NEW YORK / PNN/

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres renewed his appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza as top diplomats debated on Tuesday the deepening crisis in the Gaza Strip and the whole Middle East in the UN Security Council, against the backdrop of Israel’s unrelenting military operation, mounting death toll and escalating global calls for an immediate ceasefire.

Addressing the UNSC, the UN Secretary-General stressed that the past 100 days have been heartbreaking and catastrophic for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

He said that the entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history,” describing the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “appalling”.

He also stressed that: “Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

“With winter bearing down, 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza face inhumane, squalid conditions, struggling to simply make it through another day without proper shelter, heating, sanitary facilities, food, and drinking water.”

The UN Secretary-General said: “Everyone in Gaza is hungry – with a quarter of Gaza’s population – more than half a million people – grappling with catastrophic levels of food insecurity.”

He stressed that without functioning hospitals, and with minimal opportunities for patients to exit Gaza, thousands suffering from chronic diseases like cancer and kidney failure are at risk of dying. “A functioning medical evacuation system is urgently needed.”

“Disease is spreading as the health system collapses.  Only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partly functional.

That means the people of Gaza not only risk being killed or injured by relentless bombardments; they also run a growing chance of contracting infectious diseases like hepatitis A, dysentery, and cholera,” he added.

He said that the staff of the United Nations alongside their partners in Gaza are working heroically every day to reach people in need, adding that despite all the efforts no effective humanitarian aid operation can function under the conditions that have been forced on Palestinians in Gaza and those doing everything possible to help them.

regarding aid delivery to Gaza, he stressed that the quantity of aid is highly insufficient in light of needs. “It is fantasy to think that 2.2 million people can survive on aid alone.”

He stressed that humanitarian delivery is not an exercise of counting trucks.  It is about ensuring the right volume and quality of assistance reaches people in need, in line with Security Council resolution 2720.

The UN Secretary-General said that after finally seeing a few signs of progress in the authorization of entry permits for certain goods and some measures to reduce screening and crossing times, “we still face a cumbersome process of verifications and multiple unjustified rejections of desperately needed items.”

He called for rapid, safe, unhindered, expanded and sustained humanitarian access throughout Gaza and an end to all violations of International Humanitarian Law.

He further expressed deep trouble by reports of Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians detained during military operations.

“A lasting end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only come through a two-state solution,” he said, stressing that “Israel’s occupation must end.”

He maintained that clear and repeated rejection of the Two-State solution at the highest levels of the Israeli government is unacceptable.

“The right of the Palestinian people to build their own fully independent state must be recognized by all.” He said.

He stressed that any refusal to accept the Two-State solution by any party must be firmly rejected.