UN chief arrives for first Israel-Palestine visit

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday for his talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Guterres was greeted by Israeli diplomats at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.

He is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and his Palestinian counterpart Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday.

His three-day visit is also expected to include a trip to the blockaded Gaza Strip, which has been suffering from an acute electricity crisis caused by political fighting between the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and Gaza-based Hamas movement.

The UN last week announced $2.5m would be released to meet the electricity and medicine shortages caused by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to cut supplies.

The trip is Guteres’s first since being elected to the UN’s top position last year.

Israel has a tenuous relationship with the UN, accusing the Human Rights Committee and other bodies of unfairly singling it out for criticism.