Tempers rose at the United Nations on Tuesday because of calls for a ceasefire. Aid groups and doctors in Gaza are concerned that power shortages could endanger the lives of vulnerable babies and patients.
Organizations that help people are asking for a stop to the fighting in Gaza. They say that in the last few weeks, Israel has been bombing Gaza more and that around 2,000 children have been killed there.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, announced on Monday that the country is getting ready to take action against Hamas, the militant group in control of Gaza. This operation will involve using air, ground, and sea forces.
In the last 24 hours, over 700 people died in Gaza as a result of Israeli attacks on what they believed were Hamas targets. This is the highest number of deaths in a single day since the attacks began two and a half weeks ago. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah shared this information on Tuesday. The ministry said that among the people who died, there were 305 children, 173 women, and 78 elderly individuals.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told soldiers on Tuesday that the recent strikes killed many terrorists. We dealt the enemy a very strong attack that they have never experienced before in just one day. “We have killed many terrorists, maybe even more,” he said.
Israel’s leaders have promised to eliminate Hamas in retaliation for their October 7 terrorist attacks and kidnapping spree, which resulted in the deaths of 1,400 people (mostly innocent civilians) and over 200 people being taken as hostages.
In Gaza, where people are isolated from the outside world because of a strong blockade, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed entire neighborhoods, including houses, schools, and mosques. On Monday, CNN used a drone to film the damage in some areas of the strip. The footage showed entire streets that were completely flattened in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. It also showed a line of buildings known as al-Zahra towers in central Gaza that were destroyed.
New numbers from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, show that at least 5,087 people have died from Israeli attacks in the area. This includes 2,055 children.
The situation in Gaza is getting worse, and countries around the world are having a hard time agreeing on what to do.
The US rejects the request for a halt in fighting between Israel and Hamas. A spokesperson from the National Security Council, John Kirby, said on CNN that Hamas needs to let go of the people they are holding against their will in Gaza before a ceasefire can happen.
China, Russia, and Slovenia have asked for the fighting to stop, while Brazil and Ireland have suggested temporary breaks to provide help and support.
There were strong emotions at the UN Security Council on Tuesday when Secretary General António Guterres asked for an immediate ceasefire to help people who need help.
“Protecting ordinary people does not involve forcing over one million individuals to leave for the southern area where there are no places to stay, no food, no water, no medicine, and no fuel. Additionally, they are still being attacked in the south. ”
Guterres also stated that we should understand that the attacks by Hamas did not occur without any cause. The Palestinian people have endured 56 years of a very oppressive occupation. ” They have watched their land slowly taken over by towns and troubled by violence; their economy suppressed; their people forced to leave and their homes destroyed.
He said that Hamas’ terrible actions cannot excuse punishing all the Palestinian people. Dear honorable individuals, even during times of war, there are certain guidelines that need to be followed.
The Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, wrote on social media that he wants Guterres to quit right away. He also said that Guterres is not suitable to be the leader of the UN. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, was at the United Nations on Tuesday. He stated that he would not meet with Guterres and believes that a fair approach is not suitable.
“Hamas should be completely eliminated from the world. ” Cohen wrote on X, which is also called Twitter.
Israel’s ability to protect itself was supported by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Security Council. He said that it is important to have breaks in fighting to let aid reach people in Gaza who need it. He specifically said not to use the word “ceasefire. ”
Blinken told the council that Israel needs to try its best to keep civilians safe and asked Hamas to stop using Palestinian people as a way to protect themselves.
Fuel is very important for living in Gaza. If there is no fuel, then water cannot be moved or turned into drinkable water. The machines that make hospitals work, like incubators, ventilators, and kidney machines, also won’t work. These machines need fuel to function. Fuel is also needed to clean surgical tools.
According to the World Health Organization, six hospitals in Gaza had to shut down because they did not have enough fuel.
The WHO says that six hospitals in the Gaza Strip have closed because they don’t have enough fuel. This is in addition to other hospitals that have closed because of damage and attacks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) alerted that unless Gaza urgently receives essential fuel and extra health supplies, many sick people who are at risk may die.
Save the Children said on Monday that more than 1 million children are stuck in Gaza without a safe place to go. They also warned about the serious effects of not having enough medicine and electricity to power important health facilities in the area.
A big organization of United Nations in Gaza stated that it will have to stop providing help in Gaza on Wednesday if fuel is not allowed into the area.
A person who works for CNN tried to escape from Gaza with his family. Learn the reasons for why he had to go back.
The UNRWA said on social media that if we don’t get fuel soon, we will have to stop working in the Gaza Strip starting tomorrow night.
Gaza needs a lot of fuel every day, about 160,000 litres (42,267 gallons). This fuel is not only for the UNRWA facilities, but also for hospitals, bakeries, and other important things that people need. Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the organization, said this.
Israeli and UN authorities have said that over the weekend, no fuel trucks from Egypt’s Rafah border crossing entered Gaza as part of a humanitarian aid convoy, despite the urgent need for it.
But, the leader of the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday that they will try to give fuel to help the people who are suffering. He repeated Israel’s stance that it will not allow the fuel to get to Hamas because they don’t want Hamas to keep fighting against the people of Israel.
The Lieutenant said that they will ensure there is enough fuel in the necessary locations to provide medical care to civilians. General Herzi Halevi mentioned that the IDF didn’t explain how they would get fuel to the people who needed it the most.
Earlier, Mark Regev, who advises Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on CNN that Israel would not permit fuel to enter Gaza, even if all the hostages were set free.
Right now, we do not want to give any more fuel to the Hamas military machine. We have only approved medicine and water. We have given permission for food, but we have not given permission for anything else,” Regev stated.
The government has decided not to give fuel because they believe that Hamas will steal it and use it to power rockets that they shoot into Israel to harm our people.
The United Nations is carefully monitoring to see if Hamas is taking humanitarian aid meant for people in Gaza for themselves. So far, they haven’t seen any signs of this happening, according to the spokesperson for the US State Department, Matt Miller.
On Monday, Hamas let go of two Israeli citizens, who were older women. This happened because there was a lot of pressure from around the world to make sure the other abducted people are also released from Gaza. An 85-year-old grandmother named Yocheved Lifshitz was recently released after being kidnapped and taken to Gaza by gunmen. She described her terrible experience as going through hell.
Two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, were set free on Friday. Now, these other people are also being released.
The person speaking for the National Security Council, named Kirby, did not say on Tuesday whether the Israeli attacks on Gaza were causing any problems in trying to bring back or move hostages safely. This person said to CNN that the current US government, led by Biden, still does not know where and how the American hostages being kept by Hamas are doing.
In Gaza, there are now cases of chickenpox, scabies, and diarrhea because the health conditions are getting worse, there is not enough cleanliness, and people are drinking water that is not safe, according to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health.
Hospitals are in a very bad condition as they are extremely full, operating at more than their full capacity. The situation is so serious that surgeries are being done without anesthesia and sometimes using the light from phones, according to the health ministry of the Palestinian Authority.
Approximately 50,000 pregnant women are facing difficulties in obtaining medical care. Every day, there are roughly 166 unsafe births, and over 5,000 women are expected to give birth in the next month.
The biggest hospital in Gaza City, called Al-Shifa Hospital, has enough fuel for only two days, as stated by Marwan Abusada, a senior surgeon, on Monday.
The situation in Al-Shifa is very bad, a doctor said that without electricity, the hospital will become a place where a lot of people will die, and there is nothing they can do to help the injured people.
According to British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the situation is falling apart and the fighting needs to stop.
If there is no fire or a safe path for people to leave, the existing catastrophe will become even worse.
The Gaza hospital has more than 130 new babies, but it is almost out of fuel.
A doctor who takes care of newborn babies in a hospital in southern Gaza said to CNN on Monday that if urgent fuel is not brought into the area, premature babies who need oxygen will die.
Hatem Edhair, who is in charge of the Neonatal ICU at Nasser Medical Complex, stated that all unnecessary services such as lights and air conditioning have been switched off.
He said there are 11 babies in his special hospital unit for newborns who are very sick, and most of them weigh less than 1. 5The number of babies coming to the unit is increasing because people from the north of Gaza are moving to the south.
Yesterday, twenty additional trucks filled with important supplies arrived in Gaza. However, aid organizations are concerned that the current speed of delivery will not be enough to meet the needs of over 2 million people living there.
According to UNRWA, on Tuesday, only eight out of the planned 20 aid trucks were able to enter Gaza. They didn’t say why the other twelve trucks didn’t make it across the crossing.
According to the United Nations, the place usually gets 455 trucks carrying aid every day. This means that Gaza is missing more than 7,200 truckloads of aid that it would normally receive between October 7 and October 22, even with the deliveries over the weekend.
That’s a tiny portion of the usual aid it gets – just one out of every two hundred parts.