14:55,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 21, ARMENPRESS. UN chief Antonio Guterres pleaded Saturday for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the war between Israel and Gaza's Hamas, demanding global "action to end this godawful nightmare", AFP reports.

Addressing a peace summit in Cairo as the war raged into its third week, Guterres said Gaza was living through "a humanitarian catastrophe" with thousands dead and more than a million people displaced.

His remarks came just hours after a first contingent of aid trucks rumbled into southern Gaza, which Guterres said needed to be rapidly scaled up, with "much more" help sent through.

The Palestinians need "a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed", he told the Cairo "Summit for Peace" which was attended by many Arab leaders.

The UN Secretary General called for the release of all hostages and for a two-state solution to be reached. He said Hamas’s “reprehensible assault” on Israel “can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”