Gaza Tribunal urges urgent armed international action to stop Israel\u2019s \u201cmost lethal phase of genocide\u201d in Gaza
\n Gaza
\nFearing an imminent Israeli ground offensive, thousands of Palestinians have left their homes in eastern areas of Gaza City, now under constant Israeli bombardment, for points to the west and south of the shattered territory.
\nIsrael\u2019s plan to seize control of Gaza City has stirred alarm abroad and at home where tens of thousands of Israelis held some of the largest protests seen since the war began, urging a deal to end the fighting and free the remaining 50 hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
\nThe planned offensive has spurred Egyptian and Qatari ceasefire mediators to step up efforts in what a source familiar with the talks with Hamas militants in Cairo said could be \u201cthe last-ditch attempt.\u201d
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described Gaza City as Hamas\u2019 last big urban bastion. But, with Israel already holding 75% of Gaza, the military has warned that expanding the offensive could endanger hostages still alive and draw troops into protracted and deadly guerrilla warfare.
\nIn Gaza City, many Palestinians have also been calling for protests soon to demand an end to a war that has demolished much of the territory and wrought a humanitarian disaster, and for Hamas to intensify talks to avert the Israeli ground offensive.
\nAn Israeli armoured incursion into Gaza City could see the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom have been uprooted multiple times earlier in the war.
\nAhmed Mheisen, Palestinian shelter manager in Beit Lahiya, a war-devastated suburb abutting eastern Gaza City, said 995 families had departed the area in recent days for the south.
\nWith the Israeli offensive looming, Mheisen put the number of tents needed for emergency shelter at 1.5 million, saying Israel had allowed only 120,000 tents into the territory during a January-March ceasefire.
\nThe UN humanitarian office said last week 1.35 million people were already in need of emergency shelter items in Gaza.
\n\u201cThe people of Gaza City are like someone who received a death sentence and is awaiting execution,\u201d said Tamer Burai, a Gaza City businessman.
\n\u201cI am moving my parents and my family to the south today or tomorrow. I can\u2019t risk losing any of them should there be a surprising invasion,\u201d he told Reuters via a chat app.
\nA protest is scheduled for Thursday in Gaza City by different unions, and people took to social media platforms vowing to participate, which will raise pressure on Hamas.
\nThe last round of indirect ceasefire talks ended in late July in deadlock with the sides trading blame for its collapse.
\nSources close to the Cairo talks said Egyptian and Qatari mediators had met with leaders of Hamas, allied militant group Islamic Jihad and other factions with little progress reported. Talks will continue on Monday, the sources added.
\nHamas told mediators it was ready to resume talks about a U.S.-proposed 60-day truce and release of half the hostages, one official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters, but also for a wider deal that would end the war.
\nDiplomatic deadlock
\nIsrael says it will agree to cease hostilities if all the hostages are released and Hamas lays down its arms\u2013the latter demand publicly rejected by the Islamist group until a Palestinian state is established.
\nA Hamas official told Reuters on Monday the group continues to reject Israeli demands to disarm or expel its leaders from Gaza.
\nGaps also appear to linger regarding the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and how humanitarian aid will be delivered around the enclave, where malnutrition is rife and aid groups warn of unfolding famine.
\nOn Saturday, the Israeli military said it was preparing to help equip Gazans with tents and other shelter equipment ahead of relocating them from combat zones to the south of the enclave. It did not provide further details on quantities or how long it would take to get the equipment into the enclave.
\n\u201cExisting tents where people are living (in the south) have worn out and won\u2019t protect people against rainwater. There are no new tents in Gaza because of the Israeli restrictions on aid at the border crossings,\u201d Palestinian economist Mohammad Abu Jayyab told Reuters.
\nHe said some Gaza City families had begun renting property and shelters in the south and moved in their belongings.
\n\u201cSome people learned from previous experience, and they don\u2019t want to be taken by surprise. Also, some think it is better to move earlier to find a space,\u201d Abu Jayyab added.
\nThe war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
\nMore than 61,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israel\u2019s ensuing air and ground war in Gaza, according to local health officials, with most of the 2.2 million population internally displaced.
\nFive more Palestinians have died of malnutrition and starvation in the past 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday, raising the number of people who died of those causes to 263, including 112 children, since the war started.
\nIsrael disputed the figures provided by the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
\nGaza tribunal urges UN armed action to stop genocide
\nFormer UN official Richard Falk warns in Istanbul that failure to act against Israel\u2019s Gaza offensive would mark \u2018historic failure of humanity\u2019
\nThe Gaza Tribunal on Monday called for an urgent international armed intervention to stop what it described as Israel\u2019s \u201cmost lethal phase of genocide\u201d in Gaza, warning that failure to act would mark \u201can historic failure of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gaza Tribunal urges urgent armed international action to stop Israel\u2019s \u201cmost lethal phase of genocide\u201d in Gaza Gaza Fearing an imminent Israeli ground offensive, thousands of Palestinians have left their homes in eastern areas of Gaza City, now under constant Israeli bombardment, for points to the west and south of the shattered territory. Israel\u2019s plan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-497558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n