GAZA: The United Nations, United States and Canada appealed on Tuesday (Oct 24) for a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war to allow safe deliveries of aid to civilians stricken by shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity in the Israeli-besieged enclave.
International pressure for unimpeded aid to Gaza rose as the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory reported that Israeli air strikes had killed more than 700 Palestinians overnight. Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said this was the highest 24-hour death toll in Israel’s two-week-old siege.
UN agencies were pleading “on our knees” for emergency aid to be let into Gaza unimpeded, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed to support the narrow strip’s 2.3 million people amid widespread devastation from Israel’s aerial blitz.
The United States is negotiating with Israel, neighbouring Egypt and the UN to smooth emergency deliveries into Gaza, but have wrangled over procedures for inspecting the aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border.
In a statement released on social media, the Palestinian health ministry said at least 5,791 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli bombardments since Oct 7, including 2,360 children. Some 704 were killed in the previous 24 hours alone, it said.
Reuters could not independently verify the ministry figures.
The Israeli military said that it killed dozens of Hamas fighters overnight while hitting over 400 Hamas targets, but that it would take time to destroy the militant group whose deadly cross-border attack on Oct 7 stunned Israel.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded on Tuesday for civilians to be protected, voicing concern about “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking to the UN Security Council, called for “humanitarian pauses” to enable urgent aid shipments to Gaza civilians.
“Palestinian civilians are not to blame for the carnage committed by Hamas,” Blinken said, referring to the militants’ killing of 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and capture of over 200 in a one-day rampage through Israeli communities near Gaza.
“Palestinian civilians must be protected. That means Hamas must cease using them as human shields … It means Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians,” Blinken said.
Source: CNA
