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Palestinian territories — Israel on Tuesday kept up its strikes against Gaza targets despite grave concern expressed by the United Nations, which named a coordinator for desperately needed humanitarian aid.
The Israeli army said it struck military sites and tunnel shafts in Jabalia, northern Gaza, and Khan Yunis in the south, as heavy ground combat continued.
Incidents linked to Iran-backed groups in the Red Sea, on the Lebanese border and in Iraq added to regional tensions surrounding the war.
Black smoke clouded the sky over central Gaza on Tuesday afternoon and, in the south, horse-drawn carts carried some victims to hospital in Khan Yunis, AFP images showed.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war erupted when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
During the attack — the deadliest in Israel’s history — Hamas took around 250 hostages of whom 129 remain inside Gaza, Israel says.
Israel retaliated with a relentless bombardment and a siege followed by a ground invasion. The campaign has killed at least 20,915 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll issued Tuesday by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Gaza’s 2.4 million people are suffering dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine, with only limited aid entering.
The UN Security Council last week, in a resolution that did not call for an immediate end to fighting, sought “safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale.”
It requested the appointment of a UN humanitarian coordinator to oversee and verify third-country aid to Gaza. On Tuesday the UN named Sigrid Kaag, the outgoing Dutch finance minister, to the post and said she would start work on January 8.
After days of wrangling, the resolution passed after Washington abstained. It effectively leaves Israel with operational oversight of aid deliveries.
An estimated 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced, according to the UN, many having fled south.
Internet and telephone services were again cut across the Palestinian territory, “due to the ongoing offensive,” announced Gaza’s main telecoms firm, Paltel.
