A deal on Wednesday to release hostages taken during the Hamas terror attack on Israel has been welcomed by UN Chief António Guterres, who added that the UN stood ready to “maximize” the positive humanitarian impact of the agreement.
“This is an important step in the right direction, but much more needs to be done,” Guterres said via a statement from his spokesperson Farhan Haq. The top UN official leading efforts to secure a lasting peace in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, echoed those comments and also welcomed the announced 96-hour “humanitarian pause” in war-shattered Gaza. “This pause must be used to its fullest extent to facilitate the release of hostages and alleviate the dire needs of Palestinians in Gaza,” said Wennesland.
The development comes as UN humanitarians reiterated that they remain ready to seize the opportunity to ramp up lifesaving aid to the enclave.
Following the four-day ceasefire announcement the UN World Health Organization (WHO) issued fresh calls for safe, unimpeded humanitarian access in the Strip. “The fighting needs to stop so that we can quickly scale up our response,” said Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. “We cannot keep providing drops of aid in Gaza in an ocean of need.”
Meanwhile, WHO said that a new evacuation was under way at Gaza City’s embattled Al-Shifa hospital, with more to follow in northern Gaza.
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According to media reports, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was due to begin within 24 hours of its announcement. In his statement, Wennesland welcomed the efforts of the Governments of Egypt, Qatar and the United States in “facilitating” the agreement.
WHO’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, said that any news of a humanitarian pause and of a release of hostages was welcome, but that a true end to the fighting was needed. At the same WHO press conference in Cairo, Dr. Al-Mandhari called for a “permanent ceasefire” and said that the parties to the conflict should “put the welfare and health of their people as their first priority”.
The UN health agency official also led a minute of silence to honour WHO staffer Dima Alhaj, killed in Gaza on Tuesday, along with many relatives. “As we grieve, we are reminded of the senseless nature of this conflict and of the fact that in Gaza today nowhere is safe for civilians, including our own UN colleagues,” he said. Since October 7, 1,200 has been reported dead in southern Israel and some 240 hostages abducted, while 108 UN staff members have been killed in the Strip.
