A man sits with children by a fire outside one of the tents housing Palestinians displaced by the conflict in Gaza, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 18, 2023. (Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP)
Doha, Qatar: The United Nations Security Council was due to vote Wednesday on a draft resolution to halt the fighting in Gaza, as members wrangled over wording while aid efforts in the Gaza Strip neared collapse.
Members of the council had grappled for days to find common ground on the resolution, a vote on which was pushed back several times throughout Tuesday, after being postponed Monday.
Meanwhile, the number of Palestinians killed due to Israeli attacks since October 7 nears 20,000 as the humanitarian situation worsens each day.
The Palestinian Health Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra stated that "around 100" Palestinians had been killed in just one day, as Israeli attacks continued across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
Telecommunication and internet services in Gaza are still experiencing disruptions, according to the UN relief agency yesterday, December 19. It further stated that this is "severely affecting emergency operations and access to information".
Watch this page for more live updates:
[11 pm Doha Time] UN Security Council vote on Gaza delayed until Thursday
“It’s being delayed again, we were told, until Thursday,” said Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the UN in New York.
The US has been holding up the resolution with a dispute over the term “suspension of hostilities” as well as who would oversee the entry of aid into Gaza. As one of the five permanent members on the 15-nation council, the US has the power to veto the resolution even if the other Security Council member states back it. Read more.
Members of the UN Security Council hold sideline meetings as they take a break at the United Nations headquarters on December 19, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP)
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[5:30 pm Doha Time] Continued Israeli aggression causes complete telecommunications, internet blackout in Gaza
The Palestinian Telecommunications Company announced today that the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip led to a complete blackout of all telecommunications and Internet services in the strip. Read More.
[5:15 pm Doha Time] Over 360,000 cases of infectious diseases recorded in UNRWA shelters
Lack of food, basic survival items and poor hygiene exacerbate the dire living conditions for people in Gaza and increase the spread of disease, said the UN agency that caters to the needs of Palestinian refugees as reported by Al Jazeera. The infectious diseases that have been recorded in shelters include acute respiratory infections, meningitis, jaundice, impetigo and chickenpox.
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[3:35 pm Doha Time] Air attack on Rafah caught live on air
An air strike has hit a building in Rafah, in southern Gaza, very close to where Al Jazeera correspondent, Hani Mahmoud, was reporting from live on air for Al Jazeera English.
The explosion sent a massive plume of smoke into the sky and panicked residents running for cover.
[2:45 pm Doha Time ] Qatar Prime Minister, Iran Foreign Minister discuss developments in Gaza
Qatar Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani received today HE Dr. Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who is currently visiting the country.
During the meeting, the latest developments in the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, ways to reduce escalation, and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip were reviewed.
[2:30pm Doha Time] Music gives Gaza children respite from horrors of war
It takes a while but slowly the children gathered around volunteer entertainer Ruaa Hassuna in a Gaza camp start clapping along as her music offers some respite from the horrors around them.
Smiles light up the faces of the children, huddled amid the tents outside the south Gaza town of Rafah which shelter hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by more than two months of relentless Israeli bombardment.
Hassuna is part of a troupe of more than a dozen volunteer entertainers who travel from camp to makeshift camp on a mission to provide children with some escape, however brief, from the death and destruction they have witnessed. Read more
[2:02 pm Doha Time] Gaza Strip employment down nearly two-thirds: Report
The International Labour Organization (ILO) published a report looking at how Israel’s war on Gaza has affected the labour market and livelihoods of those living in the occupied Palestinian territories.
They stated that the “ongoing hostilities in Gaza are incomparable to previous ones, as the destruction brought upon lives and livelihoods has been colossal”.
The report stated that Palestinians have seen their employment reduced by two-thirds in the Gaza Strip – equivalent to 192,000 jobs – since the outbreak of the war. The ILO also stated that the spillover effect on the West Bank’s economy has been significant, with a one-third reduction in employment – equivalent to 276,000 jobs.
The report warned that the potential long-term impact of job losses would become more pronounced if the post-conflict reconstruction process in Gaza is sluggish or if Israel maintains its restrictions on the West Bank.
[1:58 pm Doha Time] ‘New collapse’ in Gaza internet connectivity: Watchdog
NetBlocks says the incident has affected areas in southern Gaza, “where telecoms had been restored over the last few days”.
Gaza has experienced several communications and internet blackouts since the war began in October.
Humanitarian agencies have warned that blackouts severely disrupt their work in the besieged enclave.
[11:26 am Doha Time] IN PHOTOS: Aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in Rafah
Palestinians inspect a destroyed house after Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on December 20, 2023. Photos by SAID KHATIB / AFP
[11:24 am Doha Time] Gaza aid delivery ‘increasingly more difficult’
Jagan Chapagain, secretary general and CEO of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, has described the situation in Gaza as “desperate”.
“Aid delivery is becoming increasingly more difficult due to the ongoing shelling and lack of fuel and supplies.”
[10:15am Doha time] UNGA adopts resolution on sovereignty of Palestinians over natural resources
The United Nations General Assembly adopted by an overwhelming majority the draft resolution entitled "Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources".
A total of 158 countries voted in favor to 6 against with 13 abstentions. Read more
[9 am Doha Time] ‘Without safe water’ many more children will die: UNICEF
Displaced children in southern Gaza have less water than their basic survival needs, the UN children agency’s Executive Director Catherine Russell said.
“Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days,” Russell said.
A girl carries containers to fill with water at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 16, 2023. Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP
“Children and their families are having to use water from unsafe sources that are highly salinated or polluted.”
In Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people – half of them estimated to be children – have fled since the beginning of December, water and sanitation situation systems are “in an extremely critical state”, Russell added.
The water shortages have already contributed to 20 times the monthly average of cases of diarrhoea among children under the age of five, she said.
[8 am Doha Time] Communications blackout ‘severely affecting’ information: UN
The UN relief agency has released its daily update for Tuesday, December 19, noting that continued disruptions to phone and internet services in “most areas of the Gaza Strip” are “severely affecting emergency operations and access to information”.
The telecommunications blackout has now continued for six days, the UN says, apart from a partial restoration in southern Gaza on December 18.
