CAIRO: The United Nations chief said Monday the situation in war-torn Gaza was “appalling and apocalyptic,” warning conditions faced by Palestinians in the territory may amount to the “gravest international crimes.”
In remarks read out on his behalf at a Cairo conference aimed at increasing humanitarian aid, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the international community to “build a foundation for sustainable peace in Gaza and across the Middle East.”
The war in Gaza broke out when Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 44,429 people in Gaza, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Guterres highlighted the devastating toll of the conflict and the urgent need for international action.
“Malnutrition is rampant... Famine is imminent. Meanwhile, the health system has collapsed,” he said.
The UN chief added that Gaza now has “the highest number of children amputees per capita anywhere in the world,” with “many losing limbs and undergoing surgeries without even anesthesia.”
The secretary-general also criticized the severe restrictions on aid delivery, calling the current levels “grossly insufficient.”
According to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) count, only 65 aid trucks per day had been able to enter Gaza this past month, compared to a pre-war average of 500.
International aid organizations have repeatedly raised alarm over the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, warning that civilians are on the brink of famine.
They have said aid shipments reaching the enclave are now at their lowest since the start of the war.
Israel, which early in the conflict imposed a complete siege for a period on the Hamas-ruled territory, has blamed aid issues on what it says is the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid.
UN’s Guterres said on Monday that the blockade of aid to Gaza “is not a crisis of logistics” but rather “a crisis of political will and of respect for fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”
UNRWA said all the attempts it has made to deliver aid into northern Gaza have either been “denied” or “impeded” between October 6, 2024 and November 25, amid fierce fighting in the area.
Guterres said “if UNRWA is forced to close, the responsibility of replacing its vital services ... would rest with Israel.”
In his speech at the conference, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that the agency “remains the backbone of humanitarian response” in Gaza.
He also called for the use of “a robust international legal and political framework” to ensure the continuation of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“Without this, humanitarians, however selfless and courageous, cannot stay and deliver,” he added.

ANKARA: Turkiye, which backs militant factions in Syria, rejected Monday any suggestion that “foreign interference” was behind the offensive launched by Islamists in the country’s north.
“It would be a mistake at this time to try to explain the events in Syria by any foreign interference,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a joint press conference in Ankara with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi.
The recent flareup which saw Damascus losing swathes of territory in northwestern Syria, including Aleppo, during a lightning offensive by militants, was due to the government’s failure to engage in dialogue with armed opposition groups, he said.
“The lack of talks between [Damascus] and the opposition has brought the problem to this point,” he said, describing it as “a mistake to ignore the legitimate demands of the opposition.”
“Damascus must reconcile with its own people and the legitimate opposition,” he added.
Turkiye did “not want an escalation of the civil war,” said the minister who told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call Sunday that Ankara would support moves “to reduce tension” in Syria.
Araghchi said it was crucial “to protect the achievements of the Astana process” to end Syria’s civil war, which groups Ankara, Moscow and Tehran, and pledged to convene fresh ministerial talks in the Kazakh capital “soon.”
The last such meeting took place in mid-November.
“Syria must not become a center for terrorist groups,” warned Araghchi in reference to the militant factions that staged last week’s attack.
Fidan also said it was “important that terror organizations do not take advantage of the instability” although he was referring to Kurdish-led rebels that Ankara sees as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK has led a led a decades-long insurgency against Turkiye.
Turkish troops and Turkiye-backed militant factions control much of northern Syria, and Ankara is concerned that the recent outbreak of fighting could swell the flow of people fleeing across the border.
“We don’t want civilians to be killed or cities bombarded or people being displaced. We want these displaced people to be able to go back. The flow of refugees must be reversed,” he said.
Turkiye is already hosting some 3.2 million Syrian refugees, according to UN data.
Syria’s Bashar Assad on Monday branded the Islamist-led offensive as a bid to redraw the map of the region in line with US interests in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian.
Both Iran and Russia, which have backed Assad since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, have said they will help Damascus fight back after losing Aleppo, with Tehran confirming it would keep its military advisers in Syria.