UN Secretary-General warns that the Middle East is “on the brink of abyss”

First Amendment: 10/15/2023 – 23:54Last update: 10/15/2023 – 23:53

1 minute

“Gaza is running out of water, electricity and other basic supplies,” Guterres said in a statement.

He added that UN stocks of food, water, medical supplies and fuel in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Israel “could be delivered within hours,” adding that staff “must be able to get these supplies into and through Gaza safely.” And without any restrictions.

He called on Hamas to release the hostages “immediately” and “unconditionally.”

“Both of these goals are valid in themselves. They should not become a bargaining chip and should be implemented because it is the right thing to do,” Guterres said, adding that it was his duty to make both appeals “in this tragic time.” “At this moment, we are on the brink of abyss in the Middle East.”

Israel declared war on Hamas last Sunday, a day after waves of the movement’s fighters crossed the heavily fortified border and shot, stabbed and shot more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Subsequent sustained bombings devastated neighborhoods and left at least 2,670 people dead in the Gaza Strip, most of them ordinary Palestinians.

Israel also cut off all water, electricity and food supplies to the densely populated coastal enclave, before resuming water supplies to the south on Sunday.

The Israeli army asked residents of the northern Gaza Strip, nearly half of the Strip’s 2.4 million population, to head south to safety, ahead of an expected ground attack.

Aid groups have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the region, with nearly a million people displaced and Palestinians complaining of running out of water.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had confirmed that 155 people remained hostage by Hamas since the movement carried out its bloody attack last week.

© 2023 Agence France-Presse