The United Nations, United States and Canada appealed on Tuesday for a humanitarian pause in the Israel-Hamas war to allow safe deliveries of aid to civilians stricken by shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity in the Israeli-besieged enclave.
International pressure for unimpeded aid to Gaza rose as the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory reported that Israeli air strikes had killed more than 700 Palestinians overnight. Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said this was the highest 24-hour death toll in Israel’s two-week-old siege.
UN agencies were pleading “on our knees” for emergency aid to be let into Gaza unimpeded, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed to support the narrow strip’s 2.3 million people amid widespread devastation from Israel’s aerial blitz.
ADF aircraft and personnel deploy to Middle East
It comes as Australian Defence Force personnel and two additional RAAF aircraft are being deployed to the Middle East.
Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed the deployment was a precautionary measure that would support Australians in the region in case the security situation deteriorates.
“The situation is volatile and we very much hope that it is contained to Gaza,” he told Sky News on Wednesday.
“But we are taking these steps now in the event that matters do get worse.”
He has urged any Australians remaining in the Middle East to leave while they still can.
“If you are in the region now and you want to leave, you should take whatever commercial options are available to you,” he said.
“This is a very volatile situation and no one knows exactly how it will play out.”
The United States is negotiating with Israel, neighbouring Egypt and the UN to smooth emergency deliveries into Gaza, but have wrangled over procedures for inspecting the aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border.
In a statement released on social media, the Palestinian health ministry said at least 5,791 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli bombardments since 7 October, including 2,360 children. Some 704 were killed in the previous 24 hours alone, it said.
Reuters could not independently verify the ministry figures.
‘Palestinian civilians must be protected’
The Israeli military said that it killed dozens of Hamas fighters overnight while hitting over 400 Hamas targets, but that it would take time to destroy the Islamist militant group whose.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded on Tuesday for civilians to be protected, voicing concern about “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking to the UN Security Council, called for “humanitarian pauses” to enable urgent aid shipments to Gaza civilians.
“Palestinian civilians are not to blame for the carnage committed by Hamas,” Blinken said, referring to the militants’ killing of 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and capture of over 200 in a one-day rampage through Israeli communities near Gaza.
“Palestinian civilians must be protected. That means Hamas must cease using them as human shields … It means Israel must take all possible precautions to avoid harm to civilians,” Blinken said.
The World Health Organization, in the latest of increasingly desperate UN appeals, called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” to prevent food, medicines and fuel supplies from running out in Gaza.
Doctors in Gaza say patients arriving at hospitals are showing signs of disease caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation after more than 1.4 million people fled their homes for temporary shelters under Israel’s heaviest-ever bombardment.
But there appeared to be little prospect of a ceasefire any time soon in the bloodiest episode in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for decades.
UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, warned in a post on messaging platform X that it would halt operations in Gaza on Wednesday night because of the lack of fuel.
However, the Israeli military reaffirmed it would not permit the entry of fuel to prevent Hamas from seizing it.
The UN said 20 trucks that had been due to deliver aid to Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Tuesday could not do so, but it hoped the convoy would get in on Wednesday.
Israeli tanks and troops are massed on the border between Israel and the enclave awaiting orders for an expected ground invasion — an operation that may be complicated by fears for the hostages’ welfare and militants dug into a crowded urban setting using a vast network of tunnels.
The bombardments were unleashed in response to a shock cross-border Hamas assault into southern Israel in which gunmen killed more than 1,400 people — mostly civilians — in a single day.
‘I’ve been through hell’
Hamas on Monday — the third and fourth to be released.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, said she was beaten by militants as she was abducted and had difficulty breathing.
Israeli Yocheved Lifshitz said she was beaten during her abduction, then treated well during more than two weeks held captive in Gaza. Source: Getty / Erik Marmor
“They stormed into our homes. They beat people. They kidnapped others, the old and the young without distinction,” she said, seated in a wheelchair and speaking in barely a whisper to reporters.
“I’ve been through hell,” Lifshitz said.
Inside Gaza, a group of hostages were led into what Lifshitz called and eventually reached a large hall where, under 24-hour guard, a doctor visited every other day and brought them medicines they needed.
“They treated us gently and met all our needs,” she said.
Among the targets Israel said it hit overnight was a tunnel that allowed Hamas to infiltrate Israel from the sea, as well as Hamas command centres in mosques, it said.
Reuters could not verify the report.
Wide areas of highly urbanised Gaza have been demolished by Israeli bombs, forcing more than half of its 2.3 million people to seek shelter elsewhere in the territory.
The significant escalation is the latest in a long-standing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
, gaining power in the Gaza Strip since winning legislative elections there in 2006.
Hamas’ stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state, while refusing to recognise Israel’s right to exist.
