The Japan Times - UN chief condemns 'endless' Gaza horrors as Israel presses offensive

Israel, whose military is preparing to conquer Gaza City, is under mounting pressure at home and abroad to end its almost two-year offensive in the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations has declared a famine.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people has been displaced at least once during the war, with aid groups on the ground warning against expanding the military campaign.

"Gaza is piled with rubble, piled with bodies and piled with examples of what may be serious violations of international law," Guterres told journalists on Thursday, calling for accountability.

On the ground on Thursday, massive clouds of smoke rose into the sky above Gaza City, AFP footage showed, after Israeli bombardments of the outskirts of the territory's largest city.

Aya Daher, who was displaced from Gaza City's Zeitoun district, told AFP she had no shelter and was sitting outside a local hospital "just waiting for God's mercy."

"There were explosions all night. I was injured, my husband was injured by shrapnel, and my son was also wounded in the head. Thank God we survived, but there were martyrs," she said.

AFP photos from the centre of Gaza showed lines of Palestinians fleeing south in vans and cars piled high with mattresses, chairs and bags.

- 'Moving population southward' -

Gaza's civil defence agency said that Israeli strikes and fire killed at least 31 people across the Palestinian territory on Thursday, including six shot while waiting for aid in the south.

When asked for comment by AFP, the Israeli military said it needed precise times and coordinates to look into the reports.

In a separate statement, it said its troops were operating against "terrorist organisations throughout the Gaza Strip".

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

In a statement on Thursday, the military said it was preparing to "expand operations against Hamas in Gaza City", while COGAT, the defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said it was undertaking preparations "for moving the population southward for their protection".

The UN estimates that nearly a million people currently live in Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City and its surroundings in the north of the territory.

On Wednesday, the military's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on X that Gaza City's evacuation was "inevitable".

- 'Breaking point' -

The head of the UN's World Food Programme, meanwhile, warned that Gaza was "at breaking point" and appealed for the urgent revival of its network of 200 food distribution points.

After a visit to the territory, the WFP's executive director Cindy McCain on Thursday said she saw first-hand that "desperation is soaring".

The UN declared a famine in Gaza governorate last week, blaming "systematic obstruction" by Israel of humanitarian aid deliveries.

Israel has severely restricted the aid allowed into Gaza and at times completely cut it off during its offensive against Hamas, whose October 2023 attack against southern Israel triggered the war.

Once Israel began to ease restrictions in late May, after a more than two-month blockade, the private US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was established to distribute food aid, effectively sidelining UN agencies.

Distribution has been marred by chaotic scenes, with frequent reports of starving Palestinians being shot while waiting to collect aid at one of its four distribution sites.

UN rights experts voiced alarm Thursday at reports of "enforced disappearances" at GHF sites, but the organisation said there was "no evidence" of such disappearances at its aid points.

The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,966 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.

M.Yamazaki--JT