UN chief Antonio Guterres pleaded Saturday for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas, demanding global “action to end this godawful nightmare”.
Declaring that the small Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people was experiencing “a humanitarian catastrophe” with thousands of deaths and over a million displaced, Guterres made this statement while speaking at a peace meeting in Cairo as the war continued into its third week.
His statements coincided with the arrival of the first convoy of relief vehicles in southern Gaza, which, according to Guterres, needed to be quickly expanded in order to deliver “much more” aid.
The Palestinians need “a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed”, he told the Cairo “Summit for Peace” which was attended by many Arab leaders.
The worst attack on Israeli land since the state’s founding in 1948, the present bloodshed started on October 7 when Hamas militants broke through the Gaza border into Israel. The onslaught claimed the lives of at least 1,400 people, the majority of whom were civilians.
Over 4,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israel’s retaliatory air assault, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A week into the conflict, Cairo—historically a crucial mediator between Hamas and Israel—announced preparations to hold the summit, urging “restraint” and advocating for the resumption of peace negotiations that have been on hold for years, despite the diplomatic efforts to put a stop to the violence having made little progress.
The goal of diplomatic efforts to until has been to bring humanitarian aid into the war-torn enclave, which Israel has completely besieged, cutting off food, fuel, water, and electricity supplies.
