United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Monday for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, said it would keep its soldiers there until it had verified Hamas’ disarmament. The appeal came ahead of the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. A UN demand, two armed powers’ competing terms for control—and civilians remain caught inside that machinery.
Guterres said, “It is time for the ceasefire to become permanent. It is time to allow humanitarian assistance at scale. And it is time to respect international law.” He also called for a “political path to lasting peace across the whole region.” Those are demands from the head of an international institution, not proof that aid is arriving at scale or that a political path has opened.
The words and the conditions
Guterres described the Hamas attack as “abhorrent.” He said it killed more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and involved the taking of 251 hostages. He also said Palestinians in Gaza had endured a “massive loss of life, displacement and destruction,” without giving a death toll. “Their suffering, too, demands an end, now,” he said.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 74,200 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which operates under Hamas’ authority. The report said the United Nations deems the figures reliable. Those numbers put the scale of the loss alongside Guterres’ call to respect international law; his statement, though, lays out no way to enforce that demand.
Guterres said a brief ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump in October 2025 “brought some relief. But it has yet to deliver security, adequate humanitarian assistance or a credible path to recovery and peace.” Relief came, by his account, without the conditions to make it last.
Control, disarmament and the pause
Israel still controls most of Gaza and refuses to withdraw its soldiers until it verifies Hamas’ disarmament. Hamas has advocated gradual disarmament rather than immediate and unilateral surrender of its arsenal. The positions differ, but both come from armed organizations setting terms over the territory and its people. Guterres’ call for a permanent ceasefire sits between those conditions. The report describes no agreement.
Since the 2023 attacks, Israel has conducted military operations on several fronts. These include an invasion of southern Lebanon to confront Hezbollah, an Islamist movement backed by Tehran, and a war against Iran launched in late February alongside the United States. The report gives no further detail on those operations. It does, however, record how far the military apparatus reaches beyond Gaza.
The UN chief urged Israelis and Palestinians to “live side by side in peace and security, with their rights, dignity, and aspirations fulfilled.” His statement acknowledged the suffering of both populations and called for a different future. But the report’s concrete facts remain military control, a demand for disarmament, and a ceasefire that hasn't delivered adequate assistance or a credible path to peace.
A photograph accompanying the report showed a Palestinian man cleaning the roof of a building at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Oct. 5, 2026. The small act of clearing a roof appears beside institutional language about ceasefires, law and recovery. Guterres says the suffering must end now. People living through it are still waiting for those words to bring material change.