Middle East crisis: 'Everyone in Gaza is hungry', says António Guterres

Hamas-run Gaza healthy ministry on Thursday (Jan 25) claimed that at least 50 Palestinians had died in Khan Younis in the last 24 hours,  

UN Secretary General António Guterres has said the humanitarian condition in Gaza was appaling and that everyone remained hungry. 

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza is appalling. With winter bearing down, 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza face inhumane, squalid conditions, struggling to simply make it through another day without proper shelter, heating, sanitary facilities, food, and drinking water," said Guterres. 

"Everyone in Gaza is hungry – with a quarter of Gaza’s population – more than half a million people – grappling with catastrophic levels of food insecurity," he added. 

The IDF said on Thursday that it carried out multiple operations in the Gaza Strip. 

In Khan Younis, the IDF said that its soldiers carried out operations inside multiple military command centers, eliminated terrorists and dismantled their infrastructure and weapons in the area.

In Central Gaza, an air force helicopter eliminated multiple terrorists within military compounds in the area.

The death toll in the attack on the UNRWA shelter in the Gaza Strip has climbed to 12, The Guardian reported on Thursday. The shelter was housing thousands of displaced people. 

British Foreign Minister David Cameron met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday. In a post on X, Foreign Minister Cameron said, "I met President Abbas to discuss the situation in the West Bank and Gaza. I set out our plan to move from a pause - to get aid in and hostages out - towards a sustainable ceasefire, leading to a long term political solution, including a Palestinian state."

Israel has razed nearly 40 per cent of the 2,824 buildings in Gaza located within a kilometer of the border, according to a Hebrew University study cited by The Wall Street Journal.

The demolition moves appear to be part of a plan to build a kilometer-wide (0.6-mile) buffer zone inside the Strip.

Near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where the border zone is most densely populated, some 67 per cent of buildings have been destroyed, according to the study by Prof. Adi Ben Nun, who analysed satellite data.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeated his call for "rapid, safe, unhindered, expanded & sustained humanitarian access throughout Gaza", in a post on X.

Israel's Channel 12 published a leaked audio recording on Tuesday (Jan 23) in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu purportedly discussed Qatar's role in Israel-Hamas war during his meeting with families of individuals held captive by Hamas.

"When I talk about Qatar, you don’t hear me thank Qatar," Netanyahu seemed to say. "Because for me, Qatar is no different in essence from the United Nations. It is no different in essence from the Red Cross, and to some extent, it’s even more problematic."

"I’ve been very angry recently—and I didn’t hide it from the Americans—that they renewed the contract on the military base they have with Qatar," the prime minister appeared to say. "Why didn’t you say, ‘I ask you to return the abductees to us.'"

Antisemitic acts in France nearly quadrupled last year when compared to the year prior, said the Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), on Wednesday citing figures from the French interior ministry and a French-Jewish security watchdog.

The Jewish organisation said there were 1,676 antisemitic acts last year compared to 436 the year prior. The number, the CRIF said also reflects a surge in discrimination since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

According to the CRIF, nearly 60 per cent of those acts were attacks involving physical violence, threatening words or menacing gestures.

One of the most concerning aspects of the report was that nearly 13 per cent of antisemitic acts last year took place in schools, most of them in junior high schools. 

"We are witnessing a rejuvenation of the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts. Schools are no longer a sanctuary of the Republic," the report said. 

The organisation cautioned that its tally reflects only acts "that have been the subject of a complaint or a report to the police". 

Nearly all of President Joe Biden's fellow Democrats in the Senate, on Wednesday backed the statement which reiterated United States' support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The amendment supporting a negotiated solution to the war which would result in Israeli and Palestinian states living side by side received the support of 49 of the 51 members of the Senate Democratic caucus. 

"What will determine the future of Israel and Palestine is whether or not there's hope. And the two-state solution has to be that hope," said Senator Brian Schatz who introduced the measure as an amendment to an upcoming bill. 

The bill in question would provide national security aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. This comes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month that he objected to any Palestinian statehood that did not guarantee Israel's security.

The statement sent shockwaves and led to international concern, including the US, Israel's biggest backer, which has maintained that the two-state solution is the only feasible way to bring lasting peace to the region.

The White House has condemned Wednesday's deadly shelling of a UN shelter in southern Gaza's Khan Younis reiterating its position that Israel has a "responsibility to protect civilians" amid its ongoing war with Hamas. 

"We are gravely concerned by reports today of strikes hitting a UNRWA facility -- with subsequent reports of fires in the building -- in a neighborhood in southern Gaza where more than 30,000 displaced Palestinians had reportedly been sheltering," said White House's National Security Council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, in a statement. 

She called the loss of innocent life a tragedy and deaths and injury of children during the three-month war "heartbreaking." This comes as the United States has been a staunch supporter of Israel amid the ongoing war. 

While the United States remains unwavering in its support for Israel to defend itself against "Hamas terrorists who hide among the civilian population," Watson said. 

She added, "Israel retains a responsibility to protect civilians, including, humanitarian personnel and sites." 

Watson also stressed that President Joe Biden remained committed to "working to increase life-saving humanitarian assistance into Gaza and to bring home all of the hostages held there."

Two American-flagged ships carrying cargo for the United States Defense and State departments came under attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday (Jan 24), officials said. 

The incident took place when the ships were transiting the Bab el-Mandeb strait. 

In a statement, Maersk, the Danish shipping giant said that both crews and the cargo were unharmed.

It added that the ships were being escorted by US Navy ships and "enroute, both ships reported seeing explosions close by and the US Navy accompaniment also intercepted multiple projectiles." 

"The US Navy has turned both ships around and is escorting them back to the Gulf of Aden," it said, further stating that the vessels were being escorted back to the Gulf of Aden. 

In a separate statement, US Central Command said that Yemen's Houthi forces fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the US-flagged container ship Maersk Detroit as it was transiting the Gulf of Aden. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it is investigating a strike on a United Nations shelter in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, which reportedly killed nine people and wounded others. 

"Two tank rounds hit building that shelters 800 people – reports now 9 dead and 75 injured," said Thomas White, UNRWA’s Gaza director.

The IDF has since claimed that following "an inspection of the operational systems, the IDF has now ruled out the possibility that the incident was caused by an airstrike or artillery fire by IDF forces."

It added, "The IDF is investigating the possibility that the strike was caused by Hamas fire."