UN Chief Says Israel Has Made Gaza Into “a Killing Field”

The latest phase of Israel’s genocide in Gaza has made the Strip into “a killing field,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned as Israel is blocking the entry of all humanitarian aid and is continuing its relentless bombardments.

“More than an entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza. No food. No fuel. No medicine. No commercial supplies. As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have reopened,” Guterres said in remarks to the press on Tuesday.

“Gaza is a killing field — and civilians are in an endless death loop,” the UN chief said.

Israel has been blocking all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza since March 2, once again inflaming the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza after a brief, limited respite during the ceasefire agreement. All bakeries in the region, including the World Food Programme’s (WFP), have been forced to shut down due to a total lack of flour and fuel.

All other vital supplies, including medicine and shelter, have also been barred from entry by Israeli authorities.

At the same time, medical needs are higher than ever.

Last week, Médecins Sans Frontières warned that health facilities in Gaza are running out of basic, critical medications like anesthetics, pediatric antibiotics and medication for conditions like epilepsy and hypertension. Medical teams are resorting to drastic measures, like dressing wounds for the injured without providing any pain relief, while skin conditions are spreading rapidly due to a lack of hygiene supplies.

Medical and food needs compound upon each other. Over the weekend, the UN’s child agency, UNICEF, announced that it had to close 21 malnutrition treatment centers in Gaza because of Israel’s attacks and renewed evacuation orders putting the centers in danger. This creates even more risks for the roughly 1 million children in Gaza who are being deprived of basic needs due to Israel’s blockade.

Israel is also killing hundreds of Palestinians each week since unilaterally ending the ceasefire agreement last month and resuming its carpet bombing campaign. This includes 100 children being killed or injured each day by Israel’s attacks, according to UNICEF.

“The world may be running out of words to describe the situation in Gaza, but we will never run away from the truth,” said Guterres. “The current path is a dead end — totally intolerable in the eyes of international law and history.”

Other top UN officials strongly condemned Israel’s assault in a joint statement this week, signed by the UN’s top humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, as well as the heads of UNICEF, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), WFP and the World Health Organization.

“We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life,” the UN leaders said. “With the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza now in its second month, we appeal to world leaders to act — firmly, urgently and decisively — to ensure the basic principles of international humanitarian law are upheld.”