'Entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza': UN chief
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned "Israel" for obstructing humanitarian aid to Gaza and urged for immediate action to protect civilians.
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A Palestinian woman mourns her 10-year-old daughter, killed by an Israeli airstrike at the hospital in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, on April 8, 2025 (AP)
Gaza has become a "killing field", United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday, accusing "Israel" of obstructing supplies and failing to meet its "unequivocal obligations" toward the needs of the Palestinian territory's residents.
Addressing journalists, the UN chief said that more than a month passed "without a drop of aid into Gaza. No food. No fuel. No medicine. No commercial supplies. As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have re-opened."
He stressed the responsibilities of the "occupying power" to provide food and medical supplies to the people of Gaza, citing the Geneva Conventions.
"None of that is happening today. No humanitarian supplies can enter Gaza," Guterres noted.
"The Israeli authorities newly proposed 'authorization mechanisms' for aid delivery risk further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour," Guterres told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, referencing recent Israeli suggestions of overseeing aid into Gaza, which a UN source told AFP included calorie monitoring.
"Let me be clear -- we will not participate in any arrangement that does not fully respect the humanitarian principles -- humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality," Guterres asserted, demanding guarantees for the unhindered entry of aid to the coastal territory. He also raised the alarm about the situation in the West Bank, calling the current path "a dead end -- totally intolerable in the eyes of international law and history."
He warned that the risk of the West Bank turning into another Gaza makes it "even worse", emphasizing that it was time to "end the dehumanization, protect civilians, release the hostages, ensure lifesaving aid, and renew the ceasefire."
Hamas says Israeli war on Gaza is revenge, not pressure
Hamas condemned Israeli actions in Gaza, accusing the occupation of enacting revenge against innocent civilians, in a statement published on Tuesday.
The Palestinian group accused "Israel" of carrying out retaliatory attacks against innocent civilians in Gaza, rather than its alleged "military pressure" story, calling on the international community to "fulfill its responsibility and immediately halt" the unabated atrocities in Gaza.
It stressed that "military escalation won't bring the Israeli captives back alive" but rather "endangers and kills them," emphasizing that negotiation remains "the only way to secure their release."
"Netanyahu's strategy of targeting civilians - children, women and the elderly - in Gaza won't achieve any military victory, but will inevitably backfire," Hamas stated, adding that "escalating aggression won't break the Palestinian people's will - it will only strengthen their defiance and determination to resist."
This comes as "Israel" continues to escalate its war on Gaza, killing tens of civilians and injuring hundreds on a daily basis, while the UN reports that current Israeli policies in the Strip are the most extreme since October 7.
