavy artillery shelling took place from occupation vehicles east of Rafah city, along with heavy gunfire from warplanes." The source added that an Israeli helicopter had also landed in the area.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says there are more than 16,500 sick and wounded people who need to leave Gaza for medical care. It was not immediately clear when the border crossing would be opened, however.

Egypt wants Palestinians to be able to return to Gaza through the crossing and says it would only be opened if movement is allowed both ways. Israel says Palestinians will not be able to return to Gaza through the crossing until the last hostages' remains are returned from Gaza.

Palestinians who want to leave Gaza will be able to move through Rafah if Egypt agrees to receive them, Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said. But the crossing won't be open for Palestinians seeking to return to Gaza until all of the hostages in the territory are returned to Israel, she said.

Citing an unnamed Egyptian official, Egypt's State Information Service said, if an agreement is reached, the crossing will be opened for travel in both directions in accordance with the ceasefire plan advanced by US President Donald Trump.

Agencies