This story was created by the team at Mondoweiss and curated by Slingshot Media’s advocacy team
Casualties:
- 20,057+ Palestinians killed and 3,320+ wounded in the Gaza Strip
- 303 Palestinians killed and at least 4,655 wounded in the West Bank since October 7.
Key Developments:
- UN Security Council passes a resolution to allow aid into besieged Gaza Strip.
- Israeli forces continue to detain Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) staff from Jabalia ambulance center in northern Gaza.
- NWRA: More than 150,000 people impacted by Israel’s evacuation orders, instructing people in central Gaza to move to Deir al-Balah.
- White House accuses Iran of helping Yemenis plot Red Sea attacks.
- UNICEF: Acute food insecurity puts all children under five at severe risk of malnutrition.
- Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights monitor calls for an international delegation to visit Israeli prisons.
- Netherlands suspends asylum applications for Palestinians from West Bank and Gaza for next six months.
Israeli military orders Palestinians in Khan Younis to evacuate, Gaza faces ‘crisis level’ hunger and starvation
Israeli forces continue to target Al-Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps in Central Gaza, killing at least 18 people, including a WAFA correspondent and five children. More than 150,000 civilians in the surrounding areas have been told to evacuate towards Deir al-Balah, even though Deir al-Balah has also experienced recent attacks.
“There is no place that is safe,” Salem Sheikh, an elderly man from the Nassr neighborhood in the west of Gaza City told Al-Jazeera. “They [the Israeli army] told us to leave, so I fled to Al Shifa Hospital where I stayed for a month and a half. I then left to Nuseirat,” he continued.
“People in Gaza are people, they are not pieces on a checkerboard,” UNWRA director Thomas White wrote in a post on X. “The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) is pushing for the release of their colleagues, who were arrested from the Jabalia ambulance center and continue to be detained by Israeli forces.
“More than a month has passed since the arrest of our colleague Awni Khattab, head of the PCRS ambulance center in Khan Younis,” the PCRS wrote in a post on X.
Three hundred healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
Following the recent report from the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) that points to “crisis level” hunger across Gaza, UNICEF has added that children under five across the Gaza Strip are at risk of acute malnutrition. Additionally, UNICEF is concerned about pregnant and breastfeeding women whose health is impacted by stress and trauma in addition to food shortages.
“We need an immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire so that humanitarian actors can support the strengthening and restoring of essential services across the Gaza Strip, allowing vulnerable children to meet their basic nutrition and health needs,” reads a UNICEF press release, pointing out that the crisis is entirely manmade.
“These include the provision of infant milk, food and nutrient supplements, and ready-to-use therapeutic foods for the early prevention, detection and treatment of severe malnutrition, as well as water, medical supplies and fuel, and resumption of commercial traffic.”
Raids continue in West Bank refugee camps and cities, settlers attack Palestinians
Last night, Israeli forces raided Jenin and its refugee camp, breaking into several peoples’ homes and deploying snipers to rooftops as soldiers arrested people. The raid comes following a three-day siege of the camp earlier this month, where 500 people were arrested, and 13 were killed.
Raids also continued in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, as well as the Ein al-Sultan and Aqbat Jabr camps in Jericho, Qalandia refugee camp, where two people were arrested. There were additional raids in Hebron, Beita, and Qayrout, south of Nablus. Eight people were arrested last night, bringing the number of those detained since October 7 up to 4,685.
Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farms and olive trees in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, and two Palestinian brothers were stabbed and wounded after being attacked by Israeli settlers just south of Bethlehem. Nearly 100 Palestinians have been injured in settler attacks since October 7, and at least eight have been killed.
Disappointment at UNSC resolution, threats from Iran
Last night, the UN Security Council finally passed a resolution that calls for increased humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza — but while some have pointed out that it is a “step in the right direction,” others criticize it as “toothless” and “meaningless” for stopping short of demanding a permanent ceasefire.
“The resolution is a step in the right direction,” said Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour. “It must be implemented and must be accompanied by massive pressure for an immediate ceasefire.”
Others were far more critical.
“By vetoing this resolution, the US stands alone in casting its vote against humanity,” said Doctors Without Borders USA Representative Avril Benoit. “The US veto stands in sharp contrast to the values it professes to uphold. By continuing to provide diplomatic cover for the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, the US is signaling that international humanitarian law can be applied selectively — and that the lives of some people matter less than the lives of others. The US veto makes it complicit in the carnage in Gaza.”
Others are questioning whether the United Nations is fit to be an agent of diplomacy at all.
“When the UN was formed after the second world war, it was supposed to tackle, to prevent similar conflicts such as the one happening in Gaza,” Doha Institute for Graduate Studies assistant public policy professor Tamer Qarmout told Al Jazeera.