Barred From Israel, UN Chief Warns Middle East 'Fast Becoming an Inferno'

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday reiterated his urgent call for an end to violence and a diplomatic resolution in the Middle East shortly after Israel's foreign minister declared that the U.N. chief was barred from entering the country, a move that drew international condemnation.

"The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno," Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, denouncing Israel's "relentless airstrikes across Lebanon," devastation of the Gaza Strip, and obstruction of a cease-fire agreement that could pull the region back from the brink of all-out war.

"Since last October, Israel has conducted in Gaza the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years as secretary-general," said Guterres. "The suffering endured by the Palestinian people in Gaza is beyond imagination."

Guterres also condemned Hezbollah's "continued rocket and missile attacks on Israel" and Iran's retaliatory ballistic missile strikes against Israeli military targets. As he did so, Guterres pushed back on Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz's accusation that the U.N. chief did not repudiate the Iranian attack with his brief Tuesday statement.

"As I did in relation to the Iranian attack in April—and as should have been obvious yesterday in the context of the condemnation I expressed—I again strongly condemn yesterday's massive missile attack by Iran on Israel," Guterres said Wednesday. "It is high time to stop the sickening cycle of escalation after escalation that is leading the people of the Middle East straight over the cliff."

"Each escalation has served as a pretext for the next," he continued. "We must never lose sight of the tremendous toll that this growing conflict is taking on civilians. We cannot look away from systematic violations of international humanitarian law. This deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop. Time is running out."

Watch Guterres' full speech:

The Israeli foreign minister's designation of Guterres—a persistent and vocal advocate for peace—as "persona non grata" means the U.N. chief is barred from entering Israel as a diplomat, but Israeli journalist Yanir Cozin pointed out that he could get into the country with a non-diplomatic passport.

Amar Bendjama, Algeria's ambassador to the U.N., told the Security Council on Wednesday that the Israeli foreign minister's decision reflects the Israeli government's "clear disdain of the U.N. system and the entire international community."

"Our inaction has effectively granted Israel carte blanche to continue its rampage in Gaza, in the West Bank—carte blanche to escalate against Lebanon and pursue a bloody agenda of death and destruction," said Bendjama.

The emergency Security Council session came as the Israeli military confirmed that eight of its soldiers were killed Wednesday in ground fights with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"Hezbollah said its fighters were engaging Israeli forces inside Lebanon on Wednesday, reporting ground clashes for the first time since Israeli forces pushed over the border," Reuters reported. "Hezbollah said it had destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with rockets near the border town of Maroun El Ras."

Amid the spiraling violence across the region and worsening humanitarian disasters in Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk implored "all states, including members of the Security Council, to act resolutely to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East with potentially devastating consequences for civilians."

"It is vital that they use their voices and influence to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table to end this," said Türk. "We appeal to reason. Peace must prevail."