UN Secretary General António Guterres has taken the highly unusual step of writing a letter to the UN Security Council under Article 99 of the UN Charter, calling on the Council to "press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza and appealing for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared.
A spokesperson for the Secretary General said Mr Guterres wrote the letter "given the scale of the loss of human life in Gaza and in Israel, in such a short amount of time".
Article 99 of the UN Charter states that "the Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security".
It is the first time Mr Guterres has invoked Article 99 since he became Secretary General in 2017.
In the letter to Council members, Mr Guterres again condemned what he called the "abhorrent acts of terror by Hamas" on 7 October and called for the immediate and unconditional release of the remaining Israeli hostages.
He said civilians in Gaza faced grave danger.
"Since the start of Israel's military operation, more than 15,000 people have reportedly been killed, over 40 per cent of them children," the letter stated.
"Thousands of others have been injured. More than half of all homes have been destroyed."
Mr Guterres wrote that some 80% of the 2.2 million population had been forcibly displaced into increasingly smaller areas and more than 1.1 million people had sought refuge in United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) facilities across Gaza creating "overcrowded, undignified and unhygienic conditions".
The healthcare system in Gaza was collapsing, he wrote. Hospitals had turned into battlegrounds and more people would die untreated in the coming days and weeks, the letter stated.
"We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system," Mr Guterres wrote.
"The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis," Mr Guterres wrote.
"I urge the members of the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe," he wrote.
"I reiterate my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared," he added, "this is urgent."
Analysts said that it was highly unusual for a Secretary General to invoke Article 99 of the UN Charter.
"Actually citing the Article in a letter to the Council is a significant bit of diplomatic symbolism by Guterres," Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group, a think tank, told RTÉ News.
"It is the UN codeword for an exceptionally urgent situation."
