Families gone, tearful Palestinians ask why

NT Bureau, Agencies

Khan Younis (Gaza Strip): The night a blast struck his family's home in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed al-Naouq was more than 2,000 miles away but he still jolted awake, consumed with inexplicable panic.

He reached for his cellphone to find that a friend had written — and then deleted — a message. AlNaouq called him from London.

The words that spilled from the other end of the line landed like world-shattering blows: Airstrike. Everyone killed. Four nights later, Ammar al-Butta was startled from sleep in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when the wall of his bedroom collapsed over him.

A missile had pierced his top-floor apartment and exploded one floor below. He lurched over the rubble, shining the light of his cellphone into the wreckage, calling out to his 16 relatives.

“Anyone there?” he cried. There was only silence. Entire generations of Palestinian families in Gaza Strip — from greatgrandparents to infants only weeks old — have been killed in airstrikes.

Humanitarian access: Nod for UN resolution

The UN Security Council has called for urgent humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout Gaza to allow unhindered humanitarian access, finally overcoming deadlock and adopting a resolution in the monthlong Israel-Hamas conflict.

The Maltadrafted resolution was adopted with 12 votes and three abstentions by Russia, the United Kingdom and the US.