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Israel called for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to demand the release of its hostages held under Hamas captivity in Gaza. It comes after the Gaza-based group released a video showing a 24-year-old man appearing emaciated.<\/p>\n
The Israeli hostages garnered widespread sympathy but the plight of the more than two million Palestinians starving in the enclave drew even more support.<\/p>\n
Most of the Security Council members blamed Israel for manufacturing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as they pointed to the government and the military\u2019s two month blockade of the Strip and failure to allow enough food and medicine to enter the war-wracked territory.<\/p>\n
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says at least 188 Palestinians, including 94 children, have died from malnutrition-related causes so far.<\/p>\n
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who flew to New York to attend the session, accused Russia, other members of the council and the international media of perpetuating \u201cso many lies\u201d and spreading anti-Israel disinformation.<\/p>\n
He said members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are not feeding the hostages while they \u201cenjoy meat, fish and vegetables\u201d. Saar asserted that his country is allowing \u201chuge amounts of aid\u201d to enter the besieged territory, and accused Hamas of looting.<\/p>\n
The top Israeli diplomat said the group is stealing food, medical supplies and other basic needs and using it as a \u201cfinancial tool\u201d to sell and make money. UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has previously refuted those claims, saying there is no evidence pointing to this.<\/p>\n
Saar also accused the Palestinians of \u201cinventing terrorism\u201d and Hamas of wanting to continue this war instead of reaching a ceasefire deal with Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world has been turned upside down while Hamas runs its propaganda machine,\u201d he said. \u201cA world in which Israel is put on a bench of the accused while it fights for its survival. There is a name for it. It\u2019s called antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Testimony from the hostages\u2019 relatives<\/strong><\/p>\n Itay David, brother of 24-year-old Evyatar David, who was captured in Hamas\u2019 released video looking thin and weak in a Gaza tunnel saying he was \u201cdigging his own grave\u201d, urged the Security Council to take action and protect their lives.<\/p>\n \u201cDo not let them die. We don\u2019t have time. Do not let them spend another minute in darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n Calling his brother \u201ca living skeleton,\u201d Itay urged the 15 council members in a video briefing to get humanitarian aid to the hostages, saying they are being broken psychologically and physically by Hamas and denied \u201cthe most basic necessities of life.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel criticised for human suffering in Gaza<\/p>\n Many members, including the United Kingdom and Sierra Leone, praised Itay for advocating for his brother and condemned Hamas taking hostages as a war crime, but also accused Israel of committing its own.<\/p>\n Sierra Leone\u2019s UN Ambassador Michael Imran Kanu said that while hostage taken is an international crime that needs to be prosecuted, \u201cone atrocity cannot justify another\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we express deep concern for the hostages, we cannot ignore the wider humanitarian catastrophe that has engulfed Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cThe people of Gaza have been subjected to a blockade and siege that deprived them of food, water, fuel and medical supplies,\u201d which could also constitute a war crime.<\/p>\n The UK\u2019s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward reiterated London\u2019s support for the immediate release of hostages, but also slammed Israel for restricting aid and forcing the densely populated enclave to like under famine-like conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the ceasefire ended, the suffering of the hostages and Palestinian civilians has plumbed to new and shocking depths,\u201d she said. \u201cIsrael\u2019s aid restrictions have led to famine now unfolding in Gaza,\u201d as reported by international experts who monitor famine globally.\u201d<\/p>\n Woodward said she spoke to doctors last week who had served in Gaza. \u201cThey had seen children so malnourished that their wounds festered for months without healing,\u201d she said, and saw baby formula confiscated by the Israeli military.<\/p>\n \u201cI call on Israel now to act to alleviate the horrendous suffering,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Approximately 250 hostages were taken after Hamas staged an attack on southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, killing 1,200 people. Most have been released in various hostage exchange deals, but 50 of them remain in Gaza with around 20 believed to still be alive.<\/p>\n Hamas\u2019 attack was followed by an all-out Israeli military offensive on the Strip, now in its 22nd month. Israeli attacks have killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.<\/p>\n The UN says more than two-thirds of deaths it has been able to independently verify were women and children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT Israel called for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to demand the release…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4527,99,373,405,50,1206,75921],"class_list":{"0":"post-122783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-hamas","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-israel-hamas-war","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-united-nations","14":"tag-unsc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114980125900026195","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}