Israel-Hamas War Pushing Gaza Towards Famine, Warns UN

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 22: Palestinian Territories: The Israel-Hamas war is pushing Gaza towards famine, the United Nations warned ahead of an expected Security Council vote Friday on a resolution to boost aid to the Palestinian territory but not call for a ceasefire.

Separate diplomatic efforts were also underway for a fresh pause in the worst-ever Gaza war, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas operatives on Israel in October.

With aid workers running out of words to describe conditions in Gaza, the UN Security Council has been locked all week in negotiations over how to phrase a resolution about the war.

The latest draft calls for "urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities."

It does not call for an immediate end to fighting.

Backed by its ally the United States, Israel has opposed any reference to a "ceasefire".

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, told reporters that Washington would support the resolution if it "is put forward as is".

The war began on October 7 when Hamas gunmen broke through Gaza's militarised border and killed around 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on Israeli figures.

Palestinian operatives also kidnapped about 250 people.

Vowing to destroy the group, Israel began a relentless bombardment of targets in Gaza, alongside a ground invasion, which has killed 20,057 people, according to the latest toll released Friday by Hamas authorities who govern Gaza.

Most of the dead are women and children, Hamas officials say.

The entire population of Gaza faces "an imminent risk of famine", according to a UN-backed global hunger monitoring system on Thursday.

"We have been warning for weeks that, with such deprivation and destruction, each day that goes by will only bring more hunger, disease and despair to the people of Gaza," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The UN estimates 1.9 million Gazans are now displaced, out of a population of 2.4 million.

With homes destroyed, they are living in crowded shelters and struggling to find food, fuel, water and medical supplies. Diseases are spreading, and communications have been repeatedly cut.

After weeks of pressure, Israel approved the temporary reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing on December 15 to enable aid deliveries directly to Gaza, rather than through the Rafah crossing from Egypt.

On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom, the crossings authority and the the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.

The UN secretary-general's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said aid movement via the crossing had been temporarily suspended following the "drone strike".

Dujarric's comments came after Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel could enable as many as "400 trucks a day" of aid and blamed the UN for failing to bring more.

According to the UN, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza is well below the daily pre-war average.

On Thursday, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops have killed more than 2,000 Palestinian operatives since a one-week ceasefire ended on December 1. He did not elaborate on the basis of his figures.

According to Israel's military, the deaths of two more soldiers in Gaza brought to 139 the number killed since it began its ground assault on October 27.

Hamas authorities said overnight strikes claimed several more lives across the territory.

In north Gaza, parts of Gaza City including Shujaiya have seen street-by-street combat -- even building-by-building -- between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters.

Israel regularly announces destruction of underground tunnels and other Hamas infrastructure while the operatives say they have destroyed Israeli vehicles including tanks.

The area around the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza has been a focus of Israeli military operations which "intensified" over the past week, a military spokesperson said.

Many Gazans have fled as far south as they can, to Rafah, yet even there they have not found safety.

"These are the houses of peaceful people," Shehda al-Kurd, a bespectacled man, said after his family's house "collapsed over us" during a pre-dawn strike.

"This area might have been considered the safest one, but they struck it," he said.

A separate strike hit an area of greenhouses in Rafah.

Wael Azad, a Palestinian farmer, said "even the animals have died. May God have mercy on the people," he said, wrapped in a scarf and woollen cap against the cold.

Israel has been under increasing pressure from allies, including the United States which provides it with billions of dollars in military aid, to protect civilians.

India Votes In Favour Of UN Resolution Demanding Gaza Ceasefire

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13: India on Tuesday voted in favour of a draft resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict as well as the unconditional release of all hostages.

The resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire was sponsored by several countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Palestine, among others. Ten countries including the United States and Israel voted against it, while 23 abstained.

"It's a historic day in terms of the powerful message that was sent from the General Assembly," Palestinian envoy to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said.

The draft resolution did not mention Hamas, prompting the US, Israel's strongest ally, to propose an amendment to the draft with the paragraph: "Unequivocally rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting 7 October 2023 and the taking of hostages."

India voted in favour of this amendment.

"India has voted in favour of the resolution just adopted by the General Assembly. The situation that this August body has been deliberating upon has many dimensions. There was the terrorist attack in Israel on 7 October and the concern for the hostages taken at that time. There is an enormous humanitarian crisis and a large-scale loss of civilian lives, especially of women and children. There is the issue of observing international humanitarian law in all circumstances. And there is the endeavour to find a peaceful and lasting two-state solution to the longstanding Palestine question," India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj, said.

Ms Kamboj said India welcomes the unity shown by the international community to find common ground to address the grave implications of the war in the region.

"Our challenge, in this extraordinarily difficult time, is to strike the right balance. The gravity and complexity of what the international community faces are underlined by the secretary general invoking Article 99 of the Charter of the United Nations. We, therefore, welcome the fact that the international community unity has been able to find a common ground to address the multiple challenges facing the region right now," she said.

India had abstained on a similar resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian truce in the Israel-Hamas conflict in October. Despite abstaining, India had called for unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip.

The UN General Assembly vote yesterday comes days after the US vetoed a similar resolution in the UN Security Council. The UNSC resolution tabled by the United Arab Emirates and supported by over 90 member states received 13 favourable votes, while the United Kingdom abstained.

Over 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed after Hamas launched a sensational land-sea-air assault on October 7. In retaliation, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip - a Hamas stronghold - with airstrikes, killing over 18,000 people, 70 per cent of whom are said to be women and children, in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

US Vetoes UN Resolution On Gaza Ceasefire

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 10: An extraordinary UN bid to call for a ceasefire in Gaza was blocked by the United States on Friday while Israeli forces continued a relentless offensive to destroy Hamas after its deadly attack two months ago.

The fighting has left 17,487 people dead in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children, according to the latest count from the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas over its unprecedented attack on October 7 when militants broke through Gaza's militarised border to kill around 1,200 people and seize hostages, 138 of whom remain captive, according to Israeli figures.

Vast areas of Gaza have been reduced to a wasteland. The UN says about 80 percent of the population has been displaced, facing dire shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine, and the growing threat of disease.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked the rarely-used Article 99 of the UN Charter to convene an emergency Security Council meeting calling for an immediate ceasefire.

He urged the release of hostages, but said "the brutality perpetrated by Hamas can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people".

But the US, which supplies billions of dollars in military assistance to Israel, vetoed the resolution.

Its deputy representative at the UN, Robert Wood, said it was "divorced from reality" and "would have not moved the needle forward on the ground".

That was in spite of warnings from the World Health Organization that civilisation was collapsing in Gaza.

"People are starting to cut down telephone poles to have a little bit of firewood to keep warm or maybe cook, if they have anything available," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the Security Council was "complicit in the ongoing slaughter".