United Nations: Guterres calls on the Zionist entity to open the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings immediately

New York (United Nations) – The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, on Tuesday called on the Zionist entity to reopen the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings “immediately” to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, and called on them to stop the escalation.

Guterres said in a statement to the press that the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings is particularly harmful to the already desperate humanitarian situation. They must be reopened immediately, warning that a “massive attack” on Rafah, which is crowded with citizens, would constitute a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

This morning, the Zionist occupation forces occupied the Rafah crossing, located south of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, and stopped the flow of aid to the Strip.

By controlling the Rafah crossing, the occupation forces closed the land crossing through which aid enters and the wounded and sick leave to receive treatment outside the Gaza Strip, in light of the deteriorating health situation in the Gaza areas as a result of the ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip.

The city of Rafah is the last refuge for the displaced in the afflicted Strip. Since the beginning of the ground operation launched by the occupation forces on the Gaza Strip on the 27th of last October, citizens have been asked to go from the north and center of the Strip to the south, claiming that they are “safe areas.”

Today, Rafah, whose estimated area is approximately 65 square kilometers, is home to more than 1.5 million Palestinians, the majority of whom were forced to flee there in search of safety.

The displaced people face miserable conditions inside thousands of tents spread throughout the city. Even the sidewalks are crowded with tents and the main roads have turned into crowded markets.

The Zionist occupation continues its aggression on land, sea and air against the Gaza Strip since the seventh of last October, which resulted in the martyrdom of 34,789 citizens, the majority of whom were children and women, and the injury of 78,204 others, while thousands of victims remain under the rubble.

APS