Israel-Hamas war LIVE: UN approves resolution on Gaza aid delivery, US and Russia abstained

The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution on Gaza. However, it didn't approve calls for an immediate truce. The US and Russia both abstained.

Israel's military said Friday rocket fire from Lebanon had killed one of its soldiers and wounded another near the border, where violence has flared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The soldiers were hit during "operational activity" in the Shtula area in northern Israel, the army said in a statement.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is expected shortly vote on a proposal to demand that Israel and Hamas allow aid access to the Gaza Strip - via land, sea and air routes - and set up UN monitoring of the humanitarian assistance delivered. 

The Israeli army said on Friday that rocket fire from Lebanon had killed one of its soldiers and wounded another near the border. 

The soldiers were hit during "operational activity" in the Shtula area in northern Israel, the army said in a statement.

Israeli authorities have said that 129 people are still held hostage by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. 

The death toll in the war-torn Gaza Strip has surpassed 20,000, the news agency Reuters reported on Friday citing Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital Hospital Director Dr Marwan al-Hams. 

"The number was 20,000 yesterday but today, Friday, the number of martyrs surpassed 20,000, there are martyrs in every city. I say that most of the martyrs are children and women. Around 70% are children and women and the largest percentage is children, because the targeting was targeting civilians. We dealt inside this small hospital with cases on the ground, and we couldn't find mortuaries for martyrs because we only have 12 beds, so the martyrs and injured are on the ground," Dr al-Hams said. 

According to reports, the Israeli settlers have uprooted olive trees in occupied West Bank. Local prople said about 7.4 acres of land in the al-Furn area was ploughed while dozens of decades-old olive trees were uprooted.

Gadi Haggai, a 73-year-old US dual national who had been kept as hostage by the Hamas terrorists after the events of October 7 has died in captivity, a group representing hostages’ families said on Friday. 

Israel used its most destructive MK-84 bombs in the first week of counter-offensive military operations in Gaza, following the events of October 7, US media reports have claimed. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas that Russia will continue to supply humanitarian aid to Gaza Strip.

"Russia will continue to supply the Gaza Strip with essential goods, including medicines and medical equipment," Putin told Abbas, the Kremlin said. Kremlin added that Putin urged the "importance of a quick cessation of the bloodshed and the resumption of the political process".

Lebanese prime minister has said that Lebanon was ready to implement a UN resolution that would help end Hezbollah's cross-border attacks on Israel if Israel also complies and withdraws from disputed territory

Hezbollah said that 121 operatives of the terror group were killed since it started its attacks on Israel’s north in October.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire with gunmen and carrying out strikes on terror targets in Lebanon as the attacks on army posts and communities continue.

Israeli forces gave signal that they are expanding their ground offensive in central Gaza with a new push, as the UN security council is set to vote on a resolution for increasing humanitarian aid to avoid the threat of famine.

Israel’s military asked the residents of Al-Bureij to immediately move south while indicating a fresh focus in the ground assault which has already devastated the north of the Strip.

The Israeli Army Radio says about 24 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel, as per reports that added that there were no injuries reported. 

At least 16 people have been killed from the al-Bursh family after Israeli forces targeted their home on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia town, media reports said citing Palestinian Shehab news agency.

Nearly 50 people were also reportedly injured in the attack.

The Israeli Army on Thursday (December 21) released videos said to show strikes in Lebanon. The IDF said the strikes targeted sites where rockets were being launched from, media reports said.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said it is deeply alarmed by the deteriorating food security situation in the Gaza Strip, where the entire population of about 2.2 million people is now facing acute hunger, according to a new report published on Thursday.

Netflix reality star Julia Haart this week toured Israeli communities. 

As the war continues into its third month, the star of the Netflix series "My Unorthodox Life", said it was important to offer a clear sign of solidarity with Israel as incidents of antisemitism have risen across the world.

Speaking to Reuters, she said: "I had to physically be here to show my support."

Haart said the plight of more than 100 hostages who remain in Hamas custody remains paramount. She said that "No one has seen them. The Red Cross has not gotten to them. They have not received medical treatment. We don't know if they're alive or dead."

"If we don't speak up now there will be a conflagration that will spread across the world," she warned.

The United Nations has cautioned that the Israel-Hamas war is pushing Gaza towards a famine. The warning as per news agency AFP comes ahead of an expected Security Council vote on a resolution to boost aid to the Palestinian territory.

According to a UN-backed global hunger monitoring system, the entire population of Gaza faces "an imminent risk of famine," with more than half a million people facing "catastrophic conditions".

The first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war have been the deadliest recorded for journalists, with the most journalists killed in a single year in one location, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday.

Most of the journalists and media workers killed in the war - 61 out of 68 - were Palestinian. The report said it was "particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military."

Israel's chief military spokesperson said on Thursday (December 21) that the military continued to deepen their ground incursion in northern and southern Gaza. Daniel Hagari said an increased number of forces were deployed in eastern Khan Younis, where fighting was focused on forcing militants out of underground tunnels. Since the resumption of fighting in early December, the military has killed more than 2,000 militants, Hagari said.  

Abu Obeida, spokesman for Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, says in an audio recording that any further release of hostages held in Gaza depended on a "stop the aggression".

An Israeli army spokesman said Thursday that the military had killed more than 2,000 Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip since a one-week truce in war with Hamas collapsed on December 1. "Since the end of the truce, our forces have eliminated more than 2,000 terrorists by air, land and sea," military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.

Israeli strikes killed on Thursday a woman in her eighties in south Lebanon, state media and rescuers said, with Hezbollah retaliatory attacks wounding two civilians, according to Israel's military. The frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen regular exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Hamas ally Hezbollah, since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, raising fears of a broader conflagration. Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said that Israeli "bombing on the town of Maroun al-Ras this morning killed a woman and wounded her husband".

The UN Security Council on Thursday was locked in efforts to secure compromise to pass a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war after previous efforts to win Washington's backing fell short. After days of delays, the latest draft version seen by AFP calls for "urgent steps to immediately allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and also for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities." A vote on the resolution was scheduled for later Thursday, according to the official schedule.''

Footage from inside the Al Shifa hospital complex has shown the scale of destruction caused by repeated strikes on the area. What was a bustling surgical ward with 20 operating theatres is now a gutted hallway full of debris, and reports of people being killed on hospital grounds are frequent. Footage distributed by the World Health Organization on Thursday showed the extent of the damage at the hospital, which is still attempting to carry out emergency care. Emergency Medical Team Coordinator for the WHO Sean Casey said that while additional supplies had been brought in, without fuel, even bringing in medical equipment and staff will not help.

The families of hostages held captive in Gaza demanded on Thursday, during a protest in Tel Aviv, the release of their loved ones. The demonstration was held outside the security compound used by the military and government in the Israeli city. That was also where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with the war cabinet. At the protest, the families renewed their demands for another hostage deal. With the Palestinian death toll in Gaza approaching 20,000, many countries worldwide have called for a cease-fire.

The Israeli military on Thursday released video said to show a tunnel being blown up by its forces in the Gaza Strip. The IDF claimed to expose "a large network of strategic underground tunnels which connect hideouts and bureaus belonging to Hamas’ senior military and political leadership." It also said "the network of tunnels was destroyed in a controlled manner" on Thursday. The claims could not be independently verified.

Fighting continued to intensify in southern Lebanon as Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire on Thursday. The Israeli military said it launched artillery and airstrikes on Hezbollah militant positions in southern Lebanon late Wednesday and early Thursday. It did not immediately comment on the strike that was reported to have killed a Lebanese civilian. Israeli forces and members of Hezbollah have clashed along the Lebanon-Israel border almost daily since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday said that his country was fighting “a war for the entire Western world, the entire free world.”   made the statement during a meeting in Jerusalem with the president of the French senate, Gérard Larcher, in Jerusalem. Herzog also said that more humanitarian aid could have been sent into Gaza if the United Nations “instead of complaining all day, would do its job.” Israel kept up its airstrikes and ground operations across the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

The Israeli military on Thursday released footage said to show troops engaging suspected militants in Shijaiya in the northern Gaza Strip 

It said that soldiers of the 188th Brigade "fought in close-quarters combat" and also located an "underground shaft in a school". The Associated Press had no means of independently verifying the military's claims.

More than half a million people in the Gaza Strip are starving due “woefully insufficient” quantities of food entering the territory since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, according to a report by 23 United Nations and non-governmental agencies released on Thursday. “It is a situation where pretty much everybody in Gaza is hungry... one in every four people is starving in Gaza as we speak,’’ explained Arif Husain.