The Guardian’s Chris McGreal has this report about claims Israel is intentionally, and illegally, focusing on Palestinian journalists as its army onslaught in Gaza continues:

The Committee to Defend Journalists has accused the Israeli army of focusing on journalists and their households in Gaza amid the very best loss of life toll of media employees in any latest battle.

The New York-based CPJ stated at the least 68 journalists and different media employees had been killed in Gaza, Israel and southern Lebanon for the reason that Hamas cross-border assault on 7 October and subsequent Israeli assault.

“Extra journalists have been killed within the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza battle than have ever been killed in a single nation over a complete 12 months,” it stated.

“CPJ is especially involved about an obvious sample of focusing on of journalists and their households by the Israeli army. In at the least one case, a journalist was killed whereas clearly carrying press insignia in a location the place no combating was going down. In at the least two different instances, journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officers and Israel Protection Forces officers earlier than their relations had been killed.”

The CPJ referred to as for Israel to “finish the longstanding sample of impunity in instances of journalists killed by the IDF”.

Sixty-one of the journalists killed had been Palestinian and three Lebanese. As well as, 4 Israeli journalists had been among the many 1,200 folks, largely civilians, killed by Hamas within the October assault.

Israel has killed at the least 20,000 different Palestinians throughout the current battle, about 1% of the inhabitants of Gaza, together with greater than 8,000 youngsters.

Learn the complete story:

Morgue employees at Gaza’s Nasser hospital have spoken with Reuters concerning the growing difficulties they face in calculating the civilian loss of life toll from the Israel-Gaza battle within the face of lethal air strikes.

The volunteer employees give a harrowing account of attempting to determine mutilated corpses, which they wrap in white fabric, working on a regular basis with the stench of loss of life throughout them. In response to the Reuters report:

A number of the our bodies are badly mutilated. Solely these which have been recognized or claimed by relations can go for burial and be included within the Gaza well being ministry’s loss of life toll for the battle. The remaining are saved within the morgue’s fridge, typically for weeks.

With most hospitals throughout Gaza now closed, a whole lot of medical doctors and different well being employees killed, and communications hampered by lack of gasoline and electrical energy, it’s changing into more and more troublesome to compile the casualty figures.

The morgue employees on the Nasser Hospital are a part of a world effort – together with medical doctors and well being officers in Gaza in addition to lecturers, activists and volunteers around the globe – to make sure the toll doesn’t change into a casualty of the more and more dire situations of the battle.

The report comes because the World Well being Group says northern Gaza now not has a practical hospital, and the United Nations warns that Gaza’s whole inhabitants of two.3m is going through disaster ranges of starvation as the chance of famine will increase every day.

You may learn the Reuters report right here.

We’re nonetheless ready for information about when, or certainly if, the UN safety council will vote on Thursday afternoon on a brand new ceasefire decision for Gaza.

There had been hope it might happen by lunchtime, however delegates agreed to postpone the vote to permit for extra negotiations. The Related Press studies that the US, key allies and Arab nations are engaged in high-level diplomacy in hopes of avoiding one other US veto.

US deputy ambassador Robert Wooden , who solid the vote that doomed the latest ceasefire effort two weeks in the past, informed reporters on Thursday morning: “We’re nonetheless working it. We’re working it very onerous.” He stated there wanted to be some adjustments within the textual content “that will make it worthy of our help”.

Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates, which sponsored the Arab-backed decision, stated: “Everybody desires to see a decision that has affect and that’s implementable on the bottom. We imagine right now, giving somewhat little bit of area for extra diplomacy, might yield optimistic outcomes.”

No new time has been for a vote, and the AP stated diplomats informed the information company that Russia referred to as for closed consultations among the many 15 council members on Thursday afternoon.

We’ll convey you any developments as they occur.

Abstract

The US department of Medécins Sans Frontieres has joined 13 different humanitarian and civil rights organisations in an open letter to the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, to guard civilians in Gaza from Israeli assaults throughout the strip.

The letter, which comes as over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes within the final two months, urged the defence secretary to:

Categorically oppose the focusing on of civilians and civilian objects, indiscriminate assaults that fail to differentiate between civilian and army objects, and assaults that trigger disproportionate civilian hurt; in addition to the deprivation of life-saving humanitarian help and using siege techniques to deprive the civilian inhabitants of things indispensable to its survival …

Withhold US help, in accordance with US regulation and coverage, that will facilitate violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation…

Chorus from transferring explosive weapons to Israel to be used in Gaza and emphasize adherence to US commitments made on using explosive weapons in populated areas…

Reject forcible displacement and using so-called “protected zones”.

There aren’t any absolutely functioning hospitals left in Gaza, the World Well being Group stated.

“Gaza’s well being system wants pressing resuscitation,” WHO stated.

Because of Israeli strikes throughout the strip, 23 hospitals in Gaza aren’t functioning in any respect, whereas 9 are partially functioning and 4 are at minimal operate.

Human Rights Watch: systemic censorship of Palestinian content material by Meta

The Palestine Pink Crescent Society (PRCS) has introduced that communication has been lower off from the Jabalia ambulance centre in northern Gaza.

The PRCS in a tweet on Thursday:

We obtained studies that Israeli forces raided the middle two hours in the past, and arrested crews and paramedics and took them to unknown location. Ladies and youngsters stay trapped alone inside the middle.

The worldwide humanitarian organisation Motion Towards Starvation (AAH) has stated that the chance of famine confronted by Palestinians because of Israeli assaults on Gaza is changing into a grave concern.

In an announcement launched on Thursday in response to the UN-backed report by the Built-in Meals Safety Section Classification, which which discovered that 2.3 million Palestinians are going through disaster ranges of starvation, Chiara Saccardi, the Center East regional head of AAH stated:

The mix of incessant shelling, shortages of meals, water, gasoline, and the lack of humanitarian companies to totally function in Gaza has brought about this determined state of affairs. The UN and humanitarian organisations have been warning for weeks about the necessity to take away obstacles to assist coming into Gaza to keep away from this actuality.

Noelia Monge, AAH’s head of emergencies, expressed related sentiments, saying:

Every thing we’re doing is inadequate to fulfill the wants of two million folks. It’s troublesome to seek out flour and rice, and folks have to attend hours to entry latrines and wash themselves. We’re experiencing an emergency like I’ve by no means seen earlier than.

The UAE international minister has met with a senior Palestinian Authority official in Abu Dhabi throughout which they mentioned worldwide efforts to realize a ceasefire in Gaza.

Reuters studies:

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) secretary basic, Hussein Sheikh, to additionally talk about the humanitarian disaster within the coastal enclave.

Within the assembly, Sheikh Abdullah harassed the significance of prioritising negotiations in the direction of a framework for a two-state peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians, the Emirati state information company WAM reported.

The UAE, a Gulf energy, is certainly one of few Arab states that has official diplomatic relations with Israel. It established ties in 2020 beneath a US-brokered deal that paved the best way for different Arab states to construct their very own relations with Israel.

Abu Dhabi has condemned the 7 October Hamas assault and referred to as on the Palestinian Islamist group to launch hostages held in Gaza. The Gulf state has additionally condemned Israel’s bombardment of the enclave and used its non-permanent seat on the United Nations Safety Council to push for a ceasefire within the battle.

Gaza’s 2.3 million folks face disaster ranges of starvation and danger of famine, report says

The Committee to Defend Journalists has additionally stated that Israel ought to chorus from imposing additional communication blackouts throughout Gaza.

“This can enable journalists to proceed to report and procure data from native sources,” CPJ stated.

The group additionally stated that Israel should break its sample of impunity in journalist killings.

“These investigations ought to be swift, clear, and thorough, following internationally accepted requirements in keeping with the Minnesota Protocol,” CPJ stated, referring to a set of worldwide pointers for investigations into suspicious deaths by which the accountability of a state is suspected.

Extra journalists have been killed within the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza battle than have ever been killed in a single nation over a 12 months, in keeping with evaluation launched by the Committee to Defend Journalists.

In an announcement launched on Thursday, the CPJ stated:

By December 20, 2023, at the least 68 journalists and media employees had been killed for the reason that October 7 begin of the battle. Of these 68, 61 had been Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and three Lebanese.

CPJ is especially involved about an obvious sample of focusing on of journalists and their households by the Israeli army. In at the least one case, a journalist was killed whereas clearly carrying press insignia in a location the place no combating was going down. In at the least two different instances, journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officers and IDF officers earlier than their relations had been killed.

CPJ is investigating in additional element the circumstances of all 68 deaths. This analysis is hampered by the widespread destruction in Gaza, and, in quite a lot of instances, the truth that the journalists had been killed together with relations who sometimes are sources for such data.

The Israel Protection Forces has stated it can’t assure the protection of journalists working in Gaza.

This month, in reference to 2 Israeli strikes in Lebanon in October, which killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six different journalists, the Human Rights Watch condemned the assaults as an “illegal and apparently deliberate assault on a really seen group of journalists”.

In the meantime, Reporters With out Borders concluded that two journalists who had been killed final month in Israeli strikes in Lebanon had been “explicitly focused”.

A Qatari Armed Forces plane carrying 20 tons of support together with meals and medical provides for Palestinians in Gaza has headed to Arish, Egypt, the Qatari international ministry introduced.

Wednesday’s plane brings the overall variety of Qatari plane carrying support for Gaza to 47 with a complete of 1,501 tons of support.