Guterres' visit comes at a time when Israel continues its threats to invade Rafah (Al Jazeera)
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres visits the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip today, Saturday, to renew the call for a ceasefire and an end to the devastating Israeli war on the Strip, amid continued Israeli threats of a ground invasion of the city of Rafah.
Guterres will visit the city of Al-Arish in North Sinai, Egypt, where international humanitarian aid is delivered and stored on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing waiting to cross into Gaza. He is also expected to visit a hospital in Al-Arish, and meet with United Nations relief workers in Rafah.
The visit comes at a time when the Israeli occupation continues its threats to invade the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which has become the last refuge for hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans, despite international appeals not to do so and warnings of the danger of attacking the city.
A call for investigation
In the same context, Guterres called for the opening of an independent investigation into video footage taken by a drone showing an Israeli attack on 4 unarmed Palestinian civilian youth in Gaza.
Guterres's deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, said, "The Secretary-General is deeply disturbed by video footage showing four Palestinians walking, clearly unarmed, and killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza."
Haq said that the UN Secretary-General "calls for a full, independent and credible investigation into these events."
Guterres was quoted as stressing the need for all parties to the conflict to adhere to international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions when launching any military attack.
The day before yesterday, Thursday, Al Jazeera channel broadcast exclusive scenes showing an Israeli drone targeting 4 Palestinian civilians in the Al-Sikka area in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
The scenes were taken from an Israeli drone that was shot down in Khan Yunis at the beginning of last February. They show the four young Palestinian men being pursued by the drone while they were unarmed and targeted with several missiles. Two of them were martyred when the first missile fell, then the third was martyred and then the fourth was killed by two other missiles.
The scenes show young men walking - searching for their homes or what remains of them - among rubble left by aircraft and occupation shells on a road that was swept away by occupation vehicles before they withdrew from it by land.
It is clearly shown from the clip that the four civilians did not carry weapons and did not pose any danger. After the first targeting, two young men were martyred, while a third appeared walking away from the site of the missile fall.
Returning to the site of the first missile, it appears in the clip that one of the four young men is still moving, while the drone did not leave the place, as it continued to pursue the remaining two young men, before re-bombing them, making them martyred and joining their two companions.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies