Israel Broadens Gaza Assault Ahead Of Security Vote

Israeli Forces have signalled they were widening their ground offensive with a new push into central Gaza on Friday, as the U.N. Security Council was expected to vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid to stave off the threat of famine.

As hopes faded for an imminent breakthrough in talks this week in Egypt aimed at getting warring Israel and Hamas to agree to a new truce, air strikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across the Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s Military on Friday ordered residents of Al-Bureij, in central Gaza, to move South immediately, indicating a new focus of the ground assault that has already devastated the north of the Strip and made a series of incursions in the South.

However, the soaring death toll during the Israeli military campaign of retaliation has drawn increasing international criticism, even from staunch ally the United States.

In its latest update on casualties, Gaza’s Health Ministry said 20,057 Palestinians had been killed and 53,320 wounded in Israeli strikes since October 7.

“After more than two months of the war, Israel’s indiscriminate strikes on Gaza have turned the north of the Strip into a pile of rubble,” medical charity MSF said in a post on X. “In Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, south Gaza, the dead and wounded continue to arrive almost every day… Nowhere is safe.”

ALJAZEERA