GAZA: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will visit Egypt’s border with Gaza on Saturday to renew pleas for a ceasefire that could bring relief to a territory devastated by more than five months of conflict between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reports.

His trip comes as Israel threatens to launch a major military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, just over the border from Egypt, despite international appeals against such an attack.

A majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are sheltering around Rafah. Though conditions are worse in the north of the strip, the plight of civilians across the territory has deteriorated sharply as the conflict has ground on.

Guterres will visit Al Arish in Egypt’s northern Sinai, where much of the international relief for Gaza is delivered and stockpiled, and the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, one of the entry points for the aid.

He is expected to visit a hospital in Al Arish and meet UN humanitarian workers in Rafah.