UN Aid Chief to Travel to Region to Assist in Gaza Aid Negotiations 

A UN-flagged fuel truck moves towards border crossing, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 16, 2023. (Reuters)
A UN-flagged fuel truck moves towards border crossing, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 16, 2023. (Reuters)
TT

UN Aid Chief to Travel to Region to Assist in Gaza Aid Negotiations 

A UN-flagged fuel truck moves towards border crossing, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 16, 2023. (Reuters)
A UN-flagged fuel truck moves towards border crossing, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 16, 2023. (Reuters)

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday he would be travelling to the Middle East to support negotiations on getting aid into the blockaded Gaza Strip. 

Griffiths said his office was in "deep discussions" with Israel, Egypt and others. 

"I shall be going myself tomorrow to the region to try to help in the negotiations, to try to bear witness and to express solidarity with the extraordinary courage of the many thousands of aid workers who have stayed the course and who are still there helping the people in Gaza and in the West Bank," he said in a statement. 

A spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian office said Griffiths was planning to be in Cairo on Tuesday and would travel to other locations in the region on a trip expected to last several days. 

The fate of aid deliveries and limited evacuations through the only entry to Gaza not controlled by Israel remained in doubt after Egyptian sources said a temporary truce was struck but Israel and Hamas said no deal was in place. 



Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza Kill at Least 20 People

Smoke rises as people stand in a tent camp for displaced people, after an Israeli attack amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Feras Nader  BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE
Smoke rises as people stand in a tent camp for displaced people, after an Israeli attack amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Feras Nader BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE
TT

Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza Kill at Least 20 People

Smoke rises as people stand in a tent camp for displaced people, after an Israeli attack amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Feras Nader  BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE
Smoke rises as people stand in a tent camp for displaced people, after an Israeli attack amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Feras Nader BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE

Palestinian medics say Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 20 people.
One of the strikes overnight and into Monday hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight people, including two children.
That’s according to the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, which received the bodies.
Hospital records show another six killed in a strike on people securing an aid convoy and another two killed in a strike on a car in Muwasi. One person was killed in a separate strike in the area,The Associated Press reported.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah said three bodies arrived after an airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Israeli military says it only strikes militants, accusing them of hiding among civilians. It said late Sunday that it had targeted a Hamas fighter in the humanitarian zone.
The war began when a Hamas-led group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Around 100 captives are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry says women and children make up more than half the dead but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The military says it has killed over 17,000 of Hamas, without providing evidence.