European Union leaders have agreed at a summit in Brussels to call for ‘humanitarian corridors and pauses’ to urgently send aid to Gaza. This comes amid comments made by United Nations Humanitarian Chief, Martin Griffiths, warning that aid was barely trickling into Gaza despite the agency’s best efforts.
Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, urged world leaders to help stop the bombs while Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said Israel is at war with only Hamas. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the West of not taking action against Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Hamas has claimed that 50 hostages have been killed due to Israeli air strikes. Gazan Health Ministry released a 212 page document with lists of names and identification numbers of the 7,000 people killed in Gaza since the war started on 7th October. However US President Joe Biden expressed doubts about the reported death toll.
Former Israeli Defense Minister and member of the newly-made, War Cabinet, Benny Gantz, said the country would make its war plans in Gaza based on its own interests and it would take years to restore security to southern Israel. Last night in Tel Aviv, relatives of those taken hostage by Hamas held another protest calling on their government to do more to bring the hostages home.