Hunger was worsening among Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, aid agencies said, as the United Nations General Assembly prepared to vote Tuesday on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the two-month conflict between Israel and Hamas. .
Hundreds more civilians have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza since the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire on Friday.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find shelter or food in the densely populated coastal enclave. The UN World Food Program has said that half the population is dying of hunger.
“Hunger stalks everyone,” UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, said in X.
Gazans said people forced to flee repeatedly were dying of hunger and cold, in addition to shelling, and described looting of aid trucks and sky-high prices.
Israel says its instructions to people to move are one of the measures it is taking to protect civilians as it tries to root out Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages in a cross-border attack on Israel on the 7th. October, according to Israeli counts. About 100 hostages have since been released.
Palestinian women carry food near a donation point provided by a charity group in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah on November 30, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Israel’s retaliatory strike has killed 18,205 people and injured nearly 50,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The 193-member General Assembly is likely to approve a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the language of one that was blocked by the United States in the 15-member Security Council last week.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but they carry political weight and reflect global opinions.
Shown is a rocket launch site used to fire on the Israeli town of Sderot attacked by the IAF. IDF
Some diplomats and observers predict the vote will draw greater support than the assembly’s call in October for “an immediate, lasting and sustained humanitarian truce.”
STRUTINUM OF US SUPPORT
The vote was scheduled a day after 12 Security Council envoys visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, the only place where limited humanitarian aid and fuel has entered.
The United States did not send any representatives to the trip.
Palestinians wait to receive food supplies at an aid distribution center run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in Deir El-Balah on December 2023. ZUMAPRESS.com
US President Joe Biden, who has withstood intense criticism for his support of Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks, said Monday at a White House celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hannukah that his commitment to Israel is “ unwavering”.
“Friends, if there was no Israel, there would not be a Jew in the world who would be safe,” Biden said. He also alluded to his complex relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he said is in a “difficult situation.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday that Israel was no exception to U.S. policy that any country that receives its weapons must comply with the laws of war.
Workers and staff unload medical aid delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, December 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Hamas militant group in the Palestinian territory. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images
“We are monitoring everything that is happening in this conflict,” Miller said. “We are engaged in talks with the Israeli government.”
As the war has escalated, how and where Israel uses U.S. weapons has come under increased scrutiny, even though U.S. officials say there are no plans to put conditions on military aid to Israel or consider withholding any she.
Washington found images circulating on social media showing Palestinian men detained in Gaza in their underwear “deeply disturbing” and called on Israel to clarify the circumstances surrounding the photographs, Miller added. Israel has said the men were stripped naked to ensure they were not hiding explosives or weapons.
People cry as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in an airstrike on December 11, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. fake images
The White House also said Monday that it was concerned about reports that Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon and was seeking more information. The munitions, which can be legally used on battlefields to make smoke screens, among other uses, can cause serious burns.
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Israel said an accusation by Human Rights Watch that it uses white phosphorus munitions in Gaza and Lebanon was “unequivocally false.”
NEW AID DETECTION SYSTEM
UN officials say 1.9 million people – 85% of Gaza’s population – are displaced and describe conditions in the southern areas where they have gathered as hellish.
To increase the amount of aid reaching Gaza, Israel said on Monday it would add shipping checks at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, although it was not opening the crossing itself.
Most trucks entered the strip at this intersection before the war. Two Egyptian security sources said inspections would begin on Tuesday under a new agreement between Israel, Egypt and the United States.
After the collapse of a week-long ceasefire on December 1, Israel began a ground offensive in the south and has since advanced from the east towards the heart of the city of Khan Younis.
On Monday, militants and residents said fighters were preventing Israeli tanks from advancing further west and clashing with Israeli forces in northern Gaza, where Israel had said its mission was largely complete.
Israel said dozens of Hamas fighters had surrendered and urged others to join them.
Residents reported exchanges of fire near the coastal highway and Hamas media said fighters thwarted an attempt by Israeli naval forces to carry out a landing of forces on the high seas.
Israeli shelling continued into Monday night, residents and health officials said. Doctors said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 15 people in separate attacks in the central and southern Gaza Strip.
Another commercial oil tanker in the Gulf was hit by a land-based cruise missile launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen, the US military said.
The Iran-aligned Houthis have stepped up attacks on shipping in vital sea lanes and fired drones and missiles at Israel itself since the war broke out on October 7.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn