UN spokesperson urges renewed push for permanent Gaza ceasefire, outlines humanitarian scale-up and wider crises

United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the secretary-general will urge a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate release of all hostages, and he previewed humanitarian and political work under way across multiple crises.

Dujarric told reporters that in remarks to the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People the secretary-general will say “we must keep pushing for a permanent ceasefire and the release of all hostages without delay. We cannot go back to more death and destruction.” He added the secretary-general will “reaffirm the two-state solution” and that responses must be “anchored in the bedrock of international law.”

The comments came as U.N. humanitarian staff reported a gradual scale-up of aid deliveries in Gaza and highlighted specific needs. Dujarric said more than 22 World Food Programme–supported bakeries were operating, and UNICEF and health partners were providing services in parts of the Gaza Strip. "Our partners say they've transported 22 truckloads of tents from southern to northern Gaza," he said, while adding that "we need to get more tents in." He said U.N. partners have screened more than…