RAFAH COULD BECOME ‘GRAVEYARD’
Israel pounds Gaza as US vetoes UNSC resolution demanding immediate ceasefire, release of hostages
ISRAEL kept up its deadly bombardment of Gaza as Washington vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
Global powers trying to navigate a way out of the spiralling crisis have come up short, and mediation efforts have failed to secure a truce to halt the fighting.
Adding to Gaza’s woes, the UN’s food agency on Tuesday said it had to stop desperately-needed deliveries to the north of the territory after facing “complete chaos and violence” there — a decision condemned by Hamas.
The World Food Programme had resumed deliveries on Sunday, but said its convoy was met with gunfire, violence and looting, while a truck driver was beaten.
“We are shocked about this decision by the World Food Programme to suspend the delivery of food aid in northern Gaza, which means a death sentence and death for three-quarters of a million people,” the Hamas government media office said on Tuesday night.
Calling on the agency to “immediately reverse its disastrous decision”, it said “we hold the United Nations and the international community responsible”.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Gaza has been plunged into a food crisis, with outside aid severely restricted. The UN has repeatedly sounded the alarm over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, warning that food shortages could lead to an “explosion” of preventable child deaths.
More than four months of relentless fighting have flattened much of the coastal territory, pushing 2.2 million people to the brink of famine and displacing three-quarters of the population,
according to UN estimates.
“We can’t take it anymore. We do not have flour, we don’t even know where to go in this cold weather,” said Ahmad, a resident of Gaza city.
“We demand a ceasefire. We want to live.”
U.S. VETOES RESOLUTION
In New York, Washington vetoed a UN Security Council resolution drafted by Algeria, which demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the “unconditional” release of all hostages kidnapped by Hamas in the Oct 7 attacks in Israel.
Washington’s ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the vote “wishful and irresponsible” as it could put negotiations to free hostages in Gaza “in jeopardy”.
The veto provoked criticism from countries including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and even US allies France and Slovenia.
Hamas said the US veto equalled “a green light for the occupation to commit more massacres”.
‘UNIMAGINABLE CONSEQUENCES’
As world powers voted, Israeli
strikes pounded Gaza early yesterday as fighting on the ground raged on, leaving 103 people dead, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the territory.
Witnesses reported heavy fire in Gaza, including Khan Younis in the south and Rafah near the Egyptian border, where some 1.4 million people have sought shelter.
Rafah, Gaza’s last city to face a ground invasion by Israeli troops, is the main entry point for relief supplies via Egypt.
Global humanitarian groups said a ground offensive could turn Rafah into a “graveyard”, warning of the “truly unimaginable” consequences of a full-scale assault.
Israel had said unless all the hostages were freed by the start of Ramadan, it will push on with its offensive during the Muslim holy month, including in Rafah.
Qatar, which has played a key role in mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel, on Tuesday said medicines sent into Gaza under a deal co-negotiated by France had reached hostages, in exchange for a shipment of humanitarian aid.
Negotiation efforts have failed
to secure a long-term truce. Despite international pressure, Israel has insisted that a ground operation in Rafah was essential to destroy Hamas.
The war started when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Oct 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.
Hamas fighters also took about 250 hostages — 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,195 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the territory’s Health Ministry.
HOSTAGE DEAL TALKS
Yesterday, Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was expected to land in Egypt and then head to Israel today to advance a hostage deal.
McGurk will reiterate United States President Joe Biden’s concerns about an Israeli operation in Rafah, said US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh is already in Cairo for talks, the group said, days after mediators warned that prospects for a truce had dimmed despite meetings with both Israeli and Hamas negotiators last week.
WEST BANK VIOLENCE
Israeli troops killed three Palestinian “militants” in a raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the military said yesterday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed at least one death in the Israeli operation, the latest in a months-long military crackdown across the occupied West Bank since Oct 7.
“In a joint counterterrorism activity in the city of Jenin, IDF soldiers apprehended 14 suspects, killed three terrorists and struck additional terrorists,” the Israeli army said.
The Palestinian official news agency Wafa said Israeli troops stormed the city at night.
Wafa said troops also struck “a house with a missile” in the city’s refugee camp.
Jenin has been the focus of Israeli raids. The refugee camp is one of the most crowded and impoverished in the West Bank.
Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 400 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah.
STRIKE IN DAMASCUS
An Israeli strike on a residential area of Damascus yesterday killed at least two people, Syrian official media reported, the latest fatalities as hostilities increase during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Syria’s state TV described an “Israeli attack with a number of missiles” that targeted the Kafr Sousa neighbourhood.
An AFP photographer said the strike hit a nine-storey building.
Kafr Sousa, a high-security area of the capital, is home to senior security officials, security branches, intelligence headquarters and an Iranian cultural centre.
Since Syria’s civil war broke out in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on its northern neighbour, mainly targeting Iranbacked forces, including Hizbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.