The United States is working urgently for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, Sullivan said. He said he could not predict when or if such a deal would be sealed.
04:23
GEN-Z VS GENOCIDE: HOPE FOR HUMANITY?
GEN-Z VS GENOCIDE: HOPE FOR HUMANITY?
UN chief Antonio Guterres “was deeply saddened to learn of the death of a United Nations Department of Safety and Security (DSS) staff member and injury to another DSS employee when their UN vehicle was struck as they travelled to the European Hospital in Rafah”, said his deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.
It was “the first international casualty” for the UN since the start of the war, Haq said, recalling that some 190 Palestinian UN employees have been killed, mainly staff of the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
“The Secretary General condemns all attacks on UN personnel and calls for a full investigation,” Haq said.
The spokesman did not immediately release the nationality of the person killed.
“I don’t have the full details of whether this was part of a large convoy or not, I believe it was in a convoy that was moving, and this was the DSS vehicle that was hit,” he said.
The DSS oversees the security of UN agencies and programmes in more than 130 countries around the world.
Aid workers struggled on Monday to distribute dwindling food and other supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced in Rafah, as the two main crossings near the southern Gaza city remained closed.
Thirty-eight trucks of flour arrived through the Western Erez Crossing, a second access point to northern Gaza, said Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for the UN’s World Food Programme. Israel announced the crossing’s opening on Sunday.
But no food has entered the two main crossings in southern Gaza for the past week.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been closed since Israeli troops seized it a week ago. Fighting in Rafah city has made it impossible for aid groups to access the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, though Israel says it is allowing supply trucks to enter from its side.
For the past week, the Israeli military has intensified bombardment and other operations in Rafah while ordering the population to evacuate from parts of the city. Israel insists it is a limited operation focused on rooting out tunnels and other militant infrastructure along the border with Egypt.
Israeli forces were also battling Palestinian militants in Zeitoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, areas where the army had launched major operations earlier in the war.
Etefa said WFP was distributing food from its remaining stocks in the areas of Khan Younis in the south and Deir al-Balah further north, where many of those escaping Rafah have fled.
Inside Rafah, only two organisations partnering with WFP were still able to distribute food, and no bakeries were operating.
“The majority of distributions have stopped due to the evacuation orders, displacement and running out of food,” she said.
Israeli protesters halted a convoy of aid bound for Gaza at a checkpoint between the occupied West Bank and Israel. Videos circulating online showed them hurling some of the aid off trucks and destroying it. Police said a number of arrests were made, without elaborating.
Oxfam staff in Gaza have described piles of human waste and rivers of sewage in the streets, which people are having to jump between
Almost the entire population of Gaza relies on humanitarian aid to survive. Israeli restrictions and continuing fighting have hindered humanitarian efforts, causing widespread hunger and a “full-blown famine” in the north, according to the UN.
The director of the Kuwait Hospital, one of the last functioning medical centres in Rafah, said medical staff and residents living near the facility have been told to evacuate. Sohaib al-Hams warned that any evacuation of the hospital itself would have “catastrophic consequences”.
The international charity Oxfam, meanwhile, warned of disease outbreaks in Gaza following an estimated US$210 million worth of damage to water and sanitation infrastructure, mass displacement and the onset of summer.
“Oxfam staff in Gaza have described piles of human waste and rivers of sewage in the streets, which people are having to jump between. They also reported people having to drink dirty water and children being bitten by insects swarming around the sewage,” it said in a statement.
Also on Monday, a Hamas spokesman said the group has lost contact with the guards of four Israeli hostages in Gaza following Israeli air strikes over the past 10 days,
Among these hostages is the US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, said a spokesman for al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military arm, on Telegram.
Around two weeks ago, Goldberg-Polin appeared in a Hamas propaganda video. The circumstances and timing of the video’s creation remain uncertain.
The video marked the first sign of life from the 23-year-old, who was captured and abducted to Gaza by Hamas on October 7 after attending the Nova music festival.
Goldberg-Polin’s mother Rachel has been one of the most outspoken family members of the hostages and has appeared in numerous interviews, articles and podcasts.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, dpa