Israeli forces launched a ground offensive inside the Gaza strip on Wednesday, October 25 nearly three weeks since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza. The Israeli army reported that it sent tanks and troops inside northern Gaza for targeted raids overnight without giving any specific numbers about casualties on either side.
The number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombings on Gaza crossed 7,000 on Thursday. Over 17,000 Palestinians have been injured in the airstrikes. A large number of Palestinians have also been killed in the occupied West Bank (over 103) since October 7 by the Israeli occupation forces.
Additionally, over 100 Palestinians were detained by Israeli occupation forces from different parts of the occupied West Bank on Thursday morning.
Although Israel has amassed a large amount of its troops on the Gaza border, it has been delaying a full fledged ground offensive due to uncertainty about the situation inside Gaza, and also due to the US insistence that it secure the release of hostages taken by the Palestinian resistance on October 7.
Despite releasing some people in recent days, according to unconfirmed reports, Palestinian resistance forces still have over 200 hostages.
Meanwhile, Israel’s large-scale and indiscriminate aerial bombardments inside different parts of the besieged Palestinian territory continued overnight on Wednesday and in the early morning of Thursday. The number of Palestinians killed in over 250 airstrikes, as claimed by the Israeli forces, crossed several dozens as Israeli bombings continued to target residential buildings and civil infrastructure.
Palestinian journalists and their families are among the fatal victims in the last 24 hours by Israeli strikes.
Palestinian radio journalist Duaa Sharaf and her child were killed in an Israeli bombing in central Gaza on Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, at least four members of the family of Al-Jazeera journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh were killed and several others were buried under the rubble when Israel bombed their residential quarters.
Israeli warplanes bombarded the family house of Al-Jazeera Gaza bureau head, Wael al-Dahdouh, in the Nuseirat refugee camp, #Gaza, killing his family, including his wife, daughter, and son, as the search continues for missing family members under the rubble. #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/lRULV5Pma5
— Wafa News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) October 26, 2023
A total of 23 Palestinian journalists have been killed since October 7 in Israel’s indiscriminate air strikes inside Gaza.
The US scuttles another UNSC attempt at immediate ceasefire
On Wednesday, the UN security council once again failed to adopt a resolution demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza, due the US refusing to remove the sentence proclaiming Israel’s “inherent” right to self defense from its draft resolution.
The resolution had used the word “humanitarian pause” instead of “ceasefire” demanded by other countries. The draft resolution received 10 votes in favor, but was vetoed by Russia and China. The UAE also voted against the resolution with Brazil and Mozambique abstaining.
China later explained its negative vote against the US resolution in a statement. It claimed that the resolution was introduced in haste, without any attempt to create a consensus, and that it is “seriously imbalanced and confuses basic right from wrong.”
Russia presented an alternative draft resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Israel’s order to evacuate northern Gaza.
The US and its Western allies opposed Russia’s draft, ensuring that it did not get enough votes to pass.
This was the fourth time since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza that the US and its allies have scuttled the attempts by other countries to bring a resolution demanding immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
Reacting to the developments in the UNSC on Wednesday, Vasily Nebenzya, Russian ambassador to the UN, said, “We regret that the Security Council failed to take another opportunity to respond to the unprecedented crisis in the Middle East. It has fallen short of expectations.”
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva also regretted the delay in the achievement of ceasefire in Gaza, claiming that what is happening in Gaza, “is not a war, it is genocide that has killed nearly two thousand children.”
