Humanitarian crisis deepens as Israeli strikes intensify

FE Team | Published: October 17, 2023 00:29:29

More than a million people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected Israeli invasion that seeks to eliminate Hamas' leadership after its deadly incursion, report agencies.
Aid groups warn an Israeli ground offensive could hasten a humanitarian crisis.
The World Health Organization on Monday warned there were only "24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left" in the Gaza Strip before "a real catastrophe" sets in.
WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari said the bombarded, besieged territory must be allowed to receive convoys of aid, currently stuck at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Israeli forces, supported by US warships, positioned themselves along Gaza's border and drilled for what Israel said would be a broad campaign to dismantle the militant group.
A week of blistering airstrikes have demolished neighborhoods but failed to stop militant rocket fire into Israel.
The war that began Oct. 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides, with more than 4,000 dead.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israel.
Water has run out at UN shelters across Gaza and overwhelmed doctors at the territory's largest hospital struggled to care for patients they fear will die once generators run out of fuel.
US President Joe Biden abruptly called off a trip Monday to Colorado, as he weighs an invitation to go to Israel to show support as it wages war against Hamas.
The White House said Biden would remain in Washington for national security meetings, amid fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could escalate into a regional conflagration.
Several news outlets including Axios and CNN have reported that US and Israeli officials are discussing a possible Biden trip to Israel this week as it gears up for a ground invasion of Gaza.
Iran on Monday said time was running short to reach a political solution in the Israel-Gaza conflict, warning of the "possibility of expanding the scope of war and conflict to other fronts".
Israel declared war on the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas a day after waves of its fighters broke through Gaza's heavily militarised border with Israel on October 7 and shot, stabbed and burned to death over 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
An urban battle during Israel's 2014 war against Hamas offers a glimpse of the type of fighting that could lie ahead.
The UN Security Council was set to vote Monday evening on dueling proposed resolutions on the Israel-Hamas war. A Russian proposal calls for a cease-fire while a Brazilian draft seeks "humanitarian pauses" to let aid flow and urges Israel to rescind its order for an evacuation of northern Gaza.
Either draft, if adopted, would mark the first collective statement on the war from the UN's most powerful organ.
Oil tankers bearing United Nations flags have crossed into Egypt from Gaza to pick up fuel supplies for the besieged enclave.
The trucks were led across the Rafah border by a UN escort vehicle as people stood in line in hopes of crossing.
Hospitals in Gaza are expected to run out of generator fuel in the next 24 hours, endangering the lives of thousands of patients, according to the U.N. Gaza's sole power plant shut down for lack of fuel after Israel completely sealed off the 40-kilometer (25-mile) long territory following the Hamas attack.
Ahmed Abdul-Hadi, the representative of Hamas in Lebanon, insisted Monday that the decision to launch the surprise Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel was made by Hamas leadership and not directed by Iran or any other outside party, but he said that in event of a ground invasion of Gaza, allied groups will intervene.
The war in Gaza is "a Palestinian battle and the decision to enter it was a Palestinian decision" made by Hamas and its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al Qassam Brigades, "together with the Palestinian resistance factions," he said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of a conference convened by the group in Beirut.
Syrian President Bashar Assad discussed the volatile situation in Gaza and ways of ending Israel's attacks with his Russian counterpart.
Assad's office said in a statement released Monday that Assad and Vladimir Putin called for aid to be allowed to enter Gaza and for an end to the Israeli bombardment and displacement of Palestinians.
Russia has been a main backer of Assad since Syria's conflict began more than 12 years ago, and joined the war in 2015.