{"id":8025,"date":"2024-03-23T22:53:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T22:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/23\/the-choice-is-clear-surge-or-starvation-un-chief-condemns-blocked-aid-to-gaza-on-ramadan-visit\/"},"modified":"2024-03-23T22:53:08","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T22:53:08","slug":"the-choice-is-clear-surge-or-starvation-un-chief-condemns-blocked-aid-to-gaza-on-ramadan-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/23\/the-choice-is-clear-surge-or-starvation-un-chief-condemns-blocked-aid-to-gaza-on-ramadan-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The choice is clear – surge or starvation’: UN chief condemns blocked aid to Gaza on Ramadan visit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has denounced aid being blocked from entering Gaza, describing the imminent risk of starvation as a “moral outrage”.<\/p>\n

“It’s time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid. The choice is clear: either surge or starvation,” Mr Guterres said on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border.<\/p>\n

Almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are facing catastrophic food insecurity, with a risk of famine by the end of May if a ceasefire does not happen or if there is no sustained access to aid, according to a UN-backed report.<\/p>\n

The UN secretary-general stood beside a long queue of trucks that international aid agencies and Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron have blamed on Israel<\/strong><\/a>. They claim some supplies have been stuck at the border for nearly three weeks.<\/p>\n

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\n Palestinian children wait to receive food in Rafah, Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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\n Humanitarian aid trucks at the Rafah border. Pic: AP
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Mr Guterres also renewed calls for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” – after more than 32,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel’s military offensive, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the UN head said it was time to “silence the guns” as Gazans “remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare”.<\/p>\n

He added: “Communities obliterated. Homes demolished. Entire families and generations wiped out. With hunger and starvation stalking the population. Any further onslaught will make everything worse.”<\/p>\n

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Asked about Mr Guterres’s concerns, Mr Netanyahu’s office referred to a social media post by foreign minister Israel Katz, who accused the UN chief of allowing the organisation to become “antisemitic and anti-Israeli”.<\/p>\n

Mr Guterres’s visit to the territory comes during Ramadan<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>with <\/strong>him demanding the immediate release of all Israeli hostages in the holy month’s “spirit of compassion”.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu presses on with Rafah offensive<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hamas is still thought to be holding around 100 Israeli hostages, having already killed several since the 7 October attacks – during which 1,200 Israelis were killed.<\/p>\n

It recently proposed a deal for a ceasefire, offering Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ignored Western concerns that an assault on Rafah, currently home to an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians, would “further isolate” his nation<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said he made it “supremely clear” to US President Joe Biden he intended to go ahead with the offensive, believing Hamas<\/strong><\/a>‘s remaining battalions are hiding there.<\/p>\n

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\n \"The
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Israel ‘will do it alone’ on Rafah offensive
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Read more:
Israeli spokesperson suspended after reports of row with Foreign Office<\/a>
Children among more than 100 killed by gunmen in Moscow massacre<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Eight people were killed on Friday in an airstrike on a house in Al Naser, east of Rafah. And fighting raged on Saturday around Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa.<\/p>\n

The Israel Defence Forces said it had killed more than 170 militants in the hospital since they began their raid five days ago<\/strong><\/a>, but Palestinian authorities described it as a “war crime” that led to multiple casualties.<\/p>\n

Gaza’s health ministry said hospital departments had been set alight with patients still inside, adding that the Israeli military had detained health workers, patients and relatives inside the complex.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has denounced aid being blocked from entering Gaza, describing the imminent risk of starvation as a “moral outrage”. “It’s time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid. The choice is clear: either surge or starvation,” Mr Guterres said on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border. Almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/02\/768x432\/skynews-gaza-kids-food_6470844.jpg?20240227122035","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,8766,302,4336,6477,6502,43,12213,12212,2130,1690],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8025"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8027,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8025\/revisions\/8027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}