Airstrikes Kill Scores of Palestinians as Israel Escalates Gaza Offensive
By VOA News December 23, 2023
More than 90 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes Saturday on two homes in the Gaza Strip, rescuers and hospital officials said, as civilians in the enclave have nowhere to go for safety, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday.
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said late Friday that forces are broadening the ground offensive "to additional areas of the strip, with a focus on the south." Hagari said operations also were continuing in the northern half of Gaza, the initial focus of Israel's ground offensive. The army said it carried out airstrikes against Hamas fighters in several locations in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it arrested hundreds of alleged militants in Gaza over the past week and sent them to Israel for interrogation, increasing the number now being held in detention to more than 700 people with alleged ties to Islamic Jihad and EU- and U.S.-designated terror group Hamas.
Some of the released detainees have said they were stripped to their underwear, beaten and held for days with minimal water.
Israel's military has denied abuse allegations and said those without ties to militant groups were quickly released.
Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, citing its use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since the October 7 terror attack and has largely refrained from commenting on specific incidents.
Despite increasing international calls for a cease-fire, Israel has vowed to keep up the fight until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all the hostages are freed.
Humanitarian aid enters Gaza
Reports emerged Saturday that 70 humanitarian trucks had entered southern Gaza through Egypt's Rafah border crossing.
Gaza is in urgent need of humanitarian aid.
Israel has told Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate to southern Gaza, but when they arrived, there were few accommodations for the massive influx of people.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday it's a mistake to measure the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation by the number of trucks.
"The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza," he said. He noted that prerequisites for an effective aid operation don't exist since there is no guaranteed safety for staff to work in a logistical capacity and resume commercial activity.
Guterres maintained that Hamas' use of civilians as human shields and its continued firing of rockets at civilian targets "can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people" and "do not free Israel from its own legal obligations."
U.N. Security Council resolution
After days of intense negotiations on a humanitarian pause and the delivery of aid to Gaza, the United States abstained Friday on a U.N. Security Council resolution, allowing its adoption by the 15-member body.
"Today this council called for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for sustainable cessation of hostilities," said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, underscoring that this was the first time the council used such language.
Hostages must be immediately released, she said, and Israel and Hamas must respect international humanitarian law. She added that the U.S. is "deeply disappointed" the resolution did not condemn Hamas' October 7 terror attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel.
Russia, which wanted stronger criticism of Israel in the resolution, also abstained, calling the final draft, which contained amendments pushed by Washington, "extremely neutered" and "toothless."
"The text of the draft has lost a reference to condemnations of all indiscriminate attacks on civilians," said Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzya, speaking through an interpreter. "What signal does this send to the international community? That the Security Council is giving Israel a green light for war crimes?"
The Russian ambassador chided council members for the move to "rubber-stamp a decision that is convenient for Washington."
Thomas-Greenfield dismissed Nebenzya's "rant." Russia "also created conditions that they are complaining about now in their unprovoked war in Ukraine," she said.
Diplomats had been working since Monday on the resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates, seeking to avoid language that had brought repeated U.S. vetoes.
Cease-fire obstacles
The more than 10-week-old campaign has killed more than 20,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry there.
The two sticking points for Israel and the U.S. were calls for a cessation of hostilities and disagreement over who will inspect goods going into Gaza to screen out weapons and other equipment that would help Hamas. Convoy inspection is currently done only by Israel.
Rather than demanding a cease-fire, the final text calls for the warring parties to create "the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities." Neither the United States nor Israel currently supports a cease-fire, saying it would allow Hamas to regroup.
Guterres, who under the original draft was to have "exclusive" control over all truck inspections, will now appoint a senior coordinator to establish a U.N. mechanism for accelerating the provision of humanitarian relief.
Following the vote, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan thanked the U.S. for "standing on Israel's side" and "maintaining defined red lines" of Israel's authority to inspect aid entering Gaza.
"The failures of the U.N. in the last 17 years have allowed Hamas to dig terror tunnels and manufacture missiles and rockets," he said. "It is clear that the U.N. cannot be trusted to monitor the incoming aid to the Gaza Strip."
The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution demanding an "immediate humanitarian cease-fire," with 153 member states in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions. Unlike Security Council resolutions, the General Assembly's are nonbinding.
Catastrophic levels of food insecurity
A U.N.-backed body that issues famine warnings, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, warned that the entire population of Gaza — more than 2 million people — is at crisis levels, or worse, of hunger.
"WFP has warned of this coming catastrophe for weeks," World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said of the findings. "Tragically, without the safe, consistent access we have been calling for, the situation is desperate, and no one in Gaza is safe from starvation."
In a statement, UNICEF said that in the coming weeks, at least 10,000 children under 5 years old will suffer the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, known as severe wasting, and will need therapeutic foods.
VOA's White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara and U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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