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Israel Faces Mounting Outrage Over Gaza War 

Palestinian paramedics inspect damage in the patient rooms caused by the Israeli strikes on the maternity ward at Nasser Hospital in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023. (AP)
Palestinian paramedics inspect damage in the patient rooms caused by the Israeli strikes on the maternity ward at Nasser Hospital in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023. (AP)
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Israel Faces Mounting Outrage Over Gaza War 

Palestinian paramedics inspect damage in the patient rooms caused by the Israeli strikes on the maternity ward at Nasser Hospital in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023. (AP)
Palestinian paramedics inspect damage in the patient rooms caused by the Israeli strikes on the maternity ward at Nasser Hospital in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023. (AP)

Israel faced mounting international pressure Monday over the rising civilian death toll and destruction of hospitals in Gaza, as it pressed on with its war against Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The United Nations Security Council was set to vote Monday on a new resolution calling for an "urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities" in Gaza.

The deadliest ever Gaza war began with unprecedented attacks by Hamas on October 7, when the group killed 1,139 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250, according to updated Israeli figures.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's campaign in Gaza. It said dozens were killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday.

Following months of fierce bombardment and fighting, most of Gaza's population has also been displaced and people are grappling with shortages of fuel, food, water and medicine.

Fewer than one-third of Gaza's hospitals are partly functioning, according to the UN, with the World Health Organization denouncing on Sunday the impact of Israeli operations on two hospitals in the north of the territory.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency was "appalled by the effective destruction" of the Kamal Adwan hospital, where Israeli forces carried out a multi-day operation against Hamas.

Outside the hospital courtyard, which showed tank and bulldozer tracks, Abu Mohammed, who came to look for his son, stood crying.

"I don't know how I will find him," he said, pointing to the debris.

The Israeli army pulled out of the hospital on Sunday after an operation lasting several days, claiming it had been used as a command and control center by Hamas.

Israel said that before entering the hospital it had negotiated safe passage for the evacuation of most of the people inside.

The WHO also said Israeli bombing had reduced the emergency department at the Al-Shifa hospital to "a bloodbath".

The Hamas-run health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday hit Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza's main city of Khan Younis, killing one person and injuring seven others.

And the ministry said Israeli forces had stormed Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza on Sunday and detained medical staff following several days of siege and bombing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again vowed to "fight until the end" on Sunday, promising to achieve the aims of eliminating Hamas, freeing all hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again become "a center for terrorism".

Near Gaza's northern border crossing at the Israeli city of Erez, the Israeli army said it had uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel so far.

An AFP photographer reported that the tunnel was large enough for small vehicles to use.

Israel said the tunnel cost millions of dollars and took years to construct, featuring rails, electricity, drainage and a communications network.

The Israeli army said five soldiers were killed on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 126 in the Gaza Strip since ground operations began in late October.

Calls for truce

The Israeli government has come under growing pressure from the international community to pause the fighting and do more to protect civilians.

The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million Gazans -- around 80 percent -- have been displaced by the war.

"I would not be surprised if people start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

Gazans have also faced repeated communications outages but on Sunday Gaza's main telecoms firm said mobile and internet service had been gradually restored.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was in Israel on Sunday, where she called for an "immediate and durable" truce.

France separately condemned an Israel bombardment that killed one of its foreign ministry officials in Gaza.

Qatar, which helped mediate a truce last month that saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 jailed Palestinians, said there were "ongoing diplomatic efforts to renew the humanitarian pause".

But Hamas said on Telegram it was "against any negotiations for the exchange of prisoners until the aggression against our people ceases completely".

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Kuwait on Monday as part of a regional trip that will include stops in Israel and Qatar, which brokered a previous ceasefire deal.

'Daily humiliation'

Israel is also facing calls from the families of hostages, to either slow, suspend or end the military campaign.

There are 129 hostages still in Gaza, Israel says, and relatives again rallied in Tel Aviv to call for a deal to bring them home after the army admitted to mistakenly killing three of the captives in Gaza.

One hostage already freed, German-Israeli Raz Ben-Ami, 57, spoke of the "daily humiliation, mental, physical", she endured, including having one meal a day and no access to proper toilets.

The conflict in Gaza has also seen violence spiral in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces killed five Palestinians on Sunday morning at a West Bank refugee camp.

Israel's army said air strikes had targeted militants who had endangered soldiers.

Health officials say more than 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the war erupted.

Syria strikes

Fears continued to grow that the conflict in Gaza could engulf the wider region.

Israel carried out air strikes near Damascus on Sunday, wounding two Syrian soldiers, the Syrian defense ministry said.

Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants are exchanging regular fire across Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militias, saying they want to pressure Israel, have launched attacks on passing vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping zone, forcing major companies to redirect vessels.

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Global Hunger Monitor: Famine in War-torn Sudan is Spreading

FILE PHOTO: A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Sudan, November 12, 2024. WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Sudan, November 12, 2024. WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via REUTERS
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Global Hunger Monitor: Famine in War-torn Sudan is Spreading

FILE PHOTO: A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Sudan, November 12, 2024. WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Sudan, November 12, 2024. WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via REUTERS

Famine in Sudan has expanded to five areas and will likely spread to another five by May, the global hunger monitor reported Tuesday, while warring parties continue to disrupt humanitarian aid needed to alleviate one of the worst starvation crises in modern times.
Famine conditions were confirmed in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two camps for internally displaced people in al-Fashir, the besieged capital of North Darfur, as well as two other areas in South Kordofan state, according to the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Phase Classification, or IPC. The committee also found famine, first identified in August, persists in North Darfur's Zamzam camp.
The committee, which vets and verifies a famine finding, predicts famine will expand to five additional areas in North Darfur — Um Kadadah, Melit, al-Fashir, Tawisha and al-Lait — by May. The committee identified another 17 areas across Sudan at risk of famine, Reuters reported.
The IPC estimated about 24.6 million people, about half of all Sudanese, urgently need food aid through February, a sharp increase from the 21.1 million originally projected in June for the same period.
The findings were published despite the Sudanese government's continued disruption of the IPC's process for analyzing acute food insecurity, which helps direct aid where it is most needed. On Monday, the government announced it was suspending its participation in the global hunger-monitoring system, saying it issues "unreliable reports that undermine Sudan's sovereignty and dignity."
The IPC is an independent body funded by Western nations and overseen by 19 large humanitarian organizations and intergovernmental institutions. A linchpin in the world’s vast system for monitoring and alleviating hunger, it is designed to sound the alarm about developing food crises so organizations can respond and prevent famine and mass starvation.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are engaged in a civil war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and are adamantly opposed to a famine declaration for fear it would result in diplomatic pressure to ease border controls and lead to greater foreign engagement with the RSF.
In a Dec. 23 letter to the IPC, the famine review committee and diplomats, Sudan’s agriculture minister said the latest IPC report lacks updated malnutrition data and assessments of crop productivity during the recent summer rainy season. The growing season was successful, the letter says. It also notes "serious concerns" about the IPC's ability to collect data from territories controlled by the RSF.
Under the IPC system, a "technical working group," usually headed by the national government, analyzes data and periodically issues reports that classify areas on a one-to-five scale that slides from minimal to stressed, crisis, emergency and famine.
In October, the Sudanese government temporarily stopped the government-led analysis, according to a document seen by Reuters. After resuming work, the technical working group stopped short of acknowledging famine. The Famine Review Committee report released today said the government-led group excluded key malnutrition data from its analysis.
A recent Reuters investigation found that the Sudanese government obstructed the IPC’s work earlier this year, delaying by months a famine determination for the sprawling Zamzam camp for displaced people where residents have resorted to eating tree leaves to survive.
The civil war that erupted in April 2023 has decimated food production and trade and driven more than 12 million Sudanese from their homes, making it the world’s largest displacement crisis.
The RSF has looted commercial and humanitarian food supplies, disrupted farming and besieged some areas, making trade more costly and food prices unaffordable. The government also has blocked humanitarian organizations’ access to some parts of the country.
"We have the food. We have the trucks on the road. We have the people on the ground. We just need safe passage to deliver assistance," said Jean-Martin Bauer, director of food security and nutrition analysis for the UN’s World Food Program.
In response to questions from Reuters, the RSF said the accusations of looting were "baseless." The RSF also said millions of people in areas it controlled were facing "the threat of hunger," and that it was committed to "fully facilitating the delivery of aid to those affected."
The government said that problems delivering aid were caused by the RSF.
At least a dozen aid workers and diplomats contacted by Reuters for this report said tensions increased between the Sudanese government and humanitarian aid organizations after the IPC determined Zamzam was in famine in August. The sources said the government is slowing the aid response. The government’s general and military intelligence services oversee aid delivery, subjecting international aid approvals to the SAF's political and military goals, the sources said.
The government is slow to approve visas for aid workers, and several aid workers said it has discouraged NGOs from providing relief in the hard-hit Darfur region, which is largely controlled by RSF forces.
The government has told aid organizations "there are no legitimate needs in Darfur, so you should not work there, and if you continue to respond to needs there, you should not expect visas," said one senior aid official, who asked not to be named.
The number of visa applications awaiting approval for non-UN aid workers has skyrocketed in the last four months, and the percentage approved has plummeted, according to data maintained by Sudan's INGO Forum, which represents and advocates for international non-governmental organizations in the country.
The government didn't respond to specific questions about the blocking of visas. In the past, it has said that the majority of visa requests are approved.
In October, the Sudanese government pressured the UN to remove the top humanitarian aid official for Sudan's embattled Darfur region after the person traveled there without government authorization, three sources told Reuters. Requests for authorization had stalled, the sources said. The government told the UN it would throw the official out if he was not withdrawn, the sources said. The UN complied.
The government didn't respond to questions about the aid official's removal. A UN spokesperson said the organization doesn't comment on staff "working arrangements."