Lift Gaza blockade, UN urges Israel
GAZA: Visiting the Gaza Strip yesterday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for Palestinian national reconciliation and demanded Israel’s decade-long blockade on the territory be lifted, saying life in the besieged enclave was “one of the most dramatic humanitarian crises” he had seen.
The UN chief, who held talks with Palestinian and Israeli leadership on Monday and Tuesday, said he was “deeply moved to be in Gaza, unfortunately to witness one of the most dramatic humanitarian crises I’ve seen in many years working as a humanitarian in the UN”.
It was “important to open the closures” imposed on the enclave, he said, referring to the Israeli blockade upheld by Egypt on the Palestinian territory’s southern border.
Guterres also announced the emergency release of $4 million (about R52m) from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund for UN operations in Gaza.
Speaking at a school in Beit Lahiya run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Guterres reiterated his support for the two-state solution in which a Palestinian state, including Gaza, would live “in peace and security together” with Israel.
His dream, Guterres said, was that he’d “be able to come back to Gaza one day and see Gaza as part of a Palestinian state in peace, with prosperity and welfare for the people”. He called on rival Palestinian factions to unite, saying the political conflict between the Fatahled Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas, the de facto ruling party in Gaza, was destroying the Palestinian people’s cause.