UN Agencies, Charities Call for Humanitarian Cease-Fire
Latest developments:
U.N. agencies and international charities have issued a rare joint statement calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there will be no cease-fire until the hostages taken by Hamas are returned.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to Israeli-occupied West Bank. He then traveled to Turkey for talks Monday.
Israel says it has hit more than 2,500 terror targets since launching its offensive on Hamas.
The World Health Organization documents 102 attacks on health care facilities in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.
U.N. agencies and international charities have issued a rare joint statement calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.
"For almost a month" the statement said, "the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory in shock and horror at the spiraling numbers of lives lost and torn apart."
"Tens of thousands of people have been displaced," the statement said. "This is horrific."
The groups noted at least 1,400 people were killed in Israel and more than 200 were taken hostage.
"The horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage,” the agencies said, "as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel."
"Enough is enough," the agencies said in the statement. "This must stop now."
Some of the agencies in the group that issued the statement included WHO, UNICEF, World Food Program, CARE International, Save the Children and Mercy Corps.
Israel said its strikes on Hamas in the Gaza Strip had effectively split the Palestinian territory in two Sunday.
Israeli forces "have encircled Gaza City... Now there exists a south Gaza and a north Gaza," military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scrambling to contain a crisis that threatens to engulf the wider region.
Blinken met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Sunday.
He also made a surprise visit to Baghdad, where he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. The two discussed the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the need to prevent the war from spreading, including in Iraq.
Monday Blinken will hold talks with Turkish officials in Ankara on the situation in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking with pilots at Ramon Air Force base in southern Israel Sunday, reiterated “there will be no cease-fire without the return of our hostages.”
“We say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we beat them,” he added.
Gaza's Hamas government reported "intense bombings" Sunday evening around several hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip, shortly after telecommunications were cut for a third time. The reports could not be independently verified.
Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said that all communications and internet services had once again been cut across Gaza on Sunday. This is the third time telecommunication and internet services had been cut to the Palestinian territory.
“We have lost communication with the vast majority of the UNRWA team members,” U.N. Palestinian refugee agency spokesperson Juliette Touma told The Associated Press. The first Gaza outage lasted 36 hours and the second one for a few hours.
Hezbollah said Sunday Israel will “pay the price” after an Israeli strike hit a car killing three children and their grandmother, while Israel said its strikes were a response to a Hezbollah missile attack that killed an Israeli citizen. Israel also said it shot down a Hezbollah drone.
Also on Sunday, a U.S. official told VOA that CIA Director William Burns is traveling to “several countries in the Middle East.”
The focus of the trip includes the situation in Gaza, support for hostage negotiations and continued deterrence to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from growing, the U.S. official told VOA.
"The director will reinforce our commitment to intelligence cooperation, especially in areas such as counterterrorism and security,” the U.S. official said.
When contacted by VOA, the Central Intelligence Agency said, "We don’t comment on the director’s schedule."
During talks in the West Bank, Abbas demanded an immediate Israeli cease-fire as Gaza's health ministry said dozens died in a strike on a refugee camp overnight. Blinken has called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict, something Israeli has rejected so far.
Blinken’s unannounced visit to the West Bank city of Ramallah followed his meeting Saturday with Arab leaders in Amman, Jordan. He landed in Turkey late Sunday.
Israel said Sunday that since it launched the war on Hamas on Oct. 7, “over 2,500 terror targets have been struck.” The targets were hit, Israel said, with “the combined activities” of Israel’s ground, air and naval forces.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health officials say more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations.
The World Health Organization said in a post on social media that since Oct. 7, it has documented 102 attacks on health care facilities in the Gaza Strip, resulting in “504 fatalities, 459 injuries, damage to 39 facilities and affected 31 ambulances.”
The U.N. agency said more than half of the targeted hospitals were in Gaza City.
Meanwhile, the former prime ministers of Australia and Britain, Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson, were in Israel to show support for that country.
Morrison said Sunday, “I am thankful for the opportunity to join former Prime Minister Johnson to come to Israel as a demonstration of solidarity with the people and state of Israel and the Jewish community throughout the world.”
VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching and National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information for this article is from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.