UN SECRETARY General Antonio Guterres, Monday (6/5), emphasized that Israel’s ground attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip was ‘unacceptable’.
“Today, I strongly appeal to the Israeli government and the leadership of Hamas to do everything possible to realize this very important agreement,” said Guterres ahead of his meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at UN Headquarters, New York.
“This is an opportunity that should not be wasted and a ground attack on Rafah will not be tolerated because the humanitarian impact is very large and could cause the region to become increasingly unstable,” he added.
The Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, Monday (6/5) evening, stated that it accepted the proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip designed by Egypt and Qatar.
However, Israel stated that the ceasefire offer from Hamas failed to meet its main demands.
The Israeli war cabinet also decided to continue planning military operations in Rafah. They said this was to put military pressure on Hamas to free all the hostages and achieve other war goals.
Also read: Doubts and Uncertainty about the Fate of the Ceasefire in Gaza
The Israeli military previously instructed Palestinian residents who had taken refuge in the eastern part of Rafah to immediately evacuate to the Al-Mawasi area on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip.
In fact, around 1.5 million Palestinians are currently in Rafah City to escape the Israeli aggression which has been ongoing since October 7 2023.
The Israeli attack left more than 34,700 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, most of whom were women and children, dead.
Also read: Israel-Hamas ready to negotiate again, UN warns of hunger in Gaza
According to the UN, Israel’s military aggression has caused 85% of the population of the Gaza Strip to be displaced from their homes, 60% of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip was damaged and destroyed, and caused severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an interim ruling on January 26 stating that allegations of genocide committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip were ‘founded’.
Apart from that, the ICJ decision also ordered Israel to stop carrying out genocide and strive to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip. (Ant/Z-1)
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