Israel-Gaza war live: 76 members of one family killed in Israeli airstrike, says Gaza’s civil defense department | Israel-Gaza war

“We are not getting the humanitarian supplies that we need to cater and respond to a humanitarian crisis this size and this scale,” UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said.

Speaking to CGTN, Touma added:

“The more that we have these evacuation orders that the Israeli authorities continue to issue…we will see an exodus of people continue to search for safety, search for shelter… The combination of the war and the siege and the lack of availability of basic supplies including food has led to… unprecedented levels of hunger and starvation.

The director of UNRWA affairs, Thomas White, reiterated the absence of safety across the Gaza strip as more than 1.9 million Palestinians remain displaced as a result of Israel’s attacks.

In a tweet on Saturday, White wrote:

People in Gaza are people. They are not pieces on a checkerboard – many have already been displaced several times. The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go.

In response to the UN security council’s passage of a resolution on Gaza aid delivery, Médecins Sans Frontières said that it “falls painfully short of what is required to address the crisis in Gaza”.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, MSF said:

The watered-down resolution on #Gaza will not ensure the massive scale-up and rapid flow of humanitarian aid needed, as bombs continue to rain down on Palestinian civilians, force mass displacement, and deny access to vital medical care and humanitarian assistance.

“The way Israel is prosecuting this war, with US support, is causing massive death and suffering among Palestinian civilians and is inconsistent with international norms and laws. Even war has rules,” it added.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society remains operating at its medical point in Jabalia in northern Gaza amid Israeli bombardment.

In a video released on Saturday, PRCS workers can be seen treating Palestinians injured by Israeli strikes in a makeshift tent amid a shortage of medical supplies across the strip.

Food aid is failing to reach Palestinian residents displaced by Israeli strikes in Gaza despite a “catastrophic” hunger crisis.

The Guardian’s Kaamil Ahmed reports:

A couple of biscuits and a can of beans is all that many Palestinians in Gaza say is being given to families to live on, if they receive aid at all, and that they are finding donated items for sale in the markets.

The risk of famine is increasing every day, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which said this week that Gaza’s entire population is suffering “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”, the highest proportion of a population with acute food insecurity the monitor has ever recorded.

On Friday, the United Nations security council backed a resolution calling for a major boost in humanitarian assistance for Gaza. But the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told reporters: “The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.”

The World Food Programme has also said it is becoming more difficult to reach people because of intensified fighting, with food becoming scarce and expensive, and fuel for cooking hard to find. The WFP’s most recent food security update said the situation is worst in northern Gaza, where 90% of people have gone a full day and night without eating.

For the full story, click here:

Gaza death toll reaches 20,258

Afternoon summary

Hamas says it has lost contact with group responsible for five Israeli hostages

The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has slammed the “inefficacy” of international bodies to halt the Israel-Gaza war.

Raisi’s comments during a conference in Tehran in support of Palestinians came a day after the UN security council approved a delayed resolution demanding aid to be allowed into Gaza “at scale”.

The resolution also urged the creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”, without calling for an immediate end to the fighting.

Iran has called the vote “positive but insufficient”.

“The inability and inefficacy of international organisations has become clear to everyone in the world,” Raisi told the Tehran conference, AFP reports.

“The security council … officially announced its desperation, and said that there is nothing we can do,” he said.

“International organisations have also announced that there is nothing we can do.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters have marched on London’s Oxford Street urging shoppers to boycott “Israeli-linked” brands.

Several hundred protesters brought traffic to a standstill as part of the demonstration organised by direct action group Sisters Uncut on Saturday afternoon, PA reports.

They gathered in Soho Square chanting “free Palestine” before marching on the busy shopping street.

Security guards blocked the entrance to fashion retailer Zara, while dozens of officers followed the march.

Leaflets distributed by Sisters Uncut said: “No Christmas as usual in a genocide. The UK is complicit. Don’t fund genocide in Palestine. Boycott Israel.”

The presidents of Egypt and Iran discussed recent developments in Gaza and the prospect of restoring diplomatic ties between their countries in what Iranian state television said on Saturday was their first phone call.

The network said the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, had called his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. The two men met in November for the first time on the sidelines of the joint Arab Islamic extraordinary summit in Riyadh.

“Raisi said Iran was ready to provide all its capacities to stop the genocide by the Zionist regime and send aid to the Palestinians,” Iranian state TV reported, adding that it was the first time the two presidents had spoken by phone.

Relations between Egypt and Iran have generally been fraught in recent decades, although the countries have maintained some diplomatic contacts. Their call follows other moves by countries in the region to ease tension in recent months.

Egypt’s Sunni Muslim Arab ally Saudi Arabia and Shia Muslim Iran restored diplomatic relations earlier this year, while Cairo has mended a rift with Qatar and re-established ties with Turkey.

Here are the latest images from Gaza and Israel:

As we reported earlier, the United Nations security council has backed a resolution calling for a major boost in humanitarian assistance for the Gaza Strip but the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has said the way Israel is conducting its military operation there is creating “massive obstacles” to aid distribution.

Here’s a clip of his comments.

A worldwide campaign of assassinations of Hamas leaders announced by senior Israel officials is likely to be counterproductive, impractical and ineffective, targets of previous such efforts have suggested.

Benjamin Netanyahu first announced the new strategy two weeks after the 7 October attacks launched by Hamas into southern Israel which killed 1,200 people.

Officials in Israel have briefed journalists that a new operation called Nili, an acronym for a biblical phrase in Hebrew meaning “the eternal one of Israel will not lie”, would target senior leaders of the militant Islamist organisation.

You can read the full story from my colleague Jason Burke here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/23/israeli-campaign-to-kill-hamas-leaders-likely-to-backfire-say-earlier-assassination-targets

A drone strike damaged an “Israel-affiliated” merchant ship off the coast of India on Saturday, but caused no casualties, according to maritime agencies.

The attack caused a fire on board, according to the British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

Ambrey, a maritime security firm, said the “Liberia-flagged chemical/products tanker … was Israel-affiliated” and had been on its way from Saudi Arabia to India.

Both agencies said the attack occurred 200 nautical miles south-west of Veraval, India.

The UKMTO said the “authorities were investigating”, and noted the fire had been extinguished. Ambrey said the Indian navy was responding.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the strike, which came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on a vital shipping lane in the Red Sea.

Iran has also been accused of carrying out attacks near its waters.

Last month, an Israeli-owned cargo ship was hit in a suspected drone attack by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the Indian Ocean, according to a US official.