Children play on the roof of a building in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2023. Photo by Mohammed ABED / AFP
Doha, Qatar: Gaza's Health Ministry stated that a total of 20,057 Palestinians have been killed and 53,320 have been injured by Israeli attacks since October 7, as more casualties are being reported in Rafah, Khan Younis, and Nuseirat refugee camps.
Amid continued bombardment, a UN-backed report unveiled that more than 576,000 Palestinians in Gaza are facing 'catastrophic hunger and starvation'.
The UN Security Council has once again delayed voting on a resolution urging scaled-up humanitarian aid access to Gaza after another day of intense negotiations.
Watch this page for more live updates:
[9:00 pm Doha Time] The UN Security Council has adopted today a resolution calling for taking urgent measures to allow the immediate unhindered entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Thirteen members voted in favor, while the United States and Russia abstained. Read more.
Ambassadors vote during a meeting about the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York on December 22, 2023. (Photo by Charly Triballeau / AFP)
[8:40 pm Doha Time] Israeli offensive 'real problem' in Gaza aid delivery: UN chief
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said today, following a Security Council vote, that Israel's offensive was the "real problem... creating massive obstacles" to humanitarian shipments.
"The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza," he said. "A humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare." (AFP)
[7:55 pm Doha Time] UN Security Council begins meeting ahead of possible resolution vote on Gaza. The meeting comes after five days of delays.
[2:53 pm Doha Time] Latest casualty figures in Gaza
[2:40 pm Doha Time] EU adopts $130m aid plan for Palestinian Authority
The European Commission says it has adopted a 118 million euros ($130m) aid package to support the Palestinian Authority.
The commission said the aid would help pay salaries and pensions of civil servants in the occupied West Bank, social allowances for vulnerable families and the payment for medical referrals to hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem.
[9 am Doha Time] EAA’s QR33m health, education initiative to help 233,000 people in Gaza
The Education Above All (EAA) Foundation and partners have announced a new initiative to immediately address the critical humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The initiative comprises five projects implemented through EAA’s Al Fakhoora programme which will benefit more than 233,000 individuals affected by the ongoing conflict, said officials at a press conference yesterday.
[8:30 am Doha Time] ‘Gaza is now a different colour from space’: Wartime mapping expert
Corey Scher, a mapping expert at the CUNY Graduate Center, made the dire remark after analysing data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite alongside Oregon State University’s Jamon Van Den Hoek, the Associated Press news agency reports.
They found that over two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza have been destroyed since the war began, while in the southern Khan Younis area, a quarter of all buildings have been destroyed in that same period.
“Gaza is now a different colour from space,” Scher told AP. “It’s a different texture.”
