2023-12-27 04:10:00
The UN expressed “great concern” about the “continuous bombings” of the Israeli Army / Photo: UN press archive.
The UN reiterated this Tuesday its “great concern” about the “continuous Israeli bombings” of the Gaza Strip, which have left more than a hundred dead since Christmas Eve, and Israel responded that it will not automatically grant visas to officials of the organization because they are ” “accomplices” of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
““It is particularly worrying that these latest intense bombings take place after Israeli forces ordered residents in the southern Gaza Valley to go to central Gaza and to Tal al Sultan in Rafah.”said Seif Magango, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The spokesman stressed that the Israeli Air Force would have carried out “more than 50 bombings” in the center of the Strip between Sunday and yesterday, including attacks on the refugee camps of Al Bureij, Al Nuseirat and Al Maghazi.
“Two bombings hit seven residential buildings in Al Maghazi, killing some 86 Palestinians and wounding many more,” lamented, adding that “an unknown number of people are still trapped under the rubble.
“The combined death toll from the bombings against the Al Maghazi and Al Bureij camps has increased to at least 131, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), amid the deepening of an already catastrophic humanitarian situation,” Magango stressed.
“All roads connecting the three camps have been destroyed, obstructing the delivery of aid to those in need while shelters and hospitals operate at a minimum and are overcrowded and under-resourced,” added the official, according to the Europa Press news agency.
No phone or internet
The Palestinian telecommunications company announced a new cut of service in the Gaza Strip, the fourth since the start of the war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas on October 7.
“We regret to announce a total interruption of fixed telecommunications and internet services (…) in the Gaza Strip, due to the continuation of the aggression,” the Paltel company said in a statement.
He added that his technical teams “work to restore services despite dangerous field conditions. May God protect them and protect our country,” according to the message spread through the social network X (formerly Twitter).
The last service cut, in mid-November, was due to a lack of fuel. The Israeli authorities consider this a product with high risk of dual use – civil and military – that could benefit Hamasthus preventing or limiting their entry into the Gaza Strip.
Likewise, he reiterated the warning from the office headed by Volker Türk that “All attacks must strictly adhere to the principles of international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”
Besides, Israel announced that it will stop automatically granting visas to UN employees, considering that the organization is being a “complicit partner” of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. by not condemning the tactics the Palestinian militia is allegedly using during the conflict.
Spokesman for Israel’s prime minister’s office, Eylon Levy, accused the UN of covering up Hamas’ tactics by failing to condemn attacks it is allegedly directing from hospitals, or the theft of humanitarian aid.
“By not condemning Hamas for hijacking aid, by not condemning it for waging war from hospitals, they have been complicit partners in the human shield strategy,” Levy said. in a video published on his X account (formerly Twitter).
For this reason, Levy announced that Israel will analyze each of the visa applications that arrive from the United Nations on a case-by-case basis, a decision that further erodes a relationship that began to sour when Secretary General António Guterres toughened his message in the face of the increase in the dead in Gaza.
Photo: AFP Archive
““Israel will stop working with those who cooperate with the propaganda machine of the Hamas terror regime and urges its partners to act in the same way.”the Israeli spokesperson said in conclusion.
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the UN appointed a humanitarian coordinating minister for Gaza, following last week’s Security Council resolution, which called for the “immediate” and “large-scale” delivery of aid to the Palestinian territory.
“United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced the appointment of Sigrid Kaag of the Netherlands as Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza,” the UN announced in a statement.
The appointment of Kaag, the outgoing Finance Minister, came at a time when the people of Gaza are facing a serious humanitarian emergency, with aid reduced to a minimum by Israel’s continued bombing of this densely populated coastal strip.
Israel returned 80 Palestinian bodies after removing them from graves or morgues in Gaza
The Israeli armed forces returned this Tuesday 80 bodies of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip after having removed them from mass graves or morgues in the enclave to verify that they were not Israeli hostages, and the authorities of that region, controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas demanded an international investigation into the incident.
After having recovered the bodies, local officials from the Palestinian enclave buried them in a mass grave in Rafah, in the south of the territory, according to the AFP news agency.
Sources from the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas since 2007, indicated that the Israeli army had recently recovered these bodies in mass graves or hospital morgues in Gaza.
According to the same source, the armed forces of the Jewish State wanted to ensure that among those dead there were none of the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas on October 7. According to Israel, 129 are still held in Gaza.
After the Israelis verified their identity, they returned them to the Gazan authorities through the intermediation of the Red Cross at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, between Israel and Gaza.
The Israeli military did not comment on the matter.
Instead, the Gaza authorities released a statement in which they called for an international investigation because “the (Israeli) occupation repeated this crime more than once during the genocidal war.”
“He also refused to specify the places from where” the bodies were stolen and “after examining them, it became clear that the physiognomy of the martyrs had changed greatly, in a clear indication that the occupation had stolen vital organs from the bodies of these martyrs,” added the note, published on Telegram.
Likewise, Hamas expressed its “deep astonishment at the silent positions of international organizations that operate in the Gaza Strip, such as the Red Cross, in the face of such horrendous crimes committed by the occupation Army, since their positions are boring, secondary and confusing.” , according to the Europa Press agency.
Israel launched an offensive against the area after the attacks carried out by Hamas, which left some 1,200 dead and nearly 240 hostages, including twenty Argentine nationals.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the deaths of 22 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
For their part, the Gazan authorities put the number of Palestinians dead at more than 20,915, mostly women and minors, to which another 300 were added at the hands of the Israeli Army and by attacks by settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Kaag, who will begin his role on January 8, “will facilitate, coordinate, supervise and verify the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza,” according to the statement.
Kaag has been Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of the Netherlands since January 2022. Previously, she held several high-level positions at the UN, including special coordinator for Lebanon and the Joint Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations Mission in Syria, reported the AFP news agency.
The war in Gaza broke out when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping nearly 240, including around twenty Argentines.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that more than 20,600 Palestinians died since that day, product of the gigantic military offensive implemented by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
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