'There is no time to waste’: UN Mideast envoy calls for immediate cease-fire in Gaza

The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process on Wednesday sounded the alarm on Gaza, saying there is no time to lose while urging for an immediate cease-fire and the release of hostages.

"There is no time to waste. We must reach an agreement to release the hostages and put in place an immediate cease-fire," Tor Wennesland told a UN Security Council session on Palestine.

Noting that the UN maintains its regular contact with everyone involved in the Gaza conflict, Wennesland said: "A sustained cease-fire will be critical to a full-scale humanitarian and early recovery response to meet the immense needs in Gaza."

Emphasizing that negotiations for a cease-fire agreement are currently blocked, Wennesland warned: "As Israel rolls out a significant ground operation in and around Rafah, the devastation is only intensifying."

Calling on the parties to return to the negotiating table with good faith, Wennesland stressed that Gaza and the occupied West Bank should be politically and economically integrated and governed by a government supported by the Palestinian people and the international community.

Noting that "the occupied West Bank remains a pressure cooker of negative trends," Wennesland stressed the risk of regional catastrophe is increasing day by day.

"This trajectory must change if we are to avoid further catastrophe," he warned.

Pointing out that "there can be no long-term solution in Gaza that is not fundamentally political," Wennesland said that the scale of destruction is very large and that the estimated cost of damage to basic infrastructure is $18.5 billion.

Wennesland noted that the actual figure will be much higher and that preparations for reconstruction should also be made.

Israel has launched a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 following a Hamas attack, killing more than 37,170 people and injuring 81,400 others.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of "genocide" at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.