Gaza Strip: Israel’s military pushed ahead with its punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday, bolstered by a US veto derailing UN Security Council efforts to end the war and word that an emergency sale of $106 million worth of tank ammunition had been approved by Washington.
Unable to leave Gaza, a territory 25 miles (40 kilometers) long by about
7 miles (11 kilometers) wide, more than 2 million Palestinians faced
more bombardment Saturday, even in areas that Israel had described as
safe zones.
The sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition was announced a day
after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an
immediate cease-fire in Gaza, a measure that had wide international
support. The US said Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that
“an emergency exists” in the national interest requiring the immediate
sale, meaning it bypasses congressional review. Such a determination is
rare.
A day after Israel confirmed it was rounding up Palestinian men for
interrogation, some men told The Associated Press they had been treated
badly, providing the first accounts of the conditions from the
detentions.
Ahmad Nimr Salman showed his marked and swollen hands from zip ties.
“They used to ask us, ‘Are you with Hamas?’ We say ‘no,’ then they would
slap us or kick us,” he said. The Israeli military had no immediate
comment when asked about the alleged abuse.
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has
surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the
Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not
differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Two hospitals in central and southern Gaza received the bodies of 133
people from Israeli bombings over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry
said midday Saturday.
Israel holds the Hamas militants responsible for civilian casualties,
accusing them of using civilians as human shields, and says it has made
considerable efforts with evacuation orders to get civilians out of
harm’s way. It says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground
offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about
1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages.
Hamas said Saturday that it continued its rocket fire into Israel.
In Gaza, residents reported airstrikes and shelling, including in the
southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border — one area where the
Israeli army had told civilians to go. In a colorful classroom there,
knee-high children’s tables were strewn with rubble.
“We now live in the Gaza Strip and are governed by the American law of
the jungle. America has killed human rights,” said Rafah resident Abu
Yasser Al-Khatib.
In northern Gaza, Israel has been trying to secure the military’s hold,
despite heavy resistance from Hamas. The military said that it found
weapons inside a school in Shujaiyah, a densely populated neighborhood
of Gaza City, and that, in a separate incident, militants shot at troops
from a UN-run school in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
More than 2,500 Palestinians have been killed since the Dec. 1 collapse
of a weeklong truce, about two-thirds of them women and children,
according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The truce saw hostages and Palestinian prisoners released, but Israel says 137 hostages remain in Gaza.
On Saturday, a kibbutz that came under attack on Oct. 7 said 25-year-old
hostage Sahar Baruch had died in captivity. His captors said Baruch was
killed during a failed rescue mission by Israeli forces Friday. The
Israeli military said Hamas killed him.
With no new cease-fire in sight and humanitarian aid reaching little of
Gaza, residents reported severe food shortages. Nine of 10 people in
northern Gaza reported spending at least one full day and night without
food, according to a World Food Program assessment during the truce. Two
of three people in the south said the same. The WFP called the
situation “alarming.”
“I am very hungry,” said Mustafa Al-Najjar, sheltering in a UN-run
school in the devastated Jabaliya refugee camp in the north. “We are
living on canned food and biscuits and this is not sufficient.”
While adults can cope, “it’s extremely difficult and painful when you
see your young son or daughter crying because they are hungry,” he said.
Israelis who had been taken hostage also saw the food situation
deteriorate, the recently freed Adina Moshe told a rally of thousands of
people in Tel Aviv seeking the rapid return of all. “We ended up eating
only rice,” said Moshe, who was held for 49 days.
The rally speakers accused Israel’s government of not doing enough to
bring loved ones home. “How can I sleep at night? How can I protect my
daughter?” asked Eli Albag, the father of 18-year-old hostage Liri
Albag.
On Saturday, 100 trucks carrying unspecified aid entered Gaza through
the Rafah crossing with Egypt, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the
Palestinian Crossings Authority. That is still well below the daily
average before the war.
Despite growing international pressure, President Joe Biden’s
administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it
would enable Hamas to continue posing a threat to Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has argued that “a cease-fire is handing a prize to Hamas.”
Blinken continued to speak with counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and elsewhere amid open criticism of the US stance.
“From now on, humanity won’t think the USA. supports the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said in a speech.
Protesters at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai called for a cease-fire, despite restrictions on demonstrations.
Amid concerns about a wider conflict, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen
threatened to prevent any ship heading to Israeli ports from passing
through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea until food and medicine can enter
Gaza freely. Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a speech that all
ships heading to Israel, no matter their nationality, will be a target.
In southern Gaza, thousands were on the run after what residents called a night of heavy gunfire and shelling.
Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren southern coastline,
Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians described desperately
overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and no toilets. They faced an
overnight temperature of around 52 degrees (11 degrees Celsius).
“I am sleeping on the sand. It’s freezing,” said Soad Qarmoot, who
described herself as a cancer patient forced to leave her home in the
northern town of Beit Lahiya.
As she spoke, her children huddled around a fire.
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