UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council on Wednesday that the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip “may aggravate existing threats to international peace and security.”

Guterres invoked the rarely used Article 99 of the founding U.N. Charter that allows him to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

UN chief criticizes Gaza bombardments, demands ‘immediate’ ceasefire

“We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system. The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region,” Guterres wrote in a letter to the 15-member council.

“Such an outcome must be avoided at all cost,” he said.