The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, condemned this Saturday the “unprecedented escalation” of Israeli bombings in Gaza and renewed his call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
“Unfortunately, instead of a pause, I was surprised by an unprecedented escalation of bombing and its devastating effects, compromising humanitarian objectives,” he said today in Doha, Qatar.
This was the UN Secretary-General’s first reaction to the night of intense shelling and the expansion of Israeli army operations in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
“The situation must be reversed. I reiterate my call to press for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of the hostages and the distribution of humanitarian aid,” said the UN official in the capital of Qatar.
“A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes,” he stressed.
Qatar, which hosts a Hamas political office in Doha and has provided millions of dollars in financial aid to Gaza, is linked to mediation efforts aimed at a prisoner swap between the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip and Israel.
António Guterres met today in Doha with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, who “underlined the total rejection of the State of Qatar to the indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza Strip and the attempts to forcibly remove to its population”.
The Qatari official also spoke out against “the danger of a ground escalation for the safety of civilians and hostages in Gaza.”
Israel’s Defense Minister said today that “the ground shook in Gaza” and that the war against the leaders of the Palestinian enclave, the Islamist group Hamas, has entered a new stage.
“We have moved on to the next stage of the war,” said Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in statements reported today by Israeli media.
“In the last night [sexta-feira], the ground shook in Gaza. We attack above and below the ground. (…) The instructions for the forces are clear. The campaign will continue until further notice.”
His statements mark the gradual acceleration towards a possible all-out ground offensive in northern Gaza.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, causing the death of more than 1,400 people, in addition to 220 kidnapped. Israel responded with bombings and ground raids in the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas since 2007.
Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 7,300 deaths and around 19,000 injuries have been recorded in the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them civilians, of which more than 3,000 are children.
Source: TSF
