Israeli airstrikes killed 76 members of an extended family, rescue officials said Saturday, a day after the UN chief warned again that there is no safe place in Gaza and that continued Israeli attacks are creating “huge obstacles” to the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Friday’s attack on a building in Gaza City was one of the deadliest in the Israel-Hamas war, now in its 12th week, said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense Department.
He gave a partial list of the names of those killed – 16 heads of households from the al-Mughrabi family – and said the dead included women and children.
Among the dead were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran staff member of the UN Development Programme, his wife, and their five children.
“The loss of Issam and his family greatly affected all of us. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not targets,” said Achim Steiner, head of the agency. “This war must end.”
People grieve as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in an airstrike on December 23, 2023, in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Getty Images A Palestinian man mourns his brother who was killed in Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip outside a morgue, in Khan Younis on Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023. AP
Israel declared war after Hamas terrorists stormed the border on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.
Israel has vowed to continue the struggle until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all hostages are released.
More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war to destroy Hamas and more than 53,000 have been injured, according to health officials in Gaza, the besieged territory ruled by the Islamist militant group for the past 16 years.
Smoke rises into the sky after an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023. AP
Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, citing the group’s use of crowded residential areas for military purposes and its tunnels under urban areas.
It has launched thousands of airstrikes since October 7, and has largely avoided commenting on specific strikes, including discussing the intended targets.
On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a weak resolution calling for the immediate acceleration of aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza.
The United States won the removal of a harsher call for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas. It abstained in the vote, as did Russia, which wanted a stronger language.
Israeli forces operate in the Gaza Strip on December 22, 2023. Israeli forces/AFP via Getty Images
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The resolution was the first in the war to make it through the council after the US vetoed two earlier ones that called for a humanitarian pause and a full ceasefire.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his long-standing call for a humanitarian ceasefire. He expressed hope that Friday’s resolution could help this happen but said “more is urgently needed” to end the ongoing “nightmare” for people in Gaza.
He told a press conference that it was a mistake to measure the effectiveness of humanitarian operations in Gaza by the number of trucks.
Residents of the Bureij refugee camp arrive in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip following an evacuation order by Israel, on Dec 22, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
“The real problem is that Israel’s way of carrying out this attack creates a huge obstacle to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” he said.
He said the prerequisites for an effective relief operation do not exist — security, personnel who can work safely, logistics capacity especially trucks, and the resumption of commercial activities.
Israel’s air and ground attacks have been one of the deadliest military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents and flattening large swathes of the small coastal enclave.
Israeli forces continue to operate in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing fighting between the Jewish state and Hamas terrorists. Israeli Army/AFP via Getty Images
More than half a million people in Gaza – a quarter of the population – are starving, according to reports this week from the United Nations and other agencies.
Protected by the Biden administration, Israel has so far resisted international pressure to cut back. A military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said late Friday that forces were expanding ground strikes “to additional areas in the strip, with a focus on the south.”
He said operations also continued in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, the initial focus of Israel’s ground offensive.
Palestinians run from tear gas fired by Israeli border police during Friday prayers along a street outside Jerusalem’s Old City, on Dec. 22, 2023, in Jerusalem. Getty Images
The army said on Saturday that it carried out airstrikes against Hamas fighters in several locations in Gaza City.
The army says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, including about 2,000 in the past three weeks, but it has not produced any evidence to support the claim.
It said 139 of its soldiers had been killed in the ground attack.
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After the UN resolution, it is not clear how and when the delivery of aid will be accelerated.
Currently, trucks enter through two crossings — Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel.
As part of the resolution passed, the US negotiated the removal of language that would have empowered the UN to inspect aid entering Gaza, something Israel says it must continue to do to ensure material does not reach Hamas.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, thanked the US for its support and sharply criticized the UN for its failure to condemn the Hamas attack on October 7.
The US vetoed a resolution in October that would have included sanctions because it did not also outline Israel’s right to self-defense.
Hamas said in a statement that the UN resolution should have demanded an immediate halt to Israeli attacks, and it blamed the United States for pushing “to vacate the resolution in its essence” before Friday’s Security Council vote.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
