Guterres: Gaza is turning into a cemetery for children

UN Secretary General Antónnio Guterres has warned that the Gaza Strip is becoming “a cemetery for children” after he called again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow help in the attacked territory.

The UN chief's comments came Monday after Gaza health authorities said the death toll had now exceeded 10,000 people, and the leaders of all major UN humanitarian organisations made a joint declaration of unprecedenteds calling for a ceasefire.

“We need to act now to find a way out of this brutal, horrible, agonizing dead end-of-life”, Guterres told reporters at the UN, writes The Guardian, broadcast Klankosova.tv.

“Gaza is becoming a cemetery for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are said to be killed or injured every day. ”

Efforts at the UN Security Council to negotiate a agreed resolution calling for a ceasefire have been blocked, with the 10 non-permanent members doing their best to reach an agreement on formalisation and emphasis.

Israel has pledged to eliminate Hamas, who rules the Gaza Strip after militants killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in a series of attacks on 7 October.

On Monday, the Israeli army said it had completely surrounded the city of Gaza after more than a week of heavy fighting, effectively dividing territory in two.

Guterres said clear violations of international humanitarian law were being committed.

He added that the UN needed $1.2 billion to help send aid to 2.7 million people in Gaza and the West Coast. In practice, little of this help can reach people inside Gaza.

Land operations by the Israeli Defence Forces and ongoing bombings are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and facilities, including shelters. No one is safe”, Guterres told reporters.

Guterres said 89 people working with the Palestinian UN refugee agency (UNRWA) were killed in Gaza, which he described as the highest number for UN aid workers, the highest “in any comparable period in our organisation's history”.

The UN said last week that more than a border crossing was needed to send aid to Gaza and that Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom was the only one equipped to get enough trucks.

Israel has refused to open the transition, saying it would represent a security risk.