Diplomatic tide ebbs against Israel as Gaza strikes continue
• Rainy winter weather worsens conditions for hundreds of thousands of Gazans sleeping rough in makeshift tents
Israel faces growing diplomatic isolation in its war in Gaza as the UN demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and US President Joe Biden said “indiscriminate” bombing of civilians is costing international support.
The UN General Assembly vote has no legal force but is the strongest sign yet of eroding international support for Israel’s actions. Three-quarters of the 193 member states voted in favour and only eight countries joined the US and Israel in voting against; 23 countries abstained.
With intense fighting being waged in the north and south of the enclave, Israeli troops on Wednesday reported their worst combat losses for more than a month, including a colonel, the highest-ranking officer yet killed in the ground campaign.
Warplanes again bombed the length of Gaza and aid officials said the arrival of rainy winter weather worsened the conditions for hundreds of thousands of families sleeping rough in makeshift tents.
Israel launched its campaign to annihilate the Hamas militant group that controls Gaza with global sympathy after fighters stormed across the border fence on October 7, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and seizing 240 hostages.
But since then, Israeli forces have besieged the enclave and laid much of it to waste, with more than 18,000 people killed, according to Palestinian health authorities. Many thousands more are feared lost in the rubble or beyond the reach of ambulances.
Since a weeklong truce collapsed at the start of December, Israeli forces have extended their ground campaign from the northern Gaza Strip into the south with the storming of the main southern city of Khan Younis.
Meanwhile, fighting has only intensified amid the rubble of the north, where Israel had previously announced that its military objectives had been largely met.
Israel reported 10 of its soldiers killed in the past 24 hours, including a full colonel commanding a forward base and a lieutenant-colonel commanding a regiment. It was the worst one-day loss since 15 were killed on October 31.
According to Army Radio, most of the deaths came in the Shejaiya district of Gaza City in the north, when an infantry unit hunting Hamas gunmen entered a building and lost contact with the rear base. When another unit was sent in after them, bombs were set off in the building and gunmen opened fire.
HEAVY FIGHTING
Hamas said the incident shows that Israeli forces could never subdue Gaza.
“We say to the Zionists that your failed leadership has no regard for the lives of your soldiers,” it said. “The longer you stay there, the greater the bill of your deaths and losses will be, and you will emerge from it carrying the tail of disappointment and loss, God willing.”
In the north, heavy fighting has also taken place in the Jabaliya district, where Gaza health officials say Israeli forces besieged and stormed a hospital and detained and abused medical staff.
In the south, Israeli forces storming Khan Younis advanced to the city centre. Residents said there was heavy fighting there.
“The Israeli tanks have not moved further from the centre of the city. They are facing fierce resistance and we hear the exchanges of fire, explosions too,” Abu Abdallah, a father of five who lives 2km away, said.
The Israelis had brought bulldozers and were destroying the road near the Khan Younis home of the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, Abu Abdallah said. “They are only bringing destruction and death wherever they go at the expense of our innocent, defenceless civilians.”
Hospitals in the north have largely ceased functioning. In the south, they have been overrun by dead and wounded, carried in by the dozen throughout the day and night.
“Doctors including myself are stepping over the bodies of children to treat children who will die,” said Dr Chris Hook, a British physician deployed with medical charity MSF at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
International agencies say the limited aid reaching Gaza is being distributed only in parts of Rafah near the Egyptian border. Even there, the situation has become far more extreme, with hundreds of thousands of people sheltering under tarps.
Gemma Connell, who is based in Rafah as Gaza team leader for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, said in a message: “Heavy rains and winds overnight. So awful for all of these people in makeshift shelters.”
Israel says it has been encouraging increased aid to Gaza through Egypt’s border, and is announcing daily fourhour pauses in operations near Rafah to help civilians get to it. The UN says cumbersome inspections and insecurity have slowed aid to a trickle.
UN VOTE
Before the General Assembly vote, Biden said Israel still has support from “most of the world” including the US and EU for its fight against Hamas.
“But they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” he told a campaign donor event in Washington.
US intelligence-sharing allies Canada, Australia and New Zealand said in a joint statement: “The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.”
In the most public sign of division between the US and Israeli leaders so far, Biden said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to change his hardline government and that ultimately Israel “can’t say no” to an independent Palestinian state, which is opposed by far-right members of the Israeli cabinet.
Netanyahu said Israel disagrees with Washington about the future for Gaza after the war, and opposes US calls for Gaza to be governed by the Westernbacked Palestinian Authority, which now exercises partial self-rule in the West Bank.
ISRAEL REPORTED 10 OF ITS SOLDIERS KILLED IN THE PAST 24 HOURS, INCLUDING A FULL COLONEL COMMANDING A FORWARD BASE
INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES SAY THE LIMITED AID REACHING GAZA IS BEING DISTRIBUTED ONLY IN PARTS OF RAFAH