The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, said during a visit to the Rafah border crossing today, Saturday, that the long queue of relief trucks held on the Egyptian side of the border with the Gaza Strip, where people face famine, constitutes a moral violation.

He said it is time for Israel to make a "firm commitment" to unrestricted access to humanitarian goods throughout Gaza, and Guterres also called for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

He added that the United Nations will continue to work with Egypt to "streamline" the flow of aid to Gaza.

Guterres is visiting Egypt to reinforce his call for a humanitarian ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, which broke out on October 7, following the massacre committed by the movement in southern Israel.

The Secretary-General is expected to meet with relief workers on the Egyptian side of Rafah, divided at the border with the Gaza Strip, which is a main gateway for humanitarian supplies reaching the Strip.

Guterres will also visit a hospital in Arish, an Egyptian city near the Gaza border.

His visit comes as Israel threatens to launch a large military operation in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt, despite international appeals to prevent such an attack.

The majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents are near Rafah. Although conditions are worse in the northern part of the Strip, the plight of civilians across the Strip has sharply worsened amid the ongoing conflict.

Many considered Guterres' visit a "desperate attempt" to increase international pressure for a ceasefire and to calm the situation.

With hopes fading for a truce during Ramadan and the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsening, the United States and other countries seek to use air drops and ships to deliver more relief supplies.

However, humanitarian agencies say that only about one-fifth of the requested supplies have entered Gaza, stressing that the only way to meet the needs in the coastal Strip is to accelerate land deliveries.

Israel, which has pledged to eliminate Hamas and fears the Palestinian movement might divert aid, has kept all its land crossings to the Strip closed except for one crossing.

Last week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification for global hunger monitoring warned that famine is imminent in northern Gaza and could spread to other parts of the Strip if a ceasefire is not agreed upon.

The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 32,000 people, many of them women and children, according to local health authorities.

In addition to Egypt, Guterres is visiting Jordan as part of an annual "solidarity tour" of Muslim countries during Ramadan. Guterres had visited the Egyptian border with Gaza shortly after the outbreak of the war.