‘WE MUST STOP MIDDLE EAST TINDERBOX FROM IGNITING’
▶ UN’s Guterres laments ‘utterly unacceptable’ civilian deaths in Gaza as toll passes 25,000
More than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its operation in October, the enclave’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said yesterday.
At least 178 people were killed in the previous 24 hours and 300 wounded, said ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qudra.
Since October 7, when 1,200 Israelis died in a Hamas attack, 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 injured, the ministry said.
Civilians make up the vast majority of those killed, with an estimated 70 per cent of them women and children.
About 1.1 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are children.
The UN has repeatedly condemned the “unprecedented” civilian death toll.
“Israel’s military operations have spread mass destruction and killed civilians on a scale unprecedented during my time as Secretary General,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said yesterday.
“This is heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable. The Middle East is a tinderbox, we must do all we can to prevent conflict from igniting across the region.”
Mr Guterres made the remarks at the G77+China summit in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
Meanwhile, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told The National he is working with several Arab countries on a plan to transform the “false promise” of the Oslo Accords into a tangible solution that ends the war in Gaza and establishes a Palestinian state. “To have a short-term solution, you need to be thinking about the long-term solution,” he said.
The US has blocked UN Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire. Non-binding resolutions have been passed at the UN General Assembly.
Israel has rejected ceasefire demands and vowed to eliminate the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Israeli military has expressed regret for civilian deaths, but it accuses Hamas of operating in densely populated areas and using civilians as human shields, a charge the
group denies. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that 30 per cent of Hamas’s fighters have been killed since the war began on October 7, quoting US estimates.
American intelligence agencies believe the militant group has enough weapons and fighters to continue fighting Israel for months, it added.
The US estimates between 10,500 and 11,700 Hamas fighters have been wounded, much lower than Israel’s figures of 16,000.
The US estimate was drawn from intercepted communications, analysis of the ruins in Gaza, drone surveillance of the territory and intelligence provided by Israel.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed that Israel will continue the war until Hamas is destroyed.
He has also refused to accept a two-state solution, with an independent Palestinian state existing next to Israel, as a longterm option to end the conflict.
In talks with US President Joe Biden, Mr Netanyahu reaffirmed that “after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza”, his office said.
Mr Guterres criticised this position, and said denying Palestinians the right to statehood “would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security”.
As Israel presses on with its military campaign, Palestinians accused Israeli troops of beating and detaining them in UN schools.
“What I experienced was beyond imagination,” said Mohammed Hajaj, who was detained at Remal School in Gaza city’s Tal Al Hawa neighbourhood last week.
“For three days, Israeli forces surrounded us as we were seeking refuge inside the school, they arrested all the men who were inside,” Mr Hajaj told The National yesterday.
“They interrogated me, asked about people I don’t know, and beat me severely. After that, they left us and instructed us to go to Rafah.”
Mr Hajaj said he ran 5km along Al Rasheed Road after the Israelis released him, not stopping until he reached Deir Al Balah in central Gaza. There he found his family staying at another UN school.
His wife was also among those asked to leave the school in Gaza city and flee south.
“We were inside the school and couldn’t move for three days, unable to leave the classroom or go to the bathroom,” said Ms Hajaj.
“They asked us to leave the school, so we were surrounded by a number of soldiers outside the school. They instructed women to separate from men.”
Ms Hajaj walked south with her children, where they were subjected to body searches and had all of their personal belongings taken.
“It was the worst day of my life. I didn’t know where to go and eventually we reached a school in Deir Al Balah,” she said.
US intelligence agencies estimate that between 10,500 and 11,700 Hamas fighters have been wounded since October 7