The line of blocked aid trucks stuck on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border while Palestinians starve on the other side is a “moral scandal,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a visit to the Rafah border crossing.

“I came to Rafah to draw attention to the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza,” the UN chief said on Saturday at a news conference in El Arish in Egypt’s northern Sinai, where much of the international aid to Gaza is stored blocked by Israel continued entry of relief supplies.

“Here, from this crossing, we see the heartache and heartlessness of it all. “A long line of blocked aid trucks on one side of the gates, the long shadow of hunger on the other,” he said.

“This is more than tragic. It is a moral outrage. Any further attack will make the situation worse – worse for Palestinian civilians, worse for the hostages and worse for all people in the region.”

Guterres’ visit, part of his annual “solidarity trip” to Muslim countries during Ramadan, comes at a time when Israel is under global pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been devastated by more than five months of war .

“You can’t see how many people are being killed, you can’t see so much suffering without being enormously frustrated,” Guterres said while answering questions from reporters. “We don’t have the power to stop [the war in Gaza]“I appeal to those who have the power to stop it, to do it,” he added.

Every year I undertake a solidarity mission during the holy month of Ramadan, a time to spread compassion, community and peace.

This year I came to the Rafah crossing to raise awareness of the plight and pain of Palestinians in Gaza – and the obstacles that stand in the way of alleviating their plight. pic.twitter.com/EJmtL966O4

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 23, 2024

“Flood Gaza with life-saving aid”

Several NGOs and human rights organizations have done so accused Israel is deliberately blocking aid to Gaza as warnings of famine mount in the besieged Strip.

Receiving Guterres at the airport in El Arish, regional governor Mohamed Shusha said about 7,000 trucks were waiting in North Sinai to deliver aid to Gaza, but that inspection procedures demanded by Israel had held up the flow of aid.

The UN chief stressed that it was time for Israel to give an “iron-clad commitment” to full access to humanitarian supplies across the Gaza Strip and said the UN would continue to work with Egypt to support the flow of aid “rationalize” Gaza.

“It is time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid. The choice is clear: either increase or starvation,” Guterres said.

This week, a global food monitor warned that famine is looming in northern Gaza and could spread to other parts of the territory if a ceasefire is not agreed.

In one post Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said on the social media platform

Lazzarini pointed out that UNRWA was last able to deliver aid to the northern part of the enclave, where famine is spreading, two months ago.

“This is man-made hunger and an impending famine that can still be averted,” he said. “Israeli authorities must allow large-scale deliveries of food aid to the north, including through UNRWA, the largest humanitarian organization in Gaza.”

Israel has kept all but one of the land crossings into the enclave closed. It opened the Karem Abu Salem border crossing (which Israel calls Kerem Shalom) near Rafah in late December, rejecting accusations by Egypt, human rights groups and UN agencies that deliveries of humanitarian aid were delayed.

“Aid distribution with a humanitarian ceasefire”

According to local health authorities, more than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip since October, most of them women and children.

Guterres stressed that the ongoing war has become an obstacle to the delivery of aid in the region, with ongoing violence and bombings killing people and humanitarian workers at aid distribution points.

On Saturday, shortly before Guterres’ press conference, at least seven people were killed by Israeli fire while distributing aid at the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City, Al Jazeera correspondents reported.

This attack on a food distribution point, a main location for the delivery of aid to the northern part of the Strip, comes days after the attack on at least 21 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in Gaza City while waiting for help.

“Without a humanitarian ceasefire, there is no possibility of effective aid distribution in Gaza,” the UN chief told reporters, adding that it was also time to release all prisoners held by Hamas in Gaza.