United Nations, Apr 5 (EFE).- UN Secretary-General António Guterres voiced concern on Friday over the erosion of global standards and norms after the six-month-long war in Gaza.
He cautioned that failure to implement key resolutions “would (be) unforgivable” and could lead to dire consequences including mass starvation and regional instability.
“Six months on, the world stands on the brink of mass starvation in Gaza, a regional conflagration and a total loss of faith in global standards and norms.”
He recalled that on his last trip to the Gaza border in Rafah 10 days ago, humanitarian workers reminded him that the suffering and destruction witnessed in Gaza “are the worst they have ever seen.”
The UN chief reiterated his call for a ceasefire and for the release of hostages held by Hamas, the protection of civilian populations, respect for the work of humanitarian activists, and free access for journalists to Gaza.
He said the absence of the media in the besieged strip “leads to misinformation and false narratives.”
Guterres was unequivocal regarding the killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers and Israel’s acknowledgment that it was a mistake.
“The main problem is not who made the mistakes but the military strategy and procedures in place that allow for those mistakes to multiply time and time again,”he said.
He said fixing those failures required “independent investigations and meaningful and measurable changes on the ground.”
Guterres said he was deeply troubled by reports that the Israeli military had been using artificial intelligence to help identify targets during its relentless bombing of densely populated areas of Gaza.
“No part of life and death decisions which impact entire families should be delegated to the cold calculation of algorithms,” he said.
Without specifying, he referred to a report released on Wednesday stating that in the early days of the war in Gaza, the Israeli Army relied almost entirely on an algorithmic system that identified 37,000 Palestinians as suspected Hamas militants, making them and their residences military targets.
According to an investigation published by the Israeli newspaper Sicha Mekomit (known in its English version as +972) and based on intelligence sources, soldiers unquestioningly adopted the “kill lists” recommended by an artificial intelligence system, never used before, nicknamed Lavender.
Once the names were suggested, “human personnel” spent about “20 seconds” on each target before authorizing a bombing, simply to ensure that the potential militant was a man, details the investigation, although according to the newspaper, Lavender carries a margin of error of 10 percent. EFE
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