UN General Assembly passes Gaza-Israel ceasefire resolution

This live blog is now wrapping up. Thanks to all for following along. The New Arab will be back at 7am GMT with live coverage of the situation in Gaza. 

Palestinian fighters are continuing to put up resistance to Israel’s advance north and east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip using small arms, mortars, anti-personnel mines and rocket-propelled grenades, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The Washington, DC-based think tank said that while Israeli forces have reduced the ability of Hamas to launch rockets towards Israel, Palestinian fighters fired towards Israel territory on at least four occasions on Tuesday, including at least one rocket.

“An unspecified senior military source told Israeli Army Radio on December 10 that Hamas has ‘hundreds’ of medium- and long-range rockets left in its arsenal, however,” the ISW reports.

Palestinian fighters also remain active in the Shujaiya, Zeitoun and Jabalia areas of Gaza City in the north of the strip, where Israel is continuing “clearing operations” that will take some time to complete.

“Clearing operations of the sort that the [Israeli military] is conducting frequently take weeks, if not months,” the ISW said.

Palestinian fighters also “continued attacks on Israeli forces behind the Israeli forward line of advance, which is consistent with the nature of clearing operations,” the think tank added.

NEW | Israeli forces are likely degrading Hamas’ capacity to conduct indirect fire attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Read today's update from @criticalthreats and @thestudyofwar: https://t.co/Dbt338daXR 1/9 pic.twitter.com/RekHTxcaq9

— Critical Threats (@criticalthreats) December 13, 2023

A video posted on X by Al Jazeera Arabic shows haunting image of how Jabalia refugee camp's market courtyard has been turned into a mass grave, with some of the gravesites marked with signs written in Arabic, and others with rocks and broken concrete.

الحصار الإسرائيلي لأطراف شمال قطاع #غزة يجبر أهالي جباليا على تحويل السوق المخيم إلى مقبرة جماعية#حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/zGGQff5R1i

— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) December 12, 2023

The Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) has posted a video clip of Scottish actor Brian Cox reading the last poem published by renowned Palestinian poet, professor and writer Refaat Alareer, who was killed along with six family member in an Israeli attack on Gaza last week.

Cox, who recently starred in the hugely successful TV series Succession, reads Alareer’s haunting “If I must die".

Brian Cox reads If I Must Die, by beloved Palestinian poet, teacher and martyr Refaat Alareer.

Refaat was killed on December 7th by an Israeli airstrike.

This was the last poem he published. pic.twitter.com/sMVocn3nGA

— Palestine Festival of Literature (@PalFest) December 12, 2023

Tawfik Abu Breika, an elderly Palestinian man in Gaza, told the Reuters news agency that his residential block in the city of Khan Younis was hit without warning, bringing down several buildings and resulting in casualties.

“The world’s conscience is dead, no humanity or any kind of morals,” Breika said as residents sifted through the rubble of the strike. “This is the third month that we are facing death and destruction.”

In Rafah, residents said recent Israel shelling has been some of the heaviest in days.

“At night we can’t sleep because of the bombing, and in the morning, we tour the streets looking for food for the children. There is no food,” Abu Khalil, a 40-year-old father of six, told Reuters

Infectious disease is spreading in Gaza and people are at risk as the Palestinian territory’s Health Ministry reports that 360,000 cases of disease have been found in crowded shelters for the 1.9 million people displaced by Israel’s military onslaught.

In its latest situation report on conditions in Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said that the WHO has reported cases of meningitis, chickenpox, jaundice and upper respiratory tract infections in Gaza.

More and more homes are destroyed across #Gaza, with people being killed, injured or trapped underneath.

Displaced people in overcrowded shelters face rising disease spread.

More in Flash Update #67:

🔗https://t.co/L17UOWltG8 pic.twitter.com/ClvCmkfusZ

— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) December 13, 2023

The Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) says Palestinian children are coping with “indelible wounds” amid Israel’s continued bombardment.

“Every day, children ask when the war will stop,” Nevin Abdel Hadi, the director of mental health at PRCS, said in a video posted on social media by the group.

She said children are having recurring nightmares and exhibiting “intense” fear at night, while some have asked whether there’s a chance they may not wake up in the morning.

Watch the video below. 

As night falls, the hearts of children in #Gaza tremble. They only hear the echoes of explosions amid the pitch-black darkness. The Israeli aggression has left indelible wounds and harrowing memories for these children💔. Some of them lost the warmth of their parents, while… pic.twitter.com/hDbUZlpRWf

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 12, 2023

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has welcomed Iraq’s “strong condemnation” of recent attacks on American personnel in the country during a phone call with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa al-Sudani.

In a statement posted on X, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller also said Blinken thanked al-Sudani for Baghdad’s “commitment to hold perpetrators accountable and to protect our personnel” in Iraq and Syria.

During the call, Blinken also condemned a recent attack near the US embassy in the Iraqi capital.

.@SecBlinken spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister @mohamedshia and welcomed Iraq’s strong condemnation of recent acts of terrorism against U.S. personnel and the commitment to hold perpetrators accountable and to protect our personnel in Iraq and Syria.

— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) December 13, 2023

US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday that the country risked losing global support due to its "indiscriminate" bombing of Gaza.

In his most blunt remarks since the beginning of Israel's war, Biden told donors that Netanyahu needed to "change" his stance on a two-state solution for the Palestinians.

Netanyahu meanwhile said there was "disagreement" with Biden over how a post-conflict Gaza would be governed, reflecting a rare rift after weeks in which the US leader has strongly backed Israel.

Biden told a campaign event in Washington that Israel had "most of the world supporting it" after the Hamas surprise attacks.

"But they're starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place," Biden said.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Tuesday that more than 18,400 people -- also mostly civilians -- had been killed in Israel's retaliatory bombardment of the coastal territory.

Biden had previously refrained from describing Israeli bombing as "indiscriminate".

The US president's remarks came before the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza. 

The US director of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says Washington has “failed to show compassion or leadership” by voting against the UN General Assembly ceasefire resolution.

“Today the majority of the world stood together to demand an end to this bloodshed and suffering in Gaza,” Avril Benoit said, stressing the US position will “allow the carnage” in Gaza to continue.

“The US is increasingly isolated in its steadfast support of a war that seems to have no rules and no limits

Residents in Khan Younis are saying Israel is now focussing on the city centre with tank shelling

One said on Tuesday that tanks were operating in the street where the house of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, is located.

Reuters also reports that after nightfall, Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis killed 11 Palestinians, including two children, health officials said.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will travel to Israel this week for talks with Israel's war cabinet on the ongoing war on Gaza.

Biden said at a joint news conference with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Sullivan will emphasize the U.S. commitment to Israel as well as the need to protect civilian lives in Gaza. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will also travel to the region, he said.

Hamas welcomed the United Nations' demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and urged the international community to continue pressuring Israel to abide by the resolution, senior official of the Palestinian Islamist group, Izzat El-Reshiq, said in a statement early on Wednesday.

More than three-fourths of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly backed the move, which was vetoed by the United States in the Security Council last week.

The world has witnessed a strong, noble and great stance by the General Assembly,” Riyad Mansour said, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Mansour stressed that the resolution “demands” a ceasefire, which he said carries an authoritative tone. “This holds additional power,” he added, speaking in Arabic as he explained that the measure did not just “call for” an end to the fighting.

Mansour noted that more than 30 additional nations have backed today’s resolution compared to the first UNGA ceasefire call in October, which received 120 votes.

“We hope and we will work to ensure that the Israeli authority will abide by this humanitarian ceasefire immediately – as the UN chief has demanded, as 13 countries in the Security Council have demanded, and as the General Assembly has demanded moments ago,” he said. “Our efforts will continue

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he discussed the “dire situation” in Gaza during a meeting with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation secretary general.

In a brief statement posted on X, Tedros said the UN health agency “will continue to support civilians and health personnel in any possible way”.

“But we need sustained, safe, scaled up access to do this. And this is only possible via a ceasefire,” he said.

I just met with Foreign Ministers @FaisalbinFarhan, @Menlu_RI and Riad Malki, and Hissein Brahim Taha, @OIC_OCI Secretary-General, to discuss the dire health situation in #Gaza. We discussed our shared concerns over the systematic degradation of the health system.@WHO will… pic.twitter.com/igGIZYjHFN

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 12, 2023

Unsurprisingly, Israel and the US were among the countries to vote against the motion.

Also among them were two tiny pacific islands – Micronesia and Nauru – with the combined population of fewer than 130,000 people.

Here is the list:

• Austria
• Czech Republic
• Guatemala
• Israel
• Liberia
• Micronesia
• Nauru
• Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay
• United States

The UN General Assembly adopted the resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza Here's how the vote broke down numerically:

• 153 in favour
• 10 against
• and 23 abstentions.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), says the destruction of the UN-run school is “outrageous”.

As we reported earlier, Israeli forces blew up an UNRWA school in Beit Hanoon.

Public facilities, including hospitals and UN-run schools, are protected under international law, Lazzarini wrote in a post on X.

“Parties to this brutal war have the coordinates of all our facilities in Gaza,” he added.

Saw videos of an @UNRWA school in northern #Gaza blown up. It is outrageous. All public facilities, including hospitals & @UN schools are protected under international law. Parties to this brutal war have the coordinates of all our facilities in Gaza.

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) December 12, 2023

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US envoy to the UN, says Washington agrees with some components of the resolution – namely, that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire and that a “devastating number of innocent people” have been killed.

She proposed an amendment that would condemn the “atrocities” committed by Hamas on October 7.

“We support affirming that Israel, like every single country on earth, has the right and responsibility to defend its people,” she said.

The US envoy squarely blamed Hamas for the war.

“While we cannot support a one-sided Security Council or General Assembly resolution that ignores so much of what we all stand for, we desperately want to see an end to the cycle of unceasing violence,” Thomas-Greenfield added.

Alexander Marschik, Austria’s ambassador to the UN, explains his country’s decision to introduce the amendment, which inserts the phrase “held by Hamas and other groups” when discussing the captives held in Gaza, as reported to Al Jazeera. It also adds the word “immediate” before the mention of the importance of ensuring humanitarian access.

Marschik says that the Egyptian-introduced resolution “falls short … including in the right of Israel to ensure its citizens are safe”, and in naming Hamas.

“The innocent children, women and men held captive in Gaza have not simply disappeared or lost their way, they were abducted by Hamas, we can’t just ignore this fact,” Marschik added.

The UNGA emergency meeting is now underway. Egypt’s UN representative Osama Abdel Khalek Mahmoud has presented the Gaza ceasefire resolution to the General Assembly, hitting out at the US veto that blocked a ceasefire call at the Security Council last week.

Mahmoud said the resolution is “simple, clear and explicit” in its call for a humanitarian ceasefire.

“There was an extensive use of the veto against the humanitarian ceasefire draft resolution, even though it was supported by more than 100 member states,” he said.

Mahmoud added that Palestinians “are subjected to barbaric attacks” by Israeli forces and a ceasefire is the only way to stop the killing of civilians. “This has led to unbearable humanitarian suffering. It has threatened international peace and security."

WHO says that the PRCS staff member has been released.

“Yesterday, the WHO team met him, as well as his father, supervisor, and colleagues. He said he was harassed, beaten, threatened, stripped of his clothes and blindfolded. His hands were tied behind his back and he was treated in a degrading and humiliating manner. Once released, he was left to walk towards the south with his hands still tied behind his back, and without clothes or shoes”.

We reported earlier that according to WHO, on 22 November, six people from the ministry of health and PRCS were detained during a WHO-led mission to move patients from Al Shifa Hospital. Four people – three from the Ministry of Health and one PRCS staff – remained in detention, more than three weeks later.

WHO calls for protection of humanitarian space in Gaza following serious incidents in high-risk mission to transfer patients, deliver health supplies

WHO reiterates its call for the protection of health care and humanitarian assistance in #Gaza, following military checkpoint… pic.twitter.com/iCIf7Dh2Em

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 12, 2023

More than 100 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin today, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said, adding that only a handful have been released.

Mass arrests are still continuing across the West Bank, the group said in a statement.

Since October 7, more than 400 Palestinians have been arrested in Jenin alone, the group added.

It also said many of those who have been detained are former prisoners.

Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin Tuesday, Palestinian health officials reported, and Israel's military said it carried out an operation targeting an explosives-manufacturing facility.

The health ministry said five people were killed in an Israeli operation in the morning, while the sixth was a man who was shot in the thigh and later died after Israeli forces allegedly prevented him from reaching hospital in time.

The ministry added that a 13-year-old boy having a separate medical emergency also died after being prevented from reaching treatment.

Read the full report here.

The Israeli military has reportedly begun pumping seawater into Gaza’s tunnel system, with some critics warning that such a move could hurt Gaza’s freshwater supply, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Israeli military has said such tunnels are where Hamas is hiding fighters, hostages, and weapons, the Journal reported, citing US officials briefed on the operations. The process of destroying the tunnels by pumping in seawater could take weeks, and it is uncertain whether the method will work.

Israel declared 19 of 135 people still in Gaza captivity dead in absentia on Tuesday, after announcing its forces had recovered the bodies of two hostages.

The list of 19 includes a Tanzanian national, the government press office said. It did not name him.

Tanzania has said that two of its citizens, both farming students, had been among some 240 people taken hostage by Hamas in the militant group's Oct 7 cross-border rampage. One of the Tanzanians was confirmed dead last month.

One of the first Israeli reactions to Biden’s comments earlier has come from the minister of communications, Shlomo Karhi, who said that a Palestinian state would “endanger the security of the Jewish people”.

“There will be no Palestinian state here, we will never return to Oslo, and we will not allow the establishment of another state between Jordan and the [Mediterranean] Sea,” Karhi said.

Another member of parliament, Ariel Kallner, told Biden, “Please don’t ask us to commit suicide.”

The comments echo the common right-wing Israeli rejection of any attempt to bring about a Palestinian state, which is a contravention of international law.

The Jordanian foreign ministry slammed Israel’s decision to expropriate Palestinian-ownded land in and around Silwan for the purposes of erecting a cable car from the area to Abu Tor in West Jerusalem going through the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.

“This is a rejected and condemned step that represents a grave violation of international law and UNESCO resolutions,” the Jordanian government said in a statement posted on X.

“These Israeli steps to change the features of the Old City of Jerusalem and its legal status are null and void,” the statement said.

According to Daniel Seidemann, an expert on settlement in Jerusalem, “the cable car is 1.4 kilometres in length and will whir above Palestinian homes in Silwan, adjacent to the Church of St. Peter Gallicantu on Mount Zion. Its terminal is located at settler headquarters near the Old City’s Dung Gate, less than 170 metres away from the Al Aqsa Mosque."

 

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The cable car is 1.4 kilometers in length& will whir above Palestinian homes in Silwan, adjacent to the church of St. Peter Gallicanto on Mt Zion. Its terminal is located at settler headquarters near the Old City’s Dung Gate, less than 170 meters away from the Al Aqsa Mosque

— Daniel Seidemann (@DanielSeidemann) December 12, 2023

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said that Gaza is experiencing dangerous humanitarian conditions.

“If you look at the humanitarian situation at the moment, it is so precarious… extremely precarious,” Turk said. “It’s on the verge of well beyond breakdown.”

The UN rights chief previously called for a ceasefire to end the crisis, stressing that the only way forward is “through an immediate end to the violence”.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the WHO caled for the “protection of all persons inside the [Kamal Adwan] hospital”, in addition to repeating calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

I'm extremely worried about reports of a raid at Kamal Adwan Hospital in #Gaza after several days of siege.

According to the Ministry of Health, there are 65 patients including several needing intensive care, and 45 medical staff in the hospital.

The hospital was already…

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 12, 2023

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday the Israeli administration was opposed to a two-state solution with the Palestinians and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "change" his government.

Biden's comments to Democratic donors revealed a rare rift with Netanyahu after weeks in which the US leader has strongly backed Israel's assault on Gaza.

"Bibi's got a tough decision to make," Biden said, referring to Netanyahu and his hardline right-wing government.

"This is the most conservative government in Israel's history," he said, adding that the Israeli government "doesn't want a two-state solution."

Biden added that Israel was starting to lose support around the world and that Netanyahu "has to strengthen and change" the Israeli government to find a long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

His comments reflect a growing split over what happens after the war, with US calls for Gaza to be turned over to a strengthened Palestinian Authority receiving a cool reception in Israel.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu said following a conversation with Biden that there was "disagreement" between the allies over "the day after Hamas."

The Israeli premier said he hoped "we will reach agreement here" but he vowed not to "repeat the mistake of Oslo," referring to the 1993 peace accords signed in the United States.

Biden also said that Israel must change its hardline government.

Hamas says that Israel’s destruction of two schools in Beit Hanoon, in the north of the Gaza Strip, “after expelling IDPs from their premises” is a form of “ethnic cleansing”, according to Al Jazeera.

In a press release, the group said Israel is trying to destroy all forms of life to push people to leave the besieged coastal enclave.

“It proves the sadism and barbarism of the occupation, and its disregard for the United Nations and all principles that criminalise the targeting of civilians and their infrastructure,” the group said in the statement.

The prime ministers of Australia, New Zealand and Canada support efforts for a ceasefire. The three countries back urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, a joint statement says.

“We are alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza. The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of allPalestinian civilians,” they said in the statement.

A ceasefire cannot be one-sided and Hamas must release all hostages and stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields, they added.

There is no evidence of Hamas using Palestinian civilians as human shields. 

Biden said that Israel's continuous bombardment of Gaza is leading to a decline in international support.

"They’re starting to lose that support," Biden said during a fundraising event in Washington, according to Reuters.

Biden also said that Netanyahu needs to his government's stringent approach.

The number of casualties in Jenin has increased to five after Israeli raids on Tuesday. A man was recently shot dead in the West Bank city of Jenin, contributing to the rising death count from today's Israeli operation.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has named the victim as 36-year-old Fuad Imad Abahrah. According to the ministry, Abahrah was left to bleed for thirty minutes before succumbing to his wounds, as ambulances were prevented from accessing him in time.

Seven Palestinians were killed by the Israeli occupation forces during the military campaign in Jenin city. 12.12.23

سبعة شهداء برصاص الاحتلال في جنين خلال عملية عسكرية مستمرة في المدينة و مخيمها pic.twitter.com/pmc82pZvVG

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) December 12, 2023

Israeli forces are currently detaining and questioning the Kamal Adwan Hospital's entire medical team,  said  Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for Gaza's Ministry of Health.

Al-Qudra reported that the staff, including the hospital's director, Ahmed Kahlout, are being questioned within the emergency unit of the northern Gaza facility.

He also mentioned that Kahlout had previously informed Al Jazeera about the hospital being under siege for several days, leaving staff, patients, and internally displaced persons without access to basic necessities like food and water.

Former Charlie Hebdo Franco-Moroccan journalist Zineb El Rhazoui had her Simone Veil Prize revoked following a retweet drawing parallels between the Holocaust and Israel's current offensive in the Gaza Strip. 

"I will give you back your Siomen Veil Prize because it became tainted with blood," wrote the journalist and former Nobel Prize nominee after revoking her prize.

On 9 December, Rhazoui reposted with no comment a thread originally published by journalist Benjamin Rubinstein on the X social media platform comparing the unfolding Israeli war on Gaza to Nazi Germany's holocaust. 

Read more from TNA's correspondent in Morocco here.

Israeli Prime Minster says that Israel does not agree with the US vision for Gaza governance after the war. 

He said that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which controls the occupied West Bank, cannot be in charge of Gaza.

“I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism. Gaza will be neither Hamas-stan nor Fatah-stan,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israel's police arrested Palestinian writer and political commentator Rasem Obaidat, 65, from his home in Jabal al-Mukaber, occupied East Jerusalem, on Tuesday, 12 December. 

Obaidat is a regular contributor to the widely circulated Al-Quds daily newspaper. He is also a frequent guest at Al-Mayadeen, the pro-resistance Lebanese television channel which Israel banned last month. 

Malek Obaidat informed The New Arab that his father is now being interrogated in the Al-Maskoubia police compound in West Jerusalem. 

"They searched our house, confiscated two laptops, an iPad and my father's phone, then they drove away with my father," Malek told TNA. 

Read more from TNA's correspondent in Jerusalem here.

At least 18,412 people have been killed and 50,100 wounded in Gaza since Israel launched its assault on the enclave on 7 October, the ministry of health said Tuesday.

After the United Nations Security Council failed, once again, to pass a binding resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, thousands of workers around the world joined Monday, 11 December, a global strike in solidarity with Palestine.

While some states in the Southwest and North African region transformed into ghost cities, participation in the strike in North Africa took a different path.

Click here for the full story from TNA's correspondent in North Africa.

A PA spokesperson has said that Netanyahu’s statement over Israeli plans for a possible confrontation with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank clearly showed "premeditation".

PA’s Nabil Abu Rudeina said the comments indicated the existence of an Israeli decision to attack the West Bank and the continuation of the comprehensive war waged by Israeli authorities in the Gaza Strip and occupied East Jerusalem.

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation earlier cited Netanyahu as saying that the Israeli government did not rule out the possibility of a war with the PA and was making "contingency plans" to respond to such an event.

Netanyahu also indicated that the Gaza Strip would be under Palestinian civilian authority but under Israeli military control after the war.

Rudeina condemned and rejected this view, arguing that Israel would drag the region into endless wars and threaten international peace and security.

Israeli social media accounts have published a video documenting the bombing of a UNRWA school in the northeast of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

There was no immediate comment by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

רגע פיצוץ בית הספר של אונרא בצפון הרצועה, או יותר נכון לומר מוצב צבאי של חמאס מעל ומתחת לקרקע pic.twitter.com/e4mqSH0guW

— almog boker (@bokeralmog) December 12, 2023

A photojournalist was injured after Israeli forces fired tear gas at reporters earlier this morning in the occupied West Bank's city of Jenin.

Reuters photographer Rania Sawafteh was wounded in the attack, which targeted a group of journalists who were wearing a press vest while covering the latest raid into the city.

She was transported by an ambulance to receive medical treatment, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed's correspondent in the West Bank.

Read the full story here.

Six major humanitarian organisations leaders call the US to stop blocking ceasefire in Gaza in a op-ed for the New York Times. 

"We are no strangers to human suffering — to conflict, to natural disasters, to some of the world’s largest and gravest catastrophes. We were there when fighting erupted in Khartoum, Sudan. As bombs rained down on Ukraine. When earthquakes leveled southern Turkey and northern Syria. As the Horn of Africa faced its worst drought in years...But as the leaders of some of the world’s largest global humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the siege of Gaza," they said. 

The statement was signed by leaders of CARE USA, Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council,  Oxfam America, Refugees International, and Save the Children U.S.

'The Biden administration must stop its diplomatic interference at the United Nations, blocking calls for a cease-fire," they added. 

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has described the situation in Kamal Adwan Hospital as catastrophic, amid ongoing strikes by the Israeli army on the medical facility.

Leo Cans, MSF's head of mission for Palestine, expressed his shock to Al Jazeera, comparing the current conditions to those seen in al-Shifa Hospital and other similar facilities. "It's like reliving the same scenario repeatedly," he said.

According to Cans, MSF's medical staff in Gaza are facing working conditions comparabale to World War I.

"Surgeons are performing operations on the floor due to a shortage of beds, and we're seeing children with severe injuries," he stated.

The hospitals had to release patients earlier than usual because of space limitations. Cans noted that around 60 percent of the injuries are leading to infections, posing serious life-threatening risks.

The Israeli army announced in a statement on Monday evening that it has arrested more than 500 members of 'Hamas' and 'Islamic Jihad' in the Gaza Strip over the past month.

The statement added that the detainees were transferred to Israel for further investigation by the Intelligence Division and the Shin Bet.

It also claimed that after the ceasefire ended, Israeli soldiers arrested about 140 activists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in various parts of the Gaza Strip.

Gazans are reporting that the majority of the 2.3 million population, now displaced, are suffering from starvation and cold in addition to bombardment. They face extreme conditions, including desperate raids on aid trucks and skyrocketing prices.

“I expect public order to completely break down soon and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday."

The hunger of Gaza 💔#StopGenocideInGazaNow pic.twitter.com/Hrk7gKQ8RI

— Warda_GazaPal🔻🍉🇵🇸 (@WGazapal) December 7, 2023

Israel’s defence minister said that the current war on Gaza is expected to be prolonged pushed back against saying it will “take time”.

“We are going to defend ourselves. I am fighting for Israel’s future,” Yoav Gallant told The Associated Press.

Gallant did not specify a timeline in his statement, but indicated that the current stage, marked by intensive ground invasions supported by airstrikes, might extend for weeks.

He also suggested that additional military actions could persist for months. 

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that a patient had died in an emergency convoy en route to a Gaza City hospital, during repeated and lengthy Israeli checks.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the weekend that the UN health agency and its partners had managed to deliver essential trauma and surgical supplies to the Al-Ahli hospital and to transfer 19 critical patients.

On Tuesday, Tedros said on X that the WHO was "deeply concerned about prolonged checks and detention of health workers that put lives of already fragile patients at risk".

"Due to the hold-up, one patient died en route, given the grave nature of their wounds and the delay in accessing treatment," he said.

Tedros said some staff of the Palestine Red Crescent Society also were detained on both occasions.

We received greater detail on Saturday’s high-risk @WHO-led mission in #Gaza to Al-Ahli Hospital. We are deeply concerned about prolonged checks and detention of health workers that put lives of already fragile patients at risk.

The mission was stopped twice at the Wadi Gaza… https://t.co/DG4uxYSNBw

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 12, 2023

Marwan al-Hams, the director of Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, recently provided insights into the challenging healthcare situation in the Gaza Strip.

The Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah is currently facing an influx of around 1,500 cases of intestinal diseases every day, a health crisis resulting from food shortages, the hospital director Marwan al-Hams said, according to Al Jazeera.

al Hams added that smallpox cases are increasing among children, and diarrhea and influenza, spreading among everyone, particularly among the displaced populations in Rafah.