The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has condemned Iran’s missile strikes on Israel, urging an end to the cycle of escalating violence in the Middle East.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Guterres called for a halt to the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence,” referencing the ongoing hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the region.

Guterres’ remarks follow a recent fallout with Israeli authorities, who declared him persona non grata. The controversy arose after Guterres initially called for a ceasefire without explicitly mentioning the Iranian attack.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz described Guterres as “an anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists.”

During the Security Council session, Guterres clarified his stance, stating that he had condemned the attack in April and reiterated his condemnation of the recent missile strikes by Iran.

“These attacks paradoxically do not seem to support the cause of the Palestinian people, or reduce their suffering,” Guterres said. He also criticised Israel’s military actions in Gaza, referring to the campaign as “the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years as secretary-general.”

On Tuesday, Iran launched approximately 180 ballistic missiles into Israel, most of which were intercepted. Following the attack, Guterres condemned the “broadening of the Middle East conflict” in a statement on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Before Guterres addressed the Security Council, Katz emphasised that any figure who fails to unequivocally condemn Iran’s assault on Israel does not deserve to enter the country. Katz criticised Guterres’ “anti-Israel policy” since the war began.

The missile strikes are the latest in a series of escalations between Iran and Israel, which have been intensifying over the past year. The conflict has involved ongoing clashes between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, and escalated after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, and 251 were taken hostage.

Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza, where the Hamas-run health ministry reports 41,689 casualties. Throughout the conflict, tensions have also simmered between Israel and the United Nations over the role of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and the agency’s response to Israeli airstrikes that have killed some of its staff.

Israel has confirmed that Iran fired 180 missiles into the country on Tuesday, adding that one person was confirmed dead from the attacks.

An AFP report stated as follows –

Everybody’s phone buzzed at once with an alert at around 19:30 local time.

It read: “You must enter a protected area immediately and remain there until further notice.”

The message was sent by the Israel Defence Forces’s Home Front Command and ended with the phrase “life-saving instructions”.

People began to head for shelter in safe rooms as missiles were launched towards Israel from Iran.

The sirens sounding across the country were heard by millions.

As the wail of the alarm rang outside, we moved to the shelter in the BBC’s Jerusalem Bureau – a secure part of the building with no windows.

We could hear frequent booms as missiles flew overhead and were intercepted by Israel’s defence system.

Videos captured here and elsewhere shared on social media showed streams of light as the missiles flew over Israel – and clouds of smoke as they were intercepted or detonated on impact.

“There’re loads of them,” a contact exclaimed in a video filmed in southern Israel that shows circles of light in the night sky.

At about 20:00, the IDF said its aerial defence array was identifying and intercepting the launches and called on people to “remain in a protected space until further notice”.

It continued: “The explosions you are hearing are from interceptions and fallen projectiles.”

Concern had been mounting across Israel as reports emerged early in the evening that Iran was preparing a strike.

It came hours after Israeli troops invaded Lebanon, in what its military calls a “limited, localised and targeted” ground operation against Hezbollah.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it launched the missiles in retaliation for recent attacks that killed the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as a senior Iranian commander.

As missiles flew overhead, messages streamed in from people in different parts of the country, waiting in their safe rooms.

“There’s a lot of alarms all the time, so we’re in the safe room… But we’re OK for now,” a mother of two in the south of Israel told me by voice note.

“Very, very scary. I still cannot believe this is our life… it was VERY close,” a message from a journalist in Tel Aviv said.

“Usually we stay on our floor and don’t go down to the shelter but this time…we realised we had to go down.”

“It was very loud,” lawyer Efrat Eldan Schechter says by WhatsApp message from Ra’anana in central Israel, adding that she believes “it is not the end for tonight”.

“We need to see how it will evolve. It is very scary indeed… but we are strong and confident that our IDF will protect us. Iran just made a huge mistake.”

About an hour after the first message, phones again vibrated with a new alert from the Home Front Command, telling people they could leave shelters and protected areas.

Following the strikes, the IDF spokesperson said there were some hits in central and southern Israel.

Videos later shared on social media showed damage from the missiles in multiple locations, including a large crater in the ground near Tel Aviv.

The Palestinian civil defence authority in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho said a man there died during the Iranian missile barrage.

According to the AFP, which spoke to city governor Hussein Hamayel, the victim was killed by falling rocket debris.

Israeli officials have not reported any serious injuries as a result of Tuesday’s air attacks.

“At this stage, we don’t identify more launches from Iran. Stay responsible and listen to instructions,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised address.

Israel says at least 180 missiles were fired, most of them intercepted. It has said there will be “consequences”.

Foremost Yoruba socio-cultural organization,the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) has condemned the position of the Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele on regionalism, saying the lawmaker has lost the trust of the people he’s representing.

Recall that Senator Bamidele had at the National Assembly hearing on constitutional review rejected the bill to return Nigeria to regionalism saying if the lawmakers should allow regional system in Nigeria, it would automatically give the Easterners Biafra

The Publicity Secretary of the OPC, Barrister Yinka Oguntimehin, in a press statement on Tuesday noted that it’s unfortunate that Bamidele who was once a respected activist had also clamoured for a national conference to address the fundamental issues of restructuring in this country suddenly changed and became  a centralist- minded person that is now rejecting the bill to return Nigeria to regionalism.

Oguntimehin said the lawmaker has failed to realize all the advantages inherent in regionalism, stating that Regionalism will allow cohesion, healthy competition and regional autonomy.

“It’ll enhance regional and internal security among the regions.

“Even a country with over 10 million people with such a multi-ethnic composition like Nigeria must have a federating unit that allows regional autonomy, regardless of the name you wish to call it, either regions or provinces. That is the normal thing all over the world.

“For instance, 50 states in the U.S are like a region. Also Ghana, a prominent country in Africa with a population of less than sixty million has a region. Even South Africa allows its provinces to develop at their own pace.

“It’s unfortunate that a man of Opeyemi Bamidele’s position, background and antecedents decided to go against the position of many Nigerians and selfishly narrow his thinking to play politics with such a sensitive issue and also believing that regionalism may later in the future give a particular ethnic nationality a country as he was referencing the Eastern region with the Biafra.

“He didn’t even see the wisdom in looking beyond his nose to see the possibilities and importance of regionalism as a potential tool for a successful federating unit.

“I wondered how an activist, a former student union leader, a Senate leader like him with a history of activism suddenly showed how political position and power can easily change his person.

“As far as we’re concerned, OPC condemns his position in totality and it’s unfortunate that he’s one of the representatives in Yoruba land.

“However, we urge him to change his views and position on this because as a foremost Yoruba socio-cultural organization, OPC is monitoring the events in the parliament and history will always judge whoever that goes against the wishes of Nigeria and Nigerians.

“I remember in the beginning of the OPC’s struggle, Senator Bamidele was one of the activists that was at the vanguard of the call for a national conference. He stood by the people then and now like a chameleon he suddenly changed.

“Let it be said that the only way Nigeria can move forward as a nation is to embrace regionalism where the regions develop at their own pace.

“Let it should also be said that for those whose position was that if we have regionalism, the central government will be weakened. That is not true, because the issue of the percentage of the resources to be allocated to the government at the centre will be addressed between the regions.”

Source: Independent