US secretary of state to press Netanyahu to do more to protect Palestinian civilians and start planning for post-war governance of Gaza
Israel’s assault on Gaza intensified over the past 24 hours, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said in its latest update, with 249 Palestinians killed, and another 510 injured according to figured from the territory’s ministry of health.
It said the Israeli offensive in central Gaza and in Khan Younis, in the south was having a particularly awful impact, with “rapidly rising casualties” and “devastating consequences for tens of thousands of civilians” many of whom were already displaced having fled fighting in northern Gaza.
For instance, on 8 January, a planned mission by OCHA and WHO to deliver urgent medical supplies to the Central Drug Store in Gaza city and Al Awda Hospital in Jabalya, as well as planned missions to deliver vital fuel to water and sanitation facilities in Gaza City and the north, have been denied by the Israeli authorities.
This marked the fifth denial of a mission to Al Awda Hospital in Jabalya and Central Drug Store in Gaza city since 26 December, leaving five hospitals in northern Gaza without access to life-saving medical supplies and equipment.
