Israeli strike kills 76 members of one Gaza family, says Gaza civil defense department
An Israeli airstrike has killed 76 members of an extended family in Gaza, Associated Press reported rescue officials as saying on Saturday.
Friday’s strike on a building in Gaza City was among the deadliest of the Israel-Gaza war, Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence department said.
Bassal provided a partial list of the names of those killed, according to AP – 16 heads of households from the Mughrabi family – and said the dead included women and children.
Among them was Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the UN Development Programme, his wife and their five children.
“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, the head of the agency. “This war must end.”
Key events
Here are some images coming through the newswires of thousands of protestors in Tel Aviv who took to the streets on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and in opposition towards the Israeli government’s handling of the hostage crisis.
Jerusalem’s church leaders defended their meeting with Israeli president Isaac Herzog on Sunday after it sparked criticism from Palestinians.
Agence France-Presse reports:
A statement from the president’s office announced the meeting on Thursday, quoting Herzog as saying that he expected the “Christian world to express clear condemnation” of the deadly October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel.
The meeting, attended by patriarchs and heads of churches in the city including the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa, triggered condemnation not just from the militant group Hamas but also the Palestinian community critical of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.
In a joint statement defending the meeting, the church leaders said the meeting was “not a mere exchange of holiday season pleasantries.”
It was aimed, they said, at “demanding, on behalf of Christians worldwide, an immediate cessation of the bloodshed in Gaza.”
Hamas had earlier denounced the meeting, saying in a statement that it was “shocked” by the image of Christian leaders in occupied Palestinian territories meeting with Herzog and accused them of not speaking out “about the difficult times our people are facing.”
Water and sanitation services in Gaza are at the point of collapse, Unicef said on Saturday.
Amid Israel’s deadly attacks across the strip, which have killed more than 20,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million survivors, Unicef said that the deteriorating humanitarian situation is raising the risk of large-scale disease outbreaks.
Children are being forced to drink salinated or polluted water, in turn putting them at risk of death and disease, it added.
Water and sanitation services in Gaza are at the point of collapse, putting children at serious risk of illness and death.
We need rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to all children and families in need. pic.twitter.com/izOoh8dxyw
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) December 23, 2023
The US president Joe Biden spoke with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, the White House said.
According to Netanyahu’s office, Netanyahu voiced appreciation towards the US for its stance at the UN security council, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu’s office also added that he “made clear that Israel will pursue the war until all of its objectives are fully met”.
A staunch ally of Israel, the US earlier this month vetoed a security council resolution that called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. In its latest round of voting at the security council, the US abstained from a highly watered-down resolution – which ultimately passed – surrounding the delivery of aid into Gaza.
Two Qatari Armed Forces aircraft carrying aid for Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes in Gaza has headed to El Arish, Egypt.
In an announcement on Saturday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said that the two aircraft carrying 33 tons of aid consisting of food and medical supplies are en route to Gaza.
Today’s delivery brings the total number of aid planes sent to Gaza by Qatar to 49, with a total of 1,534 tons of aid.
“We are not getting the humanitarian supplies that we need to cater and respond to a humanitarian crisis this size and this scale,” UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma has said.
Speaking to CGTN, Touma added:
The more that we have these evacuation orders that the Israeli authorities continue to issue … we will see an exodus of people continue to search for safety, search for shelter … The combination of the war and the siege and the lack of availability of basic supplies including food has led to … unprecedented levels of hunger and starvation.
The director of UNRWA affairs, Thomas White, reiterated the absence of safety across the Gaza strip as more than 1.9 million Palestinians remain displaced as a result of Israel’s attacks.
In a tweet on Saturday, White wrote:
People in Gaza are people. They are not pieces on a checkerboard – many have already been displaced several times. The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go.
People in #Gaza are People. They are not pieces on a checkerboard – many have already been displaced several times. The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go. @UNRWA
— Thomas White (@TomWhiteGaza) December 23, 2023
UN security council resolution ‘falls painfully short,’ says Médecins Sans Frontières
In response to the UN security council’s passage of a resolution on Gaza aid delivery, Médecins Sans Frontières said that it “falls painfully short of what is required to address the crisis in Gaza”.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, MSF said:
The watered-down resolution on #Gaza will not ensure the massive scale-up and rapid flow of humanitarian aid needed, as bombs continue to rain down on Palestinian civilians, force mass displacement, and deny access to vital medical care and humanitarian assistance.
The watered-down resolution on #Gaza will not ensure the massive scale-up and rapid flow of humanitarian aid needed, as bombs continue to rain down on Palestinian civilians, force mass displacement, and deny access to vital medical care and humanitarian assistance…
— MSF International (@MSF) December 23, 2023
“The way Israel is prosecuting this war, with US support, is causing massive death and suffering among Palestinian civilians and is inconsistent with international norms and laws. Even war has rules,” it added.
The way Israel is prosecuting this war, with US support, is causing massive death and suffering among Palestinian civilians and is inconsistent with international norms and laws. Even war has rules…
— MSF International (@MSF) December 23, 2023
The Palestine Red Crescent Society remains operating at its medical point in Jabalia in northern Gaza amid Israeli bombardment.
In a video released on Saturday, PRCS workers can be seen treating Palestinians injured by Israeli strikes in a makeshift tent amid a shortage of medical supplies across the strip.
Food aid is failing to reach Palestinian residents displaced by Israeli strikes in Gaza despite a “catastrophic” hunger crisis.
The Guardian’s Kaamil Ahmed reports:
A couple of biscuits and a can of beans is all that many Palestinians in Gaza say is being given to families to live on, if they receive aid at all, and that they are finding donated items for sale in the markets.
The risk of famine is increasing every day, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which said this week that Gaza’s entire population is suffering “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”, the highest proportion of a population with acute food insecurity the monitor has ever recorded.
On Friday, the United Nations security council backed a resolution calling for a major boost in humanitarian assistance for Gaza. But the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told reporters: “The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.”
The World Food Programme has also said it is becoming more difficult to reach people because of intensified fighting, with food becoming scarce and expensive, and fuel for cooking hard to find. The WFP’s most recent food security update said the situation is worst in northern Gaza, where 90% of people have gone a full day and night without eating.
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