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Dubai: Israel has been accused of triggering “crimes against humanity” in its relentless bombardment of Gaza, with regional leaders bracing for the next phase of the conflict after Israeli ground troops were told they would soon invade the Palestinian enclave on their mission to destroy Hamas.
Seven UN special rapporteurs condemned Israel’s bombing and complete siege of Gaza in response to the killing more than 1400 civilians and abduction of more than 200 hostages by Palestinian Hamas fighters two weeks ago.
“We are sounding the alarm. There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza,” the UN experts said in a strongly worded joint statement.
A wounded Palestinian boy arrives at the al-Shifa hospital, on a truck, following Israeli airstrikes.Credit: AP
The conflict is poised to escalate when Israel launches its anticipated ground offensive, with the country’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant insisting it could occur any day now, saying on Friday that ground troops would “soon see [Gaza] from the inside”.
“It might take a week, a month, two months until we destroy them,” Gallant told troops stationed on the Gaza border, Reuters reported.
Israel has said it will use measures to warn civilians to evacuate, but insists Hamas must be destroyed for both Israelis and Palestinians to be safe. Hamas is designated as a terror organisation by several countries including Australia.
Cementing the Australian government’s support of Israel ahead of the impending ground invasion, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday said responsibility for the situation in Gaza “rests firmly with Hamas and the actions that they have taken”.
The challenge of a high-stakes urban combat mission has been made ever more complex by the number of hostages believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza, including inside the militia’s complex network of tunnels.
Adva Adar holds family photos, including one of her 85-year-old grandmother Yaffa Adar, who has been taken hostage by Hamas.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Navigating the rescue of hostages, which include women, children and elderly people, could be even more complicated, with a Hamas leader telling the New York Times not all the Israeli hostages were being held by them.
Other groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, were also holding some of the hostages, Osama Hamdan told the Times.
Fiery protests calling for an immediate ceasefire have continued to erupt in Arab nations across the Middle East, fuelled by outrage over Tuesday’s blast at Al Ahli Arab Hospital that killed hundreds.
Conflicting analyses of the blast continue to emerge with Al Jazeera’s Sanad Agency challenging Israel’s claim on Friday, suggesting video of the explosion was consistent with Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system intercepting a missile fired from the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian officials blamed the explosion an Israeli airstrike, while the US has supported Israeli intelligence suggesting it was the result of an errant rocket from a Palestinian group.
In Jordan, which responded to the blast by abruptly cancelling regional crisis talks with US President Joe Biden this week, the country’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters in Amman “all the indications are that the worst is coming”.
After his diplomatic dash to Tel Aviv, Biden brokered a deal between Israel and Egypt to allow 20 trucks of aid into the heavily blockaded Gaza, before returning to Washington where he said he will request more than $US100 billion ($158 billion) from Congress for the war efforts in Israel and Ukraine.
“History has taught us when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror … they cause more chaos and death and destruction,” he said in a national address on Friday (AEDT).
“What would happen if we walked away? We are the essential nation.”
Biden has increased America’s military presence in the Middle East since the attack. The US has moved two aircraft carriers into the region, while the Pentagon on Friday said a US warship shot down three missiles and several drones in the northern Red Sea, which it said were fired from Yemen and potentially headed towards targets in Israel.
Critical food, medicine and water supplies loaded on to the trucks is unlikely to cross Egypt’s Rafah border crossing until at least Saturday.
While it marks the first break in Israel’s total siege of Gaza since the fighting began, aid organisations say it is a fraction of what is needed for the 2 million civilians trapped without power and nearly exhausted essentials.
At Gaza’s second-largest hospital, doctors desperate to conserve energy have been treating patients and stitching wounds by the light of mobile phones, with others use vinegar to treat infected wounds, the Associated Press reported.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has made an urgent appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire, insisting aid is needed “at scale and on a sustained basis”. Gaza officials say more than 3700 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 wounded in the fighting so far.
From London, to Washington, New York and Sydney, community outrage to the ballooning humanitarian crisis in Gaza is boiling over to the streets. Demonstrations across the Western world have also called for an urgent ceasefire, while others rallied for the release of Israeli hostages.
After several hundred people gathered in Lakemba for Friday prayers and a vigil supporting Palestine, up to 10,000 protesters are expected to join a rally through Sydney’s CBD on Saturday. A further 17 “public assembly events” are scheduled across Sydney over the next week.
Protesters during a rally for the release of hostages in Gaza held by Hamas operatives in Times Square.Credit: Bloomberg
Albanese on Friday sought to quell tensions across his party after two government ministers accused Israel of collectively punishing Palestinians for the atrocities of Hamas.
He said the entire Labor caucus, joined by the Coalition, “unequivocally condemned Hamas for the atrocities that it committed as a terrorist organisation with its invasion of Israel”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said he was “confident that with good faith” the Sydney protest would be peaceful after thousands took part in a largely uneventful rally in Hyde Park the previous weekend.
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