UN warns war pushing Gaza to famine
The Israel-Hamas war is pushing Gaza towards famine, the United Nations warned ahead of an expected Security Council vote Friday on a resolution to boost aid to the Palestinian territory but not call for a cease-fire.
Separate diplomatic efforts were also underway for a fresh pause in the worst-ever Gaza war, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters on Israel in October.
The entire population of Gaza faces “an imminent risk of famine”, according to a UN-backed global hunger monitoring system on Thursday.
“We have been warning for weeks that, with such deprivation and destruction, each day that goes by will only bring more hunger, disease and despair to the people of Gaza,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The UN estimates 1.9 million Gazans are now displaced, out of a population of 2.4 million.
On Friday, Israeli forces signaled they were widening their ground offensive with a new push into central Gaza.
As hopes faded for an imminent breakthrough in talks this week in Egypt aimed at getting warring Israel and Hamas to agree to a new truce, air strikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across the Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s military on Friday ordered residents of Al-Bureij, in central Gaza, to move south immediately, indicating a new focus of the ground assault that has already devastated the north of the Strip and made a series of incursions in the south.
No functional hospital The World Health Organization said on Thursday that northern Gaza has been left without a functional hospital due to a lack of fuel, staff and supplies.
Only nine out of 36 health facilities were partially functional in the whole of Gaza, according to the WHO. All these facilities are concentrated in the enclave’s south.
“There are actually no functional hospitals left in the north,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters via video link from Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Soaring death toll
The war began on October 7 when Hamas fighters broke through Gaza’s militarized border and killed around 1,140 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Palestinian fighters also abducted about 250 people.
But the soaring death toll during the Israeli military campaign of retaliation has drawn increasing international criticism, even from staunch ally the United States. In its latest update on casualties, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 20,057 Palestinians had been killed and 53,320 wounded in Israeli strikes since Oct. 7.
With aid workers running out of words to describe conditions in Gaza, the UN Security Council has been locked all week in negotiations over how to phrase a resolution about the war.
The latest draft seen by AFP calls for “urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
It does not call for an immediate end to fighting. Backed by its ally the United States, Israel has opposed any reference to a “cease-fire”.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, told reporters that Washington would support the resolution if it “is put forward as is”.
Meanwhile, in phone call with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Friday to continue to supply the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and urged a peaceful resolution to fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The Kremlin said that Putin urged the “importance of a quick cessation of the bloodshed and the resumption of the political process”.
With homes destroyed, people are living in crowded shelters and struggling to find food, fuel, water and medical supplies. Diseases are spreading, and communications have been repeatedly cut.
After weeks of pressure, Israel approved the temporary reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing on December 15 to enable aid deliveries directly to Gaza, rather than through the Rafah crossing from Egypt.
On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom, the crossings authority and the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
The UN secretary-general’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said aid movement via the crossing had been temporarily suspended following the “drone strike”.
Dujarric’s comments came after Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel could enable as many as “400 trucks a day” of aid and blamed the UN for failing to bring more.
According to the UN, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza is well below the daily pre-war average.
On Thursday, military spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed Israeli troops have killed more than 2,000 Palestinian fighters since a one-week cease-fire ended on December 1. He did not elaborate on the basis of his figures.
According to Israel’s military, the deaths of two more soldiers in Gaza brought to 139 the number killed since it began its ground assault on October 27. Hamas authorities said overnight strikes claimed several more lives across the territory.
Reuters and AFP contributed to this report.