CAIRO: UN chief Antonio Guterres pleaded on Saturday for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the war that has devastated much of Gaza, demanding "action to end this godawful nightmare".
Addressing a Cairo summit as the conflict raged into its third week, Guterres said the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people was living through "a humanitarian catastrophe" with thousands dead and more than a million displaced.
"We meet in the heart of a region that is reeling in pain and one step from the precipice," he told the meeting that included the leaders of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates as well as of Italy and Spain and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Guterres said "the grievances of the Palestinian people are legitimate and long" after "56 years of occupation with no end in sight."
The UN has said that about 100 trucks per day are needed to meet worsening needs in Gaza.
The Palestinians need "a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed", the UN chief told the Cairo "Summit for Peace".
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al Sisi argued that the "only solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "justice" and said that "Palestinians must realise their legitimate rights to self-determination" and have "an independent state on their land".
Abbas stressed his demand for a two-state solution and an "end to Israel's occupation" and rejected what he has warned could be a "second Nakba" -- a reference to the more than 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven from their lands during the creation of the state of Israel.
"We will not leave," he repeated three times at the end of his speech.
Cairo and Amman have repeatedly rejected calls for large numbers of refugees to enter Egypt from Gaza, warning that a "forced displacement" of Palestinians would lead to the "eradication the Palestinian cause".
Turkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged for the current conflict to become, "rather than a regional conflagration, a breeding ground for a just and lasting peace".
He also condemned "unconditional military aid to Israel which only serves to maintain the occupation."
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