Antonio Guterres made the remarks at a press briefing in New York on Monday, which marked the 101st day of the regime's brutal onslaught.
"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to ensure sufficient aid gets to where it is needed," Guterres said, describing the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip as "beyond words."
With aid deliveries struggling to get through to a "traumatized people," Gaza now faces "the long shadow of starvation," he said.
The "vast majority" of the UN's Palestinian staff have fled their homes and 152 staff members have been killed, Guterres said, calling the death toll from the Israeli onslaught "the largest single loss of life in the history of our organization."
"Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people," the UN chief stressed.
He said the ceasefire was also required "to tamp down the flames of wider war because the longer the conflict in Gaza continues, the greater the risk of escalation and miscalculation."
Israel waged the war on the strip on October 7 after the Gaza-based Palestinian Resistance groups of Hamas and Islamic Jihad carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm into the occupied territories in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.
The relentless Israeli military campaign has so far killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, while leaving over 60,000 others injured.
AMK/PressTV
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