Ammon News - Hunger was worsening among Palestinians in the besieged Gaza strip, aid agencies said, as the United Nations General Assembly prepared to vote on Tuesday on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the two-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Hundreds more civilians have died in Israel's assault on Gaza since the U.S. on Friday vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge or food in the densely populated coastal enclave. The U.N. World Food Programme has said half of the population is starving.

"Hunger stalks everyone," UNRWA, the U.N. body responsible for Palestinian refugees, said on X.

Gazans said people forced to flee repeatedly were dying of hunger and cold as well as the bombardments, describing looting of aid trucks and sky high prices.

The 193-member General Assembly is likely on Tuesday to pass a draft resolution that mirrors the language of one that was blocked by the United States in the 15-member Security Council last week.

Some diplomats and observers predict the vote will garner greater support than the assembly's October call for "an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce."

The vote was due a day after 12 Security Council envoys visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, the only place where limited humanitarian aid and fuel have entered. The United States did not send a representative on the trip.

NEW AID SCREENING SYSTEM
U.N. officials say 1.9 million people - 85% of Gaza's population - are displaced and describe the conditions in the southern areas where they have concentrated as hellish.

To increase the amount of aid reaching Gaza, Israel said on Monday it would add shipment screening at the Kerem Shalom border crossing even though it was not opening the crossing itself.

Most trucks entered the strip at this crossing before the war. Two Egyptian security sources said inspections would begin on Tuesday under a new deal between Israel, Egypt and the United States.

After the collapse of a week-long ceasefire on Dec. 1, Israel began a ground offensive in the south and has since pushed from the east into the heart of Khan Younis city.


Reuters