Unicef spokesperson James Elder said on Tuesday, December 19, “furious that those in power shrug their shoulders at the humanitarian nightmares inflicted on a million children”. During a regular press briefing in Geneva organized after his return from Palestinian territory, the spokesperson for the UN agency defined the Palestinian enclave as the place “the most dangerous in the world” for a child.
He also added that the largest functioning hospital in Gaza, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, “was bombed twice” while it houses “a large number of children who have already been seriously injured during attacks on their homes, but also hundreds of women and children who are seeking shelter.” Follow our live stream.
The Security Council passes a truce resolution in Gaza. The vote is expected on Tuesday in New York. Initially scheduled for Monday, it was postponed to allow negotiations to continue and avoid a new impasse, ten days after an American veto. A week earlier, theThe UN General Assembly adopted this same resolution, but in a non-binding manner.
Washington will continue to deliver weapons to Israel. Visiting Tel Aviv on Monday, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin announced that the United States would continue to provide “equipment” military necessary for the Israeli army and which Washington does not want “impose a timetable” to its historic ally. At the same time, the American Minister of Defense insisted on the need to “reduce harm to civilians” and of “providing increased humanitarian assistance to the nearly two million people displaced in Gaza.”
The United States announces a coalition in the Red Sea. This coalition, which notably includes France and the United Kingdom, must respond to the attacks by Houthi rebels on international maritime traffic in the Red Sea. On Monday, the Houthis announced that they had again targeted two ships they considered “linked to Israel”.
Human Rights Watch accuses Tel Aviv of starving Gazans. The NGO claimed Monday that Israel was using “the starvation of civilians as a technique of war (…), which constitutes a war crime”. Accusations to which the Israeli government reacted by calling HRW “an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli organization”.