Seoul Gazette - UN resolution urges more Gaza aid as war takes toll on civilians

The Hamas-run health ministry said more than 410 people had been killed in Israeli bombardment over 48 hours, including 16 in a strike Friday on the Gaza City district of Jabalia.

Four members of one family, including a girl, died in another strike on a civilian vehicle in Rafah in southern Gaza, the ministry said.

An AFP video showed the impact had splayed the vehicle's roof, leaving the wreckage blackened and blood-stained.

"The Jeep was hit. Five minutes later people gathered and a second attack took place," witness Hamada Abu Taha said.

On Friday, after much delay and diplomatic wrangling, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that "demands" all sides in the conflict allow the "safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale".

The resolution also urged the creation of "conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities" but did not call for an immediate end to fighting.

Israel ally the United States, which earlier this month blocked a vote calling for a "ceasefire", abstained along with Russia, and the watered-down text passed with 13 votes in favour.

It came after the UN's World Food Programme warned that Gaza's population is at a "high risk of famine".

The war began on October 7 when Hamas gunmen broke through Gaza's militarised border and killed around 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Palestinian militants also abducted about 250 people.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, where 20,057 people have been killed, according to the latest Hamas toll.

Most of the dead are women and children, Hamas officials say.

- 'Massive obstacles' -

UN chief Antonio Guterres said after the Security Council vote that "the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza", reiterating his call for a "humanitarian ceasefire".

Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement that "Israel will continue to inspect, for security reasons, all humanitarian assistance to Gaza."

The fighting has displaced 1.9 million Gazans according to UN figures, out of a population of 2.4 million, and put out of action most of the 36 hospitals in the territory. Nine remain partly functioning, the World Health Organization says.

With swathes of Gaza reduced to rubble, the displaced have been forced into crowded shelters or tents, and are struggling to find food, fuel, water and medical supplies.

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

Last week Israel approved the temporary delivery of aid to Gaza via its Kerem Shalom crossing, and the army says on average 80 trucks enter the territory daily through it.

In north Gaza, parts of Gaza City including Shujaiya have seen street-by-street combat -- even building-by-building -- between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters.

According to the military, the deaths of two more soldiers in Gaza brought to 139 the number killed since it began its ground assault on October 27.

- Tension rises at Lebanon border -

Israel said another of its troops was killed on Friday by rocket fire from Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah and other groups have carried out near-daily cross-border assaults in support of Hamas.

Another soldier was wounded during "operational activity" in the Shtula area of northern Israel, the army said.

Hezbollah said two of its fighters were killed Friday.

Since hostilities began in October, more than 140 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also more than a dozen civilians, three of them journalists, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, four civilians and eight soldiers have been killed, according to officials.

Beyond regular exchanges of fire across the Lebanon border, the war has also sparked fears of wider conflict with missiles from Iran-backed Yemeni rebels -- claiming to act in solidarity with Gazans -- which have disrupted Red Sea shipping.

The Pentagon said on Thursday that more than 20 countries have joined a US-led coalition to protect shipping in the waterway vital for world trade.

- 'Even the animals have died' -

The area around the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza has been a focus of Israeli military operations which "intensified" over the past week, a military spokesperson said.

An evacuation order issued Friday by the army told residents in the area of Bureij, in central Gaza, to move further south to Deir al-Balah city.

Many Gazans have fled as far south as they can but say they cannot find safety.

Shehda al-Kurd said his family's house "collapsed over us" during a pre-dawn strike.

"This area might have been considered the safest one, but they struck it," he said.

A separate strike hit an area of greenhouses in Rafah.

Wael Azad, a Palestinian farmer, said "even the animals have died."

"May God have mercy on the people," he added, wrapped in a scarf and woollen cap against the cold.

Paula Gaviria Betancur, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, said in a statement that "Israel's military operation in Gaza aims to deport the majority of the civilian population en masse."

The UN-appointed independent expert said that with Gaza's infrastructure "razed to the ground" any realistic prospects for displaced Palestinians to return home are frustrated.

Responding to similar suggestions earlier in the war, an Israeli defence ministry spokesperson said there was "never... an Israeli plan to move the residents of Gaza to Egypt."

Israel has been under increasing pressure from allies to protect civilians.

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

Israeli authorities say 129 hostages are still held in Gaza.

Gad Haggai, 73, was a flautist. His 70-year-old wife remains a captive.

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A.Uhm--SG