Israel-Hamas war: Israel lashes UN chief for Hamas ‘support’ as US blocks military aid
Israel’s foreign minister has slammed the UN chief over his decision to invoke a rare clause that will force the Security Council to address the war in Gaza. Follow updates. Warning: Graphic
Israel’s foreign minister has slammed the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, labelling him as a “danger to world peace” over his decision to invoke Article 99 of the UN Charter.
The decision by Mr Guterres to invoke the rare clause forces the Security Council to address the Gaza war.
Mr Guterres said he expects “public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions” in Gaza, currently under relentless Israeli bombardment.
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The humanitarian conditions from Israel’s bombardment is “fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole,” he said in a letter to the president of the Security Council.
However, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen claimed Mr Guterres’s decision “constitutes support of the Hamas terrorist organisation and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the abduction of babies and the rape of women.”
Meanwhile, the US Senate has blocked the White House aid package that included more funds for Israel.
Alongside funding for Ukraine and other foreign policy issues, the $106bn (A$161bn) bill would provide about $14bn (A$21bn) to Israel to restock its missile defence systems.
All Senate Republicans voted against moving forward with the measure as they called for border security provisions to be included.
Bernie Sanders also voted against the bill, saying earlier this week that he opposed providing more funding to the “extremist Netanyahu government”.
The focus of the conflict has shifted into the besieged Palestinian territory’s south following fierce fighting and bombardment that reduced much of the north to rubble and forced an estimated 1.9 million people to flee.
The Hamas government’s media office said 16,248 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, had been killed in the retaliation.
The streets of Khan Younis were almost empty as residents tried to take shelter from shelling and artillery fire, said AFP journalists, while the dead and wounded continued to pour into the city’s hospitals.
The Hamas government’s media office said 16,248 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, had been killed in the retaliation.
The mass casualties in Gaza have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages brought by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter.
Hassan al-Qadi, a displaced Khan Younis resident, said “the whole city is suffering from destruction and relentless shelling.
“Many people arriving from northern Gaza are facing dire circumstances. Many are homeless and some are searching for their missing children.”
“We are not mere numbers. We are human beings,” he said, speaking in the southern city of Rafah.
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LEVEL OF CIVILIAN DEATHS IN GAZA ‘A MORAL FAILURE’
US Senator Elizabeth Warren has denounced the “right-wing” government of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying it has “demonstrated disregard for Palestinian civilians” as it expands its military operation in Gaza.
While Israel “has the right to defend its citizens” from Hamas, it should not punish Palestinian civilians for the actions of the group, she said.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing war cabinet have created a humanitarian catastrophe, killing thousands of Palestinian civilians and risking a wider war in the Middle East,” Ms Warren added in a speech in the Senate.
“This level of civilian harm is a moral failure. It is why for weeks, I have been calling on Israel to stop bombing Gaza,” she said.
Warren also called for the resumption of the Gaza truce and urged US military aid to Israeli be conditional instead of “a blank check”.
Today I spoke about Israel's war against Hamas, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, rising hate at home & the effort to secure peace long-term. U.S. military aid can't be a blank check to a right-wing Netanyahu government that's demonstrated disregard for Palestinian civilians. pic.twitter.com/Z71AcDepTp
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 6, 2023
UNICEF OFFICIAL ON HIDDEN DANGER OF ‘SAFE ZONES’
Australian James Elder, spokesman for the UN’s child relief agency and who is on the ground in Gaza, says that so-called safe zones in Gaza risk crowding thousands of people in inhumane conditions.
The Israeli military said on X on Monday that it was defining “safe areas” for civilians, but people on the ground say it is difficult to heed these orders.
Safe zones “risk being zones of disease and human suffering”, Mr Elder said in an audio message posted to his X account.
“Currently in a shelter in Gaza, there’s around one toilet for 400 families. In these safe zones, there’ll be no toilet, and it’s tens of thousands of people.
“For safe zones to be safe, they must, by law, have water, food, medical supplies and shelter.”
Mr Elder stressed that for safe zones to provide protection, people need to be able to safely get to them.
Throughout its war on Gaza, the Israeli army has repeatedly instructed Palestinians to evacuate to various areas of the Strip for their safety, only to later bomb those areas as well as evacuation routes.
“Only a ceasefire can save the children of Gaza,” he said.
No water. No sanitation. No food. Just bombs. #Gazapic.twitter.com/uffX8iM53r
— James Elder (@1james_elder) December 6, 2023
ISRAELI CIVILIANS ARE TAKING UP ARMS
Photos from around the country show people walking around shopping hubs and parks carrying assault rifles and handguns.
The country’s National Security Ministry has received about 255,000 gun license applications — 20,000 of which have been approved, Haaretz reported.
HOW TEEN HAMAS HOSTAGE KEPT DOG ALIVE
Freed Israeli hostage Mia Leimberg credited her pet dog Bella with providing “moral support” during the weeks she spent in captivity.
Leimberg, her mother Gabriela and her aunt Clara Marman were among the Israeli hostages released by Hamas and its allies under a temporary truce deal before it fell apart on Friday.
Images of the 17-year-old’s release – flanked by fighters from Hamas with Bella in her arms – were beamed around the world last week, finally solving the mystery of what had become of the fluffy, white family pet.
“Overall, she was a huge help to me, she kept me busy,” Leimberg said in an interview with Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
“She was moral support, even though she didn’t want to be.”How teen Hamas hostage kept dog alive BREAKOUT
FIVE HAMAS COMMANDERS KILLED: IDF
Five Hamas commanders were “eliminated” by Israel forces, the IDF has tweeted alongside a photo dubbed ‘The Last Supper’ by a media outlet.
The men were operatives of the Northern Gaza Strip Brigade – the second largest brigades of Hamas, according to the IDF.
They were hiding in a tunnel located near the Indonesian Hospital during the strike, Israel’s military says.
Our forces continue to operate against Hamas’ leadership in Gaza:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 6, 2023
🔴IDF forces eliminated several Hamas commanders and operatives of the Northern Gaza Strip Brigade—the second largest brigade of Hamas—who were hiding in a tunnel located near the Indonesian Hospital during the… pic.twitter.com/mydADVsJaX
UN CHIEF INVOKES ARTICLE 99
In a rare move, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, forcing the Security Council to address the Gaza war.
Mr Guterres said he expects “public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions” in Gaza, currently under relentless Israeli bombardment.
The humanitarian conditions amid the Israel-Hamas war are “fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole,” he said in a letter to the president of the Security Council.
Urging the members of the Security Council to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” Guterres reiterated his appeal for “a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared.”
“The health care system in Gaza is collapsing,” he said, adding that “there is no effective protection of civilians.”
“The current conditions are making it impossible for meaningful humanitarian operations to be conducted,” the letter said, adding that “nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Guterres wrote the letter invoking Article 99 of the UN’s charter, which states that “the Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
It is the first time the UN chief has invoked the article since taking office in 2017.
250 TARGETS HIT
The Israeli army said it had struck about 250 targets in Gaza over the 24 hours leading into Wednesday and that troops were “continuing to locate weapons, underground shafts, explosives and additional military infrastructure”.
And several Hamas commanders were killed in an air strike near the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said on social media platform X.
According to the Hamas media office, dozens were killed and injured in heavy strikes on areas east of Khan Younis.
The Hamas-run health ministry said air strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed six people and wounded 14 others.
Israel had previously told civilians in the north of the densely populated Gaza Strip to seek shelter in the south of the territory, with many fleeing to Khan Younis believing it would be safer.
‘WORST ASSAULTS ON ANY CIVILIAN POPULATION’
Fighting resumed after the collapse of a Qatar-mediated truce that saw scores of Israeli and other hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
“In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes,” the United Nations high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk said.
The violence in Gaza “now ranks among the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age”, said aid group the Norwegian Refugee Council, which also warned of the dire public health threat of the approaching winter.
Israeli warnings telling people to move even further south have sparked “panic, fear and anxiety”, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
People were being pushed into an area that is less than one-third of the Gaza Strip, he said.
RED CROSS ‘MUST HAVE ACCESS TO HOSTAGES’
The Israeli army said that the International Committee of the Red Cross “must have access to the hostages” still being held by Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
“As the IDF (military) expands its operations to dismantle Hamas in Gaza, we have not lost sight … of our critical mission to rescue our hostages,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
“The international community must take action. The Red Cross must have access to the hostages that are in the hands of Hamas.”
ISRAEL FORCES SURROUND HAMAS LEADER’S HOUSE
Israeli forces are battling Hamas militants in Gaza’s main southern city in some of the most intense combat of the nearly two-month war sparked by the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces were “encircling” the Gaza house of top Hamas leader and founder, Yahya Sinwar.
“His house may not be his fortress and he can escape but it’s only a matter of time before we get him,” Mr Netanyahu said in a recorded message.
“Our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip,” Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi confirmed, as the IDF said the war after 60 days was entering its third phase in Gaza’s second largest city with Hamas operational bases decimated.
GAZA HOSPITAL SUPPLIES ‘CRITICALLY LOW’
Fuel and medical supplies at central Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital have reached “critically low levels”, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has revealed.
“Hundreds of patients need emergency care due to unrelenting bombardment by Israeli forces,” a statement on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, read.
“We are running out of essential supplies to treat them.
Urgent update from Al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza:
— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) December 5, 2023
Fuel and medical supplies have reached critically low levels at Al-Aqsa hospital, located in the middle area of the Strip.
Hundreds of patients need emergency care due to unrelenting bombardment by Israeli forces.
MSF staff living… pic.twitter.com/GNRIajsAuO
TUNNEL FLOOD PLAN COULD HARM GAZA FOR ‘GENERATIONS’
An academic from the Israeli Ben-Gurion University said the plan could harm the Gaza region’s freshwater “for several generations”, depending on how much seawater was pumped.
But IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi has publicly endorsed the new tactic as a good idea.
“We are seeing a lot of underground infrastructure in Gaza, we knew there would be a lot. Part of the goal is to destroy this infrastructure,” Gen Halevi said responding to questions specifically about the seawater plan.
“We have various ways [to deal with the tunnels], I won’t talk about specifics, but they include explosives to destroy, and other means to prevent Hamas operatives from using the tunnels to harm our soldiers.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a bit more coy, saying such discussions only served the enemy.
“I won’t volunteer information to the enemy,” he said of the seawater idea on Wednesday local time.
The report first surfaced in the Wall Street Journal but has now been picked up by the Israeli press which has raised a question mark of where that would leave the remaining hostages if they were still being held below ground.
“We are not sure how successful pumping will be since nobody knows the details of the tunnels and the ground around them,” a person familiar with the plan reportedly told the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s impossible to know if that will be effective because we don’t know how seawater will drain in tunnels no-one has been in before.”
ISRAEL PLEASED WITH WAR OUTCOME
On the war more broadly, Gen Halevi said he was pleased with how things were going and said Hamas militants and weapons were being found in “nearly” every home, hence the need for mass destruction.
“They ask us a lot about the destruction in Gaza. Hamas is the address, [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar is the address. Our forces find in nearly every home weapons, terrorists … after 60 days since the beginning of the war, our forces are surrounding the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza. At the same time, we are working to deepen the achievement in the northern part of the Strip. Anyone who thought that the IDF would not know how to resume the fighting after the truce was mistaken. Hamas is feeling this strongly.”
GAZA PALESTINIANS LIVING IN ‘UTTER, DEEPENING HORROR’: UN
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are living in “utter, deepening horror”, the UN human rights chief said Wednesday, as he called for an urgent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Volker Turk said that in such “apocalyptic” humanitarian circumstances, there was a high risk of atrocity crimes being committed.
“Civilians in Gaza continue to be relentlessly bombarded by Israel and collectively punished — suffering death, siege, destruction and deprivation of the most essential human needs such as food, water, lifesaving medical supplies and other essentials on a massive scale,” he told a press conference.
“Palestinians in Gaza are living in utter, deepening horror.”
He said 1.9 million of the 2.2 million people living in the Palestinian enclave had been displaced and were being pushed into “ever-diminishing and extremely overcrowded places in southern Gaza, in unsanitary and unhealthy conditions”.
“The catastrophic situation we see unfolding in the Gaza Strip was entirely foreseeable and preventable. My humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic.
“In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes,” the United Nations high commissioner for human rights said.
“As an immediate step, I call for an urgent cessation of hostilities and the release of all hostages.”
Turk said the human rights crisis in the occupied West Bank was also “extremely alarming”, as he called for the Israeli authorities to take immediate steps to end “widespread impunity” for violations.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Israel-Hamas war: Israel lashes UN chief for Hamas ‘support’ as US blocks military aid
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