\n Israeli forces maintained a relentless bombardment and ground invasion across Gaza two months after Hamas's deadly attack sparked a war that has decimated the Palestinian territory and triggered an extraordinary UN bid for a ceasefire on Friday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The fighting has left 17,487 people dead in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from the Hamas-run health ministry.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas over its unprecedented attack on October 7 when militants broke through Gaza's militarised border to kill around 1,200 people and seize hostages, 138 of whom remain captive, according to Israeli figures.\n<\/p>\n
\n Vast areas of Gaza have been reduced to a wasteland. The UN says about 80 percent of the population has been displaced, facing dire shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine, and the growing threat of disease.\n<\/p>\n
\n UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked the rarely-used Article 99 of the UN Charter to convene an emergency Security Council meeting on the war.\n<\/p>\n
\n He called for the release of hostages, but said \"the brutality perpetrated by Hamas can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The World Health Organization reinforced his warning.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"People are starting to cut down telephone poles to have a little bit of firewood to keep warm or maybe cook, if they have anything available,\" WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Civilisation is about to break down.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the Security Council was \"complicit in the ongoing slaughter\" and must vote to \"lift the siege\" on Gaza.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Battles on multiple fronts -\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel's military said it had struck 450 targets in Gaza over 24 hours, showing footage of strikes from naval vessels in the Mediterranean.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Hamas health ministry reported 40 dead near Gaza City in the north, and dozens more in Jabalia and the main southern city of Khan Yunis.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"May God punish those who can see our suffering and remain calm,\" said one Gazan, Rimah Mansi, who told AFP they had lost \"all those we love\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel has lost 91 soldiers in Gaza.\n<\/p>\n
\n It said two others were wounded in a failed bid to rescue hostages overnight, and that \"numerous terrorists\" were killed in the operation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hamas claimed a hostage was killed in the operation, and released a video purporting to show the body, which could not be independently verified.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hamas rocket parts, launchers and other weapons as well as a one-kilometre tunnel were found at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City, the army said, as it warned residents to move west.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many of the 1.9 million displaced Gazans have headed south, turning Rafah near the Egyptian border into a vast camp.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It's so cold, and the tent is so small. All I have are the clothes I wear, I still don't know what the next step will be,\" said Mahmud Abu Rayan, displaced from Beit Lahia in the north.\n<\/p>\n
\n The death toll also rose in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot dead six Palestinians on Friday, the territory's health ministry said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had fired more rockets towards Israeli territory.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Protect civilians' -\n<\/p>\n
\n An attack on the US embassy in Iraq deepened fears of wider regional conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n Salvoes of rockets were launched against the mission in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, adding to dozens of recent rocket and drone strikes by pro-Iran groups against American or coalition forces in Iraq and Syria.\n<\/p>\n
\n A further five attempted strikes on Friday targeted US and coalition troops in Iraq and Syria.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thousands of Jordanians demonstrated near the US embassy in Amman to denounce Washington's support for Israel.\n<\/p>\n
\n French President Emmanuel Macron was the latest world leader to push for more aid to Gaza, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call to reopen the Kerem Shalom checkpoint that handled more than half of goods into the besieged territory before October 7.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN said 69 trucks carrying supplies and fuel had entered from Egypt on Thursday -- well below the average 500 daily truckloads before the war.\n<\/p>\n
\n US President Joe Biden -- whose country provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel -- earlier urged Netanyahu to open \"corridors\" to allow civilians to move safely.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Hanukkah -\n<\/p>\n
\n Israelis remained deeply traumatised by the Hamas attack and fearful for the fate of hostages as they marked the Jewish festival of lights, Hanukkah, which began Thursday.\n<\/p>\n
\n A 138-branched menorah candelabrum was lit in Tel Aviv for the remaining captives.\n<\/p>\n
\n The war has also led to deadly cross-border exchanges on the Lebanese frontier.\n<\/p>\n
\n An AFP investigation into October 13 strikes in southern Lebanon that killed a Reuters journalist and injured six others, including two from AFP, found it involved a tank shell only used by the Israeli army in this region.\n<\/p>\n
\n The nature of the strikes and lack of military activity in the immediate vicinity of the journalists indicate the attack was deliberate and targeted, the investigation found.\n<\/p>\n
\n Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said the strikes merit a \"war crime\" investigation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel's army said the strikes occurred in an \"active combat zone\" and were under review.\n<\/p>\n
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Israeli forces maintained a relentless bombardment and ground invasion across Gaza two months after Hamas's deadly attack sparked a war that has decimated the Palestinian territory and triggered an extraordinary UN bid for a ceasefire on Friday. The fighting has left 17,487 people dead in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-125781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n