After intensive negotiations, the UN Security Council is expected to finally vote on Friday, December 22, on a resolution to facilitate the access of aid to Gaza, a text that is expected to be very cautious about the alleged call for a ceasefire. Meanwhile, the crisis deepens in the midst of war. According to a group of hostage family members, an American, also an Israeli citizen, died in captivity in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, in the Palestinian enclave, the unprecedented humanitarian crisis continues to worsen with attacks on hospitals and warnings of acute food insecurity and famine. According to international organizations, the situation is extreme due to the intensification of Israeli bombing, while negotiations for a new ceasefire are stalled.
First change: 12/22/2023 – 3:14 p.m. Last change: 12/22/2023 – 3:21 p.m
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At least 390 people were killed and 734 injured in the Gaza Strip between Thursday and Friday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas The total number of casualties in the war that began on October 7th is 20,057 dead and 53,320 wounded70% children and women.
Amid this situation, the UN Security Council is expected to hold the long-awaited vote on an authorizing resolution this Friday safe and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza that the United States expressed its support for the text after opposing and even vetoing previous preliminary proposals.
Death of another hostage amid stalled negotiations
The vote in the UN Security Council has been expected for a week, at a time when the humanitarian crisis is catastrophic according to the UN and negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a new ceasefire, which includes the release of hostages, are taking place in a Standoff: On the one hand, Hamas rejects any pact that does not provide for a permanent ceasefire, and on the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers only “surrender or death” to the Islamist group.
Amid this stalemate in ceasefire negotiations, the population of the Palestinian enclave and the relatives of the hostages held by Hamas continue to wait desperately.
Families and friends of the Hamas hostages gather in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 22, 2023, to raise awareness and demand their immediate release. © Portal/Shir Torem
Hamas has warned that “time is running out” for the hostages as Palestinian militants' war with Israel approaches its twelfth week.
Therefore, Israel is under great pressure from the international community and the families of the hostages to agree to another ceasefire.
This Friday, December 22, a group of relatives of abducted people confirmed that a man with dual nationality, American and Israeli, who was among the approximately 240 people captured by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, died in captivity in the Gaza Strip. Ribbon . According to the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, it is Gadi Haggai, 73 years old.
According to official Israeli sources, 129 people remain detained in the Gaza Strip after the rest were repatriated as part of a ceasefire in November or rescued during a military offensive. According to the Israeli government, 22 of those still in Gaza are dead.
Gaza: “Disaster Area”.
Meanwhile, in the enclave, the United Nations declared several areas of the Gaza Strip at the highest “disaster level” for food insecurity as famine prevailed in the north and south of the Palestinian Strip.
“The lack of food is so extreme that one in four households in Gaza is suffering from starvation, alarmingly high rates of acute malnutrition among the youngest children and significant excess mortality,” the NGO Action Against Hunger warned on Thursday.
According to the NGO Action Against Hunger the incessant bombings, the lack of food, water, fuel and the incompetence of humanitarian organizations To operate in Gaza, the population is in a desperate situation.
According to the UN classification, the entire population of Gaza suffers from acute food insecurity, while a quarter are affected by catastrophic hunger and famine.
In this regard, this Friday, December 22, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, declared themselves “deeply dismayed”.
“This is unprecedented. No ranking analysis has ever recorded such high levels of food insecurity They noted that it is “urgent” to respect international humanitarian law and pointed out that “lack of access to basic foodstuffs leads to famine.”
With EFE and Portal