Israel maintains strikes on southern Gaza as disease stalks residents
Attack on tanker off Yemen’s coast raises renewed fears of conflict spreading in region
14 December 2023 - 12:04
byNidal al-Mughrabi and Fadi Shana
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Israeli soldiers stand nearby a tank. Militant group Islamic Jihad, which is allied to Gaza’s Hamas rulers, says that its fighters are battling Israeli forces in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture: YOSSI ZELIGER/REUTERS
Cairo/Gaza — Israel kept up its barrage of the Gaza Strip on Thursday despite intensifying international calls to reduce civilian casualties from its bombardment as a surge in deadly diseases sweeps through displaced residents.
Israel says its attacks on Gaza are aimed at annihilating Hamas, the group whose fighters stormed across the border fence from Gaza on October 7, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and seizing 240 hostages.
Since then, Israel has laid much of the Palestinian enclave to waste. At least 18,608 people have been killed and 50,594 injured in Israeli strikes on the territory, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The vast majority of the population of 2.3-million has fled their homes, leaving them vulnerable to illnesses including gastroenteritis and Hepatitis A, Palestinian doctors and aid organisations say.
“People are fleeing, people are being displaced constantly, some of them are being displaced multiple times, many of them don’t have the hygiene supplies that they need, many of them don’t have the winter clothes,” said Juliette Touma, director of communications at the UN Relief and Works Agency.
The coastal strip is now facing a public health disaster due to the collapse of its health system and the spread of disease, the UN humanitarian office said.
“We’ve got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster,” said Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
In central Rafah, in the south of the coastal enclave, 24 people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit two houses, Hamas media said early on Thursday. There was no immediate confirmation from the Palestinian health ministry.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who is visiting the region and will be in Israel on Thursday and Friday, will discuss with the Israelis the need to be more precise with their strikes against Hamas targets, spokesperson John Kirby said.
Almost half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza in its war with Hamas have been unguided, otherwise known as “dumb bombs”, according to a new US intelligence assessment reported by CNN.
The news outlet said the assessment was compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and described to CNN by three sources who have seen it.
About 40%-45% of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions Israel has used have been unguided and the rest have been precision-guided munitions, the CNN report added.
Tanker attacked
Fears of the conflict spreading in a volatile region remain. Gunmen in a speedboat fired at a tanker in the Red Sea off Yemen’s coast with missiles, maritime sources said on Wednesday. That’s the latest incident to threaten the vital shipping lane after Yemeni Houthi forces, which are backed by Iran, warned ships not to travel to Israel.
The cost of the Israel-Hamas war to neighbours Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan in may amount to $10.3bn, or 2.3% terms of loss of GDP, and might double if the conflict lasts six more months, according to a study commissioned by the UN Development Programme.
The US is delaying the sale of more than 20,000 rifles to Israel on concerns about increasing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank, two sources familiar with the matter said.
About 271 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces, including 69 children, in the occupied West Bank this year, the UN Palestinian refugee agency said.
At least 288 displaced people in shelters run by the agency have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the agency added in a post on X.
The number of Israeli soldiers killed in the ground offensive has reached 115, and more than 600 wounded, according to an Israeli military website.
“Your heroism, and of those who unfortunately fell and we couldn’t bring them to this state of rehabilitation, are the light which repels the darkness, and in this room there is so much light,” Lt-Gen Herzi Halevi, chief of Israel’s general staff, told injured soldiers during a ceremony for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in Ramat Gan.
Protests, vigils
Several Biden administration staff held a vigil in front of the White House late on Wednesday in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.
The group of about 60 people held a banner that read: “President Biden, your staff demands a ceasefire.
“We were horrified by the brutal October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians, and have been horrified by the disproportionate response by the Israeli government, which has indiscriminately killed thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza and displaced over a million more,” the protesters said in a statement read by Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned a few weeks ago.
In New York, a demonstration was held demanding the release of the remaining 135 hostages held in Gaza.
Most Israelis say the army shouldn’t ease its offensive to crush Hamas.
“It’s awful that there are so many civilian casualties,” said Jerusalem resident Adam Saville. “But this is war, and that’s what happens in war.”
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Israel maintains strikes on southern Gaza as disease stalks residents
Attack on tanker off Yemen’s coast raises renewed fears of conflict spreading in region
Cairo/Gaza — Israel kept up its barrage of the Gaza Strip on Thursday despite intensifying international calls to reduce civilian casualties from its bombardment as a surge in deadly diseases sweeps through displaced residents.
Israel says its attacks on Gaza are aimed at annihilating Hamas, the group whose fighters stormed across the border fence from Gaza on October 7, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and seizing 240 hostages.
Since then, Israel has laid much of the Palestinian enclave to waste. At least 18,608 people have been killed and 50,594 injured in Israeli strikes on the territory, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The vast majority of the population of 2.3-million has fled their homes, leaving them vulnerable to illnesses including gastroenteritis and Hepatitis A, Palestinian doctors and aid organisations say.
“People are fleeing, people are being displaced constantly, some of them are being displaced multiple times, many of them don’t have the hygiene supplies that they need, many of them don’t have the winter clothes,” said Juliette Touma, director of communications at the UN Relief and Works Agency.
The coastal strip is now facing a public health disaster due to the collapse of its health system and the spread of disease, the UN humanitarian office said.
“We’ve got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster,” said Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
In central Rafah, in the south of the coastal enclave, 24 people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit two houses, Hamas media said early on Thursday. There was no immediate confirmation from the Palestinian health ministry.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who is visiting the region and will be in Israel on Thursday and Friday, will discuss with the Israelis the need to be more precise with their strikes against Hamas targets, spokesperson John Kirby said.
Almost half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza in its war with Hamas have been unguided, otherwise known as “dumb bombs”, according to a new US intelligence assessment reported by CNN.
The news outlet said the assessment was compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and described to CNN by three sources who have seen it.
About 40%-45% of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions Israel has used have been unguided and the rest have been precision-guided munitions, the CNN report added.
Tanker attacked
Fears of the conflict spreading in a volatile region remain. Gunmen in a speedboat fired at a tanker in the Red Sea off Yemen’s coast with missiles, maritime sources said on Wednesday. That’s the latest incident to threaten the vital shipping lane after Yemeni Houthi forces, which are backed by Iran, warned ships not to travel to Israel.
The cost of the Israel-Hamas war to neighbours Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan in may amount to $10.3bn, or 2.3% terms of loss of GDP, and might double if the conflict lasts six more months, according to a study commissioned by the UN Development Programme.
The US is delaying the sale of more than 20,000 rifles to Israel on concerns about increasing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank, two sources familiar with the matter said.
About 271 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces, including 69 children, in the occupied West Bank this year, the UN Palestinian refugee agency said.
At least 288 displaced people in shelters run by the agency have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the agency added in a post on X.
The number of Israeli soldiers killed in the ground offensive has reached 115, and more than 600 wounded, according to an Israeli military website.
“Your heroism, and of those who unfortunately fell and we couldn’t bring them to this state of rehabilitation, are the light which repels the darkness, and in this room there is so much light,” Lt-Gen Herzi Halevi, chief of Israel’s general staff, told injured soldiers during a ceremony for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah in Ramat Gan.
Protests, vigils
Several Biden administration staff held a vigil in front of the White House late on Wednesday in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.
The group of about 60 people held a banner that read: “President Biden, your staff demands a ceasefire.
“We were horrified by the brutal October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians, and have been horrified by the disproportionate response by the Israeli government, which has indiscriminately killed thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza and displaced over a million more,” the protesters said in a statement read by Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned a few weeks ago.
In New York, a demonstration was held demanding the release of the remaining 135 hostages held in Gaza.
Most Israelis say the army shouldn’t ease its offensive to crush Hamas.
“It’s awful that there are so many civilian casualties,” said Jerusalem resident Adam Saville. “But this is war, and that’s what happens in war.”
Reuters
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