United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gestures during an interview with Reuters on the opening day of Web Summit, Europe's biggest tech conference, in Lisbon, Portugal, November 5, 2018. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes/File Photo

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged all sides to exercise maximum restraint after Palestinians in Gaza fired scores of rockets and mortar bombs into southern Israel and Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, a U.N. spokesman said.

“He urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint. The United Nations Special Coordinator, Nickolay Mladenov, is working closely with Egypt and all concerned parties to restore calm,” Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres, said in a statement.