Israeli military says it destroyed Hezbollah weapons storage facility in Lebanon
William Burgess 
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters on Monday that Gaza is "becoming a graveyard for children" and the deteriorating conditions in the enclave make the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent.
“The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a crisis of humanity,” the secretary-general told reporters at the UN in New York.
Following those comments, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called for Guterres to resign and accused him of remaining silent regarding the Israeli casualties in the October 7 Hamas attack.
“It has been over 30 days since the children of southern Israel were intentionally slaughtered by Hamas terrorists, but you have said NOTHING about the 'graveyard of children' the south of Israel has become,” Erdan said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs Eli Cohen echoed Erdan, saying, “Hamas is the problem in Gaza, not Israel's actions to eliminate this terrorist organization.”
The remarks from both sides come as the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 surpassed 10,000, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza announced Monday.
Guterres went on to announce that the UN and its partners are launching a $1.2 billion humanitarian appeal to help the entire population of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour. The parties to the conflict — and, indeed, the international community — face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza,” Guterres said.
The secretary-general also stressed the importance of protecting civilians, called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and that “no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law.”
More than 400 trucks have crossed into Gaza from the Rafah crossing in the last two weeks, coming short of the roughly 500 a day that crossed before the conflict, Guterres said.
The Rafah crossing “alone does not have the capacity to process aid trucks at the scale required,” and the aid that has come through so far represents a “trickle of assistance does not meet the ocean of need,” Guterres said.
Guterres reiterated his condemnation of the Hamas October 7 attacks and called for the release of the hostages held captive by the militant group.
The post has been updated with the reaction from Israeli officials.
