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.

WAR CRIMES

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 Palestinian militants Hamas. The war was triggered by an October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, in which 251 hostages were taken.

When asked if war crimes had been committed, Guterres said: “There are strong reasons to believe that that possibility might be a reality.”

In response, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told Reuters: “The only crime committed is the moral abomination that more than two years after the horrific massacres of October 7, the UN Secretary General has still not visited Israel — and has instead used his elevated platform to lambast and condemn Israel and Israelis at every opportunity.”

However, in October last year, then-Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz - now the defence minister - said he had barred Guterres from entering the country.

A fragile truce has been in place since October 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. Israel has criticised the UN-led operation and accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the militants denied.