UN Middle East envoy upholds need for Gaza ceasefire

Negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza continued in Egypt for a second day on Monday as the UN’s top rights official warned that the war there risked morphing into a much “wider conflagration” enveloping every country in the Middle East and beyond. 

Researchers have been deployed to the Middle East and requests issued to meet with Israel officials, said the head of an independent team reviewing the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, briefing reporters at UN Headquarters on Thursday.

UN chief António Guterres called on Wednesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East to ease the “epic human suffering” in the Israel-Gaza conflict.