The latest update from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, confirmed rising
casualties and devastation amid “heavy Israeli bombardment from
air, land and sea”.
“From the afternoon of (Saturday) 2 December to the afternoon of
(Sunday) 3 December, at least 316 people were killed and at least
another 664 injured in Gaza,” OCHA’s situation update reported,
adding that an Israeli soldier had been reportedly killed in the
enclave at the weekend and another had succumbed to wounds
sustained previously.
The return to bloodshed followed the breakdown of a ceasefire
between Hamas and Israel last Friday, 1 December, that had
allowed for the release of dozens of the approximately 240
hostages taken from southern Israel during the group’s terror
attack that claimed some 1,200 lives, according to Israeli
authorities, and of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Health authorities in Gaza claim that more than 15,000 people
have been killed since 7 October.
Nowhere is safe
Echoing humanitarians’ concerns for civilians caught up in the
violence, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, said
that in Rafah city in the south people were being forced to flee
against a backdrop of airstrikes.
“People are pleading for advice on where to find safety,” said
Director of UNRWA Affairs Thomas White.
“We have nothing to tell them.”
Some 1.8 million Gazans now live in the south of Gaza after an
order from the Israeli Defense Forces to residents to leave the
north of the Strip in mid-October.
In a new development, OCHA reported that the Israeli military had
“designated an area covering about 20 per cent of Khan Younis
city for immediate evacuation” on Sunday, and that this area had
been “marked in an online map (and) published on social media”.
Prior to the onset of hostilities, this area was home to nearly
117,000 people, the UN aid coordination office said, noting that
it housed 21 shelters with about 50,000 internally displaced
persons (IDPs), the vast majority previously displaced from the
north.
Critical aid still rolling in
Meanwhile, OCHA reported that some lifesaving humanitarian
supplies were continuing to roll into Gaza late on Sunday evening
from Egypt, although their exact number and contents were
unclear. Ten humanitarian staff also entered via the Rafah border
crossing, which also saw the evacuation of 566 foreign nationals
and dual citizens, 13 injured people and 11 companions.
Security Council meets
In a sign of widespread international alarm over the continuing
violence in Gaza, the UN Security Council was due to
hold closed consultations on the issue on Monday.
The meeting, which was expected to feature
Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
Rosemary DiCarlo, was requested by the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), which expressed the “deeply concerning resumption of
hostilities and the continuing dire humanitarian situation in the
Gaza Strip”.
Killing of children
Meanwhile, in a social media post revealing a panorama of smashed
masonry, rescue workers and distressed youngsters in southern
Gaza on Saturday, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James
Elder railed against “the endless killing of children” after a
night of “utterly relentless bombardments”.
Speaking from inside a shelter, the UN official turned his mobile
phone camera to Khaled and Hannah, two infants sleeping side by
side. “Please meet them and see them, pray that they’ll be alive
in a few days’ time,“ he said. “I feel like I’m running out of
ways to describe the endless killing of children here.”
