Hunger rises in Gaza as UN prepares to vote on another ceasefire resolution
CBC
Israeli warplanes and tanks pounded southern Gaza overnight and on Tuesday, and the UN said aid distribution to Gazans facing growing hunger had largely stopped because of the intensity of fighting in the war between Israel and Hamas.
In the southern Gazan city of Rafah, which borders Egypt, health officials said 22 people including children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on houses overnight. Civil emergency workers were searching for more victims under the rubble.
Residents said the shelling of Rafah, where the Israeli army this month ordered people to head for their safety, was some of the heaviest in days.
After a week-long ceasefire collapsed on Dec. 1, Israel began a ground offensive in the south and has since pushed from the east into the heart of Khan Younis city, southern Gaza's main city.
Residents there said tank shelling on Tuesday focused on the city centre. One said tanks were operating on the street where the house of Yahya Al-Sinwar, Hamas's leader in Gaza, is located. Health officials said two people were killed overnight in the city
Israel says its instructions to people to move are among measures it is taking to protect civilians as it tries to root out Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people, including several Canadians, in Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel. About 100 hostages of an estimated 240 people taken in that rampage have since been freed.
One hundred and five Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground invasion began in late October, according to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Israel's retaliatory assaults have killed 18,412 people and wounded about 50,100, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Aid agencies say hunger is worsening among Gazans, with the UN World Food Program saying half of Gaza's population is starving.
"At night we can't sleep because of the bombing and in the morning we tour the streets looking for food for the children, there is no food," said Abu Khalil, 40, a father of six, speaking to Reuters by phone from Rafah.
"I couldn't find bread and the prices of rice, salt or beans have doubled several times over. This is starvation," he said. "Israel kills us twice, once by bombs and once by hunger."
The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said on Tuesday limited aid distributions were taking place in the Rafah district, but "in the rest of the Gaza Strip, aid distribution has largely stopped over the past few days, due to the intensity of hostilities and restrictions of movement along the main roads."
Aid flows were also restricted by a shortage of trucks in Gaza, a continuing lack of fuel, communications blackouts, and growing numbers of staff unable to travel to the Rafah crossing with Egypt because of the intensity of hostilities, it said.
UN officials say 1.9 million people — 85 per cent of Gaza's population — are displaced, and describe conditions in the southern areas where they have concentrated as hellish.