Alliance for Safe Seas – Authority: Nearly 20,000 dead in Gaza
Published: Tuesday, Dec 19th 2023, 16:10
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In view of an increasing number of attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, the US military is stepping up its cooperation with armed forces from other countries in the region.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to 19,667 since the start of the war. On his return from the Gaza Strip, the spokesman for the UN children's charity Unicef, James Elder, described the conditions there as catastrophic. The Islamist Hamas once again fired rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli towns and villages.
Multinational protection fleet for merchant ships
According to the US Department of Defense in Washington, several countries are participating in the new security initiative called "Operation Prosperity Guardian", including the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Seychelles and Spain. The increased cooperation is intended to improve the protection of merchant ships.
According to the US military, Houthi rebels have again attacked two ships in the southern Red Sea. The Houthi rebels in Yemen are attacking ships to prevent them from sailing towards Israel.
Authority: 52,586 injured in the Gaza Strip
According to the health authorities, 52,586 people have also been injured in the Gaza Strip so far. The figures cannot be verified at present, but the UN and other observers point out that they have proven to be generally credible in the past.
The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, carried out by terrorists from the Islamist Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7 in Israel near the border with Gaza. More than 1200 people were killed on the Israeli side. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive.
UN: Children do not have enough to eat
A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO) described it as unconscionable that the world continues to allow such devastating conditions. Four out of five minors do not have enough to eat, said Unicef spokesman Elder in Geneva. Diarrheal diseases are spreading among the youngest children. He was furious that injured children were perishing and that parents of seriously ill children only had "hope and dirty water", said Elder. Israeli forces had promised to spare civilians, but the reality was different. "I am angry that hypocrisy is crushing empathy." According to the WHO, only eight of the 36 hospitals are still functioning properly.
Another 180 trucks with relief supplies arrived in the Gaza Strip
According to the UN, around 180 more trucks carrying aid arrived in the Gaza Strip. Around 100 of them and four tankers carrying diesel entered Gaza via the Egyptian Rafah border crossing, according to the UN emergency aid office OCHA. Around 80 more trucks had arrived via the Kerem Shalom crossing in south-east Gaza, which Israel had recently opened for aid deliveries. Before the war began, an average of around 500 trucks entered the Gaza Strip every day.
Around 2.2 million people lived in the Gaza Strip before the war began. According to UNRWA, more than 90 percent of them were displaced by fighting, many of them more than once. On average, there are around 12,400 people in each of the 150 or so UN emergency shelters in the coastal area, which is four times the respective capacity.
EU discussion on securing shipping in the Red Sea
There are discussions in the EU about supporting the US initiative to secure shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthi attacks on merchant ships in recent weeks are an unacceptable violation of international law, said a spokesperson for the EU Commission in Brussels. One option in the EU is to extend the mandate of the EU anti-piracy operation Atalanta to include the protection of merchant ships in the Red Sea. Its current mission is to help deter piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia.
Another missile alert in Tel Aviv
A rocket alarm was triggered in the coastal city of Tel Aviv for the first time in several days, according to the Israeli army. There were initially no reports of casualties. The Kassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attacks. According to Israeli figures, more than 12,500 rockets have been fired at Israel since the start of the Gaza war on October 7.
Israel attacks targets in Lebanon
According to the Israeli army, it has attacked targets in neighboring Lebanon following rocket fire. The military announced on Tuesday that the source of the launch had been hit. Fighter jets had attacked "terrorist infrastructure", military facilities, a weapons depot and rocket launchers in Lebanon.
Army destroys terrorist's house
Israel's army destroyed the house of a Palestinian assassin in the West Bank on Tuesday. The Israeli military confirmed the operation in the morning. According to reports, the Palestinian had shot dead two Israelis, a father and his son, in a car wash in the Palestinian town of Huwara in August.
©Keystone/SDA
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