Israel faced growing diplomatic isolation in its war in Gaza as the UN demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and US President Joe Biden said the “indiscriminate” bombing of civilians was costing international support.
Warplanes again bombed the length of Gaza yesterday, and aid officials said the arrival of rainy winter weather worsened the conditions for hundreds of thousands of families sleeping rough in makeshift tents.
The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have already been made homeless.
Photo: Reuters
With intense fighting being waged simultaneously in the north and south of the enclave, Israel reported that 10 of its soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours, including a colonel commanding a forward base and a lieutenant-colonel commanding a regiment.
It was the worst one-day loss since 15 of its troops were killed on Oct. 31.
According to Army Radio, most of the deaths came in the Shejaiya district of Gaza City in the north, when an infantry unit hunting Hamas entered a building and lost contact with the rear base.
Photo: Reuters
When another unit was sent in after them, bombs were set off in the building and gunmen opened fire.
Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly vote demanding a ceasefire has no legal force, but was the strongest sign yet of eroding international support for Israel’s actions. Three-quarters of the 193 member states voted in favor, and only eight countries joined the US and Israel in voting against it.
Before the vote, Biden said that Israel still has support from “most of the world,” including the US and EU for its fight against Hamas.
Photo: AFP
“But they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” he told a campaign donor event in Washington.
Close US intelligence-sharing allies Canada, Australia and New Zealand said in a joint statement: “The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.”
In the most public sign of division between the US and Israeli leaders so far, Biden said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed to change his hardline government, and that ultimately Israel “can’t say no” to an independent Palestinian state, opposed by far-right members of the Israeli Cabinet.
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