UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, urged the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), this Sunday, to release all its hostages immediately and demanded Israel to allow “unhindered access to humanitarian aid” for the Gaza Strip.
“In this dramatic moment, when we are on the brink of the abyss in the Middle East, it is my duty as Secretary-General of the United Nations to make two strong humanitarian appeals, Both should not become bargaining chips and should be implemented because they are the right thing to do.
The UN estimates that thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee on both sides as the situation in the region deteriorates after Israel warned of an imminent offensive.
The commissioner general of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, made a similar request. The representative warned that his colleagues in Gaza are no longer able to provide humanitarian aid. “We are on the verge of collapse,” he emphasized and insisted on the impossibility of bringing in “even a drop of water, a grain of wheat, a liter of fuel” during the last eight days.
Thousands of people have died, including children and women; the area is even running out of body bags, he lamented. “Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity,” he stressed.
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