NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres assailed Israel, contending that “horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza” and that only Israel can remove the obstacles to getting more aid into the Palestinian enclave.

“Let me be clear. Nothing justifies the abhorrent October 7 Hamas attacks and hostage-taking in Israel,” the U.N. chief said in a visit to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials to push for a cease-fire in the six-month Israeli-Hamas war.

“But nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he said.

Later, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the U.N.’s Palestinian relief agency, said Israeli authorities told the agency that they were immediately blocking new food convoys to northern Gaza.

“This is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine,” Lazzarini said. “These restrictions must be lifted.”

He said that by blocking the aid being transported by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, “the clock will tick faster towards famine and many more will die of hunger, dehydration and lack of shelter. This cannot happen. It would only stain our collective humanity.”

On a Saturday visit to Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt, Guterres said it was a “moral outrage” that aid is being blocked from being sent into Gaza.

“Here from this crossing, we see the heartbreak and heartlessness of it all. A long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates, the long shadow of starvation on the other,” Guterres said.

He said the only effective and efficient way to deliver heavy goods into Gaza was by road and included an exponential increase in commercial deliveries. He said in Egypt, “The daily assault on the human dignity of Palestinians is creating a crisis of credibility for the international community.”

He offered his remarks as the U.N. Security Council heads to a Monday vote calling for a cease-fire in the war, with the U.S. supporting the resolution and representatives of all 10 elected members of the council also supporting it, according to U.N. diplomats.

The Security Council on Friday failed to call for a cease-fire in Gaza after Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-drafted resolution supporting a halt to the fighting.

This was the seventh time the council failed to agree on a cease-fire resolution since the war started.

Heavy fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday as Israel vowed to push on with its ground war in the territory’s far south near Rafah despite U.S. objections and ongoing truce talks in Qatar.

(VOA)