Gaza “becoming a graveyard for children”: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

New York [US]: The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said Gaza is “becoming a graveyard for children”, CNN reported.

Guterres told reporters in New York: “The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a crisis of humanity.” He added that the need for a ceasefire is becoming “more urgent with every passing hour.”

“The parties to the conflict–and, indeed, the international community–face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza,” he said.

The UN chief said 89 staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began a month ago.

More UN aid workers “have been killed in recent weeks than in any comparable period in the history of our organisation,” he wrote on X on Monday night.

“I join in the mourning of 89 of our @UNRWA colleagues who have been killed in Gaza–many of them with members of their family,” he added, as per CNN.

UNRWA on Tuesday said that at least 26 members had been injured.

“We are beyond devastated. Our colleagues will be greatly missed, and they will not be forgotten. We share this grief with each other and with the families,” the agency said on X.

The UN Secretary-General’s comments come four weeks after Israel declared war on Hamas, following the terrorist organisation’s October 7 attack that killed 1,400 people in Israel and saw about 240 others kidnapped.

Israel retaliated by launching an air and ground offensive on Gaza, vowing to eliminate the militant group.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has declared that Israel will retain “complete freedom of action to respond to any situation in the Gaza Strip” once the ongoing war ends, CNN reported on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, Gallant emphasised that “at the end of this ‘campaign,’ Hamas, as a military organisation or governing body in Gaza, will cease to exist,” CNN reported citing Ynet news website.

“There will be no security threat to Israel from Gaza, and Israel will retain complete freedom of action to respond to any situation in the Gaza Strip that poses any kind of threat,” Gallant was heard saying on the Ynet recording.

These statements align with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent remarks that Israel would have overall security responsibility in Gaza for an indefinite period following the war. However, the Israeli government has not provided detailed plans for governing Gaza should Hamas be eliminated.

The situation in Gaza post-war remains uncertain, with concerns about how Israel plans to manage it. The latest violence has caused more than 1,400 deaths in Israel and at least 10,022 in Gaza as of November 6, according to authorities on both sides.

Israel will have “security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period following its war against Hamas, Netanyahu announced in an interview aired Monday night, The Times of Israel reported.

“I think Israel will for an indefinite period have security responsibility,” Netanyahu told ABC News. “We’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that… security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”