By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Michelle Nichols
CAIRO/UNITED NATIONS (Portal) – Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded southern Gaza on Tuesday, and the United Nations said aid distribution to Gaza's population suffering from growing hunger was suspended due to the intensity of Israel-Hamas fighting war, which is now in its third month, has largely been stopped.
In Khan Younis, the capital of the southern Gaza Strip that was stormed by Israeli troops last week, residents said tank fire was now focused on the city center. One said tanks were deployed on Tuesday morning in the street where the home of Yahya Al-Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, is located.
An elderly Palestinian, Tawfik Abu Breika, said his apartment block in the Gaza Strip's Khan Younis neighborhood was hit without warning on Tuesday by a new Israeli airstrike that collapsed several buildings and claimed lives.
“The conscience of the world is dead, there is no humanity or any kind of morality,” Breika told Portal as neighbors searched through the rubble. “This is the third month in which we are faced with death and destruction… This is ethnic cleansing, complete destruction of the Gaza Strip to expel the entire population.”
Further south in Rafah, which borders Egypt, health authorities said an Israeli airstrike on homes overnight killed 22 people, including children. Civilian rescue workers searched for more victims under the rubble.
Residents said the shelling of Rafah, where the Israeli army ordered people to flee to safety this month, was one of the heaviest in days.
“At night we can't sleep because of the bombing and in the morning we wander the streets looking for food for the children, there is no food,” said Abu Khalil, 40, a father of six.
“I couldn't find bread and the prices for rice, salt or beans doubled many times over. This is hunger,” he said. “Israel is killing us twice, once by bombs and once by starvation.”
The Israeli military said it hit several firing posts used to fire rockets into its territory over the past day, raided a Hamas compound where it found about 250 rockets, and attacked a weapons production factory, among other things.
HUNGER
An Israeli ground attack that had been limited to the north has expanded to the southern half of the Gaza Strip since a week-long ceasefire collapsed in early December.
Residents and aid groups say that means no place is safe in an area where the vast majority of people have already been made homeless by bombings and almost all areas are completely cut off from food, medicine and fuel.
Hunger is increasing; the United Nations World Food Program estimates that half of Gaza's population is starving.
The UN Humanitarian Aid Office (OCHA) said on Tuesday that limited aid deliveries were taking place in Rafah district, but “across the rest of the Gaza Strip, aid distribution has largely ceased in recent days due to the intensity of hostilities and restrictions on the movement.” along the main streets”.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israeli forces stormed the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on Tuesday and rounded up men, including medical staff, in the hospital's courtyard. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Richard Peeperkorn, World Health Organization representative for Gaza and the West Bank, said the WHO was considering a request from Gaza's health ministry for help with a possible evacuation of patients and staff from the hospital. The WHO said on Sunday the risk of disease in Gaza had increased while the health system had been reduced to a third of its pre-conflict capacity.
Israel says its instructions to people to move are among measures it is taking to protect civilians as it tries to root out Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people in a cross-border attack on Israel on October 7 and took 240 hostages. More than 100 hostages were released during the ceasefire in November.
Biden's support for Israel 'unwavering'
The Israeli retaliatory attack killed at least 18,205 people and injured nearly 50,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Many thousands more dead lie uncounted under the rubble or beyond the reach of ambulances.
One hundred and five Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began at the end of October.
The 193-member U.N. General Assembly is expected to adopt a draft resolution on Tuesday that reflects the language of a call for a ceasefire that was blocked by a U.S. veto in the 15-member Security Council last week.
Resolutions of the General Assembly are not binding, but have political weight. Some diplomats expect the vote to attract more support than the assembly's October call for “an immediate, permanent and durable humanitarian ceasefire.”
Washington has supported Israel's position that a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas, although it has also urged its ally to do more to limit damage to civilians.
US President Joe Biden said on Monday at a White House celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah that his commitment to Israel was “unwavering.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters that Israel is no exception to U.S. policy that any country receiving U.S. weapons must abide by the laws of war.
NEW AID SCREENING SYSTEM
U.N. officials say at least 1.9 million people – 85% of Gaza's population – are displaced, describing conditions in the southern areas where they are concentrated as hellish.
Displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah have set up tents made of wood and nylon in open areas. Some sleep on the street.
In a bid to increase aid reaching Gaza, Israel announced Monday that it would introduce shipment control at the Kerem Shalom crossing without opening the crossing itself.
Before the war, most trucks entered the Gaza Strip through this crossing; Now they are limited to the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, which is mainly intended for pedestrians. Two Egyptian security sources said inspections would begin on Tuesday under a new deal between Israel, Egypt and the United States
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Bassam Masoud in Gaza, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Humeyra Pamuk and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Henriette Chacar in Jerusalem, Tom Perry in Beirut, Clauda Tanios in Dubai, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Aiden Lewis and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo; Text by Lincoln Feast and William Maclean; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Michael Perry and Timothy Heritage)