Israel battles Hamas on streets of Gaza City as UN delays vote again
Israeli troops and Hamas fighters engaged in fierce gunbattles on the streets of Gaza’s second-biggest city on Wednesday as the United Nations delayed a vote on a bid to boost aid deliveries to the Palestinian enclave facing a humanitarian disaster.
According to the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry, Israel’s campaign to eliminate Hamas militants was the cause of the Oct. 7 slaughter, which left the coastal enclave in ruins, brought widespread starvation and homelessness, and killed almost 20,000 Gazans.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the conflict will not end until Iran-backed Hamas releases the last 129 captives it is holding in Gaza. The Islamist organisation is destroyed, despite demands from abroad to refrain from killing innocent people.
A United Nations Security Council vote to set up aid deliveries was delayed by another day on Tuesday as talks continued to try and avoid a third U.S. veto of action over the two-month-long Israel-Hamas war.
