GAZA STRIP: A day after UN Security Cou­ncil’s resolution that dem­anded more aid be allowed into Gaza, Israeli forces on Saturday carried out fresh strikes killing over a dozen people and prompting the World Health Organisation (WHO) to warn of a looming famine.

Palestinians wept and prayed for their dead after Israeli attacks followed the Security Council resolution that did not call for an immediate halt to fighting.

Clouds of grey and black smoke rose over Khan Yunis city in the south after strikes in the morning.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reported 18 people killed in a strike on a house at the central Nuseirat refugee camp, and said other areas were hit up and down the Gaza Strip.

The bombardments came after the Security Council approved a resolution dem­anding “immediate, safe and unhindered” deliveries of life-saving aid be rushed to Gaza “at scale”.

It also called for creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”, but did not seek an immediate end to combat. Members had wrangled for days over the wording.

At Washington’s insistence, they toned down some provisions and avoided calling for a ceasefire that would stop the war.

It is still unclear what, if any, impact the vote will have on the ground where Gazans have been forced into crowded shelters or tents, struggling to find food, fuel, water and medical care.

Israel disrupts aid distribution

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said a “humanitarian ceasefire” is the only way for aid “to be effectively delivered”.

The issue is not the number of aid trucks, he said, but “the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles” to aid distribution.

Immediately after the UN vote, Israel again vowed to fight Hamas until the group is “eliminated” and hostages are freed.

“Israel will continue the war in Gaza,” said Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, asserting it was legal and just.

At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, men gently led a weeping woman who had seen the bodies of relatives. A man crouched down in tears, his hand resting on a black body bag. Outside, others prayed before another corpse.

“What is going on in the corridors of the UN Security Council is nothing more than theatre and farce,” Rafat al-Aydi said, standing before the bodies which lay under a bush of bright red flowers. “This is a genocide.”

Allies, including the United States which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, have pressured Israel to avoid civilian casualties.

The UN estimates the fighting has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million population.

Drone strike off India

A drone attack on shipping on Saturday added to fears of regional escalation from the Israel-Hamas conflict.

An Israel-affiliated merchant vessel in the Arabian Sea off India’s west coast was struck by an unmanned aerial vehicle, causing a fire, British maritime security firm Ambrey said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the US and its allies continued to commit “crimes” in Gaza, Iranian media reported, without explaining how that would happen.

Missiles from Yemen’s Houthis have already disrupted Red Sea shipping.

US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson alleged Iran “was deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea”. There have also been regular exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border, between Israeli forces and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement which, like Hamas, is backed by Iran.

WHO says famine looming

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said most of those uprooted from their homes were now going “entire days and nights without eating”, and “famine is looming”.

A one-week truce that Qatar helped mediate, with support from Egypt and the US, ended on Dec 1. It saw 80 Israeli hostages released from Gaza captivity in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has repeatedly told Palestinians to make their way to areas in the tiny territory it says are safe, but even when they do residents say they still have been bombarded. Many Gazans have been forced to move multiple times.

On Friday, thousands fled central Gaza after an army evacuation order. It warned residents of Bureij, a refugee camp established about 70 years ago, to move “for their own security” towards Deir al-Balah city further south.

Donkey carts creaked with their belongings. Families pushed babies in prams and led elderly relatives through the crowd. They packed winter blankets for the road ahead.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the evacuation order would affect more than 150,000 people.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2023