UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm on Sunday about the “increasingly desperate” situation in the Gaza Strip and regretted that Israel had “intensified its military operations” there.
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“The situation in Gaza is becoming more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a much-needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations,” Mr. Guterres said during a visit to Nepal after a four-day trip to Qatar.
He described the number of civilians killed and injured in the war between Israel and Hamas, which was triggered by the Islamist movement’s bloody attack on Israeli soil on October 7, as “completely unacceptable.”
According to Israeli authorities, more than 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side since that date, mostly civilians during the October 7 attack, in which the Islamist movement also took 230 people hostage.
Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, claims that more than 8,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed by incessant Israeli bombardment since the conflict began.
The UN chief reiterated his call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip and called for “the provision of sustained humanitarian assistance at a scale that meets the needs of the population” of the Palestinian territory.
“The world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding before our eyes,” argued António Guterres in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
“More than two million people, with nowhere safe to go, are being deprived of the basic necessities of life – food, water, shelter and medical care – while subjected to relentless bombardment,” the United Nations Secretary-General added.
Ten Nepalis died during the war between Israel and Hamas, and an eleventh went missing.