Israeli airstrikes in a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in the southern part of the Gaza Strip killed and wounded 65 people, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Residents and doctors said the tent camp near Khan Younis in Al Mawasi district, which has been declared a humanitarian zone, was hit by at least four rockets. The camp is crowded with displaced Palestinians who have fled from other parts of the enclave.
Gaza's civil emergency service said at least 20 tents caught fire and rockets left craters up to nine meters deep. She stated that women and children were among the 65 victims, but did not provide information on the number of dead and wounded.
There was no immediate comment from Gaza's health ministry, which compiles the casualty figures. Earlier, the news agency "Shehab“ of Hamas reported that 40 Palestinians were killed.
„Our teams are still evacuating the martyrs and the injured from the targeted area. It looks like a new Israeli massacre,” said an emergency services official in Gaza.
The official added that crews were trying to locate victims who may have been buried.
The Israeli military said it had "struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center located in the humanitarian zone in Khan Younis.
A convoy of UN vehicles and staff detained for more than eight hours by Israel in northern Gaza yesterday has been freed, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said. Reuters, quoted by BTA.
The Israeli military said yesterday that it detained the convoy after receiving intelligence that a number of "Palestinian suspects” are in the convoy and that they want to question them.
"The convoy was stopped after a gun threat shortly after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint with threats to detain UN officials. "Heavy damage was caused by bulldozers to UN armored vehicles," UNRWA chief Philip Lazzarini said on the "X" social network. "All personnel and convoy have now been released and are returning safely to the UN base.“
Earlier, the Israeli military disputed the claim that the convoy was carrying polio vaccines for children in Gaza, saying that the purpose of its passage was rather to "exchange UN personnel”.
The campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza began on September 1, following confirmation by the World Health Organization (WHO) last month that an infant had been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus - the first such case in the enclave of 25 years ago.
Lazarini disputed Israel's information, saying the convoy was on its way to deploy the vaccination campaign in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip. He added that he was not sure if the campaign would resume in northern Gaza today.
The UN secretary-general said the world body had offered to monitor any ceasefire in Gaza and demanded an end to the worst death and destruction he has seen in his more than seven-year mandate, reported Associated Press, quoted by BTA.
In an interview with the AP, Guterres said it was "unrealistic” to think that the UN can play a role in the future of Gaza, either by administering the territory or providing peacekeeping forces, as Israel is unlikely to accept a UN role.
But he indicated that "the UN will be available to support any ceasefire”. Since 1948, the UN has had a military monitoring mission in the Middle East, known as UNTSO, and "on our part, that was one of the hypotheses we put on the table,”, he said.
"Of course, we will be ready to do whatever the international community asks of us," Guterres said. "The question is whether the countries will accept it, and in particular whether Israel will accept it”.
Guterres stressed that a ceasefire must be reached now: "The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza is unprecedented in my tenure as UN Secretary-General. I have never seen the level of death and destruction that we have seen in Gaza over the past few months.“
According to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, the war has claimed the lives of more than 40,900 Palestinians, reminds AP. The war has caused massive destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Beyond reaching an agreement, Guterres stressed that a two-state solution to the decade-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not only viable, but also the “only solution”.
The United States and other countries support Palestinian statehood in lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, but Netanyahu, who leads the most conservative government in Israel's history, has resisted calls for a two-state solution.
Guterres asked a rhetorical question: "That means you have 5 million Palestinians living there without any rights in one state. Is this possible? Can we adopt an idea similar to what we had in South Africa in the past?“
He was referring to the apartheid system in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s, when the country's white minority marginalized and segregated people of color, especially blacks.
"I don't think there can be two peoples living together if they are not equal and if they are not respected - mutual respect for their rights," Guterres said. "So a two-state solution, in my opinion, is a must if we want to have peace in the Middle East.“
In the wide-ranging interview, the UN chief painted a bleak global picture, declaring: "Our world is in complete disarray - I would say in complete chaos”.
Conflicts are spreading, and the most dramatic ones, such as Ukraine and Gaza, have no end in sight, he said. Climate change is having devastating consequences, and artificial intelligence is developing without serious safeguards.
At the same time, Guterres said, "we see dramatic inequality” and struggling developing countries, many of them deep in debt and unable to afford to educate their children or provide basic infrastructure.
The Secretary-General invited world leaders to a summit in the days ahead of their annual summit at the UN General Assembly later this month to commit to working together to meet these challenges and reform the multilateral institutions created after World War II world war including UN.
Guterres said Ukraine's recent incursion into Russia's Kursk region shows that the war, now in its third year, will not end quickly or easily.
"The situation in Ukraine is at an impasse and I don't see a ceasefire in the near future,” he said.
The Secretary-General also said that UN humanitarian operations are in crisis because needs have increased dramatically "with the growth of conflicts, with the growth of natural disasters, with the rapid onset of climate change”. However, funding has not increased.
Unfortunately, the priorities of world leaders "do not meet the real needs of humanity at this time”, Guterres said.
Palestinians have circulated a draft UN resolution demanding Israel end its "illegal presence” in Gaza and the West Bank within six months, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
The proposed General Assembly resolution, which was obtained by The Associated Press, follows a July ruling by the U.N.'s top court that found Israel's presence in the Palestinian territories illegal and must end.
In a sweeping condemnation of Israel's rule over the lands it conquered 57 years ago, the International Court of Justice said Israel had no right to sovereignty over the territories and violated international laws prohibiting the acquisition of land by force. He also stated that the construction of Israeli settlements must stop.
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, condemned the resolution and described it as a "reward for terrorism". He called for the resolution to be rejected.
"Let it be clear: nothing will stop Israel or deter it from its mission to bring the hostages home and eliminate "Hamas,"”, he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today told the Associated Press that the decisions of the International Court of Justice "must be accepted and implemented”. As for the General Assembly resolution, he said the decision should be made by the 193 UN member states.
The UN draft resolution comes as Israel's military operation against Gaza enters its 11th month after being triggered by attacks by "Hamas" in southern Israel on October 7, and as violence in the West Bank reaches new heights, AP notes.
The proposal, if adopted by the 193-member UN General Assembly, would not be legally binding, but the degree of support for it would reflect world opinion. In the General Assembly of the world organization, there is no right of veto, unlike the 15-member Security Council.
The polio immunization campaign in the Gaza Strip is going according to plan, the United Nations announced in New York today, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
After the completion of the second of three stages in the fight against the highly contagious virus, more than 446,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been covered, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
This represents almost 70% of the total of 640,000 children who need to be vaccinated.
The third stage, in which children in the northern Gaza Strip will receive an oral vaccine, will begin tomorrow.
However, some evacuation orders from the Israeli army in the area are reportedly causing concern.
Following the operation in the northern part of the coastal strip, another round of vaccinations is planned four weeks after the start of the campaign.
The cessation of hostilities required for the vaccination has reportedly been largely respected.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 90% of children should be vaccinated to prevent the spread of polio.
The first case of polio in 25 years was recently discovered in the Gaza Strip.