Gaza
Photojournalist Motaz Azaiza from Gaza says ‘Last time you see me with this heavy, stinky vest’
Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza has announced his departure from the conflict-ravaged Gaza Strip. “I had to evacuate for many reasons,” Azaiza shared on platform X, expressing his gratitude and urging prayers for Gaza.
Azaiza has emerged as a crucial media figure in the embattled Gaza Strip. With over 18 million Instagram followers and a significant presence on X, he has been a primary source of live updates during the Israel-Hamas conflict, as reported by Al Arabiya.
In a heart-wrenching Instagram video, Azaiza, clad in his blue press vest – a symbol of a journalist’s non-combatant status in war zones – declared, “This is the last time you will see me with this heavy, stinky vest.” The video poignantly captures his farewell to Gaza, surrounded by friends and family who assist in removing his press vest and embrace him in a final goodbye.
Read more: States are obliged to prevent crimes against humanity and genocide, UN Committee stresses
Azaiza's impactful presence on social media has given millions worldwide a personal glimpse into the Gaza war, fostering a deep emotional bond between him and his followers. His absence, particularly when not posting for extended periods, prompts a flood of concerned comments about his safety. Azaiza has courageously documented Israeli airstrikes, often amid the devastation of destroyed homes.
Originally focusing on everyday life in Gaza, Azaiza’s work shifted to covering Israel’s military operations, including the wars in 2014 and 2021. Remarkably, his Instagram following skyrocketed from 25,000 to 18 million in just over 100 days since the onset of Israel’s military action following Hamas’ attack on October 7. “We are a nation that is getting killed and we’re trying not to be ethnically cleansed,” Azaiza stated in a post.
Tragically, over 80 journalists, predominantly Palestinians, have lost their lives in Israeli strikes since October 7, as per Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner has raised alarms over the unprecedented death toll among journalists in Gaza. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that the first 10 weeks of the war have been the deadliest for journalists in a single location in recent history.
Israel has consistently denied targeting journalists, asserting its focus on Hamas. Meanwhile, on January 9, Israel’s Supreme Court declined an international media request for unrestricted access to Gaza.
Read more: Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens of Palestinians, even in largely emptied north
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens of Palestinians, even in largely emptied north
Israeli forces bombarded cities, towns and refugee camps across Gaza on Thursday, killing dozens of people in a widening air and ground offensive against Hamas that has forced thousands more to flee from homes and shelters in recent days.
The war has already killed over 20,000 Palestinians and driven around 85% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Much of northern Gaza has been leveled, and it has been largely depopulated and isolated from the rest of the territory for weeks. Many fear a similar fate awaits the south as Israel expands its offensive to most of the tiny enclave.
Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas — which is still putting up stiff resistance, even in the north — and bring back more than 100 hostages still held by the militants after their Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. The assault killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Also read: Israel launches heavy strikes across central and southern Gaza after widening its offensive
Israeli officials have brushed off international calls for a cease-fire, saying it would amount to a victory for Hamas.
The United States — while providing crucial support for the offensive — has urged Israel to take greater measures to spare civilians and allow in more aid. But humanitarian workers say the amount of food, fuel and medical supplies entering is still far below what is needed, and 1 in 4 Palestinians in Gaza is starving, according to U.N. officials.
STRIKES FROM NORTH TO SOUTH
An Israeli airstrike on a home in the northern town of Beit Lahiyeh — one of the first targets of the ground invasion that began in October — buried at least 21 people, including women and children, according to a family member.
Bassel Kheir al-Din, a journalist with a local TV station, said the strike flattened his family house and severely damaged three neighboring homes. He said 12 members of his family — including three children ages 2, 7 and 8 — were buried and presumed dead, and that nine neighbors were missing.
In central Gaza, Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the built-up Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps, leveling buildings, residents said. Israel said this week it would expand its ground offensive into central Gaza. The Israeli military typically launches waves of airstrikes and shelling before troops and tanks move in.
Also read: Lose a limb or risk death? Growing numbers among Gaza's thousands of war-wounded face hard decisions
A hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 25 people killed overnight, including five children and seven women, hospital records showed Thursday. Nonstop explosions could be heard throughout the night in the town where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter, with many spending cold nights sleeping on sidewalks.
“It was another night of killing and massacres,” said Saeed Moustafa, a resident of the Nuseirat camp. He said people were still crying out from the rubble of a house hit Wednesday by an airstrike.
“We are unable to get them out. We hear their screams, but we don’t have equipment," he said.
Farther south, in Khan Younis, the Palestinian Red Crescent said a strike near its Al-Amal Hospital killed at least 10 people and wounded another 12. Much of the city’s population has left, but many are sheltering near Al-Amal and another hospital, hoping they will be spared from the bombardment.
A strike Thursday evening destroyed a residential building in the town of Rafah, at the southernmost end of Gaza, killing at least 23 people, according to the media office of the nearby Al-Kuwaiti Hospital said.
Outside of Gaza, Israeli security forces shot and killed a Palestinian man who they say got out of his car and stabbed two security workers at a checkpoint between the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The security workers were in moderate condition, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.
The occupied West Bank has experienced a surge in violence since Oct. 7, with more than 300 Palestinians killed in unrest and clashes with Israeli forces.
ANOTHER WAVE OF DISPLACEMENT
Rami Abu Mosab, who lives in the Bureij refugee camp, said thousands of people have fled their homes in recent days because of the intense bombardment. He plans to remain there because nowhere in Gaza is safe.
“Here is death and there is death,” he said, “To die in your home is better.”
Bureij and Nuseirat are among several camps across the region that were built to house hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. They have since grown into crowded residential neighborhoods.
Some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes during that conflict, an exodus the Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or catastrophe. Some 1.9 million have been displaced within Gaza since Oct. 7.
As Israel has broadened its offensive, fleeing Palestinians have packed into areas along the Egyptian border and the southern Mediterranean coastline, where shelters and tent camps are overflowing. Even in those areas, Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets.
Also read: Egypt floats ambitious plan to end Israel-Hamas war and create transitional Palestinian government
The U.N. humanitarian office said the scale and intensity of the fighting impedes its aid deliveries. The office, known as OCHA, cited blocked roads, a scarcity of fuel and telecommunications blackouts as some of the obstacles hampering the humanitarian response.
Still, it said the U.N. World Food Program provided food parcels to about a half-million people in U.N. shelters in southern and central Gaza since Saturday.
The Israeli military blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas, which positions fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers in dense residential areas. But the military rarely comments on individual strikes.
Israel's offensive in Gaza has already been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than 21,300 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Another 55,600 have been wounded, it says. Those counts do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The military says it has killed thousands of militants, without presenting evidence, and that 167 of its soldiers have been killed and hundreds wounded in the ground offensive.
States are obliged to prevent crimes against humanity and genocide, UN Committee stresses
Amid the delay in voting on the Gaza resolution at the UN Security Council, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination warned of hate speech and dehumanising discourse targeted at Palestinians, raising severe concerns regarding Israel’s and other State parties’ obligation to prevent crimes against humanity and genocide.
In a decision adopted on Thursday under its Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedures, the Committee said it is “gravely concerned about the resumption of the brutal hostilities in the occupied Gaza Strip on December 1 this year after a seven-day ‘pause’.”
UN report says more than 570,000 people in Gaza are now 'starving' due to fallout from war
It was deeply shocked by the intensified, brutal and indiscriminate Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea all across the occupied Gaza Strip and the expansion of the Israeli military ground operation to the south of the occupied Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of about 20,000 Palestinians.
The catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the occupied Gaza Strip, it said, raised serious concerns regarding the obligation of Israel and other State parties to prevent crimes against humanity and genocide.
Türkiye's Erdogan, Egypt's Sisi call for efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza
It also expressed its grave concerns about the racist hate speech, incitement to violence and genocidal actions, as well as dehumanising rhetoric targeted at Palestinians since 7 October 2023 by Israeli senior government officials, Parliament members, politicians and public figures.
The Committee also raised the alarm on the deteriorating human rights situation in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in the past few weeks, including the increase in unlawful use of lethal force by the Israeli forces, violence by settlers, arbitrary arrests and detention of Palestinians.
The Committee urged an immediate and sustained ceasefire in the occupied Gaza Strip.
US is engaging in high-level diplomacy to avoid vetoing a UN resolution on critical aid for Gaza
It called upon Israel and the State of Palestine to fully collaborate with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, in their investigations.
Highly alarmed by the killing of at least 136 UN staff, the Committee asked Israel to grant access to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to document significant violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including those committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
The Committee urged all States parties to ensure that all those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as other international crimes in the ongoing armed conflicts are promptly brought to justice.
UN says more than 1 in 4 people in Gaza are ‘starving’ because of war
More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving due to "woefully insufficient" quantities of food entering the territory ever since Israel's military responded to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, according to a report released Thursday by the U.N. and other agencies.
The report highlighted the humanitarian crisis in Gaza after more than 10 weeks of relentless bombardment and fighting. The extent of the population's hunger eclipsed even the near-famines in Afghanistan and Yemen of recent years, according to figures in the report.
"It doesn't get any worse,'' said Arif Husain, chief economist for the U.N.'s World Food Program. "I have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza. And at this speed. How quickly it has happened, in just a matter of two months."
Israel says it is in the final stages of clearing out Hamas militants from northern Gaza, but that months of fighting lie ahead in the south. The war sparked by Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 rampage and hostage-taking in Israel has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians. Some 1.9 million Gaza residents — more than 80% of the population — have been driven from their homes, with more than a million now cramming into U.N. shelters.
The war has also pushed Gaza's health sector into collapse. Only nine of its 36 health facilities are still partially functioning — and all are located in the south, the World Health Organization said. WHO relief workers on Thursday reported "unbearable" scenes in two hospitals they visited in northern Gaza: bedridden patients with untreated wounds cry out for water, the few remaining doctors and nurses have no supplies, and bodies are lined up in the courtyard.
Türkiye's Erdogan, Egypt's Sisi call for efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza
Bombardment and fighting continued Thursday, but with Gaza's internet and other communications cut off for a second straight day, details on the latest violence could largely not be confirmed.
U.N. Security Council members are negotiating an Arab-sponsored resolution to halt the fighting in some way to allow for an increase in desperately needed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza.
A vote on the resolution, first scheduled for Monday, was pushed back again on Wednesday in the hopes of getting the U.S. to support it or allow it to pass after it vetoed an earlier cease-fire call.
Thursday's report from the U.N. underscored the failure of weeks of U.S. efforts to ensure greater aid reaches Palestinians. At the start of the war, Israel stopped all deliveries of food, water, medicine and fuel into the territory. After U.S. pressure, it began allowing a trickle of aid in through Egypt, but U.N. agencies say it fell far short of enough.
This week, Israel began allowing aid to be delivered through its Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. But a blast Thursday morning hit the Palestinian side of the crossing, forcing the U.N. to stop its pickups of aid there, according to Juliette Touma, spokesperson of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. At least four people were killed, the nearby hospital reported. Palestinian authorities blamed Israel for the blast, but its cause could not immediately be confirmed.
Delivery of aid to much of the Gaza Strip has become difficult or impossible due to continued fighting, U.N. officials have said.
US is engaging in high-level diplomacy to avoid vetoing a UN resolution on critical aid for Gaza
The report released Thursday by 23 U.N and nongovernmental agencies found that the entire population in Gaza is in a food crisis, with 576,600 at catastrophic — or starvation — levels. "It is a situation where pretty much everybody in Gaza is hungry," Husain, the World Food Program economist, said.
The lack of food and water weakens immune systems, making the population more vulnerable to disease, Husain said. "People are very, very close to large outbreaks of disease because their immune systems have become so weak because they don't have enough nourishment," he said.
Husain said border crossings need to be operational to get in essential supplies, including food and water. And he said that humanitarian groups need safe access to the entire Gaza strip.
Israel has vowed to continue the offensive until it destroys Hamas' military capabilities and returns scores of hostages captured by Palestinian militants during their Oct. 7 rampage. Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and captured around 240 others.
Hamas fired a large barrage of rockets at central Israel on Thursday, showing its military capabilities remain formidable. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, but the rocket attack set off air raid sirens in Israel's commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
Hamas militants have put up stiff resistance lately against Israeli ground troops, and its forces appear to remain largely intact in southern Gaza, despite more than 2 1/2 months of heavy aerial bombardment across the territory.
The United States, Israel's closest ally, has continued to support Israel's campaign while also urging greater efforts to protect civilians.
But in some of the toughest American language yet, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said "it's clear that the conflict will move and needs to move to a lower intensity phase." The U.S. wants Israel to shift to more targeted operations aimed at Hamas leaders and the tunnel network.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Tuesday the death toll since the start of the war had risen to more than 19,600. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
Israel uncovers major Hamas command center in Gaza City as cease-fire talks gain momentum
On Wednesday, the WHO delivered supplies a day earlier to Ahli and Shifa hospitals, which are located in the heart of the north Gaza battle zone where Israeli troops have demolished vast swaths of the city while fighting Hamas militants.
In the north over recent weeks, Israeli forces have raided a series of health facilities, detaining men for interrogation and expelling others. In other facilities, patients who are unable to be moved remain along with skeleton staff who watch over them but can do little beyond first aid, according to U.N. and health officials
Ahli Hospital is "a place where people are waiting to die," said Sean Casey, a member of the WHO team that visited the two hospitals Wednesday. Five remaining doctors and five nurses along with around 80 patients remain in Ahli, he said.
All of the hospital buildings are damaged except two buildings were patients are now being kept — the orthopedics ward and a church on the grounds, he said. He described entering the compound, strewn with debris, and a crater from recent shelling in the courtyard. Bodies were lined up nearby, but doctors said it was too unsafe to move them with fighting still outside, he said.
Inside the church, it was "an unbearable scene," he said. Patients with traumatic wounds were struggling with infections. Others had undergone amputations. "Many patients said they hadn't changed their clothes in weeks," he said. "Patients were crying out in pain but were also crying out for us to give them water."
Israel's military says 137 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza ground offensive. Israel says it has killed some 7,000 militants, without providing evidence. It blames civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying it uses them as human shields when it fights in residential areas.
PM Hasina urges G20 leaders to press for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, ensure humanitarian relief
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday (November 22, 2023) urged the G20 leaders to call with one voice for an instant ceasefire in Gaza and for an immediate, unhindered flow of humanitarian relief to the suffering victims.
The prime minister made the call speaking at the G20 Leaders’ Summit virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the virtual G20 leaders’ summit to deliberate on the implementation of the Delhi Declaration prior to concluding India’s presidency this month.
The G20 is a forum for international economic cooperation comprising 19 countries -Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US - and the European Union.
Spain was invited as a permanent guest at the forum, while India included Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates as guest countries during its presidency.
Hasina said that for over a month and a half, the world has been witnessing in Palestine a merciless, genocidal slaughter of thousands of men and women and tragically innocent children numbering over 10,000.
Read more: G20 agreement reflects sharp differences over Ukraine and the rising clout of the Global South
“All these monstrous acts have stunned the world, intensified global distress, and slowed worldwide economic progress,” she said.
She also mentioned that the current war in Europe with sanctions and counter-sanctions has taken a worldwide human and economic toll and continues to do so.
“In today’s globalized world, surely it would be easy to firmly say “NO” to all wars and conflicts to save human lives and humanity,” she said.
In this connection, she mentioned that a good beginning could be fostering good neighbourly relations and spreading their reach far around the globe.
“I am happy to draw your attention to Bangladesh and neighbour India’s excellent relations, which are recognised as a Role Model of Neighbourhood Diplomacy,” she said.
She said that neighbours can certainly resolve issues through friendly “Dialogue,” as Bangladesh and India have proven with their maritime and land boundaries.
The prime minister said that Bangladesh is committed to a peaceful and prosperous world.
“It has become our duty to ensure the wellbeing of everyone in our global family. In that spirit, I seek your earnest support for the repatriation of more than a million Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (Rohingyas) from Bangladesh to Myanmar,” she said.
She hoped that the commitments that the nations have made at the G20 Summit will bear fruition and transform into concrete action.
“I also believe the Summit’s theme of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ will continue to inspire us to care for, protect, and make Planet Earth, our common home, a better place for our future generations,” she said.
PM Hasina said that she was heartened that the leaders agreed in New Delhi to strengthen Multilateral Development Banks to help Low-and Middle-Income countries address their development needs, particularly those related to Climate Action, Technological Transformation, Digital Public Infrastructure, and women-led development, which are imperative for a better future.
The meeting aims to provide an impetus to implement the Delhi Declaration unanimously agreed upon by all members at the 18th G20 leaders’ summit held in New Delhi in September.
During the closing session of the New Delhi summit on September 10, Modi had announced India would be hosting a virtual summit.
Leaders of the G20 nations, including the chair of the African Union, as well as nine guest countries, and heads of 11 international organisations have been invited to the meeting.
On December 1, India assumed the mantle of the G20 presidency.
India holds the G20 Presidency until November 30. The G20 troika during the Brazilian G20 presidency in 2024 will comprise India, Brazil and South Africa.
The new troika will be formed when Brazil assumes the presidency next month, with India as the past presidency and South Africa holding the presidency after Brazil.
The G20 members represent around 85 percent of the global GDP, over 75 percent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
Read more: India forges compromise among divided world powers at the G20 summit in a diplomatic win for Modi
US civil liberties group sues Biden for ‘failure to prevent genocide’ in Gaza
A civil liberties organisation in New York is suing US President Joe Biden for allegedly failing in his duties under international and US law to prevent Israel from committing genocide in Gaza.
The case filed by the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of multiple Palestinian groups and individuals said that Israel's acts, including "mass killings," targeting of civilian infrastructure, and forced expulsions, amount to genocide, reports The Guardian.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib accuses Biden of supporting genocide in Gaza, says colleagues more focused on silencing her
According to the CCR, the 1948 international treaty against genocide demands the United States and other countries to utilise their strength and influence to put an end to the killings, it said.
“As Israel’s closest ally and strongest supporter, being its biggest provider of military assistance by a large margin and with Israel being the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II, the United States has the means available to have a deterrent effect on Israeli officials now pursuing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” mentioned the complaint.
Biden calls for humanitarian 'pause' in Israel-Hamas war
The complaint, filed in federal court in California, seeks the court to prevent the United States from providing Israel with weapons, money, and diplomatic support. It also demands the president, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin “to take all measures within their power to prevent Israel’s commission of genocidal acts against the Palestinian people of Gaza.” These include putting pressure on Israel to stop bombing Gaza, ease its siege, and prevent the forceful deportation of Palestinians, the report said.
The CCR, which won a landmark case in the US Supreme Court in 2004 establishing the rights of prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay, stated that the Hamas cross-border attack on October 7, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were abducted, does not provide legal justification for the scale of Israel's assault on Gaza, which has killed over 11,000 Palestinians, including 4,600 children, and displaced 1.5 million people, it added.
Biden wraps up his visit to wartime Israel with a warning against being 'consumed' by rage
The case is being filed at the same time that the International Criminal Court is investigating Israel and Hamas for suspected war crimes. However, legal academics argue that genocide is a more difficult crime to establish and question whether the US president can be forced to conclude that Israel is committing genocide and so must intervene.
UN agencies' Regional Directors call for immediate action to halt attacks on Gaza hospitals
The regional directors of UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO call for urgent international action to end the ongoing attacks on hospitals in Gaza.
We are horrified at the latest reports of attacks on and in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Rantissi Naser Paediatric Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, and others in Gaza city and northern Gaza, killing many, including children, said a press release.
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Intense hostilities surrounding several hospitals in northern Gaza are preventing safe access for health staff, the injured, and other patients.
Premature and new-born babies on life support are reportedly dying due to power, oxygen, and water cuts at Al-Shifa Hospital, while others are at risk. The Staff across a number of hospitals are reporting lack of fuel, water and basic medical supplies, putting the lives of all patients at immediate risk.
Over the past 36 days, WHO has recorded at least 137 attacks on health care in Gaza, resulting in 521 deaths and 686 injuries, including 16 deaths and 38 injuries of health workers on duty.
A fragile global economy is at stake as US and China seek to cool tensions at APEC summit
Attacks on medical facilities and civilians are unacceptable and are a violation of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law and Conventions. They cannot be condoned. The right to seek medical assistance, especially in times of crisis, should never be denied.
More than half of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip are closed. Those still functioning are under massive strain and can only provide very limited emergency services, lifesaving surgery and intensive care services. Shortages of water, food, and fuel are also threatening the wellbeing of thousands of displaced people, including women and children, who are sheltering in hospitals and their surroundings.
Netanyahu rejects growing international calls for a cease-fire in Gaza
The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair. Decisive international action is needed now to secure an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and prevent further loss of life, and preserve what’s left of the health care system in Gaza.
Unimpeded, safe and sustained access is needed now to provide fuel, medical supplies and water for these lifesaving services. The violence must end now.
Situation in Gaza classic example of ethnic cleansing assisted by leaders of ‘the free world’
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has said the situation in Gaza is not only a classic example of ethnic cleansing but also genocide by a state power assisted by leaders of “the free world and proponents of human rights, humanitarian laws and all moral and ethical values.”
“Israel-Gaza war is not a war at all. It is, in fact, barbaric and collective punishment and killing of a captive group of innocent men and women and especially children who cannot be combatants,” he said while speaking at the 8th Extraordinary Islamic Summit in Riyadh on Saturday (November 11, 2023).
The Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit was held in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.
Read more: Israel must stop killing babies and women in Gaza: Macron tells BBC
Momen said it is destroying cities and towns, hopes and aspirations of a nation, and calculated deprivation of an occupied people of their rights – to food, shelter, water, essential medicines, fuel and electricity, and of course, a decent life.
Israeli forces cut off north Gaza as Palestinian death toll from monthlong war passes 10,000
Israeli forces severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with intense airstrikes overnight into Monday, setting the stage for an expected push into the dense confines of Gaza City and an even bloodier phase of the month-old war.
Already, the Palestinian death toll passed 10,000, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday. The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Some 1,400 Israelis have died, mostly civilians killed in the Oct. 7 incursion by Hamas that started the war.
The figures mark a grim milestone in what has quickly become the deadliest round of Israeli-Palestinian violence since Israel's establishment 75 years ago, with no end in sight as Israel vows to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities.
Jordan airdrops medical supplies to Gaza hospital
Casualties are only likely to rise as the war turns to close urban combat. Troops are expected to enter Gaza City soon, Israeli media reported, and Palestinian militants who have had years to prepare are likely to fight street by street, launching ambushes from a vast network of tunnels.
"We're closing in on them," said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman. "We've completed our encirclement, separating Hamas strongholds in the north from the south."
The military said it struck 450 targets overnight and ground troops took over a Hamas compound. A one-way corridor for residents to flee south remains available for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in Gaza City and other parts of the north, according to the military.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians, or around 70% of Gaza's population, have fled their homes since the war began. Food, medicine, fuel and water are running low, and U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters are beyond capacity. Many people are sleeping on the streets outside.
Mobile phone and internet service went down overnight, the third territory-wide outage since the start of the war, but was gradually restored on Monday. Aid workers say the outages make it even harder for civilians to seek safety or call ambulances.
Israel has so far rejected U.S. suggestions for a pause in fighting to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries and the release of some of the estimated 240 hostages seized by Hamas in its raid. Israel has also dismissed calls for a broader cease-fire from increasingly alarmed Arab countries — including Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with it decades ago.
After days of intense diplomacy around the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his tour of the region on Monday, saying efforts to secure a humanitarian pause, negotiate the release of hostages and plan for a post-Hamas Gaza were still "a work in progress" without pointing to any concrete achievements.
Israeli warplanes hit refugee camps in Gaza while UN agencies call siege an 'outrage'
The war has also stoked wider tensions, with Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group trading fire along the border. In another sign of growing unrest, a Palestinian man stabbed and wounded two members of Israel's paramilitary Border Police in east Jerusalem before being shot dead, according to police and an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with Gaza and the West Bank, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized by most of the international community and considers the entire city its capital.
In northern Gaza, a Jordanian military cargo plane air-dropped medical aid to a field hospital, King Abdullah II said early Monday. It appeared to be the first such airdrop of the war, raising the possibility of another avenue for aid delivery besides Egypt's Rafah crossing, which has so far been the only entry point.
Over 450 trucks carrying aid have been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt since Oct. 21. But humanitarian workers say the aid that has come through the Rafah crossing is insufficient to meet mounting needs in the territory, which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.
The crossing was closed on Saturday and Sunday because of a dispute among Israel, Egypt and Hamas. But it reopened Monday for the evacuation of patients and foreign passport holders, according to Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority.
Northern Gaza is facing a severe water shortage, as there is no fuel to pump from municipal wells and Israel shut off the region's main line. The U.N. office for humanitarian affairs said seven water facilities across Gaza were struck over the last two days and sustained "major damage," raising the risk of sewage flooding. Israel has restored two water pipelines in central and southern Gaza, the U.N. said.
Protest marches from US to Berlin call for immediate halt to Israeli bombing of Gaza
Some 800,000 people have heeded Israeli military orders to flee to southern Gaza. Some 2,000 people, many carrying only what they could hold in their arms, walked down Gaza's main north-south highway on Sunday. "The children saw tanks for the first time. Oh world, have mercy on us," said one Palestinian man, who declined to give his name.
But Israeli bombardments have continued across the territory, and strikes in central and southern Gaza — the purported safe zone — killed dozens of people on Sunday. Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas, accusing the militants of operating in residential neighborhoods.
After another strike Monday, in the southern town of Khan Younis, men dug through the rubble with sledgehammers and their bare hands. A young boy caked in dust screamed as he was rolled onto a stretcher and carried away. At least two people were killed, according to an AP reporter at the scene.
Earlier Monday, Palestinians held a mass funeral for 66 people outside a hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. The bodies were wrapped in white sheets on the ground outside the hospital morgue. A man with bandages wrapped around his head placed his hand on a child's body and wept.
The Health Ministry said that 10,022 people have been killed in Gaza, including over 4,100 children and 2,600 women.
Meanwhile, four civilians were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in south Lebanon late Sunday, including three children, a local civil defense official and state-run media reported. The Israeli military said it was reviewing the strike, after initially saying it had struck Hezbollah targets following anti-tank fire that killed an Israeli civilian. Hezbollah said it fired Grad rockets into Israel in response.
In the overnight strikes in Gaza, the Israeli military said it had killed a senior Hamas militant, identified as Jamal Mussa, who had allegedly carried out a shooting attack against Israeli soldiers in Gaza in 1993.
It said 30 Israeli troops have been killed since the ground offensive began over a week ago. Hamas and other militants have continued firing rockets into Israel, disrupting daily life even as most are intercepted or fall in open areas. Tens of thousands of Israelis have evacuated from communities near the volatile borders with Gaza and Lebanon.
DCAB condemns targeted killing of journalists in Gaza
Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) on Friday expressed its grave concern over the targeted killing of journalists in Gaza strip.
Innocent journalists are being targeted frequently and at least 24 journalists have been killed since October 7.
US Ambassador hosts reception for DCAB
In a statement DCAB President Rezaul Karim Lotus and General Secretary Emrul Kayesh condemned the targeted killing of innocent journalists in Gaza strip, noting that this is irreparable loss to their families.
Killing of journalists in line of duty is a heinous crime and cowardice act, the world must now speak out against the killing of innocent journalists in Gaza, they said.
DCAB pays tribute to Bangabandhu
DCAB demanded neutral and full investigation into those killings under the UN system and the persons involved in such killings need to be brought to justice .
DCAB called upon all sides to refrain from killing the innocent journalists.
Lotus, Kayesh elected DCAB President, GS
The DCAB executives expressed deep condolences and extended sympathy to the family members of the journalists who lost their precious lives.