A man inspects the damage in a room following Israeli bombardment at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 17, 2023. Photo by STRINGER / AFP
Doha, Qatar: Mass casualties have been reported in the Jabalia and Nuseirat refugee camps as hospitals in Gaza continue to be targeted by Israeli strikes.
On Sunday night, an Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital’s maternity ward killed one child and injured three people.
The people of Gaza continue to face starvation as a new report from Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of starving civilians in Gaza “as a method of warfare”.
Watch this page for more live updates
[9:03 pm Doha Time] Al Jazeera reports The White House has said that the Israeli army admitted to "committing a mistake" in killing the hostages and is conducting a criminal investigation into the matter.
Earlier this week, the Israeli army had killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza that it had mistook for a threat. Read more.
[8:50 pm Doha Time]
The #PalestineDuty campaign has garnered so far over QR100 million. #Qatar #واجب_فلسطين #Palestine pic.twitter.com/TvNaaB0pXr
— The Peninsula Qatar (@PeninsulaQatar) December 18, 2023
[3:50 pm Doha Time] ‘We’ve got weeks and weeks to go of this savage war’: UN aid chief
Martin Griffiths says he has seen no evidence that Israel’s assault on southern Gaza is more precise than that carried out in the north.
“I’ve been disappointed . . . We were promised this. The Americans did a lot of diplomacy on this. The truth of the matter is we have not seen it at all in the south. On the contrary, we’ve seen it grow more,” the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs told the Financial Times.
A woman shows the destruction on her house and nearby area in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 18, 2023. Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP
He said that last month, he had worked on a 10-point plan that included the creation of relief distribution centres and was based on greater Israeli restraint.
“I just threw it in the bin,” he said in the interview. ”I was a fool to even think that it was sensible . . . We turn around and find out the truth: the war ain’t over yet, it ain’t half over . . . I don’t think we’re halfway through this yet. We’ve got weeks and weeks to go of this savage war.”
Griffiths also said “impunity” has been rampant in the war and said special tribunals have the best record of bringing accountability. “Maybe there is a need for a special tribunal [for Gaza],” he added.
[1:51 pm Doha Time] Gaza water system ‘completely collapsed’
The lack of water or sanitation could soon become equally “dangerous” as the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, according to a member of Doctors without Borders, known by its French initials MSF.
“The water system isn’t working anymore – it has completely collapsed,” Ricardo Martinez, who spent four weeks in Gaza during the war, said in an interview posted on the aid group’s website.
“People are being pushed to the limit, having to fight for their survival. At most, people have one litre of water per day – that’s for drinking, washing and cooking,” added Martinez, a logistics coordinator for MSF.
In addition to the lack of water, he said some places in Gaza were without any fuel or electricity, further compounding the challenges faced by residents.
“Without fuel, the grinding mills are not working, so nobody has wheat – no wheat, no food. Trucks coming from Egypt are offloading aid to trucks in Gaza, but without fuel, these trucks are unable to move and distribute the aid,” he noted.
[11 am Doha Time] Israel using starvation as a weapon of war, HRW says
In a new report, the prominent human rights group has accused Israel of starving civilians in Gaza “as a method of warfare”, a strategy that amounts to a war crime.
“For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza’s population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.
Palestinians prepare traditional unleavened bread in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 18, 2023. Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP
The Israeli army is deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully blocking humanitarian assistance and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival. According to international law, such deprivation is a war crime, the report says.
Criminal intent does not require the attacker’s admission but can also be inferred from the totality of the circumstances of the military campaign, it adds.
----
[10 am Doha Time] UN Security Council to vote for cessation of hostilities in Gaza
The UN Security Council (UNSC) is set to convene later today to vote for a new resolution calling for a suspension of the fighting in Gaza.
The draft text “calls for an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip for those in need”.
The vote comes after it failed to pass a resolution on December 8 calling an immediate ceasefire due to a US veto.
---
[9 am Doha Time] Palestinians’ message to the world: ‘Stop sleeping and get up’
Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif has spoken to people in Gaza seeking shelter and treatment at a medical centre in Jabalia al-Balad. Many of them are women and children.
“They are targeting innocent children,” one person said, carrying his son in his arms. “We are hosting poor, helpless and displaced people who can’t find a place at the schools. Israeli forces have targeted all of us inside our house.”
Another Palestinian accused Israeli forces of committing “genocide”.
“Our message to the world is that enough is enough … stop sleeping and get up. Don’t you feel that we are part of humanity?” he said.
A medical professional at the hospital said the healthcare system in northern Gaza has collapsed and called for an “immediate ceasefire”.
“The medical teams are exhausted. The situation is catastrophic. We are facing a genocide.”
[8 am Doha Time] Israel wants to eliminate Gaza’s health sector: Health Ministry
In a statement to Al Jazeera, Gaza’s Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra denounced Israel for trying to “eliminate” the besieged enclave’s health sector, amid the ongoing attacks on hospitals.
“What the occupation is doing is part of the scenario that began in northern Gaza from the Shifa complex,” he said.
“Targeting Nasser medical complex is part of the occupation’s policy to eliminate the health sector and would bring down the health system in the southern Gaza Strip,” he added.
On Sunday night, shelling at the Nasser Hospital’s maternity ward killed one child and injured three other people, the latest in a series of military operations attacking medical facilities, including the Kamal Adwan and al-Shifa hospitals.
