Live Updates: Israeli attacks on civilian gathering, displaced camp kill four

Friday, August 23, 2024

0507 GMT –– Israeli attacks on civilian gathering, displaced camp kill four

Israeli air attacks on two civilian gatherings in southern Gaza overnight killed at least four Palestinians, including a child, and injured several others.

According to medical sources at the Nasser Hospital, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the hospital received the bodies of three victims, including a child, after an attack on a gathering in the town of Abasan.

Additionally, another Israeli air strike on the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City resulted in one death and multiple injuries.

04:40 GMT — Palestine invites those 'who have spine' to visit besieged Gaza

Palestine's envoy to the UN has reiterated his call for a ceasefire in besieged Gaza and invited the UN Security Council members to witness firsthand the "horror" endured by Palestinians during the last 10 months of Israeli carnage.

Speaking at a Security Council session on Palestine, Riyad Mansour said he calls on "all those who have spines to come and say we are coming to demand a ceasefire and to demand it now in the Gaza Strip."

"Gaza does not need more paralysis and death. First by bombs and bullets, now combined with occupation-sponsored famine and disease, Gaza has witnessed life destroyed. It needs life to be restored, and it needs it right now," Mansour said.

04:12 GMT — Houthis claim attacks on ships in Red Sea, Gulf of Aden

Yemen's Houthi group has said it targeted two ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden for violating its ban on accessing "ports of occupied Palestine" via international shipping lanes.

"In response to American and British aggression against our country, the (Houthi) armed forces conducted two military operations in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden using several war boats, ballist ic and cruise missiles and drones," the group's military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a recorded video message.

He added that the group's forces "targeted the (Greek-flagged) oil tanker SOUNION in the Red Sea, causing it to sink, and the (Panama-flagged commercial) vessel SW North Wind I in the Gulf of Aden, hitting it accurately."

03:20 GMT — UN slams new Israeli ultimatum for Gaza residents

The UN has warned of the adverse effects of Israel's new ultimatum for tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, saying such ultimatums are endangering the lives of civilians.

"There has been an average of one evacuation order every two days this month – forcing as many as a quarter of a million Palestinians to uproot their lives yet again," Dujarric quoted Hadi as saying.

"Hadi said that if these evacuation orders are meant to protect civilians, they are in fact doing the exact opposite. They are forcing families to flee again – often und er fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them – into an ever-shrinking area that is overcrowded, polluted, with limited services and – like the rest of Gaza – unsafe," Dujarric noted.

02:52 GMT — Northern Israel hit by rocket fired from Lebanon

A house in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel has been hit by a rocket fired from southern Lebanon, the Israeli media reported.

According to the public broadcaster, KAN, a house in the Zarit settlement was "directly hit" and sustained material damage due to a rocket fired from southern Lebanon, with no casualties reported.

The broadcaster also noted that sirens sounded in several areas of the Upper Galilee.

02:30 GMT — US, UK, China demand end to Israeli settler violence in West Bank

Several UN Security Council Members, including the US, UK and China, have condemned Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and urged the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

"Actions in the West Bank that could escalate tensions at this fragile moment must stop," US envoy to UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN Security Council session on Palestine, describing the attacks by Israeli settlers as "unacceptable" and called for their cessation.

Meanwhile, China's Fu Cong criticised Israel's ongoing military operations and the expansion of illegal settlements, saying: "Blind faith in achieving a total victory in Gaza through military means will only result in more civilian casualties."

For our live updates from Wednesday, August 21, 2024, click here.