Israel-Hamas war: Security Council passes aid resolution, as Gaza becomes unrecognisable from Space

The UN passed a historic resolution calling for aid after Gaza was brought to the brink of famine by one of the most destructive bombing campaigns in history. Follow updates. Warning: Graphic

The United Nations Security Council passed a historic resolution calling for a boost in aid after one of the most destructive bombing campaigns in human history left Gaza unrecognisable from Space.

The resolution demands all sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict allow the “safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale” to avoid an imminent famine.

The long-delayed vote passed after the United States, and Russia, abstained from casting their ballot and did not use their veto power to scuttle the resolution.

The US, which previously vetoed a ceasefire, sat out the latest attempt after the UN removed demands for an immediate end to fighting but instead called for the creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution “provided a glimmer of hope among a sea of suffering”.

“While we are encouraged that the council spoke out on this humanitarian crisis we’re deeply disappointed — appalled, actually — that once again, the council was not able to condemn Hamas for the horrific terrorist attack,” she said.

The resolution, passed 13 in favour and zero against, also called for the release of all hostages kidnapped during the October 7 massacre.

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GAZA UNRECOGNISABLE FROM SPACE

Israel has destroyed over two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza and a quarter in the south, according to satellite imagery.

“Gaza is now a different colour from space. It’s a different texture,” said Corey Scher of the CUNY Graduate Center.

The expert in mapping wartime damage told AP that Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data showed the Israeli bombing campaign was more devastating than Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, in Mariupol in 2022, or the bombing of Germany in WWII.

Mourners transport a body of Palestinian child killed during an Israeli strike. Picture: AFP

AMERICAN HOSTAGE CONFIRMED DEAD

A US-Israeli man believed to have been taken captive by Hamas militants on October 7 was killed on the day of the attack, his kibbutz community said.

Palestinian militants took the body of Gad Haggai, 73, from his community of Nir Oz in southern Israel to the Gaza Strip, the kibbutz said in a statement. His wife is believed to have been abducted alive.

The Israeli army confirmed Haggai had died on October 7. He is the latest confirmed fatality among about 250 Israelis and foreigners taken by Gaza militants during the deadly attack which triggered all-out war between Israel and Hamas.

“Gad was murdered on October 7 at the kibbutz. His body was taken by the terrorists to the Gaza Strip and is still held there,” the Nir Oz statement said, without revealing how his death was confirmed.

Displaced Palestinian children are pictured along with makeshift tents in the so-called safe zone. Picture: Ahmad Hasaballah

PUTIN VOWS AID, URGES HALT TO FIGHTING

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to continue to supply the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and urged a peaceful resolution to fighting between Israel and Hamas.

“Russia will continue to supply the Gaza Strip with essential goods, including medicines and medical equipment,” Putin told Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas during a telephone call, the Kremlin said, adding that Putin urged the “importance of a quick cessation of the bloodshed and the resumption of the political process”.

GAZA FACING ‘IMMINENT RISK OF FAMINE’

The entire population of Gaza faces “an imminent risk of famine”, according to a UN-backed global hunger monitoring system on Thursday.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths posted on X, formerly Twitter he believes “enough is enough”.

“We have been warning for weeks that, with such deprivation and destruction, each day that goes by will only bring more hunger, disease and despair to the people of Gaza,” Mr Griffiths wrote.

The UN estimates 1.9 million Gazans are now displaced, out of a population of 2.4 million.

IDF SAYS 8000 HAMAS TERRORISTS KILLED IN GAZA OFFENSIVE

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) claims it has killed 8000 Hamas terrorists since it launched its offensive in retaliation to the October 7 attacks.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said more than 2000 terrorists had been eliminated since the temporary ceasefire ended on December 1, with the IDF having no plans of slowing down their attacks.

“We have increased the number of troops fighting in east Khan Younis, and we are fighting there with determination, with five infantry brigades, and combat engineers, with an emphasis on the underground fighting,” Rear Admiral Hagari said.

It comes as the IDF revealed it had demolished a major Hamas tunnel network under Gaza City’s Palestine Square it claimed was connected to the homes, office and hideouts of senior Hamas officials including Yahya Sinwar and Muhmmad Deif.

A picture taken in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 21, 2023, shows Israeli soldiers operating an army tank amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Rear Admiral Hagari also warned of increasing military activity in Israel’s north with Hezbollah turning “southern Lebanon into a combat zone and continues to endanger the future of the entire state of Lebanon for Hamas and Iran.”

“We will continue to work to distance Hezbollah from the border,” he said.

An intense bombing of Gaza continued, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the sole remaining hospital in northern Gaza was “now minimally functional”.

Aid workers who visited Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa hospitals during a rare humanitarian mission to deliver supplies said the system is “on its knees” and the emergency department inside one hospital is facing a “bloodbath”.

“They struggled to describe the immense impact recent attacks have had on these health facilities,” WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Aid workers who visited Al-Ahli found rows of dead bodies lined up outside the hospital, while severely injured civilians writhed in pain on the floor and the pews of the chapel inside of it.

Israeli soldiers walking past a damaged building during a military operation in the north of the Gaza Strip. Photo: GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP

Meanwhile, as the fears mount for fate of more than 100 Israelis still being held hostage by Hamas, the man who was involved in the negotiating the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, said Israel must offer Hamas a “deal on the table they can’t refuse”.

“We should start taking them seriously. They’ve been saying for three weeks that they’re not prepared to hold negotiations until the fighting ends,” Gershon Baskin said.

“The only way to break them is to place a deal on the table that they cannot refuse,” Ms Baskin told Israel’s Channel 12.

“Everyone is talking about how an all-for-all deal is the only way to bring the hostages home. I assume Israel is not prepared to make such a deal

“Therefore, it must present a different deal, at least one that can free the women, children, elderly and sick people who remain,” Mr Baskin said.

“Israel should present to Hamas a long list of terrorists that it is prepared to release and publicise it to apply pressure on Hamas, with Palestinians in [Israel’s] prisons, in Gaza and in the West Bank leaning on Hamas to make a deal.”

‘BLOODBATH’: WHO DESCRIBES GRIM SCENES AT HOSPITAL

The sole remaining hospital in northern Gaza is “now minimally functional”, according to The World Health Organisation.

Aid workers who visited Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa hospitals during a rare humanitarian mission to deliver supplies said the system is “on its knees” and the emergency department inside one hospital is facing a “bloodbath”.

“They struggled to describe the immense impact recent attacks have had on these health facilities,” the World Health Organisation director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a statement.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs took part in the mission.

At Al-Ahli, the aid workers found rows of dead bodies lined up outside the hospital, while severely injured civilians writhed in pain on the floor and the pews of the chapel inside of it.

Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is a “shell” of its former self due to lack of fuel, staff, supplies – @WHO/@UN mission to north #Gaza finds.

WHO and UN partners undertook another high-risk joint mission today to Al-Ahli Arab and Al-Shifa hospitals in northern Gaza.

Our teams delivered… pic.twitter.com/tlSI3gbawA

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 20, 2023

In a video that Dr Ghebreyesus posted to social media, a member of the medical mission stands inside the chapel, with injured people and crucifixes on the wall visible behind him.

“There are patients here who have been injured for more than a month and have had no surgery; there are patients who have been operated on and are now getting post-operative infections because the hospital doesn’t have sufficient antibiotics,” the aid worker in the video Sean Casey said.

“They are suffering enormously here. This is a completely unacceptable situation.”

Dr Ghebreyesus said aid workers found a courtyard filled with bodies lined up in rows outside Al-Ahli because staff members were unable to leave the hospital to safely bury them.

They also encountered 80 injured people, including older people and young children, sheltering in the hospital’s chapel and orthopaedics department, he added.

“They included a 10-year old girl who lost her leg and had no family left to care for her, and an older man awaiting surgery for a gun wound to the chest he may never get, whose entire family had been killed,” he said.

ISRAELI FORCES INVADE AMBULANCE

Israeli forces invaded the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s ambulance centre in Jabalia, northern Gaza on Thursday evening, according to PRCS.

PRCS added that Israeli forces arrested the crews and paramedics and took them to an unknown location while children and women remain trapped inside the centre.

PRCS went on to urge the international community to demand the release of its staff members and to ensure their protection amid Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

🚨Occupation forces invaded the PRCS ambulance center 🚑 in #Jabalia, north of the #Gaza Strip, this evening. 🛑They arrested the crews and paramedics, taking them to an unknown location. ⚠️Children and women are still trapped inside the center.
📢We call on the international…

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 21, 2023

SANDERS SAYS NOT TO PROVIDE MONEY TO RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST

US senator Bernie Sanders has called on the US to not provide “another USD$10 billion to the right-wing extremist [Benjamin] Netanyahu government to continue their war against the Palestinian people”.

In an address to the US senate, Sanders said: “The Netanyahu government is continuing its military approach which is both immoral and in violation of international law … the United States must end our complicity in those actions and to do so, we must make two critical changes in our policy.

“First, while it is appropriate to support defensive systems like Iron Dome to protect Israeli civilians against incoming rockets, it would be irresponsible to provide an additional $10.1 billion in military aid beyond those defensive systems as contained in the proposed supplemental foreign aid package.

“Second the United States should support efforts at the UN security council to end the bloodshed.”

The situation in Gaza is a humanitarian disaster. The U.S. must not provide another $10 billion to the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government to continue their war against the Palestinian people which has already killed thousands of innocent men, women, and children. pic.twitter.com/Px2YEz7hEC

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 21, 2023

Originally published as Israel-Hamas war: Security Council passes aid resolution, as Gaza becomes unrecognisable from Space