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Live blog: Palestine invites those ‘who have spine’ to visit besieged Gaza
Israel’s war on Gaza, now in its 322nd day, has killed at least 40,265 Palestinians — mostly women and children — and wounded over 93,144 others, a conservative estimate, with 10,000+ believed to be buried under debris of bombed homes.

Palestinians gather to check a building shortly after it was levelled by Israeli bombing in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on August 22, 2024. / Photo: AFP
AFP
Palestinians gather to check a building shortly after it was levelled by Israeli bombing in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on August 22, 2024. / Photo: AFP

Friday, August 23, 2024

2050 GMT — Palestine’s envoy to the UN has reiterated his call for a ceasefire in besieged Gaza and invited the UN Security Council members to witness firsthand the “horror” endured by Palestinians during the last 10 months of Israeli carnage.

Speaking at a Security Council session on Palestine, Riyad Mansour said he calls on “all those who have spines to come and say we are coming to demand a ceasefire and to demand it now in the Gaza Strip.”

“Gaza does not need more paralysis and death. First by bombs and bullets, now combined with occupation-sponsored famine and disease, Gaza has witnessed life destroyed. It needs life to be restored, and it needs it right now,” Mansour said.

Describing the collapse of essential services under the ongoing Israeli assault, he said: “The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have witnessed and felt in their flesh, the planned collapse of all the requirements of life.”

“Israeli government does not care about even its own citizens… It cares more about killing Palestinians than it cares about saving Israelis,” the envoy said.

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2117 GMT — Houthis claim attacks on ships in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden

Yemen’s Houthi group has said it targeted two ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for violating its ban on accessing “ports of occupied Palestine” via international shipping lanes.

“In response to American and British aggression against our country, the (Houthi) armed forces conducted two military operations in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden using several war boats, ballist ic and cruise missiles and drones,” the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a recorded video message.

He added that the group’s forces “targeted the (Greek-flagged) oil tanker SOUNION in the Red Sea, causing it to sink, and the (Panama-flagged commercial) vessel SW North Wind I in the Gulf of Aden, hitting it accurately.”

Saree said “the targeting of the two ships was due to their violation of the ban on entering the ports of occupied Palestine,” without specifying the ownership of the vessels.

2059 GMT — UN slams new Israeli ultimatum for Gaza residents

The UN has warned of the adverse effects of Israel’s new ultimatum for tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, saying such ultimatums are endangering the lives of civilians.

“The Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Muhannad Hadi, today warned that successi ve mass evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces are exposing people in Gaza to harm and depriving them of the essentials they need to survive,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters at a news conference.


“There has been an average of one evacuation order every two days this month – forcing as many as a quarter of a million Palestinians to uproot their lives yet again,” Dujarric quoted Hadi as saying.

“Hadi said that if these evacuation orders are meant to protect civilians, they are in fact doing the exact opposite. They are forcing families to flee again – often und er fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them – into an ever-shrinking area that is overcrowded, polluted, with limited services and – like the rest of Gaza – unsafe,” Dujarric noted.

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2022 GMT — Northern Israel hit by rocket fired from Lebanon

A house in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel has been hit by a rocket fired from southern Lebanon, the Israeli media reported.

According to the public broadcaster, KAN, a house in the Zarit settlement was “directly hit” and sustained material damage due to a rocket fired from southern Lebanon, with no casualties reported.

The broadcaster also noted that sirens sounded in several areas of the Upper Galilee.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah said in several statements that it carried out 12 attacks on soldiers and military sites in northern Israel, including targeting buildings used by soldiers in the Zarit settlement.

2017 GMT — US, UK, China demand end to Israeli settler violence in West Bank

Several UN Security Council Members, including the US, UK and China, have condemned Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and urged the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Actions in the West Bank that could escalate tensions at this fragile moment must stop,” US envoy to UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN Security Council session on Palestine, describing the attacks by Israeli settlers as “unacceptable” and called for their cessation.

Meanwhile, China’s Fu Cong criticised Israel’s ongoing military operations and the expansion of illegal settlements, saying: “Blind faith in achieving a total victory in Gaza through military means will only result in more civilian casualties.”

Russian envoy Dmitry Polyanskiy also expressed disappointment over the lack of progress and accused Israel of obstructing humanitarian aid in Gaza.

“Israel is now insisting on keeping the idea of a military presence in Gaza, including their control over the crossing with Egypt and the Philadelphi corridor. We do note that such a change as to the parametres of the deal is also something that some countries in the region vehemently object to,” he said, and asked the US: “On whose behalf are you acting when you push through a deal that is different from the original one?”

“The Security Council never blessed the deal formulated in this way,” he added.

Israeli troops and Zionist settlers have killed nearly 680 Palestinians in occupied West Bank since October last year. The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says it has recorded some 1,270 attacks by illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians over the past 10 months, “causing deaths and injuries and damage to property.”

SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES