Israel's Gaza plan risks ‘another calamity:' UN
The United Nations Security Council held a rare emergency weekend meeting after Israel said its military would 'take control' of Gaza City in a plan approved by Prime Minister Netanyahu's security cabinet that sparked a wave of global criticism.
'If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction,' UN Assistant Secretary General Miroslav Jenca told the Security Council.
The UN's humanitarian office OCHA said 98 children had died from acute malnutrition since the start of the conflict in October 2023, with 37 of those deaths since July, according to Gaza's authorities.
'This is no longer a looming hunger crisis — this is starvation, pure and simple,' said OCHA's coordination director Ramesh Rajasingham.
The United Nations flag flies on a stormy day at the UN during the United Nations General Assembly. File/AP
Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said Sunday 'over two million victims are enduring unbearable agony,' calling Israel's plans for Gaza City 'illegal and immoral,' and for foreign journalists to be allowed into Gaza.
Netanyahu announced on Sunday a plan to allow more foreign journalists to report inside Gaza -- accompanied by the Israeli military.
Britain, a close ally of Israel which nonetheless pushed for an emergency meeting on the crisis, warned the Israeli plan risked prolonging the conflict.
'It will only deepen the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This is not a path to resolution. It is a path to more bloodshed,' said British deputy ambassador to the UN James Kariuki.
But Netanyahu said Sunday his country was 'talking in terms of a fairly short timetable because we want to bring the war to an end,' as he insisted Israel did not want to occupy Gaza.
Outside the meeting at UN headquarters in New York, a small but noisy protest calling for an end to the conflict was met by a large police presence.
The United States, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, accused those nations who supported Sunday's meeting of 'actively prolonging the war by spreading lies about Israel.'
'Israel has a right to decide what is necessary for its security and what measure measures are appropriate to end the threat posed by Hamas,' said US envoy to the UN Dorothy Shea.
Israel's deputy ambassador to the UN Jonathan Miller said 'pressure should not be placed on Israel, who suffered the most horrific attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, but on Hamas.'
Algeria's ambassador Amar Bendjama called for sanctions on Israel in response to its Gaza City plan.
Displaced Palestinians walk through a makeshift camp along the beach in Gaza City, on Sunday. AP
'The hour has come to impose sanctions on the enemy of humanity,' he said.
'If it was another country, you would have been imposing sanctions a long time ago,' the Palestinian envoy Mansour said.
Netanyahu said Sunday that his new plan to expand the war in Gaza and target the remaining Hamas strongholds there was 'the best way to end the war', defying growing calls to stop the fighting.
Defending his plan in a press conference in Jerusalem, the premier said the new operation would be implemented on 'a fairly short timetable because we want to bring the war to an end'.
More than 22 months into the war, sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel, the country is gripped by a yawning divide pitting those demanding an end to the conflict and a deal for the release of the hostages against others who want to see the Palestinian militants vanquished once and for all.
Criticism has only intensified after Netanyahu's security cabinet announced plans Friday to expand the conflict and capture Gaza City.
But Netanyahu was defiant on Sunday, telling journalists: 'This is the best way to end the war, and the best way to end it speedily.'
Agencies
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
EU condemns Israel's killing of journalists in Gaza
The European Union condemned the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip, the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday. "The EU condemns the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in an (Israeli military) air strike outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, including the Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif," she said after EU foreign ministers discussed the war in virtual talks. The EU took note of Israel's allegations against Sharif of heading a Hamas "terrorist cell", Kallas said, "but there is a need in these cases to provide clear evidence, in the respect of rule of law, to avoid targeting of journalists". Sharif himself and Al Jazeera previously refused the accusations, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in July called for his protection following online posts by an Israeli military spokesman. The CPJ had accused Israel of a "pattern" of labelling journalists militants "without providing credible evidence" and reminded that "international law is clear that active combatants are the only justified targets in a war setting."
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Greta Thunberg says she will join new civilian flotilla going to Gaza to deliver aid
Greta Thunberg will be joining a new multi-vessel flotilla on 31 August that plans to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, she announced on Instagram on Sunday. The Swedish activist will join a fleet comprising dozens of boats called the Global Sumud Flotilla. This will be the third attempt by international activists to deliver aid to Gaza. Two previous attempts were derailed in international waters by Israel. Thunberg was one of 12 activists on board the Madleen, which tried to break the blockade in June. Activists on the Handala tried to do the same in July. The activists were unlawfully detained and taken to Israel, including US labour organiser Chris Smalls, who spoke about being physically assaulted by Israeli soldiers and being held in an Israeli prison for five days.
Middle East Eye
2 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Opinion: Anas al-Sharif was murdered for being Gaza's voice
They killed him where the wounded cling to life. Outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Israeli army assassinated Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, in a direct bombardment of their media tent. This was no accident of war. It was a precision attack - the deliberate erasure of journalists who would not stop telling the truth. Sharif was a young Palestinian from Jabalia, in northern Gaza. He had been covering the war for 22 months. His only 'crime' was refusing to turn away, as he insisted on exposing the realities of genocide: the boundless killing, the calculated destruction of every thread of life. He worked without pause. Born in 1996, Sharif was three years old when the Second Intifada began; he was 10 when Israel first blockaded Gaza, 12 when the 2008 Gaza war erupted, and 18 during the 2014 assault. He was just 28 when Israel finally killed him on Sunday. His life was mapped by wars, each one deadlier than the last. For 22 months, Sharif's reporting entered millions of homes across the Arab world. More than a journalist, he became a trusted witness. His audience knew his grief as much as they knew his voice: the killing of his father by Israeli fire, and his separation from his mother, his daughter Sham, his baby son Salah - born during the genocide - and his wife Bayan. We followed him to the fiercest fronts in northern Gaza, where he worked through bombardment and starvation, never bending, never silenced. You can read more here.
