Israel accused of deliberately starving Gaza amid growing outrage at atrocities
Gaza City, Gaza - Israel kept up incessant bombing of Gaza on Monday as it faced accusations from a human rights group that it is deliberately starving Palestinians in its brutal campaign sparked by the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Fighting raged on in the third month of the bloodiest ever Gaza war, with local health authorities reporting another 110 people killed in strikes on Jabalia, outside Gaza City, since Sunday.
The UN Security Council in New York was set to vote later in the day on another call for a ceasefire in the besieged territory, after previous bids were vetoed by the US.
And Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin was expected back in Israel on Monday as part of a Middle East tour aimed at stopping the conflict from spreading further.
International alarm has mounted over the dire plight of 2.4 million Gazans now enduring bombardment, food and water shortages, mass displacement and plummeting winter temperatures.
Human Rights Watch charged Israel with "using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime".
"Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival," it wrote in a report.
The Israeli government hit back, accusing HRW of being an "antisemitic and anti-Israeli organization".
Outrage over Israeli attacks on hospital and Christian parish
As the assault on Gaza rages on, special concern has focused on hospitals, most of which no longer function, and several of which have been besieged by Israeli forces.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency was "appalled by the effective destruction" of northern Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital.
Outside the hospital, the muddy ground scarred by deep tank and bulldozer tracks, Abu Mohammed stood crying as he searched for his son.
"I don't know how I will find him," he said, pointing to the debris, where videos recorded by local journalists appeared to show crushed bodies.
There was also widespread outrage over the weekend at the killing of two Christian Palestinian women sheltering in Gaza's Holy Family Church.
They were reportedly shot dead by an Israeli sniper as tanks and troops continue to surround the compound.
Cover photo: REUTERS