UN chief says it’s time to ‘truly flood’ Gaza with aid, calls starvation there an outrage
RAFAH CROSSING, Egypt — U.N. SecretaryGeneral António Guterres stood near a long line of waiting trucks Saturday and declared it was time to “truly flood Gaza with lifesaving aid,” calling the starvation inside the enclave a “moral outrage.” He urged an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Guterres spoke on the Egyptian side of the border not far from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Israel plans to launch a ground assault despite widespread warnings of a potential catastrophe. More than half of Gaza’s population has taken refuge there.
“Any further onslaught will make things ... worse for Palestinian civilians, ... hostages and ... all people in the region,” Guterres said.
He spoke a day after the U.N. Security Council failed to reach consensus on the wording of a U.S.sponsored resolution supporting “an immediate and sustained cease-fire.”
Guterres noted the difficulties of getting aid into Gaza, for which international aid agencies have largely blamed Israel.
“Here from this crossing, we see the heartbreak and heartlessness … a long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates, the long shadow of starvation on the other,” he said.
About 7,000 aid trucks are waiting in Egypt’s North Sinai province to enter Gaza, Gov. Mohammed Abdel-Fadeil Shousha said in a statement.
Guterres added: “It is time for (a) commitment by Israel for total … access for humanitarian goods to Gaza, and in the Ramadan spirit of compassion, it is also time for the immediate release of all hostages.” He later told journalists that a humanitarian cease-fire and hostage release should occur at the same time.
When asked about Guterres’ comments, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to a social media post by Foreign Minister Israel Katz accusing the U.N. chief of allowing the world body to become “antisemitic and anti-Israeli.”