CAIRO, Friday, October 20, 2023 (WAFA) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the absolute need to have the aid trucks, which are loaded with water, fuel, medicines, and food and piled up at the Egypt-Gaza border be moved as quickly as possible and as many as necessary into the Gaza Strip. “But for that, this must be a sustained effort.”
He said during a press conference held at Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza there are two million people who are under fire and are suffering enormously in Gaza with no water, no food, no medicine, no fuel, and need everything to survive.
“On this side, we have seen so many trucks loaded with water, with fuel, with medicines, with food. Exactly the same things that are needed on this side of the wall. So these trucks are not just trucks. They are a lifeline,” said the UN Chief. “They are the difference between life and death for so many people in Gaza.”
What we need is to make them move, to make them move to the other side of this wall, to make them move as quickly as possible and as many as possible, he stressed.
Now, recently it was announced by Israel and by the United States that humanitarian aid will be allowed to enter Gaza. And I know that there is also an agreement between Egypt and Israel to make it possible, he explained.
“But these announcements were made with some conditions and some restrictions. And so we are now actively engaging with all the parties, actively engaging with Egypt, with Israel, with the US, in order to make sure that we are able to clarify those conditions, that we are able to limit those restrictions in order to have as soon as possible these trucks moving to where they are needed.”
“We are not in a no-man’s land. We are in the land of a sovereign country – Egypt. And it is essential to recognize the role of the Egyptian institutions and namely of the Egyptian Red Crescent,” added Guterres
He stressed that for UNRWA to be able to distribute aid on that side, it is necessary that UNRWA has fuel, stressing the need to have the guarantee that there is enough fuel on the other side to distribute aid to the people in need. “So, it is very clear that it is absolutely essential to solve these problems quickly and I am hopeful they will be solved quickly to make sure there is massive support, humanitarian support, to the people of Gaza.”
“Unfortunately, this is not a normal humanitarian operation. It is an operation in a war zone and that is the reason why I have appealed for a humanitarian ceasefire, not that I consider that a humanitarian ceasefire is a precondition for humanitarian delivery. We don’t want to punish the Gaza people twice. First because of the war and second because of the lack of humanitarian aid. But it is clear that a humanitarian ceasefire will make things much easier and much safer for everybody,” he said.
T.R.
