Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said: “If the UN Secretary-General does not activate Article 99 in favor of our abductees and bring the Security Council into a discussion on the sexual atrocities committed by Hamas, Israel should break the tools and take severe actions including closing the UN headquarters in Jerusalem, deporting Senior UN officials from Israel and evacuating UNRWA compounds from Jerusalem.”
It should be mentioned that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a rare move, had invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter on Dec 7th 2023, urging the UN Security Council to act on the war in Gaza.
Article 99 allows the secretary-general to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.
In his letter to the council’s president, Guterres invoked this responsibility, saying he believed the situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, “may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security”.
