Israeli military bombs apartment building in Gaza City, killing 7
The Israeli military has bombed an apartment complex in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City, killing seven people, the Wafa news agency reports. A family of seven was killed, a husband and wife and their five children, according to Wafa.
Two people have also been killed and more injured in Rafah after the Israeli military bombed a motorcycle at Salah al-Din Gate, south of the city in southern Gaza.
A towering cloud of smoke and dust rises from Gaza following an Israeli attack on May 7
UN warns fuel running out in Gaza, hitting water, food, medical and aid operations
Critical diesel fuel supplies needed to power drinking water pumps, maintain communications and deliver humanitarian aid within the war-torn Gaza Strip will run out today, a senior UN official said after Israel’s closure of the two key border crossing points into the Palestinian territory
Andrea De Domenico, the head of the UN’s humanitarian aid office in the Palestinian territory, said Israel’s military incursion and order for people to leave Rafah has resulted in “the forced displacement of tens of thousands of people”.
De Domenico said the UN normally uses 200,000 litres of diesel fuel a day in Gaza. As of Tuesday night, the UN had 30,000 litres remaining.
Without a fuel delivery, the main water production facility in northern Gaza will be shut, “depriving the entire population of access to drinking water.” The same shutdown will happen in another day for the middle and south of Gaza, affecting 1.9 million people, the Associated Press news agency reports.
De Domenico also said the area that Israeli officials have told Palestinians to move to is mainly sand dunes and has no toilets, water points, drainage, shelter or health facilities.
Israeli authorities are also not on the ground providing humanitarian services, he said, adding that without fuel and more flour, the 16 bakeries supported by the UN throughout Gaza will be forced to suspend operations.
UN chief warns fallout from Rafah invasion will be felt ‘across the region’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took to social media to warn of the “repercussions” from Israel’s incursion into Rafah and that a “full-scale assault” would amount to a “catastrophe”.
“Countless more civilian casualties. Countless more families forced to flee yet again – with nowhere safe to go,” he said. “The repercussions will be felt far beyond, in the occupied West Bank, and across the region,” he added.
In Gaza, ‘suffering will be remembered by the generation that follows’
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s humanitarian aid chief, said decisions being made amid Israel’s incursion into Rafah and the “human suffering” that results will not be forgotten.
In a post on social media, Griffiths said more than 1 million people remain in Rafah, including 600,000 children, and Israel’s orders for people to flee the area “and their ground operation will bring more death and displacement”.
Israel’s closure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt also cut fuel supplies and “shuts off the movement of aid and staff to and from Gaza”, he said.
“The decisions that are made today and their consequences in human suffering will be remembered by the generation that follows us. Let us be ready for their reproaches,” he added.
A Palestinian boy wounded in an Israeli strike waits to receive treatment at a hospital in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 7
US paused bomb shipment to Israel over Rafah invasion plan: Report
The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports that the US paused sending a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel would launch a full-scale assault on Rafah.
Attributing the information to “a senior administration official”, the AP said the shipment was to have consisted of 1,800 2,000-pound (more than 900kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs (226 kg).
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision to pause the shipment was made last week and no final decision had been made yet on whether to proceed with the transfer of weapons at a later date.
This is what 2,000 pound bombs do
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/12/21/israel-bombardment-gaza-elbagir-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn
CNN identified at least 1900 craters by the end of last year alone.
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