UN Security Council envoys spoke of unimaginable suffering and called for an end to the war in Gaza as they visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, the only entry point for aid into the besieged area.

China’s representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, when asked by reporters on Monday whether he had a message to nations that reject a ceasefire in Gaza, replied simply: “Enough is enough.”

A majority of UN member states support an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as dire conditions worsen for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

The United States, which supports Israel, vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council last week that called for an immediate ceasefire as Israeli tanks and troops press ahead with an attack that has displaced most of Gaza’s population and killed and injured thousands.

A dozen Security Council envoys took part in the trip to Rafah organized by the United Arab Emirates, just days after Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that thousands of people in the besieged Palestinian enclave were “simply starving.”

After flying to the city of Al-Arish in Egypt, they were briefed on conditions in Gaza by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) before making their way to Rafah, 48 km (30 miles) away.

“The reality is even worse than words can say,” Ecuador’s U.N. Ambassador Jose De La Gasca told reporters after the UNRWA briefing.

The representatives of the USA and France did not take part in the trip.

United Arab Emirates Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said envoys had been told that in addition to the conflict itself, people in the Gaza Strip were dying from malnutrition, a collapsing medical system and a lack of water and food.

Israel has bombed Gaza from the air, sea and land; imposed a siege; and installed a floor Offensive since October 7thAccording to Palestinian officials, more than 18,000 people died and more than 49,500 were injured. Israeli forces launched the attack after Hamas carried out attacks in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and captured 240, according to Israeli authorities.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said on Monday that the bodies of at least 208 Palestinians had arrived at several hospitals in Gaza in the past few hours.

At least 416 people were injured in the same period, he said, while “a large number” of victims lay under the rubble as Israeli forces prevent ambulances from reaching those areas.

“Hunger prevails”

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini described an “implosion of civil order” in which people in Gaza, who had not eaten for days, looted aid distribution centers and stopped trucks on roads to ensure supplies for their families.

“There is not enough help,” Lazzarini said. “There is hunger in Gaza. … Most people just sleep on the concrete.”

Russian envoy Vasily Nebenzia described conditions in Gaza as “catastrophic” and said countries opposed to a ceasefire should “face reality and show dignity to Palestinians.”

Nebenzia rejected allegations that it was hypocritical to condemn Israel while Moscow continues to push its war against Ukraine.

Limited humanitarian aid and fuel shipments entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing, but aid workers said this fell far short of meeting residents’ most basic needs.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the situation in Gaza was “catastrophic, apocalyptic” and that the destruction was proportionally “even greater” than what Germany suffered in World War II.

“Human suffering represents an unprecedented challenge for the international community,” Borrell said. “Civil casualties account for between 60 and 70 percent of all deaths” and “85 percent of the population are internally displaced.”

With nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents pushed south following Israel’s offensive and evacuation orders in the north, concern is growing among Palestinians that they could be driven out of the territory entirely in a repeat of the 1948 mass expulsion known as Nakbaor “catastrophe” in connection with the founding of the State of Israel.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said Monday that people in southern Gaza were becoming sick when they gathered in crowded shelters or slept in tents in open areas.

Nicholas Papachrysostomou, the group’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, said “one in two patients” at a clinic in Rafah had a respiratory infection after prolonged exposure to cold and rain.

“In some emergency shelters, 600 people share a single toilet. We are already seeing many cases of diarrhea. Often children are the worst affected,” he said.

Aid deliveries stalled

As the U.N. envoys traveled toward the Rafah border, hundreds of trucks parked along the road leading to the crossing, waiting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Nusseibeh said Abu Dhabi was coordinating with relevant authorities to allow drinking water to be pumped to Gaza from an Emirati-funded desalination plant in Egypt.

While Israel has severely restricted the flow of water to Gaza, it is also unclear whether Gaza’s infrastructure is capable of absorbing the desalinated water after damage caused by weeks of heavy Israeli bombardment.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 100 trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egypt entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the same number as the day before.

This was noted to be “significantly below” the daily average of 500 truckloads, including fuel, received each business day before October 7.

A UNICEF official who spoke to reporters anonymously said a logistics center near Al-Arish was storing items that Israel has banned from being sent to Gaza, including solar panels and an ultrasound machine. The employee said they were banned because they were electrical and contained metal.

The 15-member Security Council is negotiating a resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates that calls on the warring parties to “permit the use of all land, sea and air routes to and throughout the Gaza Strip for aid deliveries.”

It would also establish a United Nations-led mechanism to monitor aid in the Gaza Strip. It was not clear when the draft resolution might be voted on.

Last week, Guterres formally warned the Security Council that the conflict posed a global threat to peace and security.

He said half of the Palestinians in northern Gaza and at least a third of those displaced in the south were “simply starving” and later criticized the council for “failing” to contribute to a humanitarian ceasefire.

At the request of Arab and Muslim states, the UN General Assembly will meet on Tuesday to discuss Gaza. The 193-member body is expected to vote on a draft resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, diplomats said.