UN chief warns west Asia ‘on verge of abyss’

“We are on the verge of the abyss in the Middle East,” Guterres warned in a statement on Sunday.

He called on the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement to release all Israeli captives “immediately” and “without conditions”, and urged the Tel Aviv regime to allow humanitarian aid supplies into Gaza.

“Gaza is running out of water, electricity and other essential supplies,” Guterres noted in the statement.

UN stocks of food, water, medical supplies and fuel in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and the Israeli-occupied territories “can be dispatched within hours”, he said, adding that staff “need to be able to bring these supplies into and throughout Gaza safely, and without impediment.”

“Each one of these two objectives is valid in themselves. They should not become bargaining chips, and they must be implemented because it is the right thing to do,” stated Guterres, who emphasized it was his duty to make both appeals “in this dramatic moment.”

On October 7, Hamas launched Operation al-Aqsa Storm deep into the territories occupied by the Israeli regime. The operation involved large-scale air, land, and sea strikes.

The group said the operation was a reaction to the recurring desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied al-Quds as well as intensified Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israel responded with intensive air strikes on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 2,670 Palestinians in Gaza and wounding some 10,000 others, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The regime has also intensified the siege of Gaza, leaving the city, home to more than two million Palestinians, without water, electricity, fuel and internet.

According to reports, Israel also destroyed some 135,000 houses and residential units in Gaza since the beginning of its savage attacks.