Fierce preventing has killed almost 300 Palestinians prior to now 24 hours in Gaza because the Palestinian armed group Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged threats.
Israeli raids continued throughout the besieged territory on Sunday, together with in northern Gaza the place whole neighbourhoods have been flattened by air strikes and the place floor troops which were working for greater than six weeks proceed to face heavy resistance from Hamas fighters.
Gaza’s well being ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra informed Al Jazeera in a phone interview that 297 folks had been killed and greater than 550 wounded prior to now 24 hours in Gaza, bringing the dying toll for the reason that begin of the conflict on October 7 to greater than 18,000 – nearly all of them girls and kids.
Hamas, Netanyahu trade threats
Israeli attacks on Gaza continued for the sixty fifth day on Sunday, with Hamas warning that no captives it took on October 7 would go away Gaza alive except its calls for had been met.
“Neither the fascist enemy and its boastful management… nor its supporters… can take their prisoners alive with out an trade and negotiation and assembly the calls for of the resistance,” Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida mentioned in a televised broadcast.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on his half, known as on Hamas to give up.
“It’s the starting of the top of Hamas. I say to the Hamas terrorists: It’s over. Don’t die for [Yahya] Sinwar. Give up now,” he mentioned, referring to the Hamas chief in Gaza.
Hamas earlier mentioned Israel launched a sequence of “very violent raids” focusing on the southern metropolis of Khan Younis and the highway linking it to Rafah close to the border with Egypt.
Gaza residents additionally reported fierce preventing in Gaza Metropolis’s neighbourhood of Shujayea and within the Jabalia refugee camp, a dense city space.
The Palestinian Purple Crescent Society (PRCS) mentioned Israeli forces raided an space close to the UNRWA clinic within the coronary heart of the Jabalia camp the place its emergency groups and medics are working a medical submit.
“The crew consists of 9 medical doctors, nurses, and volunteers. The encompassing space is presently underneath bombardment, posing a continuing risk to the lives of medical groups and the wounded,” the Purple Crescent mentioned in a submit on X on Sunday night.
🚨IOF has invaded the realm close to the UNRWA clinic within the midest of the Jabalia camp, the place the PRCS EMS groups 🚑function a complicated medical submit. The crew consists of 9 medical doctors, nurses, and volunteers. The encompassing space is presently underneath bombardment, posing a continuing risk… pic.twitter.com/JcFpL1IRRS
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 10, 2023
In Shujayea – the place Israeli snipers and tanks positioned themselves among the many deserted buildings – residents mentioned the lifeless and wounded had been left within the streets as ambulances may now not attain the realm.
“They’re attacking something that strikes,” Hamza Abu Fatouh informed the Related Press.
‘Journey of dying’
Israel had ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza early within the conflict however tens of hundreds of individuals have remained, fearing that the south could be no safer or that they might by no means be allowed to return dwelling.
Heavy preventing was additionally underneath manner in and across the southern metropolis of Khan Younis on Sunday.
“The mass exodus continues. These fleeing northern Gaza with a purpose to survive are describing it because the ‘journey of dying’,” mentioned Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza.
“These in Khan Younis have been ordered to flee to al-Mawasi on the shoreline – an space thought-about to be very harmful,” he added.
“It’s additionally a area with none infrastructure – together with entry to water, meals and electrical energy. There’s additionally no entry to bathrooms. The scenario is deteriorating extraordinarily quick now.”
Gaza’s well being scenario ‘catastrophic’: WHO
The World Well being Group’s 34-member govt board on Sunday adopted a decision calling for rapid, unimpeded support deliveries to Gaza.
“Gaza’s well being system is on its knees and collapsing,” mentioned WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, with solely 14 of 36 hospitals performing at any capability.
The emergency motion, proposed by Afghanistan, Qatar, Yemen and Morocco, seeks passage into Gaza for medical personnel and provides, requires the WHO to doc violence in opposition to healthcare employees and sufferers, and to safe funding to rebuild hospitals.
“I have to be frank with you: these duties are virtually unattainable within the present circumstances,” Tedors mentioned, commending the international locations for locating frequent floor and saying it was the primary time any United Nations movement had been agreed to by consensus for the reason that battle started.
About 90 p.c of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced inside the territory. With little or no support allowed in, Palestinians are going through extreme shortages of meals, water and different fundamental items.
Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian politician who heads the Union of Palestinian Medical Reduction Committees with 25 groups working in Gaza, mentioned: “Half of Gaza is now ravenous.”
Barghouti mentioned 350,000 folks had infections together with 115,000 with extreme respiratory infections and missing heat garments, blankets and safety from the rain.
He mentioned many had been affected by abdomen complaints as a result of there was little clear water and never sufficient gasoline to make use of to boil it, risking outbreaks of dysentery, typhoid and cholera.
“So as to add insult to harm, we have now 46,000 injured individuals who can’t be handled correctly as a result of a lot of the hospitals will not be functioning,” he mentioned.
Renewed US help to Israeli assaults
Israel intensified its bombardment on Gaza after the most recent United States veto on a UN Safety Council decision calling for a ceasefire. The vote was triggered by UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres who invoked Article 99 of the UN Constitution – a measure unused in a long time.
The article permits the Secretary-Common to “deliver to the eye of the Safety Council any matter which in his opinion might threaten the upkeep of worldwide peace and safety”.
The US additionally pushed by way of an emergency sale of about 14,000 tank shells value greater than $100m to Israel with out congressional evaluation, the Pentagon mentioned on Saturday.
Heading off criticism over the sale from Palestinians and rights teams who say it doesn’t align with Washington’s acknowledged effort to press Israel to minimise civilian casualties, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed ABC on Sunday that Washington is in virtually fixed contact with the Israelis “to make sure they perceive what their obligations are”.
In an handle to the two-day Doha Discussion board occasion that began within the Qatari capital on Sunday, Antonio Guterres mentioned he anticipated the “public order to fully break down quickly” in Gaza.
“And a good worse scenario may unfold, together with epidemic ailments and elevated strain for mass displacement into Egypt,” he added.
Qatar, a key mediator of final month’s seven-day truce, which noticed 80 Israeli captives exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners and a stream of humanitarian support, on Sunday mentioned it was nonetheless engaged on a brand new truce deal.
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani informed the Doha Discussion board that mediation efforts will proceed to cease the conflict and have all captives launched, however “sadly, we’re not seeing the identical willingness that we had seen within the weeks earlier than”.
“Our efforts because the state of Qatar together with our companions are persevering with,” he mentioned, including that Israel’s relentless bombardment was “narrowing the window” for fulfillment.