Gaza war: Guterres expected to visit border as Israeli strikes hit Rafah

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UN chief Antonio Guterres says it is "impossible not to feel heartbroken" after visiting and listening to accounts of Gaza residents at a hospital in El Arish, Egypt, where survivors of Israel’s war are being treated.

"It’s time to silence the guns," he said, in a statement on X.

Guterres stressed the need for a humanitarian ceasefire in the territory.

Today I met with Palestinian civilians at the General Hospital in Al Arish, Egypt.

It’s impossible not to feel heartbroken by the accounts of those injured or separated from their families.

It’s time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

It’s time to silence the guns. pic.twitter.com/y0gQijjNol

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 23, 2024

A top Israeli commander has said troops will continue their operation at Gaza's largest hospital Al-Shifa until the last militant is "in their hands".

"We will finish this operation only when the last terrorist is in our hands - alive or dead," Southern Command chief Major General Yaron Finkelman said in comments released on Saturday.

Answering questions from reporters at El Arish airport, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ground intervention in Rafah would be a "humanitarian catastrophe".

"It is time to ensure that a humanitarian ceasefire takes place," he said, adding that it was also time for all captives to be released and for a Palestinian state to be created.

A US State Department spokesperson has called on Israel to investigate "credible allegations of law of war violations" after a video aired by Al Jazeera showed the moments when four apparently unarmed Palestinians were killed by Israeli air attacks.

The strikes are believed to have happened in early February.

The Israeli military claimed the footage was from an "active combat zone in Khan Younis" in southern Gaza and that it is investigating the incident.

Israeli fire on Saturday killed nine people and wounded dozens more as they were waiting at an aid distribution point in the territory's north.

"At least nine martyrs and dozens injured by Israeli occupation army tank fire and shells. They were waiting for aid trucks at the Kuwait roundabout" on the outskirts of Gaza City, a health ministry statement said.

Israel's foreign minister said the United Nations had become an "anti-Israeli body" under Antonio Guterres, as the UN chief called for a ceasefire on a visit to Gaza's border Saturday.

"Under his leadership, the UN has become an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror," Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X, formerly Twitter.

Five of the wounded Palestinians at the Gaza Strip's Al Shifa hospital, which is being besieged by Israeli forces, have died, the enclave's health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The medical facility is under siege for the sixth day in a row with no water, food nor health services, the ministry added

UN chief Antonio Guterres, on a visit to the doorstep of war-ravaged Gaza, on Saturday said the world has seen enough of its horrors and appealed for a ceasefire to allow in more aid.

"Palestinians in Gaza - children, women, men - remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare," he said on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing. "I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough".

The health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that at least 32,142 people have been killed in the territory during more than five months of war waged by Israel.

The toll includes at least 72 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 74,412 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.

Israel has targeted Wadi Saluki in southern Lebanon with artillery shells, according to the country's official National News Agency.

Earlier, the agency reported a separate Israeli artillery attack on the outskirts of the villages of Aita al-Shaab and Ramyah.

The Israeli army has arrested 15 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight, the Palestinian Prisoners Club has said.

The arrests took place in the governorates of Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tubas, Nablus, and Jerusalem.

The Israeli army has threatened to destroy the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in northern Gaza with medical teams and patients inside, media office in the enclave said on Saturday.

"We received testimonies from inside Al-Shifa Medical Complex indicating that the Israeli occupation army threatened the medical staff and the displaced people sheltering there that it would destroy the hospital buildings with them inside," Gaza media office said in a statement.

"The army demanded that the Palestinians inside the hospital “head out for torture, investigation, and execution," it added.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has arrived at El Arish airport in North Sinai, Egypt.

Images showed him walking with North Sinai Governor Major General Mohamed Abdel-Fadel Shousha at the airport.

Guterres is scheduled to visit the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza to call for a truce in the war in the enclave.

The Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz has urged "more countries to follow the US and ban funding" to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

His remarks come after the funding of UNRWA was banned in the US as part of a $1.2 trillion spending package that passed in the Congress overnight.

"The historic ban on US funding to UNRWA that passed today with an overwhelming bipartisan support, demonstrates what we knew all along: UNRWA is part of the problem and cannot be part of the solution. UNRWA will not be a part of Gaza’s landscape in the aftermath of Hamas," Katz said on X.

"Thousands of UNRWA employees are involved in Hamas terror activities and their facilities were used for terrorist purposes," he claimed.

"I urge more countries to follow the US and ban funding to this organization."

Five civilians, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the north of the city of Rafah at dawn, the Palestinian official agency Wafa said.

Medical sources reported that Israeli warplanes bombed a two-story house in the Mirage area, north of the city of Rafah, killing civilians and injuring scores more.

A vote at the UN Security Council on a new text calling for an "immediate" ceasefire in Israel's war in Gaza was postponed to Monday, diplomatic sources told AFP, after a separate, US-lead draft resolution was vetoed.

The United States, Israel's main ally and military backer, had put forward a resolution mentioning "the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire" and condemning the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Russia and China on Friday vetoed that resolution, which was also opposed by Arab states for stopping short of explicitly demanding Israel immediately end its campaign in Gaza.

The new ceasefire text was meant to go to a vote on Saturday, but was pushed back to allow further discussions, the diplomatic sources said.

The new, tougher draft resolution, seen by AFP, "demands an immediate ceasefire" for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan that leads "to a permanent sustainable ceasefire" respected by all sides.