North Sinai Governor Mohamed Shusha tells visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that some 7,000 trucks are waiting in North Sinai to deliver aid to Gaza, but that inspection procedures demanded by Israel had held up the flow of relief.

The comments come in a statement from Shusha’s office as the UN chief arrived in el-Arish in Egypt’s northern Sinai, where much of the international relief for Gaza is delivered and stockpiled.

Guterres is expected to visit Egypt’s border with Gaza later today to renew pleas for a ceasefire in the war that has been raging for over five months, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel.

UN chief UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a ceasefire in Gaza as he addresses reporters in El Arish, in Egypt’s northern Sinai, where much of the international relief for Gaza is stockpiled.

• “I have come to Rafah to shine a spotlight on the pain of Palestinians in Gaza,” Guterres said.
• “Here, from this crossing, we see the heartbreak and heartlessness of it all. A long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates, the long shadow of starvation on the other,” he said.

• “That is more than tragic. It is a moral outrage.”

The UN chief said the choice was between increasing aid or starvation.

• “Israel should give “total, unfettered” access to humanitarian goods throughout Gaza.
• “We will continue to work with Egypt to streamline the flow of aid.”

Source: TOI and Al Jazeera

Header: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (C) walks on the tarmac flanked by the Egyptian Second Army in Sinai Chief Mohammad Abdel Rahman (L) and Egypt’s Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar (R), upon landing at Egypt’s al-Arish Airport, near the Rafah border with the Gaza Strip on March 23, 2024. (Khaled Desouki/AFP)