By nightfall on Oct. 7, Israel was reeling as never before from the aftershocks of Hamas’ horrific slaughtering, raping and kidnapping of civilian hostages in the homeland that was created to be the safe sanctuary of Holocaust survivors. And two things were certain:

One: Israel would be retaliating, instantly and massively, vowing to obliterate Hamas terror forces that had fled back to their subterranean headquarters, tunneled beneath Gaza’s densely crowded apartment dwellings.

Two: Thousands of Gaza’s Palestinian families were imperiled as never before. Yet they seemed to be unaware of the war crime inflicted upon them by their rulers and military protectors who were using them as human shields as they awaited Israel’s retaliatory onslaught. Palestinian civilians were in the streets, clapping and celebrating the news of their troops’ surprise attack on the enemy next door. Down below them, their Hamas leaders and troops apparently found comfort in the fact that everything was going according to plan. Namely: Israel’s bombs and missiles and troops would have to kill thousands of Gaza’s innocent families in their apartments; but the Hamas forces and leaders down below would be shielded.

With the Middle East headed toward certain catastrophe in Gaza, what our already-troubled and warring world most needed was for an already well-positioned leadership figure to step up and, well, lead. Everywhere we look these days, we see leaders who are beset by a world of problems — especially in their own backyards.

But this may be the perfect moment for the leader of an organization that was created to preserve world peace. Although the United Nations has seemed to be running on empty for years, this may be the best chance (indeed, maybe the last chance) for Secretary-General António Guterres to prove his lackluster track record need not be his legacy.

On Oct. 7, the day of Hamas’ surprise attack, Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, had his spokesperson issue one of those short, obligatory condemn-and-appalled statements: “The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms this morning’s attack by Hamas … (and) is appalled by reports that civilians have been attacked and abducted from their own homes.”

That might have been sufficient if the secretary-general had followed up by convening the Middle East’s new generation of leaders and working to head off the obvious coming civilian catastrophe. What the world needed was for some leader to shine a reality spotlight on the power politics games that were being played.

As faithful readers of this column may recall, starting last Oct. 20, I began describing how Hamas clearly planned to goad Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into the sort of retaliation that would kill masses of Palestinian Gaza civilians. Hamas hoped the horrific photos and videos would turn the world against Israel.

“Hamas’ terrorists infamously live and launch attacks on Israel while using Gaza civilians as human shields,” I wrote. “They are willing to see fellow Palestinians killed by Israeli retaliation — if it makes Israel look bad as the whole world watches.”

On Oct. 24, Guterres made clear he recognized the truth of that, in a speech to the U.N. Security Council on the Hamas-Israel crisis. He even mentioned this use of “human shields” in one generalizing sentence: “Protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields.”

But he never linked Hamas to the use of “human shields.” Guterres also failed to condemn Hamas’ use of human shields as a war crime against Gaza’s Palestinian civilians.

Meanwhile, Guterres was clearly determined to condemn Israel’s conduct at length: “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. … Even war has rules.”

Mainly, Guterres and other world figures — including Joe Biden — have all missed the opportunity to use Hamas’ war crime use of human shields as the vehicle that should drive Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians as far from Hamas as possible.

Months ago, I suggested a new way world leaders should define the hostage crisis in Gaza — by concluding Hamas has taken two categories of hostages: (1) the hundreds of Israeli hostages Hamas kidnapped Oct. 7; and (2) the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians Hamas forced into being human shield hostages.

Today, the secretary-general should use that formula to forge a coalition of new generation Arab leaders who can help the Palestinians rid themselves of the Hamas evildoers and work together to rescue and rebuild Gaza.

Let Arab-led rescuers use their ultimate but little used weapon — prosperity — to achieve a lasting peace for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Peace through prosperity. What a concept.

Martin Schram, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, is a veteran Washington journalist, author and TV documentary executive.