GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Feb 20, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Israel hit Gaza
with new air strikes on Tuesday as world powers grappled with how to broker a
ceasefire ahead of a UN Security Council vote.

The United Nations sounded the alarm over the humanitarian situation in the
besieged territory, warning that food shortages could lead to an "explosion"
of preventable child deaths.

Four months of relentless fighting have flattened much of the Palestinian
territory, pushed 2.2 million people to the brink of famine and displaced
three-quarters of the population, according to UN estimates.

"How many of us have to die... to stop these crimes?" Ahmad Moghrabi, said a
Palestinian doctor in southern Gaza's main city, Khan Yunis.

"Where is the humanity?"

Global powers trying to navigate a way out of the spiralling crisis have so
far come up short, with a push later Tuesday for a UN ceasefire resolution
facing an expected US veto.

After months of struggling for a united response, all EU members except
Hungary called Monday for an "immediate humanitarian pause".

They also urged Israel not to invade Gaza's southernmost city Rafah, where
nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering.

The city, the last untouched by Israeli ground troops, is also the main entry
point for desperately needed relief supplies via neighbouring Egypt.

Israel's strikes on the city are hampering humanitarian operations, while the
food supply is disrupted by regular border closures, according to the UN's
agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

The scarcity of food and water has left children and women across the strip
suffering a steep rise in malnutrition, the United Nations children's fund
warned Monday.

One-in-six children in northern Gaza are now acutely malnourished, UNICEF
said, a situation poised to "compound the already unbearable level of child
deaths".

- 'Flat out reject this'-

Despite repeated calls to spare Rafah, Israel has set a Ramadan deadline for
a ground incursion, should Hamas militants not free scores of Israeli
hostages held since the October 7 attacks by then.

"If by Ramadan the hostages are not home, the fighting will continue
everywhere to include the Rafah area," said war cabinet member Benny Gantz.

The Muslim holy month is expected to start around March 10.

International mediators have been scrambling to avert the assault and its
feared mass civilian casualties.

At the United Nations Security Council, two rivalling ceasefire proposals
have been put forward.

The first, drafted by Algeria, demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire
and "unconditional release of all hostages".

It met swift opposition from key Israel backer the United States, which
tabled an alternative draft.

That text, seen by AFP on Monday, emphasises "support for a temporary
ceasefire in Gaza as soon as practicable".

It also expresses concern for Rafah, warning that a major ground offensive
"would result in further harm to civilians" and displacement.

According to a diplomatic source, this draft stands little chance of being
adopted as written, and risks a Russian veto.

While Washington has pressed a truce-for-hostages deal, weeks of talks
involving US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have failed to reach an
agreement.

Hamas has threatened to walk away from negotiations unless more aid gets into
Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Hamas's
demands as "delusional".

He vehemently opposed calls for negotiations to include recognition of a
Palestinian state.

"We flat out reject this," he said in a video statement on Monday, saying it
would "endanger the existence of the State of Israel."

Over the weekend, Israeli protesters attempted to block aid trucks at the
Egypt-Gaza border to escalate pressure for the release of hostages.

In Jerusalem, protesters marched to Netanyahu's house, accusing him of
abandoning the hostages.

"There is no other way to get these people back without a deal," said
protester Eli Osheroff.

- Dying of hunger or bombing -

The war started when Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on October 7
that left about 1,160 people dead in southern Israel, mostly civilians,
according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.

Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages -- 130 of whom remain in Gaza,
including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,092 people, mostly women
and children, according to the latest count by the territory's health
ministry.

For weeks, Israel has concentrated its military operations in Khan Yunis, the
hometown of Hamas's leader in the territory Yahya Sinwar, the alleged
architect of the October 7 attack.

Early Tuesday, witnesses said overnight air strikes and fighting had mostly
hit Khan Yunis and the east of Gaza City.

"Missiles are falling on us. How much more can a human can deal with that?"
said Ayman Abu Shammali after his wife and daughter were killed in a strike
Zawayda, in central Gaza.

"People in the north are dying from hunger while we here (are) dying from
bombing."

A group of UN rights experts called Monday for an independent investigation
into alleged Israeli abuses against Palestinian women and girls, including
killings, rapes and sexual assault.
 
Israel said the claims were "despicable and unfounded".