The line of blocked aid trucks stuck on Egypt\u2019s side of the border with the Gaza Strip while Palestinians face starvation on the other side is a \u201cmoral outrage\u201d, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on a visit to the Rafah crossing. \u201cI have come to Rafah to shine a spotlight on the pain of Palestinians in Gaza,\u201d the UN chief said on Saturday, addressing a news conference in El Arish, in Egypt\u2019s northern Sinai, where much of the international relief for Gaza is stockpiled as Israel continues to block aid from entering. \u201cHere, from this crossing, we see the heartbreak and heartlessness of it all. A long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates, the long shadow of starvation on the other,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is more than tragic. It is a moral outrage. Any further onslaught will make things even worse \u2013 worse for Palestinian civilians, worse for hostages and worse for all people in the region.\u201d The visit by Guterres, which is a part of his annual \u201csolidarity trip\u201d to Muslim countries during Ramadan, comes as Israel faces global pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been devastated by more than five months of war. \u201cYou cannot see so many people being killed, you cannot see so much suffering without feeling hugely frustrated,\u201d Guterres said while taking questions from reporters. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the power to stop [the war in Gaza], I appeal to those who have the power to stop it to do it,\u201d he added. Several NGOs and rights organisation have accused Israel of deliberately blocking aid to Gaza as warnings of famine in the besieged strip rise. Receiving Guterres at the airport in El Arish, regional governor Mohamed Shusha said some 7,000 trucks were waiting in North Sinai to deliver aid to Gaza, but that inspection procedures demanded by Israel had held up the flow of relief. The UN chief stressed that it was time for Israel to give an \u201cironclad commitment\u201d for unfettered access to humanitarian goods throughout Gaza and said that the UN would also continue to work with Egypt to \u201cstreamline\u201d the flow of aid into Gaza. \u201cIt\u2019s time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid. The choice is clear: either surge or starvation,\u201d Guterres said. This week, a global food monitor warned that famine was imminent in northern Gaza and could spread to other parts of the territory if a ceasefire is not agreed. In a post on the social media platform X, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said a food convoy had been denied access to northern Gaza for the second time this week. Lazzarini noted the last time the UNRWA was able to deliver aid to the northern part of the enclave, where starvation is spreading, was two months ago. \u201cThis is a man-made hunger & looming famine which can still be averted,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Israeli authorities must allow delivering food aid at scale to the north including via UNRWA, the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza.\u201d Israel has kept all but one of its land crossings into the enclave closed. It opened the Karem Abu Salem crossing (which Israel calls Kerem Shalom) close to Rafah in late December and denies accusations by Egypt, rights groups and UN agencies that it has delayed deliveries of humanitarian relief. Since October, more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to local health authorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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