Huge crowds crowd into Palestinian food center in Gaza
People gathered outside an aid center and chased an aid truck in the southern Gaza Strip, footage released by Palestinian journalist Ayman Al-Jadi showed on Saturday, December 9. UN officials warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was on the verge of collapse.
Dozens of militants have surrendered in recent days as the Israeli military steps up military efforts to crush Hamas and kill its leadership, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Netanyahu said the world was seeing “the beginning of the end” for Hamas and its leader Yahya Sinwar.
“They lay down their weapons and surrender to our heroic warriors,” Netanyahu said in a letter Video transmission. “It will take longer, the war is in full swing, (but) I tell the Hamas terrorists that it is over. Don't die for Sinwar. Surrender – now.”
Hamas issued a statement saying that in a “desperate and transparent ploy” Israel was detaining unarmed civilians and surrounding them with weapons to make it appear that the militants' resolve was weakening.
Netanyahu's bold prediction came a day after the US vetoed the recent, historic UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. Israel and its staunchest ally are finding fewer supporters around the world as the Palestinian death toll continues to rise.
Developments:
∎ Tzachi Hanegbi, head of Israel's National Security Council, said Palestinian detainees were stripped to their underwear when arrested for security reasons. Photos showing the men stripped drew protest from Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups.
∎ Hamas encouraged workers worldwide to join a general strike called for Monday in Gaza, calling on the “free people of the world to join the strike to protest the genocidal war and the atrocities of the Israeli occupation against civilians in Gaza “.
∎ The Israeli military said its warplane strike “eliminated” Hamas battalion commander Emad Karika, who led Hamas forces in the Shejaiya district of Gaza City after his predecessor was killed early in the war.
Israeli attacks in Gaza continue: The US vetoes an unusual UN ceasefire resolution
Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the U.S. veto of a ceasefire resolution on Sunday morning newscasts at the U.N. General Assembly.
Blinken, speaking on ABC's “This Week,” said the Biden administration was “conscious of the terrible human toll” the war has taken on civilians, including women and children. But he said Israel's efforts to eliminate Hamas were a legitimate goal.
The militant group could stop the carnage if it stopped fighting and “avoided civilians instead of hiding behind them,” he said.
“If there is a ceasefire at this moment, while Hamas is still alive, still intact, and again with the stated intention of repeating October 7th over and over again, that would simply perpetuate the problem,” he added Add flashing.
The World Health Organization adopted a resolution on Sunday calling for the “immediate, sustained and unhindered passage of humanitarian assistance, including access of medical personnel” to Gaza. It calls on all parties to comply with obligations under international humanitarian law aimed at protecting civilians and medical personnel during war.
WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the resolution was a starting point and called on all UN member states to work towards an early end to the conflict.
“It’s a platform to build on,” Tedros said. “Without a ceasefire there is no peace. And without peace there is no health.”
The Gaza Strip is a piece of land less than 25 miles long and 7 miles wide. More than 2 million Palestinians live there, but nearly 90% of them have fled their homeland since October 7 due to heavy Israeli bombing and land attacks, according to the UN refugee agency.
The agency said last week that nearly 1.2 million internally displaced Palestinians were seeking refuge in 151 U.N. facilities. Four of them, in and around the southern Gaza town of Kahn Younis, were evacuated last week on orders from the Israeli army.
UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian relief, said more than 130 of its staff had been killed since the war began. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 17,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children. According to Israeli authorities, more than 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed in the war, the vast majority of them on the day of the Hamas attack.