UN Security Council passes Gaza resolution as Israel prepares to expand offensive.
- Israel dismisses the decision: Israel called the resolution "unnecessary" and claimed it "proves the inability for the UN to play a positive role in the conflict," though it thanked the US for its efforts to "address the most problematic elements." Israel's ambassador to the UN said the global body was too focused on aid to Gaza, instead of the crisis of hostages captured by Hamas.
- Hamas also largely rejects the move: Hamas said the resolution was "an insufficient step," given that it did not include an international resolution to stop the war. Hamas also slammed the US, saying it "worked hard to empty this resolution of its essence, and to issue it in this weak formula."
- Humanitarian organization says more help is needed: The International Rescue Committee welcomed calls for immediate humanitarian access but criticized the resolution for not including a call for a ceasefire. "With more than 20,000 Palestinians killed and latest food insecurity numbers showing unprecedented threat of starvation in Gaza, much more is clearly needed," the IRC said in a statement.
- Deepening hunger crisis: Children in the Gaza Strip under the age of 5 — about 335,000 kids — are all at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death, according to a UNICEF statement Friday. That follows a warning from a UN-backed food security agency Thursday that the risk of famine is increasing every day that hostilities persist or worsen.
- Aid enters Gaza under challenging conditions: The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it received 70 humanitarian aid trucks on Friday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. But the head of the UN said Israel's military activity in Gaza is creating "massive obstacles" for aid distribution in the enclave. UN Secretary-General António Guterres says measuring the success of aid operations by the number of trucks entering Gaza is a mistake because distributing the goods amid "intense Israeli bombardment" and ground operations is highly dangerous.
- Israel prepares to expand offensive: The Israel Defense Forces is preparing "to expand the operation into new areas" in the Gaza Strip, with an emphasis on southern Gaza, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday in a media briefing. His remarks follow comments from the Israeli defense minister that highlighted operations in southern Gaza and vowed to expand to other parts of Gaza "in the future." And the IDF also ordered residents in several areas of central Gaza to move to shelters for safety, signaling a new focus of the ground offensive and a potentially widening military operation in the enclave.
UNICEF: All children under age 5 in Gaza at high risk of preventable death due to food insecurity
Children in the Gaza Strip under the age of 5 — about 335,000 kids — are at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death, as the risk of famine conditions continues to increase, according to a UNICEF statement on Friday.
In the coming weeks, "at least 10,000 children under five years will suffer the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, known as severe wasting, and will need therapeutic foods," according to UNICEF.
"This means for many families in Gaza, the threat of dying from hunger is already real," UNICEF added.
The UNICEF statement comes after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported Thursday that approximately all of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents are now facing acute hunger. The entire population of the Gaza Strip is classified in a state of crisis, according to IPC.
That's the highest share of people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country, the report stated.
“Many adults go hungry so children can eat,” according to IPC, calling for humanitarian access to be restored throughout the region to enable the rapid delivery of life-saving aid.
UNICEF also said it is particularly concerned about the nutrition of more than 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as more than 135,000 children under the age of 2, given their specific nutrition needs.
The organization added that "the IPC has emphasized that these conditions do not have to persist. Yesterday's warning of famine in the coming weeks and months can still be averted. But we must act now."
CNN's Eyad Kourdi and CNN’s Michael Rios contributed reporting to this post.
My grandmother lost her first child from starvation in a Japanese prison camp, it's especially hard to see this happening in real time to a million people. My grandmother never recovered from the loss, never talked about it but it caused life long rifts in the family.
Fuck Biden and US congress. The only ones that have a chance to reign in their ally's maniacal genocidal government of Israel is only working to wash Israel's hands and block the rest of the world from helping. And for what? The Israeli vote?
Poll suggests Israelis prefer Biden to Trump as next US president: Report
According to a new survey, 40 percent of the people in Israel want US President Joe Biden to be re-elected in 2024, compared with about 26 percent who prefer rival Donald Trump, the Times of Israel reported.
The poll showed a big swing among Israelis compared with 2020. Back then, more than 60 percent of them preferred Trump as US president and 17 percent backed Biden.
At home
Looking at the approval ratings of the past seven presidents at the same point in their first term in office, Biden’s current 39% is the lowest. Barack Obama (43%) and Donald Trump (45%) had slightly higher ratings heading into the year they sought reelection, while all of the others were above 50%.
UNSC resolution ‘greenlighting genocide’: Former UNRWA official
Chris Gunness says what’s unfolding in Gaza is “an American-Israeli genocide – it’s not just an Israeli genocide”.
“Just as America provides Israel with $4bn of military support per annum, it’s also – as we’ve seen tonight – providing Israel with diplomatic and political cover to continue with a genocide which is marked by the wholesale and industrial ignoring of international humanitarian law,” Gunness told Al Jazeera.
He added that Israeli statements following the passage of the Security Council resolution make it clear the country plans to retain control of what goes into Gaza. “It’s clear that [Israel] … as it’s done in the past, [intends] to have a veto over what goes into Gaza,” Gunness said.
But don't worry, we'll send a fleet to the Red Sea to keep the luxury goods coming in on time...
https://nationalpost.com/news/why-canada-helping-protect-ships-in-red-sea
Fuck this world. Merry Christmas :(
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