\n
<\/p>\n
An update from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that in the last two days alone, \u201csix attempts to deliver life-saving assistance to besieged areas in North Gaza governorate were blocked\u201d.<\/p>\n
The missions on Tuesday and Wednesday had aimed to bring food and water to Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, along with protection and psychosocial support for children deeply traumatized by 13 months of bombardment.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are trapped in residential buildings, they are hiding from the ongoing military operations around them, they are running out of food,\u201d<\/strong> said Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.<\/p>\n In comments to the media, Ms. Wateridge relayed testimonies from staff and people in the north who described seeing dead bodies in the streets, and a near total absence of emergency healthcare provision which had forced people to use donkey carts to reach barely functioning hospitals.<\/p>\n According to OCHA, approximately 79 per cent of the Gaza Strip remains under active evacuation orders. \u201cPalestinians continue to be directed to areas in and around Al Mawasi, in southern Gaza, that lack basic infrastructure and essential services<\/strong>,\u201d the UN aid agency said.<\/p>\n Latest data from the Gazan health authorities indicated that at least 43,736 people have been killed and 103,370 wounded in Israeli military attacks since 7 October 2023, with 24 Palestinians killed and 112 wounded in the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n The development came as a UN General Assembly special panel condemned the Israeli military\u2019s tactics in Gaza since war erupted, following the \u201chorrific\u201d Hamas-led terror attacks on 7 October on multiple Israeli targets that killed some 1,250 people and left more than 250 taken hostage.<\/p>\n Covering the period from October 2023 to July this year, a report from the panel maintained that Gaza had been hit by some 25,000 tonnes of explosives – equivalent to two nuclear bombs<\/strong> – by early 2024.<\/p>\n The massive destruction that has been the result – along with the collapse of water and sanitation systems, agricultural devastation and toxic pollution – are \u201cconsistent with the characteristics of genocide\u201d <\/strong>and will have an impact on the health of Gazans for generations, insisted the report\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Israeli military\u2019s use of AI-assisted targeting, with minimal human oversight, combined with heavy bombs, underscores Israel\u2019s disregard of its obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants<\/strong> and take adequate safeguards to prevent civilian deaths,\u201d said the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war<\/strong> and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population,\u201d the Committee maintained.<\/p>\n On the ground in Gaza, Israeli soldiers were also found to have engaged in \u201cdehumanising, cruel and humiliating behaviour towards Palestinians,<\/strong> including women and children\u201d, the committee said, alleging that troops had shared photos on social media of Palestinian women \u201caimed at mocking, shaming and humiliating them\u201d.<\/p>\n The panel was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1968 to examine the human rights situation in the occupied Syrian Golan, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n The Committee\u2019s Member States – Malaysia, Senegal and Sri Lanka – called on Israel and Palestinian armed groups \u201cto urgently agree to a lasting ceasefire, release all hostages as well as detainees held arbitrarily\u201d. provide unfettered ICRC access to those in detention and open all border crossings to allow life-saving humanitarian aid into Gaza at scale.<\/p>\n The panel also condemned the \u201congoing smear campaign\u201d against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and expressed concern at the \u201cdeliberate silencing of reporting\u201d on the conflict in Gaza. It said that \u201cescalating media censorship\u201d by Israel and the \u201csuppression of dissent and targeting of journalists\u201d were \u201cdeliberate efforts to block global access to information\u201d.<\/p>\n The Committee also insisted that social media companies had \u201cdisproportionately removed \u2018pro-Palestinian content\u2019, in comparison with posts inciting violence against Palestinians\u201d. Its report will be presented to the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly on 18 November 2024.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAlmost all of Gaza forced to move<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Equivalent to two nuclear bombs<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018Starvation as a method of war\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Palestinian women mocked and shamed<\/strong><\/h2>\n
End \u2018smear campaign\u2019 against UNRWA<\/strong><\/h2>\n