GAZA: Israel pressed its Gaza offensive on Saturday, with Palestinian groups reporting heavy shelling in several cities hours after world powers demanded more aid be allowed into the besieged territory.
Clouds of grey and black smoke rose over the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis after strikes in the morning.
The Palestinian health ministry reported 18 people killed in a strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and said other targets were hit up and down the coastal Gaza Strip.
The bombardments came after the UN Security Council approved a resolution demanding "immediate, safe and unhindered" deliveries of life-saving aid be rushed to Gaza "at scale". Members had wrangled for days over the wording.
At Washington's insistence, they toned down some provisions and avoided calling for a ceasefire that would stop the war, which began with unprecedented attacks 11 weeks ago.
It is still unclear what impact the vote will have on the ground, where Gazans have been forced into crowded shelters or tents, and are struggling to find food, fuel, water and medical care.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a "humanitarian ceasefire" is the only way for aid "to be effectively delivered".
The issue was not the number of aid trucks, he said, but "the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles" to aid distribution.
Israel launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, where 20,057 people have been killed, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian government.
A report by Washington's Director of National Intelligence, quoted this month by US media, said nearly half of munitions dropped by Israeli aircraft on Gaza were "dumb" bombs -- less accurate unguided munitions.
The UN estimates the fighting has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.4 million population.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a majority of those uprooted from their homes were now going "entire days and nights without eating", and "famine is looming".
Many Gazans have been forced to move multiple times. On Friday, thousands fled central Gaza after an army evacuation order.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the latest evacuation order would effect more than 150,000 people.
"The Israeli army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing air strikes," Thomas White, UNRWA's Gaza director, wrote on social media.
UN resolution only passed thanks to US and Russian abstentions. It gives the UN a bigger role in coordinating the delivery of aid to Gaza.
But Israel's foreign minister insisted his country "will continue to screen all humanitarian aid to Gaza for security reasons". — AFP
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