U.N. pushes for more aid into Gaza, and Israel widens offensive

Several hours after Israel gave indications that it was expanding its ground attack in the Palestinian enclave, the United Nations Security Council gave its approval to a more moderate proposal to provide humanitarian supplies to Gaza on Friday. However, the proposal did not include a request for a ceasefire among its provisions.

The United States of America, which is Israel’s primary ally and had threatened to veto the motion before the Security Council after days of haggling, decided to abstain from voting instead when the language about hostilities and monitoring aid was amended. This decision allowed the vote to remain in place.

However, Washington has been more critical of the suffering of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants amid a rising death toll and a humanitarian crisis in the enclave. This is even though Washington has always supported Israel’s authority to defend itself.

The Gaza Ministry of Health provided the most recent information about casualties, stating that Israeli attacks have resulted in the deaths of 20,057 Palestinians and injuries to 53,320 others since the beginning of the conflict.

The recently adopted resolution of the Security Council “calls for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” The first draft said that “an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities” was required to make it possible for relief to be distributed.

They believe that a ceasefire would only be beneficial to Hamas; hence, the United States and Israel are against it. Instead, the United States government is in favor of taking breaks in the conflict to safeguard civilians and liberate hostages held by Hamas.

A further consequence of the decision was that Israel’s authority over all humanitarian deliveries to Gaza was no longer diminished. Israel is responsible for monitoring the meager assistance deliveries that are made through the Rafah border from Egypt and the Kerem Shalom gate, which is under Israeli control.

After Hamas’ forces carried out a cross-border attack into southern Israel on October 7, according to Israeli counts, they killed 1,200 people and took 240 captives. The Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has pledged to annihilate Hamas, the Islamist group that is responsible for running Gaza.

Israel’s envoy to the United Nations stated that the Security Council ought to have placed a greater emphasis on the captives after the vote that took place on Friday. “The U.N.’s focus only on aid mechanisms to Gaza is unnecessary and disconnected from reality; Israel is already allowing aid deliveries at the required scale,” Gilad Erdan commented.

Eli Cohen, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, stated that his country will “continue the war until all hostages are released and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is destroyed.”

Hamas issued a statement in which it expressed its belief that the United Nations resolution on humanitarian supplies was not adequate to fulfill the requirements of Gaza.

As Israel continues to prosecute the conflict, it has come under increasing criticism from throughout the world about the situation of Gazans. Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, stated on Friday that the manner in which Israel is carrying out its military operation is “creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid” within the enclave.

Israel previously stated that 5,405 aid vehicles carrying food, water, and medical supplies had entered Gaza territories since the start of the conflict. A small portion of what is required is being provided, according to aid organizations. On Thursday, a United Nations-sponsored report concluded that the risk of famine is rising daily.

On Friday, there were reports of air strikes, artillery bombardments, and fighting across Gaza. This came as hopes for an impending breakthrough in discussions that were taking place this week in Egypt with the intention of persuading Israel and Hamas, who are at war with each other, to agree to a fresh cease-fire.

An indication of a new emphasis on the ground assault that has already destroyed the north of the enclave and launched a series of incursions in the south is that the Israeli military has instructed inhabitants of Al-Bureij, which is located in the center region of Gaza, to immediately move south after receiving the order.

On the other hand, there was no apparent indication that huge numbers of inhabitants from Al-Bureij would be joining the hundreds of thousands of people who were fleeing other localities. Some locals packed up donkey carts and fled.

To what destination shall we go? According to Ziad, a physician and father of six who spoke with Reuters over the phone, “There is no place safe.” “They ask people to head to (the central Gaza city of) Deir Al-Balah, where they bomb day and night.”

The residents of Al-Bureij said that Israeli tanks were pounding the eastern parts of the city.

Israeli forces had previously clashed with Hamas militants on the outskirts of Al-Bureij; however, they have not yet advanced farther into the built-up region, which originated as a camp for Palestinian refugees who fled Israel during the 1948 Israeli-Arab conflict.

According to a Palestinian rescue worker, an air attack on a vehicle in Rafah resulted in the deaths of at least four people in the southern region of the country. A little boy, whose face was covered with blood, and a young girl were seen being transported away from the site, as shown on the video. No immediate reaction was made by the Israeli government.

“Israel’s indiscriminate strikes on Gaza have turned the north of the Strip into a pile of rubble,” the medical charity Amnesty International (MSF) stated in a post on X. In the Nasser hospital located in Khan Younis, which is located in south Gaza, the deceased and injured continue to arrive on an almost daily basis. Nobody can be trusted.”

The Israeli military has expressed sadness for the deaths of civilians, but it has blamed Hamas, which is supported by Iran, for operating in densely populated areas or using people as human shields. Hamas has denied these allegations.

Since it began its ground assault into Gaza on October 20, Israel has said that 140 of its troops have been killed within the territory.

Heavy shelling and air attacks were reported on Jabalia al-Balad and the Jabalia refugee camp, both located in northern Gaza, according to the Shehab news agency, which is connected with Hamas. The agency also stated that Israeli vehicles were attempting to approach from the western side of Jabalia against the sound of gunfire.

The dead were seen strewn over the street and some of them were buried beneath rubble in the vicinity of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, which is located in the northern part of Gaza, according to reports in Palestinian media and footage that Gazans posted on social media.

The Israeli military issued a statement in which it claimed that its air force had destroyed a long-range missile launch station in Juhor ad-Dik, which is located in the central region of Gaza. The statement also stated that “recent launches into Israeli territory were carried out” from this location, which may be a reference to an assault that took place on Thursday against Tel Aviv.

On Friday, an organization that represents the families of Gaza prisoners said that one of the hostages, Gadi Haggai, a dual nationality of the United States and Israel, had passed away while being held captive. Haggai was 73 years old. Neither the specifics nor the manner in which the information was collected were provided.