UNSC meeting Saturday as Guterres calls Israel Gaza City plan 'dangerous escalation'

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that Israel’s Gaza control plan was a “dangerous escalation” that risked worsening conditions for ordinary Palestinians, his spokesperson said.

“The Secretary-General is gravely alarmed by the decision of the Israeli Government to ‘take control of Gaza City’. This decision marks a dangerous escalation and risks deepening the already catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians,” Guterres’s spokesperson said in a statement.

The United Nations Security Council will meet in a rare weekend session on Saturday to discuss Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, three diplomatic sources told AFP.

The meeting at 1900 GMT had been requested by several members of the Security Council, a member of the Council told AFP, as global concern mounts over Israel’s plan.

Belgium summons Israeli ambassador over Gaza control plan

Belgium said Friday that it was summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel’s plans to “take military control” of the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

“The aim is clearly to express our total disapproval of this decision, but also of the continued colonisation,” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot posted on X.

Israel’s military will “take control” of Gaza City under a new plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, touching off a wave of criticism Friday from both inside and outside the country.

Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a truce to pull the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.

Hamas denounced the plan to expand the fighting as a “new war crime”.

Staunch Israeli ally Germany meanwhile took the extraordinary step of halting military exports out of concern they could be used in Gaza, a move Netanyahu slammed as a reward for Hamas.