GAZA STRIP: The Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 54 people have been killed in 24 hours as Israel kept up its heavy bombardment of recent days.

All health facilities in southern Gaza have been pushed to their “breaking point” by the influx of casualties, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Television images showed mourners at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir el-Balah, where several white-shrouded corpses lay on the ground. One man cradled the covered body of a child.

Also on Thursday, the Israeli parliament voted to oppose a Palestinian state as an “existential threat”. The vote, which drew swift criticism from the Palestinian leadership and the international community, is largely symbolic but laid down a marker ahead of a planned address by Netanyahu to the US Congress next Wednesday.

Israeli lawmakers vote to oppose Palestinian state

The veteran hawk has shown little interest in efforts by the US administration to broker a truce and prisoner release deal for Gaza, insisting that “absolute victory” over Hamas is within reach and vowing to ramp up the military pressure.

The White House acknowledged on Thursday that it had no firm date for any talks between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden, saying only that it had “every expectation” the two men would meet, dependent on the president’s recovery from Covid.

The resolution passed by Israeli lawmakers in the early hours said a Palestinian state on land occupied by the Israeli army would “perpetuate the Israel-Palestinian conflict and destabilise the region”. The resolution passed by 68 votes to nine in the 120-member parliament.

PA, Jordan condemn resolution

The Palestinian Authority accused Israel’s hard-right ruling coalition of “plunging the region into an abyss”.

Neighbouring Jordan said the vote “constitutes a serious violation of international law and a challenge to the international community”.

France expressed “consternation”, noting that the text was “in contradiction” with multiple UN Security Council resolutions.

Guterres ‘disappointed’

The establishment of a Palestinian state on lands occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 has been the cornerstone of the international community’s efforts to resolve the conflict for decades. UN chief Antonio Guterres was “very disappointed” by the Israeli parliament’s move. “You can’t vote away the two-state solution,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Guterres has repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying Wednesday that “the humanitarian situation […] is a moral stain on us all”.

‘Not living’

In an address to the European Parliament on Thursday, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen underlined international concern over the civilian death toll in Gaza. “The people of Gaza cannot bear any more, and humanity cannot bear any more,” she said.

The fighting has destroyed much of Gaza’s housing and other infrastructure, leaving almost all of the population displaced and short of food and drinking water.

Pax, a Dutch activist group, said in a study that “continuous bombing and Israel’s fuel blockade have decimated” Gaza’s outdated waste collection system, threatening water supplies and farmland.

For Umm Nahed Abu Shar, 45, staying in a tent with her family in Deir el-Balah, this means clouds of flies, the stench of sewage and constant illness. “We are not living,” she said.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2024