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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has denounced the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip over its blocking the transfer of humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.

"The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza," the UN chief said on Friday.

He added, "An effective aid operation in Gaza requires security staff who can work in safety, logistical capacity, and the resumption of commercial activity. These four elements do not exist."

The remarks came amid an unrelenting war that the Israeli regime has been waging against the Palestinian territory since October 7 following an operation staged by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

At least 20,057 people, including some 8,000 children and 6,200 women, have been killed in the war so far.

Besides its incessant and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, Israel has cut off the flow of basic supplies, such as water, electricity, medicines, and fuel into one of the world’s most densely-populated territories that houses over two million Palestinians.

According to a report released on Thursday by 23 UN and humanitarian agencies, Gaza’s entire population was in a food crisis or worse and 576,600 were at the "catastrophic" starvation level.

The UN’s World Food Program, meanwhile, said that 90 percent of the territory’s population was regularly going without food for a full day.

Guterres told reporters, "A humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare."

He said Gaza faces "a humanitarian catastrophe" and warned that a total collapse of the humanitarian support system would lead to "a complete breakdown of public order and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt."