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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/23/un-chief-says-blocked-gaza-aid-is-a-moral-outage-calls-for-war-to-end">aljazeera.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">UN chief says blocked Gaza aid is a ‘moral outrage’, calls for war to end</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Al Jazeera</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">March 24, 2024<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p><em>On a visit to the Rafah crossing, Antonio Guterres urges Israel to give people in Gaza unfettered access to humanitarian aid.</em></p></div><div><p>The
line of blocked aid trucks stuck on Egypt’s side of the border with the
Gaza Strip while Palestinians face starvation on the other side is a
“moral outrage”, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said
on a visit to the Rafah crossing.</p>
<p>“I have come to Rafah to shine a spotlight on the pain of
Palestinians in Gaza,” the UN chief said on Saturday, addressing a news
conference in El Arish, in Egypt’s northern Sinai, where much of the
international relief for Gaza is stockpiled as Israel continues to block
aid from entering.</p>
<p>“Here, 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,” he said.</p>
<p>“That is more than tragic. It is a moral outrage. Any further
onslaught will make things even worse – worse for Palestinian civilians,
worse for hostages and worse for all people in the region.”</p>
<p>The visit by Guterres, which is a part of his annual “solidarity
trip” 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.</p>
<p>“You cannot see so many people being killed, you cannot see so much
suffering without feeling hugely frustrated,” Guterres said while taking
questions from reporters. “We don’t have the power to stop [the war in
Gaza], I appeal to those who have the power to stop it to do it,” he
added.</p>
<h2 id="gmail-flood-gaza-with-life-saving-aid">‘Flood Gaza with life-saving aid’</h2>
<p>Several NGOs and rights organisation have <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/18/israel-deliberately-blocking-medical-aid-from-gaza-oxfam-report-warns">accused</a> Israel of deliberately blocking aid to Gaza as warnings of famine in the besieged strip rise.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The UN chief stressed that it was time for Israel to give an
“ironclad commitment” for unfettered access to humanitarian goods
throughout Gaza and said that the UN would also continue to work with
Egypt to “streamline” the flow of aid into Gaza.</p>
<p>“It’s time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid. The choice is clear: either surge or starvation,” Guterres said.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://twitter.com/UNLazzarini/status/1771499428689375603" target="_blank">post</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“This is a man-made hunger & looming famine which can still be
averted,” he said. “The Israeli authorities must allow delivering food
aid at scale to the north including via UNRWA, the largest humanitarian
organisation in Gaza.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/AA-20240323-34075405-34075391-ISRAEL_HITS_PALESTINIANS_WAITING_FOR_HUMANITARIAN_AID_IN_GAZA-1711204923.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80" alt="Wounded Palestinians, including children, are taken by horse-drawn carriage to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital after Israel hit Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid at Kuwait Junction in Gaza City" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="450" height="300" style="margin-right: 25px;">Wounded
Palestinians, including children, are taken by horse-drawn carriage to
al-Ahli Baptist Hospital after Israel hit Palestinians waiting for
humanitarian aid at Kuwait Junction in Gaza City on March 23, 2024
[Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu Agency]
<h2 id="gmail-aid-distribution-with-a-humanitarian-ceasefire">‘Aid distribution with a humanitarian ceasefire’</h2>
<p>Since October, more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed by
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, most of them women and children,
according to local health authorities.</p>
<p>Guterres highlighted that the continuing war has become an obstacle
for delivering aid in the region with continuous violence and
bombardments killing people and humanitarian workers at aid distribution
points.</p>
<p>On Saturday, near the time of Guterres’s news conference, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/23/at-least-19-reported-killed-as-israeli-forces-fire-on-gaza-aid-seekers">at least 19 people</a> were killed in Israeli shelling as aid was being distributed at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City, authorities in Gaza said.</p>
<p>This attack at a food distribution point, a primary location for
delivering assistance to the northern part of the strip, comes days
after at least 21 Palestinian people were <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/15/massacre-israel-forces-attack-crowds-waiting-for-aid-in-gaza-killing-21">killed</a> by Israeli troops in Gaza City, while waiting for aid.</p>
<p>“There is no way to have an effective aid distribution in Gaza
without a humanitarian ceasefire,” the UN chief told reporters, adding
that it was also time for all captives being held by Hamas in Gaza to be
released.</p>
<div><p><span>Video Duration 03 minutes 36 seconds </span></p></div>
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