UN chief, at Gaza crossing, urges end to ‘nightmare’ of war

UN chief Antonio Guterres, on a visit to the doorstep of Gaza, on Saturday said the world has seen enough of the war’s horrors and appealed for a ceasefire to allow in more aid.

‘Palestinians in Gaza—children, women, men—remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare,’ he said on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing where truckloads of aid trickle into Gaza but the population is stalked by ‘hunger and starvation’.

‘I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough,’ Guterres said, deploring ‘communities obliterated, homes demolished, entire families and generations wiped out’.

He reiterated that ‘nothing justifies the horrific attacks by Hamas’ against Israel, triggering the war on October 7.

‘And nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,’ the United Nations secretary-general said.

Guterres, speaking at a lectern in front of the imposing gates to the Gaza side of  Rafah, through which aid trucks pass, said the ‘heartbreak and heartlessness of it all’ were clear.

‘A long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates. The long shadow of starvation on the other,’ which he called ‘a moral outrage.’

Guterres emphasised ‘it is more than time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire’ and appealed to Israel for ‘total, unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza.’

The UN chief, who makes an annual ‘solidarity mission’ to distressed Muslim communities during their holy fasting month, said that ‘in the Ramadan spirit of compassion, it is also time for the immediate release of all hostages’ captured in the October attacks and still held by militants in Gaza.

Response from Israel

Israel’s foreign minister said Saturday the United Nations had become an ‘anti-Israeli body’ under Antonio Guterres, after the UN chief called for a ceasefire on a visit to Gaza’s border.

International outrage over the heavy civilian toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza has further worsened the long strained ties between Israel and the world body.

‘Under his (Guterres’s) leadership, the UN has become an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror,’ Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on social media platform X.

The top Israeli diplomat criticised Guterres, who Katz said ‘stood today on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and blamed Israel for the humanitarian situation in Gaza’, claiming instead that Hamas militants ‘plunder’ aid.

Katz, whose government has accused staff at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the war, also said Guterres spoke ‘without calling for the immediate, unconditional release of all Israeli hostages’.

Vote at Security Council

Meanwhile, a vote at the UN Security Council on a new text calling for an ‘immediate’ ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was postponed to Monday, diplomatic sources told AFP, after a separate, US-lead draft resolution was vetoed.

The United States, Israel’s main ally and military backer, had put forward a resolution mentioning ‘the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire’ and condemning the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Russia and China on Friday vetoed that resolution, which was also opposed by Arab states for stopping short of explicitly demanding Israel immediately end its campaign in Gaza.

The new ceasefire text was meant to go to a vote on Saturday, but was pushed back to allow further discussions, the diplomatic sources said.

The new, tougher draft resolution, seen by AFP, ‘demands an immediate ceasefire’ for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan that leads ‘to a permanent sustainable ceasefire’ respected by all sides.

Eight of the council’s 10 non-permanent members have been working on the draft, which also calls for the ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of hostages seized by Hamas and the lifting of ‘all barriers’ to humanitarian aid flowing into the besieged Gaza Strip.

‘We as (the) Arab Group unanimously endorse and support the draft resolution,’ said Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, who had denounced the US-led text as biased.

But US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield indicated opposition, saying the resolution would jeopardize ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages—the same reason the United States gave before vetoing previous ceasefire resolutions.

‘In its current form, that text fails to support sensitive diplomacy in the region. Worse, it could actually give Hamas an excuse to walk away from the deal on the table,’ she said.

Friday’s text did not explicitly use the word ‘call,’ but simply stated that a ceasefire was imperative, and linked to ongoing talks, led by Qatar with support from the United States and Egypt, to halt fighting in return for Hamas releasing hostages.

‘If the US is serious about a ceasefire, then please vote in favor of the other draft resolution, clearly calling for a ceasefire,’ China’s representative, Zhang Jun, said.