UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the "most serious escalation" of violence in the Gaza Strip places the besieged enclave on the "brink of war", urging Israel and Hamas to recommit to a 2014 ceasefire.
The UN chief said in a report obtained by news agencies that he is "shocked" by Israel's use of live fire since border protests began in Gaza on March 30.
The UN says the enclave is on the brink of war due to the escalation of violence amid deadly Israeli crackdown on protests.
Israel has launched several wars on the Palestinian coastal sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014. The military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.
