UN: Israel doing ‘monstrosity of our century’
The UN special rapporteur on Palestine said what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is “the monstrosity of our century” as regime continues to massacre more Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“What Israel is doing to the Palestinians, especially in #Gaza, is “the monstrosity of our century”, The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, said in a message posted on her X account on Thursday.
She also referred to Western countries’ inaction over the Israeli crimes against Palestinians, saying that “Western complacency is turning into complicity”.
On Friday, Israel pounded south and central Gaza as Egypt was to host a high-level Hamas delegation for talks to try and end the nearly 12-week conflict that has devastated the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military said its forces “are extending operation in Khan Yunis” in the coastal territory’s south.
Israeli shelling near Al-Amal in Khan Yunis killed 41 people over the past two days, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said on Thursday.
The casualties in repeated Israeli strikes near the facility include “displaced persons seeking shelter”, it said.
The UN humanitarian office said an estimated 100,000 more displaced people had arrived in the already-teeming southern border city of Rafah in recent days following the intensification of fighting around Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis.
The Israeli onslaught has left much of Gaza’s north in ruins, while the battlefront has shifted ever further to the south.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack which left nearly 1,200 people dead.
Israel’s relentless aerial bombardment and ground invasion in Gaza have killed at least 21,507 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
The Israeli army says 168 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza.
The UN says more than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been driven from their homes. Many now live in cramped shelters in the tiny territory or in makeshift tents around Rafah.
Meanwhile, an Israeli siege imposed after October 7, following years of crippling blockade, has deprived Gazans of food, water, fuel and medicine.
Attack on aid convoy
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said Friday an aid convoy came under fire by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, without causing any casualties.
“Israeli soldiers fired at an aid convoy as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army – our international convoy leader and his team were not injured but one vehicle sustained damage,” UNRWA’s director in Gaza, Tom White, wrote on X.
According to UNRWA, the incident took place on Thursday afternoon.
Earlier on Friday the UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, wrote a post on X describing what he called “an impossible situation for the people of Gaza, and for those trying to help them”.
Griffiths said that aid convoys had been shot at, without elaborating.
“You think getting aid into Gaza is easy? Think again,” he said.
A Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the delegation in Cairo would “give the response of the Palestinian factions, including several observations” regarding the Egyptian proposal, recently put to officials from Hamas and another Gaza armed group, Islamic Jihad.
Hamas would also seek “guarantees for a complete Israeli military withdrawal” from Gaza, the
official said.
Egypt’s State Information Services chief Dia Rashwan said the plan was “intended to bring together the views of all parties concerned, with the aim of ending the shedding of Palestinian blood”.
New York protest
People across the world still hold pro-Palestinians protests to show their anger at the Israeli regime.
On Thursday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the US city of New York, staging a mock funeral in a demonstration against Israel’s continued heavy bombardment of the besieged Gaza strip.
Several women shrouded in black held baby dolls swaddled in white cloths to represent the toll the fighting has taken on children in the coastal territory.
“Today’s action is to draw attention to the fact that, as of now, almost 10,000 children, just children alone, not counting everybody, not counting all Palestinians, have been killed... in Gaza,” said archivist Grace Lile, 64.