GAZA STRIP: Israel kept up heavy bombing of Gaza on Monday as it faced accusations from a human rights group that it is deliberately starving Palestinians in its campaign against Hamas.
Fighting raged on in the third month of the bloodiest ever Gaza war, with the Health Ministry reporting another 110 people killed in strikes on Jabalia, outside Gaza City, since Sunday.
The UN Security Council in New York was set to vote later in the day on another call for a ceasefire in the besieged territory after previous bids were vetoed by Israel’s key ally, the US.
And Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin was back in Israel on Monday as part of a Middle East tour to stop the conflict from spreading further.
A picture taken in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 18, 2023, shows an Israeli soldier playing violon on a tank, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)
International alarm has mounted over the dire plight of 2.4 million Gazans now enduring bombardment, food and water shortages, mass displacement and plummeting winter temperatures.
The New York-based campaign group Human Rights Watch charged that Israel “is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime.”
“Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel, while wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival,” it wrote in a report.
FASTFACT
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin was back in Israel on Monday as part of a Middle East tour to stop the conflict from spreading further.
The Israeli government hit back, accusing HRW of being an “anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli organization.”
“Human Rights Watch ... did not condemn the attack on Israeli citizens and the massacre of Oct. 7 and has no moral basis to talk about what’s going on in Gaza,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, earlier said he “would not be surprised if people start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity.”
Israel has approved aid deliveries into Gaza via its Kerem Shalom crossing, aside from the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and dozens of trucks entered through Kerem Shalom on Monday, said an AFP journalist.
Many families had gathered at the Rafah crossing in hopes of finally being allowed across to safety.
“I pray that everyone will leave this border crossing; we’ve been here for about a month,” said Safa Fathi Hamad. “We are going to die; food is very limited, and we have no protection.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday again vowed Israel would destroy Hamas, free the hostages, and ensure Gaza will never again become “a center for terrorism.”
The army has reported 127 deaths in Gaza since it launched ground operations in late October.
Israel has accused Hamas of hiding among civilians and in tunnels underneath hospitals, schools, mosques, and other civilian infrastructure.
The army released a report Sunday of part of a vast Hamas tunnel network, big enough to drive vehicles through, featuring rails, power lines, drainage systems, and a communications network.
Israel has faced mounting global pressure to either slow, suspend, or stop hostilities — including from families of the remaining 129 hostages believed held in Gaza.
EU top diplomat Josep Borrell accused Israel of displaying an “appalling lack of distinction” in its campaign in Gaza.
And South African President Cyril Ramaphosa charged that “what is unfolding in Gaza is a genocidal onslaught,” calling for a complete ceasefire.
The families’ anger and fear intensified after Israeli forces mistakenly shot dead three hostages who had escaped their captors inside Gaza.
The trio had waved white flags and used food leftovers to write a Hebrew-language message on a white sheet before they were shot, reports said.
Army chief of staff Herzi Halevi, in a message to troops, stressed that if enemy fighters “lay down their arms and raise their hands, we capture them, we don’t shoot them.”
As the Gaza war rages on, particular concern has focused on hospitals, most of which no longer function and several of which have been the scenes of significant fighting.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency was “appalled by the effective destruction” of northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital.
Outside the hospital, the muddy ground scarred by tank and bulldozer tracks, Abu Mohammed stood crying as he searched for his son.
“I don’t know how I will find him,” he said, pointing to the debris.
The UN Security Council was due to vote on a new resolution calling for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities” in Gaza.
Washington previously blocked similar UNSC resolutions, while the wider General Assembly has voted to end the fighting, with 153 out of 193 members in favor.
Fears have grown that the conflict could escalate with more of Israel’s enemies, Iran-backed armed forces in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
Yemen’s Huthi rebels have targeted Israel with missiles and fired at passing ships in the Red Sea in a show of solidarity with Hamas.
The series of attacks has led several major firms — the latest being oil giant BP — to avoid the maritime chokepoint and redirect their vessels around Africa, a longer and far more costly route.
