Over 200 dead as WHO says Israeli bombings impede aid
World
Nearly 370 wounded by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours in Gaza
(Web Desk) - At least 201 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 370 wounded by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours in Gaza as the assault on the besieged enclave nears its 12th week.
Bombing in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp killed at least eight Palestinians, including children, on Saturday while another attack on Jabalia camp is believed to have killed dozens more.
The death toll in Gaza during the 11-week assault has hit 20,258 while 53,688 others are wounded, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday.
Thousands more bodies are believed to be trapped under the rubble across the strip.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah, said the Israeli attacks across Gaza “have become much more intense”.
“The bombardment and the shelling of the northern parts of the territory continue as dead bodies have been found decomposed after days of fighting in the ground in these areas,” he said.
Al Jazeera TV said the decomposed bodies, some of them left unattended for 20 days in the rubble and streets, were finally buried by Gaza’s Civil Defence team on Saturday.
UNRWA says it “cannot deliver meaningful aid” under intense Israeli bombardments of Gaza after a UN Security Council (UNSC) called for increased access.
“Stop the genocide now,” says Bethlehem Pastor Munther Isaac, as churches across Palestine cancel Christmas.
The UN Security Council has passed the resolution – which was weakened as a result of pressure from the US – calling for more aid, but not for Israel to stop its bombardment of Gaza. So, will it have any impact?
At least 100 journalists have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, according to new figures released by the government media office in Gaza.
Palestinian journalist Muhammed Abu Hweidy was the latest to be killed in an Israeli air raid on his home in the east of Gaza City on Saturday, the media office said.
“The number of journalists killed has risen to 100, men and women, since the start of the brutal war on the Gaza Strip, after the martyrdom of journalist Mohammed Abu Hweidy in an Israeli airstrike in the Shujaiya neighborhood,” the office said on Telegram social media.
Palestinian officials in Gaza say the number could be much higher.
However, according to a tally by the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 69 journalists have been killed in the conflict, including Al Jazeera Arabic’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa.
More than 50 media premises or offices in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed by Israeli attacks. Hundreds of Palestinian journalists and their families have been forcibly displaced to the south.
The media workers were also forced to abandon their reporting equipment in offices in the north to live and report under difficult conditions amid frequent communication blackouts.
