UN chief says escalation will bring “immense suffering” to civilians and warns of potential regional escalation.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza are “totally insufficient” amid deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement released Tuesday, Guterres reiterated that humanitarian needs in Gaza far exceed existing assistance levels. Aid trucks arrived in Gaza from Egypt last week via Rafah, the main crossing point that does not border Israel.
Before the war, some 500 trucks carrying aid and other goods entered Gaza each day.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that 66 trucks of humanitarian aid had entered Gaza in the past 24 hours. Officials would like to reach up to 100 per day, Kirby said.
Guterres also expressed concern over military escalation as Israel steps up its ground raids in Gaza and continues bombardment of the besieged territory.
“I am deeply alarmed by the intensification of the conflict between Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza,” Guterres said.
“With too many Israeli and Palestinian lives already lost, this escalation only increases the immense suffering of civilians. »
Gaza, a “cemetery for thousands of children”
The comments come as Israel continues its relentless bombardment of Gaza, overwhelming hospitals flooded with wounded and exhausted to the breaking point by an Israeli siege that has severely restricted supplies of water, fuel and electricity.
Palestinian authorities have said more than 8,500 people have been killed in Gaza, more than a third of them children, since the war began on October 7.
In a statement on Tuesday, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder said Gaza had become “a graveyard for thousands of children.”
An Israeli air raid destroyed an entire section of the Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday, killing dozens of people and injuring more than 100 others, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The director of the Indonesian hospital in Gaza told Al Jazeera that more than 50 people had been killed.
Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, called the situation “absolutely horrific.”
“Hospitals are already overwhelmed and can barely cope with the growing number of injured people they face every hour,” Farsakh told Al Jazeera.
“(They) are working at full capacity. This comes at a time when all hospitals are literally collapsing due to lack of medical supplies and medicines, and they are running out of urgently needed fuel.”
Speaking before the UN Security Council on Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi urged the Council to press for a ceasefire to end a “death spiral”.
The United States has so far supported Israel and rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying an end to the fighting would benefit Hamas, which carried out a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7 that, according to Israeli authorities, killed more than 1,400 people, most of them. they are civilians.
“We think we need to consider things like humanitarian pauses to ensure that aid can get to those who need it and that people can be protected and kept out of harm’s way,” the secretary said. US State Antony Blinken during a congressional hearing.
Speaking last week, Guterres called the small amounts of aid allowed into Gaza from the Rafah crossing with Egypt a “drop of aid in an ocean of need.”
