UN Security Council to Vote on Call for Humanitarian Pause in Gaza

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 19, 2023. Israel Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, right, listens to his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, making a joint statement after their meeting about Israel's military operation in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Dec. 18, 2023. Three Israeli hostages appear in footage by Hamas at a location given as Gaza, in this still image obtained from handout video released Dec. 18, 2023. (Hamas Military Wing/Handout via REUTERS). The sun sets in Egypt across the border from the southern Gaza Strip near tents housing Palestinians displaced by the conflict in Gaza, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 18, 2023.

Israeli forces and Hamas militants engaged in fierce battles Tuesday in Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city, while Gaza health officials reported deadly Israeli airstrikes near the Egyptian border.