UN chief warns that the risk of the Gaza war spreading is growing as situation becomes more dire

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief is warning that the situation in the Middle East is growing more dire by the hour with the risk of the Gaza war spreading through the region increasing as societies splinter and tensions threaten to boil over. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire to deliver desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel. And he appealed “to all to pull back from the brink before the violence claims even more lives and spreads even farther.” Guterres told the U.N. Security Council’s monthly meeting on the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Tuesday that the rules of war must be obeyed.