U.N Chief Pleads For Aid To Move Into Gaza

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used a visit to Egypt’s crossing with the Gaza Strip to make an emotional appeal for aid trucks to move into the besieged enclave, days after the U.S. raised hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough.

Standing at the Rafah Crossing in the Sinai Peninsula, where more than 200 aid trucks are waiting and much more relief is stockpiled, Guterres described the delay in delivering food, water, medicines and fuel to those in need as heartbreaking.

“These trucks are not just trucks they are a lifeline, they are the difference between life and death to many people in Gaza,” he said, as hundreds of people including truck drivers and aid volunteers chanted pro-Palestinian slogans and waved banners around him.

“To see them stuck here makes me very clear, what we need is to make them move, to make them move to the other side of this wall, to make them move as quickly as possible and as many as possible.”

Rafah has remained shut since shortly after Israel began its bombing of Gaza in retaliation for a deadly assault by the Hamas militant group on October 7, and wrangling over conditions for delivering the aid has prevented its reopening.

“We are now actively engaging with all the parties, actively engaging with Egypt, with Israel, with the U.S., in order to make sure that we are able to clarify those conditions, that we are able to limit those restrictions,” he said.

“Talking about 20 trucks only is a Zionist-American attempt to throw dust in the eyes, and is misleading to the public opinion about resolving the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement.

REUTERS