At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, secretary general Antonio Guterres said that “the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum”.
Guterres added “The Palestinian people been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their lands steadily devolved 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.”
But he also said: “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”.__bbc.com
