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UN chief calls for immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Middle East

"Too many lives - and the fate of the entire region - hang in the balance," Antonio Guterres said

UNITED NATIONS, October 18. /TASS/. There is a need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

"I call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East to ease the epic human suffering," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "Too many lives - and the fate of the entire region - hang in the balance," Guterres added.

The UN chief’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said earlier at a briefing that Guterres would visit Cairo on October 19 to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The parties are expected to discuss the situation in the Middle East and humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip. Dujarric stressed that various agencies and UN officials, as well as countries, including Israel, were raising the issue in consultations.