United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after Israel said it had begun the preliminary phase of an operation to seize Gaza City. Speaking in Yokohama at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, Guterres warned that a full-scale assault would bring "inevitable" mass casualties and destruction. He also pressed for the unconditional release of roughly 251 hostages still held by Hamas. Guterres simultaneously called on Israel to reverse a Defence Ministry plan to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank’s E1 corridor, saying any new construction would violate international law and undermine prospects for a two-state solution. The settlement project, approved by a planning commission last week, would bisect the West Bank and sever it from East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian officials. Israel has mobilised tens of thousands of reservists and says it now controls about 75% of the Gaza Strip. The conflict began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted the hostages. Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed at least 60,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry says, driving fresh international calls—led by the UN chief—for an immediate halt to the fighting.