Saturday, December 9, 2023
12:37 GMT — Half-a-million Palestinians are at risk of hunger and thirst in cities where Israeli attacks continue, the Gaza Municipality has said, describing the humanitarian situation as "disastrous" as the Israeli army deliberately targeted food and water infrastructure.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is disastrous,” Municipality spokesman Hosni Muhanna told Anadolu on Saturday.
“Fuel shortages disrupted the process of evacuating the injured and transporting bodies,” the spokesman said.
"Some construction equipment and vehicles became unusable as a result of Israel's targeting of the Gaza Municipality's garage,” Muhanna said, noting that “they had difficulties in opening the streets that were closed due to Israeli bombardment.”
10: 20 GMT - US 'responsible for bloodshed' of Gaza children after UN veto - Abbas
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has said the United States was "responsible for the bloodshed" of children in Gaza after it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the territory.
"The president has described the American position as aggressive and immoral, a blatant violation of all humanitarian values and principles, and holds the United States responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women, and elderly in Gaza" due to its support for Israel, said a statement from Abbas's office on Saturday.
Washington's veto at a special meeting of the Security Council on Friday scuttled the growing efforts towards an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the territory led by UN chief Antonio Guterres and Arab nations.
08:45 GMT - Israel continues attacks after US vetoed ceasefire resolution.
Israel pressed its offensive in Gaza after the United States blocked an extraordinary UN bid to call for a ceasefire in the two-month war.
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority swiftly condemned the US veto as Gaza's health ministry put the latest death toll in Gaza at 17,487 people, mostly women and children.
An Israeli strike on the southern city of Khan Yunis killed six people, while five others died in a separate attack in Rafah, the ministry said on Saturday.
07:50 GMT - US is now left alone on Gaza issue: Turkish foreign minister
The US is now left alone on the Gaza issue after it blocked the passage of a UN Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza, Türkiye’s foreign minister has said.
"Our friends once again expressed that America is now alone on this issue, especially in the voting held at the United Nations today," Fidan told Anadolu news agency and Turkish national broadcaster TRT in an exclusive interview in the US.
07:10 GMT - UK 'complicit in the horror' after failing to vote for ceasefire in Gaza: Save the Children
UK-based charity Save the Children criticised the British government for failing to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN Security Council, accusing it of complicity in what Gazan children will face.
In a post on X, it said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his government chose to "turn their backs" on the children of Gaza yet again.
"By failing to vote for a #CeasefireNOW at the UN Security Council, the UK is complicit in the horror that children will endure in the coming hours, days, and weeks,” it said.
06:21 GMT - Belgian premier reiterates call for ceasefire in Gaza
During a joint news conference with Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib in Brussels, Alexander de Croo noted that stopping the killing of civilians should be a priority for everyone.
In response to a question on the idea of imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in violence in the occupied West Bank, he recalled that Belgium has banned violent convicted settlers from entering the country.
"We now have also seen that (US Secretary of State Antony) Blinken has taken that position as well. We have reached out to our American colleagues to see how we can put that into practice and it's one of the topics I think that we should discuss," De Croo said.
05:30 GMT - Russia says US issued 'death sentence to thousands'
Russia's deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky has called the failed UNSC vote "one of the darkest days in the history of the Middle East" and accused the United States of issuing "a death sentence to thousands, if not tens of thousands more civilians in Palestine and Israel, including women and children."
He said "history will judge Washington's actions" in the face of what he called a "merciless Israeli bloodbath."
04:30 GMT - Hamas condemns US veto of proposed ceasefire
Hamas resistance group has strongly condemned the US veto that blocked a proposed United Nations Security Council demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, a senior Hamas official said in an official statement, saying that the group considers Washington's move"unethical and inhumane."
"The US obstruction of the issuance of a ceasefire resolution is a direct participation with the [Israeli] occupation in killing our people and committing more massacres and ethnic cleansing," Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the group's political bureau, said.
Decrying a "spiralling humanitarian nightmare", UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres declared that nowhere in Gaza was safe for civilians, hours before the US vetoed a Security Council demand for a humanitarian ceasefire.
04:00 GMT - Palestine's UN envoy calls US veto 'disastrous'
Palestine's UN envoy Riyad al Mansour has slammed UN Security Council's failure to adopt draft resolution seeking truce in Israel's war on Gaza, saying "war criminals [Israel] have been given more time to perpetuate their crimes".
"Instead of allowing this council to uphold its mandate by finally making a clear call, after two months, that atrocities must end, the war criminals are given more time to perpetuate their crimes. How can this be justified? How can anyone justify the slaughter of an entire people?" he said.
Mansour reiterated his call for a ceasefire, saying "every further day means lives lost, people killed at an unprecedented pace in modern history."
03:40 GMT - Russia says US issued 'death sentence to thousands'
Russia's deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky has called the failed UNSC vote "one of the darkest days in the history of the Middle East" and accused the United States of issuing "a death sentence to thousands, if not tens of thousands more civilians in Palestine and Israel, including women and children."
He said "history will judge Washington's actions" in the face of what he called a "merciless Israeli bloodbath."
03:00 GMT - Biden administration presses Congress to approve tank shells for Israel
The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israel's Merkava tanks for use in its offensive against Hamas in Gaza, according to a US official and a former US official.
The request is being made even as concerns grow about the use of US weapons in a war that has killed thousands of civilians in the Palestinian enclave since Israel's invasion.
The potential sale, worth more than $500 million, is not part of President Joe Biden's $110.5 billion supplemental request that includes funding for Ukraine and Israel. It is under informal review by the Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees, which allows members the privilege to stall the sale, or have informal discussions with the administration about concerns.
For our live updates from Friday (December 8) click here.
