UN warns of famine in Gaza Strip - UN Security Council vote

"We have been warning for weeks that every day that passes will only bring more hunger, disease and despair for the people of Gaza in the face of deprivation and destruction," wrote UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths on the online service X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday.

According to United Nations estimates, the war between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas, which has now been going on for more than two months, has turned around 1.9 of the 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip into internally displaced persons. Their homes have been destroyed and they lack food, water, fuel and medical supplies.

In addition, according to the World Health Organization(WHO), only nine of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are still in operation. The "deadly combination of hunger and disease" could lead to many more deaths in the coastal area, the WHO emphasized.

The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin stated on X that it was "urgently necessary for Israel to grant better access for aid deliveries, adapt its military strategy and allow humanitarian pauses". The ministry warned that "hunger feeds terror".

After weeks of pressure, Israel opened a second border crossing, Kerem Shalom, for the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip this week. Until now, aid convoys had only been able to pass through the Rafah crossing. According to Hamas, however, the Kerem Shalom border crossing came under fire on Thursday, whereupon, according to the UN, aid deliveries there were temporarily suspended.

Israel had largely sealed off the 362 square kilometer Gaza Strip following the unprecedented large-scale attack by Hamas on 7 October. Hundreds of fighters from Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the USA, had infiltrated Israeli towns and committed atrocities against civilians. According to Israeli reports, around 1140 people were killed and around 250 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Since then, the Israeli military has been bombing targets in the Gaza Strip and launched a ground offensive. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, which cannot be independently verified, at least 20,000 people have been killed so far.

The fighting continued on Friday. An Israeli army spokesman instructed residents of the Bureij refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip to move to Deir al-Bala further south "for their own safety". There were clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters in parts of the city of Gaza.

At international level, the UN Security Council wanted to make a new attempt to pass a resolution on the Gaza war on Friday. The vote had been repeatedly postponed in recent days because the members of the body had negotiated intensively over the wording in order to avoid a renewed veto by the USA - one of Israel's most important allies.

According to AFP, the draft now available calls for "urgent steps" towards "safe and unhindered" access for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. The text no longer contains a call for an immediate cessation of hostilities. The draft resolution originally submitted by the United Arab Emirates had called for an "urgent and permanent cessation of hostilities".

"If the resolution is presented as it is, we can support it," the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told journalists.

According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an end to the "bloodshed" and a resumption of negotiations in a telephone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He also assured that Russia would continue to supply the people in the Gaza Strip with "vital goods", including medicines and medical equipment.