UN warns of Gaza famine risk; Israeli strike kills five people in Rafah

Palestinian Territories – AFP

The United Nations has warned that Israel’s war on Gaza is pushing the people of the enclave towards famine.

The entire population of Gaza faces “an imminent risk of famine”, according to a UN-backed global hunger monitoring system on Thursday, with more than half a million people facing “catastrophic conditions”.

“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,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths posted on X, formerly Twitter.

– ‘Enough is enough’ –

The UN estimates 1.9 million people in Gaza are now displaced, out of a population of 2.4 million.

With their homes destroyed, they are living in crowded shelters and struggling to find food, fuel, water and medical supplies. Diseases are spreading, and communications have been repeatedly cut.

“My message is to put an end to this humiliation,” said Fuad Ibrahim Wadi, who found refuge at a greenhouse in Rafah.

“This war does nothing but destroy. Enough is enough.”

On Thursday, an Israeli strike hit the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom, the crossings authority and the Gaza health ministry said.

Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests from AFP for comment.

The UN secretary-general’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, was “unable to receive (aid) trucks” via Kerem Shalom following the “drone strike” and that the World Food Programme had suspended operations at the crossing.

Dujarric’s comments came after Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel could enable as many as “400 trucks a day” of aid and blamed the UN for failing to bring more.

According to the UN, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza is well below the daily pre-war average.

Diplomats visiting the region have called for more assistance to reach the territory.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, speaking in Egypt, said: “Everything that can be done must be done to get aid into Gaza.”

– Five people killed in Rafah –

A strike on a house in Rafah on Friday killed five people, the Gaza health ministry said.

The United Nations human rights office in Ramallah said it had received reports that Israeli troops had “summarily killed” at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in Gaza City’s Rimal neighbourhood this week.

Israel has been under increasing pressure from allies, including the United States, which provides it with billions of dollars in military aid, to protect civilians.

The UN rights office said “details and circumstances” of the killings in Rimal are still being verified but it “raises alarm about the possible commission of a war crime”.

The men were killed in front of their family members, it said.

– 139 Israeli soldiers killed –

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using schools, mosques, hospitals and vast tunnel systems beneath them as military bases — charges the group denies.

On Thursday, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli troops have killed more than 2,000 Palestinian fighters since a one-week cease-fire ended on December 1.

He did not elaborate on the source of his figures.

According to a tally on the Israeli military’s website, 139 soldiers have been killed since it began its ground assault in Gaza on October 27.

– Far apart –

Qatar, backed by Egypt and the United States, last month helped broker a week-long truce that saw 105 prisoners, including 80 Israelis, released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Hopes that Israel and Hamas could be inching towards another truce and deal to free the remaining 129 Israelis rose this week as the head of the Palestinian group visited Egypt and talks took place in Europe.

However, the stated positions of Israel and Hamas remain far apart.

The military wing of Hamas said Thursday that Israel’s objective to eliminate it was “doomed to fail” and that further prisoner releases depend on a “cessation of hostilities”.

The war has sparked fears of wider conflict.

There have been regular exchanges of fire over the Lebanon border, and missiles from Iran-backed Yemeni rebels have disrupted Red Sea shipping.

Israeli strikes killed a woman in a south Lebanon village on Thursday, Lebanese media and rescuers said.

Retaliatory attacks by Hezbollah fighters wounded two civilians, according to Israel’s military.