United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Security Council is an "outdated," "unjust" and "ineffective system" whose failure to end Israel's war on Gaza has damaged the organization's credibility as a whole.

In an exclusive interview for Al Jazeera The UN chief condemned the failures of the council, which was set up after World War II to ensure international peace and security, but whose permanent members' veto power has repeatedly proved an obstacle to that goal.

The council, Guterres said, "doesn't fit today's world."

"The truth is that the Security Council has systemically failed in its ability to end the most dramatic conflicts we face today – Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine.

"The UN is not the Security Council"

Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal who has headed the UN since 2017, stressed that the organization's other bodies, particularly its humanitarian agencies, had continued to provide basic services to Palestinians in the more than 11 months since the Israeli assault on Gaza. But he noted that the council's political failure to end the conflict hurt other UN bodies.

"The UN is not the Security Council," Guterres said.

But he admitted that UN staff on the ground, particularly those from the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, "suffer from the fact that people look at them and think – 'but the Security Council failed us'".

"For us, this failure of the Security Council is a serious handicap for work on the ground," he added.

Guterres pointed to Israeli forces killing 200 UNRWA staff in Gaza since the start of the war, and to a recent survey that recognized the agency's efforts among Palestinians it reached.

He also expressed relief that UNRWA's credibility appeared to be restored after Israel accused members of its staff of ties to "terrorism" earlier this year, prompting several countries to cut funding to the agency.

"Many countries that initially hesitated and stopped supporting UNRWA have returned, helping to provide aid," he said.

"UNRWA remains the backbone of humanitarian support for the people of Gaza."

"There is no responsibility, everyone does what they want"

However, he decried the ongoing challenges Israel continues to pose to the job.

"When the conditions are created for the agency to work, as in the case of polio, it is immediately very effective," Guterres said.

"If the same conditions were given to our support for all other aspects of humanitarian action, if we did not have the obstacles, harassment, problems and difficulties that Israel systematically creates for UN humanitarian agencies, especially UNRWA, we would be able to do much more. . And people need a lot more."

In the interview, Guterres also blamed "major world powers" for fostering the culture of impunity displayed in Gaza. While expressing confidence in the work of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, Guterres said: "We live in an environment of total impunity."

"Everyone does what they want," he added.

"The geopolitical gap that exists between the great powers has created a situation where any country or any movement anywhere in the world feels they can do whatever they want because there will be no punishment and no accountability."

He also said the US should put more pressure on Israel to end its assault on Gaza.

"It is important to put pressure on the US, as they support Israel, to pressure them to stop the war and at the same time recognize that the two-state solution must not be undermined.

"We ask the United States to be much stronger in its relations with Israel," he added.

"The occupation is not legal"

Guterres also discussed the expansion of Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

"We must absolutely reject any potential annexation of the West Bank," he said.

"The West Bank, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, which is part of the West Bank, must be the state of Palestine in the future.

"One of the most worrying things right now is to see the systemic politics of many in the Israeli government who are trying to undermine the two-state solution, precisely by emigrating, settling, land grabbing and other actions in the West Bank, which of course are completely against international law," he added.

"There is an opinion of the International Court of Justice. The opinion is clear – this is an occupation, and the occupation is not legal."