The UN chief Antonio Guterres raised the alarm over a full-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah would deliver a death blow to aid programs in Gaza, where humanitarian assistance remains "completely insufficient.
In a statement, Antonio Guterres said that Gaza's southernmost city, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded together in tent cities, was "the core of the humanitarian aid operation" in the Palestinian territory.
"An all-out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there; it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programs," he said, calling for ending the 'bloodshed'.
Guterres' remarks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday reiterated that his country was intent on a ground invasion in Rafah.
He also affirmed that "nothing can justify Hamas's deliberate killing, injuring, torturing and kidnapping of civilians, the use of sexual violence -- or the indiscriminate launching of rockets towards Israel".
"And nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people," he noted.
Follow the latest news on Google News
