United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “unacceptable” for Israel’s government to reject a two-state solution to its conflict with the Palestinians, warning that the move would “embolden extremists everywhere”, Reuters reports.

At a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council on the Middle East, Guterres said: “Israel’s occupation must end.”

“The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history,” Guterres told the Security Council.

“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Guterres said.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki singled out Netanyahu in his Security Council address, accusing him of being “driven by a single goal — his own political survival at the expense of the survival of millions of Palestinians under Israel’s illegal occupation and peace and security for all.”