{"id":289740,"date":"2023-10-18T16:26:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T20:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&#038;p=289740"},"modified":"2023-10-18T16:26:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T20:26:42","slug":"israel-gaza-un-chief-urges-ceasefire-humanitarian-supplies-given-green-light-to-enter-enclave-un-news","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/israel-gaza-un-chief-urges-ceasefire-humanitarian-supplies-given-green-light-to-enter-enclave-un-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-Gaza: UN Chief Urges Ceasefire; Humanitarian Supplies Given Green Light to Enter Enclave &#8211; UN News"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"rw-entity-image rw-entity-image--with-copyright\">\n<footer class=\"rw-entity-image__copyright\"><\/footer>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"rw-report__content\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/ar\/story\/2023\/10\/1125037\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"views-field views-field-field-news-date\"><span class=\"field-content\">\u0627\u0644\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a\u0629\/Arabic<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"views-field views-field-field-news-date\"><span class=\"field-content\">18 October 2023<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"views-field views-field-field-news-story-lead\">\n<div class=\"field-content\">\n<blockquote><p>UN chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres called on Wednesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East to ease the \u201cepic human suffering\u201d in the Israel-Gaza conflict. The head of the UN health agency (WHO) said he welcomed the reported agreement between the US and Israel, which would allow food, water and medical aid into the battered enclave via the Egyptian border.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sg\/en\/content\/sg\/statement\/2023-10-18\/secretary-general%E2%80%99s-remarks-the-3rd-belt-and-road-forum-for-international-cooperation?_gl=1*7g80j9*_ga*MTE2MTc2MzI0Mi4xNjk3NjI4MzA4*_ga_S5EKZKSB78*MTY5NzYyODMwOC4xLjAuMTY5NzYyODMxMS41Ny4wLjA.*_ga_TK9BQL5X7Z*MTY5NzYyODMwOC4xLjAuMTY5NzYyODMwOC4wLjAuMA..\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Speaking in Beijing<\/a>, Mr. Guterres said that a ceasefire would &#8220;provide sufficient time and space&#8221; to realize two essential appeals which he made earlier this week: to Hamas, for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages held in Gaza, and to Israel, to immediately allow aid to enter the sealed-off enclave in the throes of a devastating humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The region is on the precipice,&#8221; he warned.<\/p>\n<p>The call came a day after hundreds were killed in a strike at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, which Mr. Guterres strongly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sg\/en\/content\/sg\/statement\/2023-10-17\/statement-attributable-the-spokesperson-for-the-secretary-general-the-situation-gaza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">condemned<\/a>, stressing that hospitals and all medical personnel are protected under international law.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides have blamed each other, with Gaza&#8217;s de facto authorities accusing the Israeli military, who in turn held misfired rockets launched by Islamic Jihad militants towards Israel responsible.<\/p>\n<p>The UN\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/securitycouncil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Security Council<\/a>\u00a0is set to meet on Wednesday morning in New York to discuss the crisis, with diplomatic tensions rising in the wake of the deadly hospital blast.<\/p>\n<p>US President Joe Biden has arrived in Israel where he was met by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Biden pledged support for Israel and said he was &#8220;deeply saddened and outraged&#8221; by the lethal explosion at the hospital in Gaza City.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aid stuck at the border<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Trucks carrying lifesaving aid remained lined up at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. In a post on social platform X on Wednesday, UN World Health Organization (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WHO<\/a>) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus deplored that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WHO<\/a>\u00a0supplies have been &#8220;stuck&#8221; at the border for four days.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Relentless diplomatic efforts by senior UN officials in favour of humanitarian access were set to continue, with the organization&#8217;s relief chief Martin Griffiths on the ground in Cairo, where he will be joined by Secretary-General Guterres on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Griffiths wrote on X on Wednesday that providing aid to the people of Gaza is &#8220;a matter of life or death&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Doing so in a &#8220;sustained, unimpeded, predictable manner&#8221; is a &#8220;humanitarian imperative,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018Too many lives in the balance\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Food, water, critical medicines and health supplies are running out fast in the enclave, where over a quarter of the population has been displaced since the start of the conflict. WHO said on Tuesday that out of 35 hospitals there, four are not functioning \u201cdue to severe damage and targeting\u201d. Only eight of the 22 primary healthcare centres run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) are partially functional.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Guterres underscored that aid is desperately needed to respond to the \u201cmost basic needs\u201d of the people of Gaza, the \u201coverwhelming majority\u201d of whom are women and children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo many lives \u2013 and the fate of the entire region \u2013 hang in the balance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; \u0627\u0644\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a\u0629\/Arabic 18 October 2023 UN chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres called on Wednesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East to ease the \u201cepic human suffering\u201d in the Israel-Gaza conflict. The head of the UN health agency (WHO) said he welcomed the reported agreement between the US and Israel, which would allow food, water <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/israel-gaza-un-chief-urges-ceasefire-humanitarian-supplies-given-green-light-to-enter-enclave-un-news\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":301,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2477],"document-source":[5352,6169],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1829,2265,2005,1741,5200],"entity":[],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-289740","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-news-item","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-ceasefire","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-humanitarian-relief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/289740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/301"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/289740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289759,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/289740\/revisions\/289759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=289740"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=289740"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=289740"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=289740"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=289740"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=289740"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=289740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}