UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (C) walks on the tarmac, upon landing at Egypt's al-Arish Airport, near the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip on March 23, 2024. (Photo by Khaled Desouki / AFP)
Rafah Crossing, Egypt: UN Secretary-General 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 more than half of Gaza's population has taken refuge there.
"Any further onslaught will make things even worse - worse for Palestinian civilians, worse for hostages and worse for all people in the region," Guterres said.
He spoke a day after the UN Security Council failed to reach consensus on the wording of a US-sponsored resolution supporting "an immediate and sustained cease-fire.”
Guterres repeatedly 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 an ironclad 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.”
