UN chief says 'everywhere is a potential killing zone' in Gaza

WASHINGTON

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern Monday over the ongoing situation in the Gaza Strip, saying "nowhere is safe" in the besieged enclave.

"The extreme level of fighting and devastation in Gaza is incomprehensible and inexcusable...Everywhere is a potential killing zone," Guterres said on X.

It is high time for the parties to the conflict to show the political courage and political will to finally reach a deal, he added.

Separately, Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN is calling on all parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and to take constant care to “spare civilians and civilian objects.”

"I can further tell you that we and our humanitarian partners continue to assist families who are being displaced from northern Gaza to areas in the south," he told the reporters.

Dujarric highlighted that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that with each new evacuation directive, families in Gaza are being forced to make impossible choices: Stay amid active hostilities or flee to areas with little space or services.

"There is no safe place in Gaza. Not shelters, not hospitals, and not the so-called humanitarian zones," he stressed.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 38,700 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 89,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

More than nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.