Guterres: “Immediate Ceasefire For Humanitarian Reasons”

“Hamas’s attacks on Israel do not justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” said UN Secretary-General António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres at the opening of the Third forum of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on October 18.

This position was confirmed later in Cairo. Guterres met there with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the resulting humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. There, 2 million Palestinians are essentially trapped with minimal supplies. The first goal is to offer immediate humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip, where access should not be hindered.

“We need food, water, fuel, and medicine immediately, we need them in large quantities and on a continuous basis,” Guterres explained. “A small act is not enough for this, it requires long-term efforts with the involvement of humanitarian workers. They must be able to deliver aid and distribute it in a safe environment.”

Finally, the UN Secretary-General repeated the call for an “immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons.”