- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
- Israeli troops bomb southern Gaza Strip overnight – residents
- 22 dead in Rafah city, health officials say
- According to the UN aid office, most distribution has stopped in the Gaza Strip
CAIRO/UNITED NATIONS, Dec 12 (Portal) – Israeli warplanes and tanks bombed southern Gaza overnight and on Tuesday, and the United Nations said the intensity of the distribution of aid to the Gaza Strip's population suffering from growing hunger was increasing Fighting has largely stopped over the past two months. The war between Israel and Hamas.
In the southern Gaza town of Rafah, which borders Egypt, health officials 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,” Abu Khalil, 40, a father of six, told Portal Rafah by telephone.
“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.”
In Khan Younis, the capital of the southern Gaza Strip, residents said tank shelling was 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. Health officials said two people were killed in the city overnight.
Hundreds more civilians have been killed in Israel's assault on the Palestinian enclave since the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire on Friday.
Aid groups say hunger among Gazans is worsening. 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”.
Aid flows have also been constrained by a shortage of trucks in Gaza, ongoing fuel shortages, communications failures and a growing number of personnel unable to travel to the Rafah border crossing into Egypt because of the intensity of hostilities, it said.
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.
Israel says its instructions to people to move are among the measures it is taking to protect civilians as it tries to root out Hamas militants, who Israeli figures say were killed in a cross-border attack on Israel on October 7 Killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages. Around 100 hostages have now been released.
[1/8]A Palestinian inspects damage at the site of Israeli attacks on houses amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, December 12, 2023. Portal/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa LICENSES
BIDEN SAYS NETANYAHU IN 'DIFFICULT SITUATION'
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 18,205 people were killed and nearly 50,000 injured in the Israeli retaliatory attack.
The 193-member General Assembly is expected to adopt a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors language from the one the U.S. blocked in the 15-member Security Council last week.
General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but carry political weight and reflect global views.
Some diplomats expect the vote to receive more support than the assembly's October call for “an immediate, permanent and permanent humanitarian ceasefire.”
US President Joe Biden, who has faced criticism for his support of Israel's response to the Oct. 7 attack, said on Monday at a White House celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah that his commitment to Israel is “unwavering.”
“Folks, if it weren’t for Israel, there wouldn’t be a safe Jew in the world,” Biden said. He also referred 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 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
UN officials say 1.9 million people – 85% of Gaza's population – are displaced, and conditions in the southern areas where they are concentrated are described 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 border crossing. Two Egyptian security sources said inspections would begin on Tuesday under a new deal between Israel, Egypt and the United States
After a week-long ceasefire collapsed on December 1, Israel launched a ground offensive in the south and has since pushed into the heart of the city of Khan Younis from the east.
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, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Tom Perry in Beirut, Clauda Tanios in Dubai, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Aiden Lewis and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo; writing by Lincoln Feast and William Maclean; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Michael Perry and Timothy Heritage
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