UN chief Guterres calls for lifting of Gaza blockade
UN CHIEF Antonio Guterres called for the blockade of Gaza to be lifted yesterday as he visited the Palestinian enclave enduring “one of the most dramatic humanitarian crises” he had seen.
The secretary-general’s comments came as he wrapped up his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since taking office.
Repeatedly throughout the visit he has called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, long the focus of international diplomacy but currently under threat.
Yesterday in Gaza, Guterres said he had been struck by conditions in the overcrowdedandimpoverishedenclave, where an electricity crisis has worsened and clean water is lacking.
“I am deeply moved to be in Gaza today, unfortunately to witness one of the most dramatic humanitarian crises that I’ve seen in many years working as a humanitarian in the United Nations,” Guterres said. He later said it was “important to open the closures”, in a reference to Israel’s decadelong blockade of Gaza and its border with Egypt that has remained largely closed in recent years.
Guterres made the comments at a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in the northern Gaza Strip. At least 70 percent of Gazans are dependent upon international aid. UNRWA plays a major role in the strip, with the same percentage of the population classified as refugees.
Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel have fought three wars since 2008. Israel says the blockade is necessary to keep Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the enclave, from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used to make them. The blockade also serves to isolate Hamas. UN officials say the enclave is becoming unliveable due to deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
Hamas welcomed Guterres’s trip, calling on him to make “all efforts to lift the siege on the strip and end the suffering for two million Palestinians living in the largest prison in the world.”
UN officials’ contact with Hamas is limited, with the group considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.
Demonstrations also occurred during Guterres’s visit to the strip. At one protest, around 25 people held a fake coffin with a sign that said “Welcome to the largest prison in the world.”
Dozens of people also demonstrated as Guterres’s convoy crossed the border with Israel into Gaza, calling for action in support of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.