As Israel’s ground troops increasingly advance against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations used drastic words to point out the suffering of the civilian population. At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Riad Mansur said, referring to the fierce fighting: “Gaza is now hell on earth.”
However, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects a ceasefire despite criticism of the high number of civilian casualties and compared the war against Hamas to the Allies’ fight against the Nazis. Meanwhile, Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan pinned a yellow Star of David with the words “Never Again” on his lapel in front of the Security Council. This is reminiscent of stars that the Nazis forced on Jews as identification marks in the Third Reich.
Israel draws comparison to D-Day
He will wear the star, like his grandparents and the grandparents of millions of Jews, Erdan said to the Security Council. “We will wear the star until you condemn Hamas’ atrocities and demand the immediate release of our hostages.” Terrorists from Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7th. More than 1,400 people died during and in the following days.
Erdan compared Israel’s ground offensive to the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944. If the UN Security Council had existed on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, there would probably have been a heated debate about how much electricity and fuel the citizens of Munich would have left, he scoffed at the UN Security Council.
The Palestinian UN representative Mansur, however, pleaded: “Treat us like human beings with the respect we deserve. We are not subhumans. We are not from another planet.”
UN aid organization: Population is being dehumanized
The head of the UN Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA) urged an expansion of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. A handful of convoys as before are not enough for more than two million people in need, said UNWRA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini.
Most people in the Gaza Strip felt trapped in a war that they had nothing to do with. “They have the feeling that the world is equating them all with Hamas. This is dangerous. And we know this only too well from previous conflicts and crises. An entire population is being dehumanized,” warned Lazzarini.
According to the UN, acute fuel shortages are already affecting Gaza’s residents’ water supply. “Only one desalination plant is operating at just five percent capacity, while all six water treatment plants in the Gaza Strip are currently out of operation due to lack of fuel or electricity,” said UNICEF director Catherine Russell.
26 trucks bring relief supplies to the Gaza Strip
Another 26 trucks carrying urgently needed relief supplies have arrived in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Red Crescent said they had brought food and medicine across the border from Egypt.
This means that a total of 144 trucks have arrived in the sealed-off coastal area since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Palestinian organization Hamas. The delivery of fuel was still not approved, it said.
The United Nations repeatedly emphasizes that the deliveries are far from enough given the dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza. “The handful of convoys being allowed through (the Rafah crossing) is nothing compared to the needs of more than two million people trapped in Gaza,” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the U.N. Palestinian agency UNRWA.
According to the UN, 100 truckloads are actually needed every day to provide the 2.2 million people with the essentials. Before the war began, according to the UN emergency relief office OCHA, an average of 500 trucks came into the Gaza Strip every day during the week.
Again calls for a ceasefire
She implores the UN Security Council to immediately adopt a resolution reminding the parties of their obligations under international law, Russell said. This also includes a ceasefire. Palestinian UN representative Mansur quoted former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld as saying: “The United Nations was not founded to take us to heaven, but to save us from hell.” This means nothing other than saving the Palestinians in Gaza, demanded Mansur.
However, Israel continues to reject a ceasefire. “Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the terrorist attack on September 11th, Israel will not agree to a halt to fighting with Hamas after the terrible attacks on October 7th,” Prime Minister Netanyahu told reporters yesterday . “Calls for Israel to agree to a ceasefire are calls to capitulate to Hamas, to terrorism, to barbarism. That will not happen.”
Israel’s ground troops continue to advance
And so Israel’s ground troops, in conjunction with the air force and navy, are advancing further into the Gaza Strip. According to their own statements, they freed one of their soldiers from Hamas violence. According to the Israeli army, at least 239 other people were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip in the Hamas attack on October 7th, including several Germans. Hamas has so far released four hostages through the mediation of Qatar and Egypt. Israel’s army believes that most of the remaining hostages are still alive.
40 people are still missing since the terrorist attacks. Because of their dire condition, many of the bodies have not yet been identified. The German Shani Louk was among those killed.
Meanwhile, Israeli military jets also bombed “terrorist infrastructure” of the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, the army said overnight. These included Hezbollah weapons and positions. According to the army, rockets had been fired from Lebanon at Israel in the previous days. There have been increasing confrontations at the border since the beginning of the Gaza war. Hezbollah has ties to the Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip.
What is important today
Israel continues its military offensive. Meanwhile, efforts to increase aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip continue. Aid organizations describe the situation for the people there as catastrophic. At the same time, efforts to release the at least 239 hostages kidnapped in the Gaza Strip are continuing.
