Israeli forces battle Palestinian militants; Guterres says UN Security Council ‘paralysed’ over Gaza
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GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories - Israeli forces on Dec 10 fought Palestinian militants around southern Gaza’s main city, as the United Nations chief decried divisions that had “paralysed” the Security Council’s response to the two-month-old war.
Hamas, which runs Gaza and whose deadly Oct 7 attacks triggered the conflict,
Amid dire warnings of food shortages and mass displacement in Gaza as a winter chill sets in, Ms Bushra Khalidi of aid group Oxfam warned that the plight of trapped Palestinians is “not just a catastrophe, it’s apocalyptic”.
A source close to Hamas and Islamic Jihad told AFP that both militant groups were engaged in “fierce clashes” with Israeli forces near Khan Younis, where an AFP journalist reported heavy strikes.
Palestinian militants also reported fighting in Jabalia and Gaza City’s Shejaiya district in northern Gaza, while the Israeli army said early on Dec 10 that it had struck “over 250 terror targets” in the previous 24 hours.
Overnight strikes hit a “Hamas military communication site” and “underground tunnel shafts” in southern Gaza as well as a “Hamas military command” in Shejaiya, an army statement said.
The fighting has killed about 18,000 Palestinians and injured 49,500 in Gaza since Oct 7, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas after the group’s unprecedented attacks on Oct 7, when its fighters broke through Gaza’s militarised border, killed about 1,200 people and seized hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Israel on Dec 9 said 137 captives remained in the Palestinian territory. Hundreds of Israelis rallied again in Tel Aviv, holding placards with the messages “Bring them home now” and “They trust us to get them out of hell”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he regretted the Security Council’s failure to offer solutions to the war, two days after a US veto prevented a resolution calling for a ceasefire.
Addressing Qatar’s Doha Forum, Mr Guterres said the body’s “authority and credibility were severely undermined” by its delayed response to the conflict.
“Regrettably, the Security Council failed” to call for a ceasefire, he added. “I can promise, I will not give up.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Dec 9 that his country will continue its “just war to eliminate” Hamas, while army chief Herzi Halevi urged the forces to “press harder” in their campaign against the militant group.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees meanwhile sounded the alarm over what he feared would be a mass expulsion of Palestinians into Egypt.
In an opinion piece on Dec 9 in the Los Angeles Times, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said “the developments we are witnessing point to attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt”.
Responding to the accusation, an Israeli spokesman said: “There is not, never was and never will be an Israeli plan to move the residents of Gaza to Egypt.”
Aid groups have warned that Gaza
The UN humanitarian agency, Ocha, said 100 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza through Rafah on Dec 9, “well below” the daily average before the war.
In Gaza City, an AFP journalist said thousands were sheltering in Al-Shifa Hospital, which was partly destroyed following an Israeli raid in November.
Hundreds of makeshift tents fashioned from scraps of fabric and plastic filled the hospital’s courtyards and garden amid collapsed walls.
Hundreds of makeshift tents fashioned from scraps of fabric and plastic fill Al-Shifa Hospital’s courtyards amid collapsed walls.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Mr Suheil Abu Dalfa, 56, from Shejaiya, said he had fled heavy bombardment by Israeli planes and tanks. “Everything was just strikes and destruction... we didn’t know where to go,” he told AFP.
‘Dozens’ detained
An estimated 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, according to UN figures, many now in the south and running out of safe places to go.
The UN children’s agency, Unicef, said nearly one million children had been displaced.
“They are now being pushed farther and farther south into tiny, overcrowded areas without water, food or protection,” said Ms Adele Khodr of Unicef.
“The restrictions and challenges being placed on the delivery of life-saving aid... are another death sentence for children.”
Ocha reported that Israeli forces on Dec 9 “detained dozens of Palestinian men and boys” in the northern city of Beit Lahia.
Israeli media have reported that Hamas militants had surrendered to Israeli forces in several locations across Gaza.
Footage published by Israeli media showed groups of men stripped down to their underwear,
The army said “it is often necessary for terror suspects to hand over their clothes... to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry”.
National security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told Israeli TV that 7,000 “terrorists” had been killed, without elaborating on the source for the figure.
The Israeli army says it has lost 97 soldiers in the Gaza campaign, with two others injured in a failed bid to rescue hostages on Dec 7 night.
Hamas said one captive, 25-year-old Sahar Baruch, was killed in the operation. His death was later confirmed by his kibbutz community of Beeri, one of the worst hit on Oct 7.
Mediator ‘not giving up’
A one-week truce that collapsed on Dec 1 saw 105 hostages freed, including 80 Israelis in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Mediator Qatar said on Dec 10 that efforts to secure a new truce and release more hostages were ongoing despite the continued Israeli bombardment, which was “narrowing the window” for a successful outcome.
“We are not going to give up,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Doha Forum.
The fighting in Gaza has spurred fears of a wider regional conflagration.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels threatened to attack any vessels heading to Israeli ports unless food and medicine were allowed into Gaza.
The French military said on Dec 10 that one of its frigates had shot down two drones in the Red Sea that were heading towards the vessel from the coast of Yemen.
The Israeli army said two of its soldiers were “moderately injured” at the border with Lebanon as the military intercepted two “suspicious aerial targets”. AFP
