From the Liveblog of
Friday, March 22, 2024
UN chief Guterres to visit Egypt-Gaza border on Saturday
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit the Egypt-Gaza border city of Rafah on Saturday to reiterate his call for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, his spokesman says.
Guterres, who is currently in Brussels, will arrive in Egypt on Friday evening for “his annual Ramadan solidarity trip which comes this year in turbulent times, with the conflict in Gaza,” spokesman Farhan Haq says.
While there, the secretary-general will meet aid workers on the Egyptian side of Rafah, which is split over the border with the Gaza Strip and has been a key gateway for humanitarian supplies reaching the territory.
Guterres will also visit a hospital in El-Arish, an Egyptian city that sits close to the Gaza border.
Israel has threatened to launch an offensive on the Palestinian side of Rafah, which US Secretary State Antony Blinken has warned would be a “mistake” that “risks further isolating Israel around the world” and could jeopardize Israel’s security.
Over one million people are sheltering in Rafah amid a worsening humanitarian crisis after heeding Israeli directives to flee areas to the north.
Israel has said Rafah, where four Hamas battalions are deployed, remains the terror group’s last major stronghold in the Strip after the IDF operated in the north and center of the Palestinian enclave. It has said an offensive there is necessary to achieve the war’s goals, and is not a question of “if” but “when.” At least some of the 134 hostages remaining in Gaza are thought to be in the city. Hamas leadership is also believed to be sheltering there.
During his visit, Guterres — who last visited Rafah in October — will “reiterate his calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and silencing the guns, particularly in Gaza and Sudan,” Haq says.
In Cairo, he is expected to have iftar — an evening meal marking the end of Ramadan’s daily fast — with refugees who fled Sudan because of the ongoing conflict there.
Guterres will then travel to Amman in Jordan to visit UNRWA facilities. UNRWA, the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, has been hit by controversy recently over Israeli allegations that 12 of its 30,000 employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas onslaught.
