UN chief demands immediate Gaza ceasefire as Israel expands Rafah offensive

Antonio Guterres stood before an international donors' conference in Kuwait on Saturday and made a plea that has become familiar in the seven months since the war began: stop fighting. The UN Secretary-General called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas, and a dramatic increase in humanitarian aid flowing into the territory. "A ceasefire will only be the start," he said in his video address. "It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war."

As Guterres spoke, Israeli military operations were accelerating rather than pausing. The Israeli army had just issued new evacuation orders for Rafah, the southern city where more than a million displaced Palestinians have taken shelter during the conflict. The orders directed residents to leave their homes in central Rafah and move to Al-Mawasi, a zone Israel designated as a humanitarian area. The timing and scope of the evacuation made clear that Israel was preparing for a ground offensive into the city—a move that has drawn sharp criticism from the United States, European leaders, and humanitarian organizations. Israeli tanks had already captured the main road dividing Rafah's eastern and western sections on Friday, effectively encircling the eastern side. The Israeli military said it was continuing operations against Hamas fighters in eastern Rafah and at the Rafah crossing itself.

The evacuation orders extended beyond Rafah. Israel also called on residents and displaced people in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, to leave, saying it had detected Hamas attempting to re-establish control of the area. Charles Michel, president of the European Council, called the evacuation orders "unacceptable" and urged Israel to respect international humanitarian law and abandon plans for a ground operation in Rafah. Two key aid crossings—Rafah from Egypt and Kerem Shalom from southern Israel—remained closed, the first for five days and the second for about a week. The closure meant that vital supplies were not reaching a population already facing severe shortages of food, water, and medicine.

The human toll continued to mount. Gaza's civil defence agency reported that two doctors, Muhammad Nimr Qazaat and his son Youssef, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The Palestinian health ministry said at least 37 Palestinians were killed in overnight airstrikes across the enclave the previous day, including 16 in Rafah. An airstrike on a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza killed at least seven people from the same family, according to medics. The health ministry does not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties in its counts. Khitam Al-Khatib, a resident of Rafah who said she had lost at least ten relatives in an airstrike on her family home, spoke to the impossible position residents faced. "They threw fliers on Rafah and said, from Rafah to al-Zawayda is safe, people should evacuate there, and they did, and what has become of them? Dismembered bodies? There is no safe place in Gaza," she said. Al-Zawayda, a small town in central Gaza, had become crowded with thousands of displaced people from across the enclave.

Khaled, a 35-year-old resident of the Shaboura neighbourhood in Rafah where new evacuation orders had been issued, described the panic. "The situation is very difficult, people are leaving their homes in panic," he said. According to Israeli military estimates released on Saturday, about 300,000 Gazans had already moved toward Al-Mawasi in response to earlier evacuation orders. Israel maintains that it cannot defeat Hamas without rooting out the thousands of fighters still deployed in Rafah. The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck tens of targets across Gaza over the past day and that ground troops had eliminated some 30 fighters in Zeitoun.

The broader numbers frame the scale of the catastrophe. The war began on October 7 when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli counts. Israel's military response has killed close to 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. The bombardment has destroyed much of the coastal territory and created a deep humanitarian crisis. Ceasefire negotiations, which had been mediated internationally, appeared to be collapsing. Hamas said Israel's rejection of a truce offer it had accepted had returned negotiations to the starting point. Israel said the terms Hamas proposed did not meet its demands. Hamas indicated it was reconsidering its negotiation strategy and said it would consult with allied factions, though it did not specify whether this meant hardening its terms. Israel has said it wants a deal in which hostages would be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, but it is not prepared to end its military offensive.

The evacuation orders came hours after these ceasefire talks began to falter, suggesting that Israel was moving forward with its military plans regardless of diplomatic efforts. The question now is whether the international pressure Guterres and others are applying will change the trajectory of the war, or whether the military logic driving the Israeli operation will continue to override diplomatic appeals.