23 December,2023 07:39 AM IST | Rafah | Agencies
Palestinians stand around a car targeted in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah. PIC/AP
Palestinian officials said Friday that the death toll has now exceeded 20,000 - around 1 per cent of the territory's prewar population. Meanwhile, Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crammed into shelters and tent camps as winter descends, raising fears about the spread of disease.
The United Nations says more than half a million (more than 1 in 4) people are starving in Gaza because not enough food has entered the besieged territory as Israel keeps up its blistering campaign of airstrikes and ground operations. But the UN Security Council again delayed a vote on a new resolution to halt the fighting in some way, which would allow for an increase in humanitarian aid deliveries.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. In just over two months, the offensive has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria's Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine's Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the US-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.
The Israeli military has said little about what kinds of bombs and artillery it is using in Gaza. But experts are confident that the vast majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave are US-made. They say the weapons include 900-kg "bunker-busters" that have killed hundreds in densely populated areas.
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The Israel Defence Force (IDF) has called on the residents of central Gaza's Bureij town to move to the south and head for shelters in Deir al-Balah as it plans to expand the ground offensive. A map was published to show zones that need to be evacuated. The IDF will facilitate the movement of civilians via a bypass route along the coast.
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