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SvennoJ on 23 January 2024
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Strong words from UN chief Antonio Guterres in Security Council address

When he laid out what needs to happen, or what the UN needs to try to provide aid to those who need it the most, you could sum up his speech by saying “everything”. Food, water, security – you name it, and there is a need for it in Gaza for the people who need it the most right now. And when you say “people who need it the most”, that is pretty much everybody in Gaza, and those are the words of the secretary-general of the United Nations.

He painted a very bleak and very dark picture of what the Palestinians in Gaza are facing on an hour-by-hour, day-by-day basis.

  • The provision of aid to Gaza via [Israel’s] Ashdod Port must also resume.
  • We need access to the north [of Gaza]. In the first two weeks of January, out of 29 planned humanitarian missions to deliver life-saving supplies north of Wadi Gaza, only seven were completed either full or partially.
  • The majority of missions were denied access by Israel.
  • I am deeply troubled by reports of Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians detained during military operations.
  • I renew my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Israel's rejection of two-state solution threatens to prolong conflict, UN chief says

Israel's “clear and repeated rejection” of a two-state solution is “unacceptable” and threatens to prolong the conflict with Palestinians that has become a global threat to peace, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday.

The UN chief called a two-state solution the only way to address the aspirations of both sides, saying any refusal to accept it must be firmly rejected.
“A lasting end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only come through a two-state solution,” he said. Guterres also repeated his call for more aid deliveries into Gaza, saying the quantities that are entering the enclave are highly insufficient. “It is fantasy to think that 2.2 million people can survive on aid alone,” he said.

Guterres called for more crossing points into Gaza and for access to the north, saying only seven of 29 planned humanitarian missions to the north of Wadi Gaza in early January were fully or partially accomplished. He also appealed again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, saying, “this will ensure sufficient aid gets to where it is needed, facilitate the release of hostages, and help lower tensions around the Middle East.”

UN relief head shares ‘grim update’ on Khan Younis

Martin Griffiths cites reports from the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) about deadly attacks and heavy bombardment in the southern Gaza city.

“A warehouse was hit, killing two people and cutting off access to humanitarian supplies and to critical water and sanitation equipment,” Griffiths said in a statement. “Six people were killed in Khan Younis Training Centre.”

He added that medics are working at Nasser Hospital “while debris is falling on their heads”.

MSF: Israeli forces order evacuation of Nasser Hospital area

The medical group Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says that several blocks in Khan Younis, including those where Nasser Hospital is located, have received orders to evacuate.

“MSF staff members can hear bombs and heavy gunfire close to Nasser,” the group said in a social media post on Tuesday. “They are currently unable to evacuate along with the thousands of people in the hospital, including 850 patients, due to roads to and from the building being either inaccessible or too dangerous.”

Israel orders massive area in Khan Younis emptied of people; city’s hospitals surrounded: UN

Heavy Israeli bombardments are reported in close proximity to three hospitals in Gaza’s Khan Younis – Nasser, Al Amal, and Al Aqsa hospitals – as fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters rages across much of the Palestinian enclave.

The latest UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) situation report also notes:

  • Almost 200 Palestinians were killed and 354 injured by Israeli attacks in the 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday afternoon.
  • The killing of 21 Israeli soldiers in a single attack brings the total number of Israel’s forces killed in Gaza to 219 with a further 1,232 injured, according to Israeli military figures.
  • Almost 90,000 residents and 425,000 displaced people have been ordered by the Israeli military to leave more than 4sq km (1.4sq miles) residential areas in Khan Younis.
  • The massive clearance order in Khan Younis affects 24 UN shelters for people displaced by Israel’s war, three hospitals, which represent 20 percent of all partially, still-functioning medical centres in Gaza, and three other health clinics.
  • On Monday Israeli troops raided the Al Kheir Hospital in the west of Khan Younis, arrested staff and ordered civilians at the hospital to move further south.

Israel should be ‘held accountable’ for targeting Gaza’s medical facilities: Qatar foreign ministry

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dr Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari has addressed Israel’s bombardment of the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis. “The direct targeting of physicians, patients, wounded, displaced people, and medical facilities… will only result in turning the Strip into a major humanitarian disaster for which the [Israeli] occupation and those who support it should be held accountable,” Al Ansari said in a statement following a weekly media briefing.

Al-Ansari also urged the international community to pressure Israel for “immediate safe corridors in Gaza”, highlighting that “the situation in northern Gaza is much worse than the rest of the Strip, with neither aid delivery nor hospitals”. Al-Ansari also said that “Qatar-led mediation efforts” to end the conflict are ongoing.



Israel's response

Israeli UN envoy: Ceasefire will bring ‘another attempted Holocaust’

Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has again railed against calls for a ceasefire, saying that the Middle East is suffering from a “cancer” and that Israel will not accept the continued existence of Hamas.

“Shockingly, many here on the Security Council are advocating for a permanent ceasefire, while giving no thought to the implications,” Erdan said. “What do you think will happen if there is a ceasefire? I will tell you what will happen: Hamas will remain in power, they will regroup and rearm, and soon Israelis will face another attempted Holocaust.”

Israeli ministers to host conference on Gaza settlements

Members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party, including ministers and members of parliament, have announced an event calling for the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks, reports Israeli outlet Ynet.

In a video statement, Israeli tourism minister Haim Katz called on the public to attend the conference, which will take place this weekend. “The withdrawal created the Nazi monster,” he said, referring to Israel’s formal withdrawal of its settlers and military from the Gaza Strip in 2005. He continued, saying that only the settlement of Gaza could bring security to Israel.

Israel’s rising use of drone strikes in West Bank

As Israel has ramped up its raids on communities in the occupied West Bank since October 7, it has also increased its use of drone strikes there. This has led to the deaths of several Palestinians. “The use of drones in the way that Israel has been using them is, of course, illegal,” Lawyer Diana Buttu told Al Jazeera from Haifa, Israel.