1.9 million Gazans are now displaced out of a population of 2.4 million, according to the UN. The cost the Palestinians are paying for the ongoing war between Israel-Hamas.
It's been more than two months since the war started, on 7 October, with just a seven-day ceasefire between the two sides. The pause helped the Gazans to receive much-needed humanitarian aid, and we also saw hostages and prisoners released.
The war so far has killed around 1,140 people in Israel, according to a report in AFP. And about 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
But another ceasefire or a military pause seems out of the question at the moment, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement on Wednesday, 20 December, that the Gaza ceasefire would not be initiated until the elimination of Hamas.
The recent announcement comes soon after the 12 December draft resolution seeking an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
India, too, voted in favour of the ceasefire. The 193-member Assembly adopted the resolution with 153 votes in favour, 23 abstentions and 10 votes against it.
The 2.3 million population of Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger, and the risk of famine is increasing each day, a United Nations-backed report claims.
“It doesn’t get any worse. I have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza and at this speed – how quickly it has happened in just a matter of two months.”Arif Husain, Chief Economist, The World Food Programme
The report released on 21 December by 23 U.N. and nongovernmental agencies found that the entire population in Gaza is in food crisis, with 576,600 at catastrophic or starvation levels. “It is a situation where pretty much everybody in Gaza is hungry,” Husain said.
It’s been a week since the UN Security Council members have been pushing for a vote on a pause on the ongoing bombardment of Gaza and allowing more humanitarian aid to enter the city. The voting is scheduled to take place on Friday, 22 December.
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