International outrage, condemnation over Israel's Gaza City offensive

Several countries and rights groups have slammed Israel over its new offensive in the Gaza Strip that seeks to occupy the territory, warning that it risks deteriorating the already catastrophic humanitarian situation.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz approved a plan to conquer Gaza City, an urban area home to hundreds of thousands of people in the north of the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli army announced Wednesday evening that it began the first stages of the plan and was already on the outskirts of Gaza City.

More than 62,000 Palestinians have already been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, most of them civilians, including hundreds who have died of hunger-related causes due to the Israeli siege of the enclave.

Israel eased restrictions but the aid coming in is still far from enough.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

"It is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza," that was necessary "to avoid the death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would inevitably cause," Guterres said in Japan where he is attending the Tokyo International Conference on African Development.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned Thursday that severely malnourished children in the Gaza Strip will be "certainly condemned to death" unless aid gets to them quickly.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said hunger was particularly acute in the north - where Gaza City is - where an estimated one million people remain.

Lazzarini said an evaluation on how famine has evolved in the Gaza Strip was due to be published soon, adding UNRWA health centres had seen a six-fold increase in the number of severely malnourished children since March.

"If no measures are taken immediately, they are certainly condemned to death," he told the Geneva Press Club.

People in the Palestinian territory are already dying of hunger and "there will be more, there's no doubt about it", said Lazzarini.

Rights group Amnesty International earlier this week accused Israel of enacting a "deliberate policy" of starvation in Gaza.

Without naming Israel, Lazzarini labelled it a "manufactured famine" and said food had been used "as a weapon of war".

The Red Cross said Thursday that Israel's expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip is "intolerable".

"The intensification of hostilities in Gaza means more killing, more displacement, more destruction and more panic," Christian Cardon, chief spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told AFP.

"Gaza is a closed space, from which nobody can escape... and where access to health care, food and safe water is dwindling," said Cardon.

"Meanwhile, the security of humanitarians is getting worse by the hour," the spokesman added.

"This is intolerable."

Separately, 27 countries, including Britain, France and Germany called on Israel Thursday to allow "immediate independent foreign media access" into Gaza.

"Journalists and media workers play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war," the members of the Media Freedom Coalition said in a joint statement.

On Wednesday, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that Israel's assault in Gaza had caused "massacres and starvation" and that its wider actions were "killing all prospects" for peace in the Middle East.

Addressing Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at a meeting in Moscow, Safadi said he hoped to discuss "efforts to end the aggression on Gaza, and the massacres and starvation that it is creating."

This was in addition to the "illegal measures that continue to undermine the two-state solution and kill all prospects for peace in the region," he added.

"We value your clear position against the war and your demand for reaching a permanent ceasefire," he told Lavrov.

The German government said Wednesday it "rejects the escalation" of Israel's campaign in Gaza.

Germany finds it "increasingly difficult to understand how these actions will lead to the freeing of all the hostages, or to a ceasefire," government spokesman Steffen Meyer told reporters.

Germany has long been a support of Israel, but earlier this month, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government will not approve any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice.

(Agencies, The New Arab)