United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was horrified after the deaths of hundreds of people in a strike on a hospital in Gaza.

“My heart is with the families of the victims. Hospitals and medical personnel are protected under international humanitarian law,” he said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

In another post, he called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East to ease the epic human suffering”.

“Too many lives — and the fate of the entire region — hang in the balance,” Guterres said.