GAZA STRIP: Israeli forces maintained a relentless bombardment and ground invasion across Gaza on Friday, two months after Hamas's attack sparked a war, triggering an extraordinary UN bid for a ceasefire.
The fighting has left 17,487 people dead in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from the health ministry.
Vast areas of Gaza have been reduced to a wasteland. The UN says about 80 per cent of the population has been displaced, facing dire shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine, and the growing threat of disease.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the release of Israeli hostages, but said "the brutality perpetrated can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people".
The UN Security Council was meeting after Guterres took the unprecedented step of invoking the UN Charter's Article 99, allowing him to convene the council for "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security".
Guterres says he wants a "humanitarian ceasefire" to prevent "a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians" and the entire Middle East.
The World Health Organization reinforced his warning. "People are starting to cut down telephone poles to have a little bit of firewood to keep warm or maybe cook, if they have anything available," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said. - AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
