UN: ISRAEL OP CLEARLY WRONG

NT Bureau, Agencies

Gaza City: The head of the UN said Wednesday that thousands of children in the Gaza Strip were killed, which he said shows that there is “something clearly wrong in the way that military operations are being done.”

“Every year, the highest number of killing of children by any of the actors in all conflicts that we witness, at the maximum is in the hundreds,” Antonio Guterres said in an interview with Reuters Next in New York.

“We have in a few days in Gaza seen thousands of children being killed,” he said.

Guterres stressed the need for a humanitarian cease-fire as well as allowing the release of hostages, and allowing for the “massive entrance” of aid into Gaza.

Describing the situation in Gaza as “terrible” and “catastrophic,” the UN chief noted that the entrance of fuel into Gaza has not yet been authorized, and water is “very limited” while there is a lack of medicine in hospitals.

The Israeli troops on Wednesday targeted a network of tunnels built by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Reuters quoted chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari as saying.

The forces used explosive devices to destroy the tunnel that stretched for hundreds of kilometres beneath the besieged Palestinian territory, he said. This comes as Israel’s war on Gaza entered its second month.

At least 10,569 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, including 4,324 children, reported Al Jazeera.

A total of over 1,500 people have been killed in Israel, most of them being civilians who were killed in an attack by Hamas on October 7.

While the Israeli military has said that its attacks have killed thousands of Hamas fighters, the spokesperson of the group, Ghazi Hamad, on Tuesday denied the claims, reported the Associated Press.

“They never give the people the truth,” said Hamad, who left Gaza days before the attack on Israel.

“The Palestinians fight and fight and fight against Israel, until we end the occupation.”

He said that numerous Israeli soldiers were killed on Monday and “many tanks were destroyed”.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said on Wednesday that the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza, where nearly 1,400 people have taken refuge, has curtailed most operations to ration fuel use. Bashar Murad, emergency medical services director at the society, told Al Jazeera that the situation at the hospital is “the most catastrophic”.

He said that the central storage at the facility has been partially destroyed because of Israeli airstrikes.

“We lost all medications and equipment in the storage worth around five million dollars,” said Murad.

After a meeting in Tokyo, top diplomats from the G7 countries said in a statement that Israel had the right to defend itself but civilians must be protected and international humanitarian law followed.

A two-state solution “remains the only path to a just, lasting, and secure peace”, they said.

Blinken warns against occupation of Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Israel cannot reoccupy Gaza after the war with Gazans ends. He has reportedly told Israel that there should be no forced displacement, blockade or reduction of territory.