Hye Minyi can still vividly recall what happened in Itaewon, South Korea, on the night of October 29, 2022.

That was when the trendy nightlife district in the heart of Seoul became the site of one of the country’s deadliest disasters, when a massive crowd surge during Halloween celebrations killed more than 150 people and left the nation reeling.

Hye, 22, was with her older cousin Amy at a street bar in Itaewon at the time. They were among hundreds who had gathered at the many bars and restaurants that line the district’s streets and alleyways.

Hye can well remember how panic began to spread through the increasingly crowded streets; how people began jostling for air and space; and how quickly the situation began to spiral out of control.

From where she lay on the ground, she could see other revelers, many in Halloween costumes and many already dead. “Time might have passed but I can’t forget what happened on Halloween,” she said.

“I still have nightmares (of it) almost every day.”

By the end of the night, 159 people would be dead, many of them young Koreans in their 20s and 30s.

Hye suffered a broken ankle and severe bruisings from being badly trampled on and was in hospital for weeks. She also suffered painful migraines for days.

Halloween is widely celebrated in the US every year on October 31, its origins dating back centuries. In Asia however, it is largely considered a Western holiday – one celebrated by expats, and has only recently increased in popularity among more locals

Halloween festivities have become more common in most major cities like Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. But rather than young children going trick or treating, the occasion is more often a chance for young adults to dress up in costume and go partying.

Whether the disaster in Itaewon last year will put a dent in this growing popularity is yet to be seen. However, various nightlife districts throughout Asia are stepping up precautions aimed at preventing a similar tragedy from occurring.

South Korean officials say they have increased crowd control measures, security protocols and site inspections in at least 14 public areas across Seoul where they anticipate large crowds will gather for Halloween.

In Japan, authorities are encouraging young people to avoid popular areas in the nightlife district of Shibuya, which has become a popular gathering spot on Halloween night.

“We are extremely concerned that there could be a repeat of the Itaewon tragedy,” said Shibuya mayor Ken Hasebe. “Until last year, we have asked people to behave themselves at Halloween but this year we are being bolder (by) saying to people: please don’t come.”

Drinking in the streets will be banned between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. on Halloween as well as the days leading up to it, Hasebe said, adding that liquor stores in the vicinity have been asked not to sell alcohol. Street security would also be stepped up, with more police and security guards being deployed to control crowds.

“Every year during Halloween, the area around Shibuya Station becomes so crowded that it is nearly impossible to move,” Hasebe said. “The streets of Shibuya are not party venues. The damage caused by overtourism has become serious.”

In the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China, operators of an underground metro service have banned “scary makeup and dressing” on trains to “prevent any potential panic.”

“During Halloween activities, if a passenger is wearing scary makeup, we may ask them to remove it before entering the station,” the operators said in a statement.

Areas in some stations will be cordoned off to allow passengers to remove make up before boarding trains.

Lack of accountability?

The Itaewon crowd crush was South Korea’s worst peacetime disaster since the sinking of a ferry in 2014 killed 304 people – among them 250 students and teachers from the Danwon State High School.

Like the ferry sinking, the Itaewon crush shone a spotlight on the South Korean government for its response to the tragedy. Critics accused it of being too slow to respond and of failing to take accountability for what happened that night.

But authorities have continued to face criticism, and this year, they appear to not be taking any chances.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced a slew of new measures “to ensure a safe Halloween” – including a new CCTV system to monitor crowd numbers.

“We anticipate that 14 areas in Seoul, including Itaewon in Yongsan-gu, will experience a high level of crowding during the Halloween season,” the metropolitan government said in a statement on October 13.

“In every area expecting mass gatherings, one way traffic rules will be applied and on-site safety officers wearing reflective vests and carrying light batons will be deployed.

“If the area becomes overly crowded, subway trains may skip that location, and road access can be restricted to secure sufficient space for pedestrians. In addition, emergency medical support systems will be put in place to proactively prevent safety incidents – this includes the operation of on-site situation rooms and the deployment of ambulances for urgent situations.”

For survivors, reminders everywhere

Today, Itaewon shows few overt signs of the horrors that took place – save for a few makeshift memorials such as walls of post-it notes paying tribute to those who died there.

Locals and tourists alike have since returned to its bars and restaurants, driven in part by government incentives aimed at reviving the area.

But to survivors and bereaved families, there are painful memories everywhere.

“This Halloween is going to be a hard time not just for me but for a lot of people,” she said.

She and many other survivors and families remain critical about what they see as a continuing lack of accountability over the disaster.

Kim Ho-kyung, whose daughter died in the crush, read a message for President Yoon Suk Yeol during a press conference on October 18 saying that the bereaved were still waiting for “a sincere apology.”

She invited the president to a memorial service organised by civil groups and the families of the victims scheduled to take place on Sunday.

On his Facebook a week later, the Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min expressed his “deepest condolences to those who were sacrificed in the October 29 disaster a year ago, and pray that they may rest in peace.”

Extending his “deepest sympathy” to the families, he said that “as the minister in charge of disaster and safety, I feel sorry for failing to protect the precious lives of the people and feel an infinite sense of responsibility.”

He added: “The way to ensure that the unfortunate sacrifices of the deceased are not in vain is to make sure that such an incident does not happen again.”

Even so, Lee and many others say they doubt whether the lessons of that awful night have truly been learnt.

Lee is certain of one thing, however – that she is “never going back to the area again.”

“For me, Halloween and the Itaewon tragedy are (inextricably) linked,” she said. “It’s impossible to see reminders everywhere and not think about the death of friends that night.”

Israel’s military conducted a “targeted raid” overnight in northern Gaza and vowed on Thursday to continue ground raids in the coming days, as the United Nations General Assembly met to discuss a proposed resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Video published by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday showed tanks and armored vehicles, including a bulldozer, moving on a road near a fence in northern Gaza. The tanks fired artillery, and some destruction could be seen nearby.

Israel’s military will continue raids in Gaza over the coming days, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told a televised press conference later on Thursday. The ground incursions are intended to kill Hamas militants, lay the foundations for an all-out invasion and neutralize explosive devices and reconnaissance posts, he said.

The raid came as the humanitarian crisis deepens in Gaza, hastened by daily airstrikes and an Israeli blockade on life-saving fuel. Health services have been crippled by power shortages and hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes amid the bombing campaign.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,850 people in Gaza, including thousands of children, since October 7, according to figures released Thursday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Pressure is building on the international community to persuade Israel to allow desperately needed aid into Gaza; the United Nations and several countries in the region have called for an immediate ceasefire, while others advocate for a “humanitarian pause” in fighting. But the world has so far failed to unite around the crisis, nearly three weeks since the outbreak of violence, sparked by Hamas’ gruesome October 7 terror attacks that killed over 1,400 people in Israel and saw over 200 people kidnapped.

Riyad Mansour, head of the Palestinian Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, posed a blunt question to UN diplomats on Thursday as he recounted stories of Palestinians killed in Gaza.

“Almost all killed are civilians,” Mansour said. “Is this the war some of you are defending?”

UN member states are now preparing to vote on a draft resolution – put forward by Jordan on behalf of Arab states – after repeated failures to find consensus by the organization’s powerful UN Security Council.

The resolution calls for a “cessation of hostilities,” the release of hostages, and the rejection of “any attempts at forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.” But while General Assembly resolutions have political weight, they are non-binding.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told diplomats gathered at the Assembly Hall that “collective punishment is not self-defense.” He also garnered rare applause inside the chamber as he said, “We care about all life, about all civilians: Muslim, Christian, Palestinians, Jews, Israelis – all life.”

Gilad Erdan, the UN’s Israeli ambassador, offered sharp criticism of the resolution being debated by the Assembly, describing requests for a ceasefire as “an attempt to tie Israel’s hands, preventing us from eliminating a huge threat to our citizens.”

The United States has also rejected proposals for a ceasefire, calling instead for “humanitarian pauses” to allow the desperately needed aid into Gaza. The US has also emphasized its full support for what it calls Israel’s “imperative” to defend itself.

The European Union on Thursday also called for humanitarian “pauses” in Gaza after a meeting in Brussels, but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.

‘Hellfire on Hamas’

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, and has repeatedly said that its current siege of the enclave will be followed by a ground operation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the decision on when such action would be taken would be decided by Israel’s War Cabinet.

“We are raining down hellfire on Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a televised address, while claiming Israel has “already eliminated thousands of terrorists – and this is only the beginning.”

The prime minister also acknowledged for the first time that he will “have to give answers” for the intelligence failures that allowed the worst terror attack in Israeli history, saying it will be “examined fully” after the war.

Israeli forces said they killed the deputy head of Hamas’ Intelligence Directorate Shadi Barud – one of the Hamas officials they allege is partially responsible for planning the October 7 attacks – in a joint statement Thursday from the IDF and Shin Bet, the Israeli Security Agency. The Israeli military later said intelligence reports suggest air strikes have killed a Hamas rocket commander, Hassan Al-Abdullah, who the army says commanded rocket units in the Khan Younis area of Gaza.

The IDF and ISA released footage they claim shows the strikes that killed Barud, showing at least two damaged buildings in Gaza appearing to collapse. Hamas has not commented on the claim.

Flattened neighborhoods

Israel’s retaliatory air assault on what Israel calls Hamas “terror infrastructure” has since devastated the densely-populated 140-square-mile enclave, which had been described by rights groups as an “open-air prison” long before the current war began.

New satellite images released by Maxar taken on October 21, show significant destruction to sites across northern Gaza, with entire neighborhoods flattened in eastern Beit Hanoun and similar devastation near the Al Shati Refugee Camp, Atatra and Izbat Beit Hanoun.

At a press conference Thursday, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said 12 hospitals had been rendered non-operational since Israel’s air campaign began, and 101 medical personnel had been killed.

He accused Israeli forces of deliberately causing a complete collapse of the healthcare system by obstructing the entry of fuel and essential medical supplies into Gaza. Israel says it does not allow fuel because Hamas diverts fuel transfer into Gaza for military purposes.

On Wednesday, Al Jazeera said its bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh, lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in what it said was an Israeli airstrike. The blast hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip where the family was taking shelter after being displaced, according to Al Jazeera. In total, 12 members of the Al-Dahdouh family were killed in the blast, including nine children, a statement from the family said Thursday.

“Strikes on military targets are subject to relevant provisions of international law, including the taking of feasible precautions to mitigate civilian casualties,” it added.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 24 journalists have died since the start of this conflict as of Wednesday. Twenty of those killed are Palestinian, three are Israeli, and one is a Lebanese journalist, CPJ said.

A total of 1.4 million people – of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million – have been displaced since October 7, with almost 629,000 people living in UN shelters, OCHA said. Half of Gaza’s population are children.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza said Wednesday it will have to halt aid operations within a day if fuel is not delivered, saying it would mark the end of a “lifeline” for civilians.

“Do we provide fuel for desalination plants for drinking water? Can we provide fuel to hospitals? Can we provide the essential fuel that is currently producing the bread that is feeding people in Gaza?” he said.

At least 38 United Nations workers have also been killed, according to an update by the UN humanitarian office OCHA.

Mediation talks

Meanwhile in Moscow, representatives from Hamas held talks with a senior Russian foreign ministry official on Thursday, according to Russian state media TASS and a statement from Hamas. TASS said the discussions centered on the release of hostages held by Hamas and the evacuation of Russian citizens from Gaza.

The Hamas delegation praised the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the efforts of Russian diplomacy, according to the militant group’s statement. Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of Hamas’s political bureau, and Basem Naim, another senior Gaza-based Hamas leader, were part of the delegation which met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, it also said.

Israel responded furiously to reports of the meeting. “Israel condemns the invitation of senior Hamas officials to Moscow, which is an act of support of terrorism and legitimizes the atrocities of Hamas terrorists,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement, calling for Russia to expel the Hamas delegation “immediately.”

Qatar, which is helping to mediate with Egypt, US, Israel and Hamas, is hopeful for a breakthrough soon on negotiations to release hostages held by the militant group, the prime minister and foreign minister said Wednesday.

The hostage crisis is a truly international one.

Israel’s government press office said 135 hostages – more than half of those being held by Hamas – hold foreign passports from 25 different countries.

They include 54 Thai nationals, 15 Argentinians, and 12 citizens from Germany and the US.

Four hostages – two American and two Israeli – have been freed so far. Talks to secure the release of the rest of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza are ongoing, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said.

US President Joe Biden said Wednesday he told Netanyahu that if it’s possible to secure the release of hostages in Gaza ahead of an Israeli ground invasion, he should do so.

But Biden said flatly “no” when asked whether he’d sought assurances from his Israeli counterpart that he would hold off on a ground invasion while the hostages remain in custody.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Hong Kong is to pay new parents more than $2,500 for having a baby in a bid to boost its flagging birth rate, but many residents in the notoriously expensive city say it’s barely enough to cover a month’s rent.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced the move during his annual policy address on Wednesday, saying there would be a handout of HK$20,000 ($2,556) to the parents of each baby born from now until 2026 in an effort to lift the city’s “persistently low birth rate” – which has plunged to a record low of 0.9 births per woman, well below the 2.1 needed to ensure a stable population.

“Childbearing is a major life decision involving many considerations,” Lee said as he unveiled a series of financial measures that also included a move to slash home buyers’ stamp duty from 15% to 7.5%.

The handout comes on top of existing tax incentives for new parents, who receive annual tax deductions for each child, with an extra deduction for newborns.

While the handout might seem generous, it falls short of some of the incentives on offer in other countries in East Asia also struggling with low birth rates.

Singapore (birth rate: 1.05) offers a $8,036 handout for both the first and second child and $9,497 for the third child, alongside four weeks of paternity leave (up to 16 weeks for maternity), unpaid infant care leave and tax relief for working mothers.

South Korea (birth rate 0.78) currently hands out $518 per month until the child reaches one year old, with that figure expected to rise to $740 next year.

In Japan (birth rate 1.3), parents get a monthly allowance of $107 dollars for each newborn until two years of age. For each child between three years old and senior high, parents get $66.7 per month.

1 month’s rent, 3 months’ nursery

“It can’t even cover one month of my mortgage, as well as the gas and electricity bills,” said Ken Lau, a father of one who is contemplating a second child, shortly after the measure was announced.

“How about one handout per year?” said Kristy Chan, a mother with one daughter who said the move would do little to change her mind about having a second child.

According to Midland Realty, a real estate agency in Hong Kong, the average monthly rent for a 500-square-foot flat with two bedrooms in the city is about $2,253 this year, which would gobble up more than 90% of the cash the government is going to hand out.

With home prices among the most expensive in the world (a flat of similar size can easily fetch up to $1.3 million), high interest rates and rising living expenses for products like infant formula and diapers, many couples feel too burdened to contemplate having babies.

“For those who know how to do the maths, they know this is not working,” Lau said.

Full-time mother Kim Yeung, who has made up her mind not to have a second child, says the handout would cover roughly three months’ nursery fees for her 2-year-old son, based on the average cost of $766. Top nurseries can cost more than double that, she added.

Hong Kong subsidizes education from kindergarten to senior high, but nursery, the year or two before kindergarten, is not usually covered.

In Hong Kong and other Chinese cities it is also common to hire a confinement nanny (or “pui yuet”) for the first month to cook meals and do chores while the new mother is recovering from giving birth. Again, the government payout wouldn’t go far.

“Hiring a confinement nanny would have already cost the entirety of $2,556,” Yeung said.

The bigger picture

Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai, who studies population health at the University of Hong Kong, said a one-off cash handout wouldn’t address parents’ longer term financial concerns.

“There are three parts to consider when giving birth to a child, that is, the actual part of giving birth, then raising them, and then educating them,” he said.

He said Hong Kong needed to do more to help parents in the second two stages, such as encouraging parent-friendly office environments that, for instance, offer flexible shift patterns.

“Childbirth should not just be a matter for the parents. It should be a responsibility shared by society,” Yip said.

Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of the Society for Community Organization, a NGO that serves some of the city’s poorest, said many people on lower incomes faced an impossible choice as they could not afford childcare but also could not afford to take time off work to look after their child.

The Hong Kong government also pledged to speed up access to public housing for families with children and bump up the capacity of public child care services, though Sze said this was not enough.

She called on the government to provide housing allowances as well as subsidies for nurseries to make daytime childcare services more accessible.

Lau, the father of one, agreed, urging the government also to extend paternity and maternity leave.

“For those who want to give birth, they are not doing it because of HK$20,000. And for those who see financial conditions as a hurdle, they are not going to change their mind just because of HK$20,000,” he said.

“The government should be thinking about how to convince [us] that Hong Kong is conducive to child-raising,” Lau said.

As they watch airstrikes and hot-barreled howitzers pound targets in Gaza, check and recheck their personal weapons, communications and webbing, there can be very few among the thousands of Israeli soldiers poised for combat who don’t quietly wonder: “Is this a trap?”

Hamas, and its backers in Tehran, would have certainly planned to meet a fierce Israeli ground offensive after the terrorizing infiltration of Israel.

It’s possible – even probable – that the singular horrors inflicted on so many civilians were intended by Hamas to guarantee a massive Israeli response, no matter the cost to civilians in Gaza.

Israel’s next moves will determine the shape of things to come – perhaps for decades. It all comes down to Gaza.

Hamas has riddled the Strip with networks of tunnels. It will have laced the landscape above ground with booby traps, and will have plans to meet the IDF with anything from swarms of suicide bombers to snatch teams to take soldiers hostage.

US generals and other officials have been sharing their experiences of urban warfare on a large scale with Israel.

It took Iraq’s military – backed by American, British and other special forces along with relentless air strikes – nine months to drive ISIS out of Mosul in 2017.

The northern Iraqi city was largely emptied of civilians but fighting was house to house. ISIS used tunnel systems it had built to ambush government troops who painfully took Mosul brick by bloody brick.

The bomb-making skills of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group and close ally of Hamas, have metastasized across the Middle East. In Gaza, Israeli troops will know they face improvised explosive devices built with charges that can cripple a tank. They’ll know that Hezbollah’s abilities to destroy armor will have been further refined since Israel last did serious battle in Lebanon in 2006 and was shocked by the sophistication of the militia.

Hamas now has anti-aircraft capabilities – Israel’s Apache helicopters providing close support to infantry will be vulnerable to one man with a SAM (surface to air missile).

No doubt Hamas also has crews of propagandists ready to make “kill videos” of their attacks on Israeli troops. Nothing is more likely to inflame, or radicalize, angry young men than films of gore and daring – ISIS taught us that.

Phase two

It’s safe to assume that Hamas would have planned for widespread carnage in Gaza. Indeed that may be the objective of phase two after the October 7 attacks.

“Any miscalculation in continuing genocide and forced displacement can have serious and bitter consequences, both in the region and for the warmongers,” said Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday.

His words aren’t meant as analysis – they’re a threat.

The White House knows this. A trap sprung against Israel could have wide and dangerous consequences leading to the sort of “Clash of Civilizations” that followed 9/11.

A major concern for President Joe Biden will be the welfare of US hostages in Gaza and for the other 200-plus souls held by Hamas and other groups in the enclave.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has, for many years, drawn a straight line between Hamas and the so-called Islamic State.  He already sees the Israel-Hamas conflict as a clash of civilizations.

“Hamas are the new Nazis. They are the new ISIS and we have to fight them together just as the world, the civilized world, united to fight the Nazis and united to fight ISIS,” he said at a press conference during the visit of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this week.

Hamas’ latest atrocities were a Grand Guignol of horror, but the militant movement isn’t ISIS. Hamas has in fact worked hard, and violently, to snuff out ISIS elements in Gaza who represented a form of political Islam that it deeply opposed.

Hamas does hope to establish a Palestinian state based on the teachings of Islam. But it has no pretentions to a caliphate. Crucially it also has no history of attacks outside Israel and the Palestinian territories, nor has it harnessed the internet into worldwide attempts at radicalization.

But Hamas is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. World leaders have recoiled from its latest atrocities and have been vocal in supporting Israel.

“The struggle [against terror groups] must be without mercy,” said French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday in Israel.

But he added a caveat that, arguably, is rooted as much in realpolitik as it is in ethics: An effort to avoid getting the West sucked into a conflict that could, or would, be seen as a war against Islam (again).

That “struggle,” he said, “must be without mercy, but not without rules.”

Some 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas-led raids inside Israel. The death toll in Gaza is climbing beyond 5,700, according to Palestinian health officials. The Israel Defense Forces say that they’re trying to minimize civilian casualties.

A state of near-total siege has been imposed on the 2.3 million population. The UN says 1.4 million people have been displaced inside the thin strip of land.

A ground operation by Israel, though, would inevitable mean these figures shoot up. On both sides.

There have been pro-Palestinian marches throughout the world protesting at the level of destruction visited already on Gaza by Israel. If a land incursion gets underway it will be much worse – and the protests more loud.

Meanwhile Israel’s enemies – all dedicated to the destruction of the state itself – have been meeting in Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah met a deputy head of Hamas, Saleh Al-Arouri, and the secretary-general of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziad Al-Nakhla, on Wednesday.

“An assessment was made of… what the parties of the resistance axis must do at this sensitive stage to achieve a real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine and to stop the treacherous and brutal aggression against our people,” Hezbollah said in a statement afterward.

One can be sure that minders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Brigade, Tehran’s leading international military and intelligence arm, were on hand. The Quds brigade has trained, funded and guided all three groups for many years.

They’ll be looking to exploit Israel’s next moves in Gaza as their own “phase two” of the October 7 attacks.

Hezbollah has already been drawing Israeli forces away from an exclusive focus on Gaza by skirmishing along Lebanon’s southern border. The US has blamed Iran for sending Iraqi proxies to hit American logistics bases in Baghdad. The cauldron of conflict has been kept simmering with attempts by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen to fire missiles towards Israel, which were shot down by the US.

Americans and many European nationals are being told to leave many Middle Eastern countries close to Israel; even the Australians too have three planes on standby to handle evacuations.

John Kirby, the spokesman for the US National Security Council, said Monday that the administration was “watching very, very closely” for signs Iranian-backed militia groups are planning to ramp up attacks on US military forces stationed in the Middle East.

Consumed by rage

Iran may be trying to draw US Washington’s attention away from the Israeli theater – but it may also be trying to goad the US into more conflict.

“You can’t look at what has happened here to mothers or fathers or grandparents, sons, daughters, children, even babies and not scream out for justice – justice must be done – but I caution this, while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it,” he said. “After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we saw justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”

Those mistakes led to the US-led invasion of Iraq, a widespread belief that Islam was under attack from the West, chaos in the Middle East, the so-called Islamic State or Caliphate itself – and world-wide terror attacks.

“When President Biden warns the Israeli government not to repeat the mistakes it made in Afghanistan, he is speaking from significant lived experience. As we all know now, the US overreacted after 9/11 and lost so much of the goodwill initially generated in the immediate aftermath, whether that was in terms of the ‘war of choice in Iraq’ and its aftermath or the expansion of the war in Afghanistan,” said Karin von Hippel, director of the Royal United Services Institute and a former adviser to the US military on combating terrorism.

That’s the conventional wisdom.

Martin Sherman, head of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies and a long-time advocate of a harder line against his country’s regional rivals or enemies, disagrees.

He believes that Israel should go into Gaza, and hard.

“I don’t think that the Arabs will ever really come to terms with Israel… the minimum that Israel can strive for is to be greatly feared and the best it can hope for is to be grudgingly accepted,” he said.

The IDF soldiers poised in their mustering points for what may be a major battle in Gaza might also wonder if, years from now, their sons may be back there again, striking out to be “greatly feared.”

Japan’s top court has ruled that a government requirement for transgender people to be sterilized before they could be legally recognized was unconstitutional, in a victory for the country’s LGBTQ community years in the making.

Under a law enacted 20 years ago, transgender individuals who want their identity documents amended must have been diagnosed with “gender identity disorder,” be at least 18 years old, be unmarried and without any underage children.

They must also have genital organs resembling those of the opposite sex, and have no reproductive capacity. That means they must have undergone invasive procedures including sterilization and plastic surgery.

The law has long been decried by rights groups, and previous challenges in court have been struck down – until this case, brought by a transgender woman who wanted to change her legal gender from male to female without surgery.

The plaintiff argued that years of hormone therapy had already impacted her reproductive capabilities, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Her case had been rejected by a family court and a higher court before arriving at the Supreme Court. On Monday, the court ruled in her favor, declaring that the provision requiring sterilization was “in violation” of the constitution.

“The restriction of freedom from bodily harm under this provision has become increasingly unnecessary at this point in time and the degree of the restriction has become more serious. Therefore, the provision in question is not necessary and reasonable,” the court said in its ruling.

It added that reproductive rights are “considered to be fundamental human rights” under the constitution. “The fact that they must unwillingly undergo removal of their reproductive capacity in order to match their self-identified sex with their legal sex is a cruel choice,” the judgment said.

The historic decision is only the 12th time since World War II that the Supreme Court has judged a legal provision as unconstitutional, thus forcing Japan’s parliament to review the law, NHK reported.

However, that doesn’t mean the whole law is being changed – only the provision requiring sterilization.

The Supreme Court declined to rule on the other provision requiring transgender individuals to have genital organs “resembling” the opposite sex, saying it was constitutional. That part of the case will be sent back to a lower court to deliberate, according to Monday’s ruling, which added that the requirement does not “directly compel” transgender individuals to undergo surgery.

The ruling was met with mixed reactions – some praise and celebration within the LGBTQ community, but also concern about the remaining surgical requirements, and about broader societal attitudes.

At a press conference after the ruling, the plaintiff’s lawyer Kazuyuki Minami read a statement from the plaintiff, saying she was “extremely surprised at the unexpected outcome.”

“It is very regrettable that (my) gender change was not approved by the Grand Chamber of Justice and that the case has been postponed,” she said in the statement – but added, “I am glad that the outcome of this case will lead to a positive direction.”

The attorney, Minami, added that there are “really very few” judgments that deem existing laws unconstitutional, making this ruling “very significant.” However, he acknowledged, “it is frustrating that we haven’t reached the best conclusion that (the plaintiff) wants.”

Ken Suzuki, a law professor specializing in LGBTQ issues at Japan’s Meijin University, described the court’s decision as “half a ruling,” saying members of the community are still waiting for the lower court to decide whether other surgeries will be required to have genitals “resembling” the other sex.

“Nonetheless, it gives them hope,” he said, calling it a “revolutionary judgment.” “Many can see how the judges actually have taken a great interest in the topic.”

The National Coalition for the Establishment of Laws for Persons with Difficulties Due to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, also known as the LGBT Law Coalition, also applauded the decision – while saying it hoped the Supreme Court would make a “fair decision” on the remaining requirements for transgender individuals.

The organization also expressed “strong regret” over recent discriminatory incidents against transgender individuals, including widespread “anxiety and fear” over transgender individuals using their bathrooms of choice.

Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court ruled against a government agency that had barred a transgender employee from using the women’s bathroom – its first ruling involving the rights of sexual minorities in the workplace, according to NHK.

Much of Japan has long held conservative views toward LGBTQ issues – and while polls in recent years have suggested attitudes are shifting, activists say discrimination is still rife. For instance, Japan is the only Group of Seven (G7) nation with no legal protection for same-sex unions.

This spring the government came under increasing pressure to pass a law promoting understanding of the LGBTQ community, ahead of hosting the G7 leaders’ summit in May – but wrangling over the bill meant it was only submitted to parliament the day before the summit began.

In the end, the bill that passed was a watered-down version of what activists had hoped for, with no human rights guarantees provided – and even wording that may tacitly encourage some forms of discrimination, critics say.

Israel conducted a “targeted raid” using tanks in northern Gaza before withdrawing, its military said Thursday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned a ground incursion into the besieged enclave will take place.

Video published by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday showed tanks and armored vehicles, including a bulldozer, moving on a road near a fence in northern Gaza. The tanks fired artillery, and some destruction could be seen nearby.

“We actually engaged the enemy, killing terrorists who were planning to conduct attacks against us with anti-tank guided missiles,” he said.

“The soldiers exited the area at the end of the activity,” the IDF statement concluded.

The raid comes as new satellite images revealed the devastation wrought by Israel’s bombs in the besieged enclave.

As the humanitarian crisis reaches a critical point in Gaza, with daily airstrikes, life-saving fuel on the verge of running out and health services crippled, pressure is building on the international community to get Israel to allow desperately needed aid into Gaza, with more countries advocating for a “humanitarian pause” in fighting.

“We are raining down hellfire on Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a televised address Wednesday evening, while claiming Israel has “already eliminated thousands of terrorists – and this is only the beginning.”

“At the same time, we are preparing for a ground incursion,” he added, but said the decision on when such action would be taken would be decided by Israel’s War Cabinet.

The prime minister also acknowledged for the first time that he will “have to give answers” for the intelligence failures that allowed the worst terror attack in Israeli history, saying it will be “examined fully” after the war.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the militant group which controls Gaza, in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks and kidnap rampage in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.

Its retaliatory air assault on what Israel calls Hamas “terror infrastructure” has since devastated the densely-populated 140-square-mile enclave, which had been described by rights groups as an “open-air prison” long before the current war began.

New satellite images released by Maxar taken on October 21, show significant destruction to sites across northern Gaza, with entire neighborhoods flattened in eastern Beit Hanoun and similar devastation near the Al Shati Refugee Camp, Atatra and Izbat Beit Hanoun.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,400 people and injured a further 17,000, according to information from Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza and published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.

On Wednesday, Al Jazeera said its bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh, lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in what it said was an Israeli airstrike. The blast hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip where the family was taking shelter after being displaced, according to Al Jazeera. In total, 12 members of the Al-Dahdouh family were killed in the blast, including nine children, a statement from the family said Thursday.

“Strikes on military targets are subject to relevant provisions of international law, including the taking of feasible precautions to mitigate civilian casualties,” it added.

But harrowing photos show Al-Dahdouh seeing the bodies of his wife and children in the morgue. In one image he can be seen holding the body of his daughter, who is wrapped in a white shroud.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 24 journalists have died since the start of this conflict as of Wednesday. Twenty of those killed are Palestinian, three are Israeli, and one is a Lebanese journalist, CPJ said.

Families that fled south in an attempt to flee the bombs and staying in UN shelters are grappling with overcrowded conditions which are “severely constraining access to basic assistance and essential services, increasing health and protection risks, and negatively affecting mental health,” the UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) warned Thursday.

A total of 1.4 million people – of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million – have been displaced since October 7, with almost 629,000 people living in UN shelters, OCHA said. Half of Gaza’s population are children.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza said Wednesday it will have to halt aid operations within a day if fuel is not delivered, saying it would mark the end of a “lifeline” for civilians.

“Do we provide fuel for desalination plants for drinking water? Can we provide fuel to hospitals? Can we provide the essential fuel that is currently producing the bread that is feeding people in Gaza?” he said.

Nearly three weeks since the outbreak of fighting, the UN’s Security Council remains divided on how to proceed with the crisis. Two differing resolutions on the matter, introduced by the US and Russia, both failed to pass on Wednesday.

The draft resolution from the US called for “humanitarian pauses,” not a ceasefire, to allow for aid to reach Gazan civilians. The US previously vetoed a Brazilian draft calling for a humanitarian pause.

The European Union may also lean toward calling for a “short humanitarian pause” in Gaza after leaders meet on Thursday, a senior diplomat said. Several leaders have already voiced some version of this, including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the foreign ministers of Ireland and Slovenia.

Qatar, which is helping to mediate with Egypt, US, Israel and Hamas, is hopeful for a breakthrough soon on negotiations to release hostages held by the militant group, the prime minister and foreign minister said Wednesday.

The hostage crisis is a truly international one.

Israel’s government press office said 135 hostages – more than half of those being held by Hamas – hold foreign passports from 25 different countries.

They include 54 Thai nationals, 15 Argentinians, and 12 citizens from Germany and the US.

Four hostages – two American and two Israeli – have been freed so far. Talks to secure the release of the rest of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza are ongoing, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said.

US President Joe Biden said Wednesday he told Netanyahu that if it’s possible to secure the release of hostages in Gaza ahead of an Israeli ground invasion, he should do so.

But Biden said flatly “no” when asked whether he’d sought assurances from his Israeli counterpart that he would hold off on a ground invasion while the hostages remain in custody.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

When China’s first astronaut Yang Liwei blasted off into space in 2003, it was a history making moment that declared his country’s arrival as an emerging space power.

Two decades on, China has become a major presence in space – a status that mirrors its growing economic, political and military ascendency on Earth. It now has its own permanent outpost in orbit – a fully operational space station – and routinely rotates crews to live and work there.

On Thursday, three Chinese astronauts lifted off on the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center deep in the Gobi Desert, heading for the Tiangong space station for a six-month stay.

They are the youngest crew China has ever sent to space – with an average age of 38. Among their tasks on board is to repair the solar panels that were damaged by space debris – the first time Chinese astronauts will carry out repair work outside the station.

This is China’s sixth manned mission to its space station since 2021. The new crew will take over from the Shenzhou-16 astronauts, who have been onboard since May.

Before the launch, the crew was sent off in full pageantry, greeted by government officials and supporters lining the road. The three astronauts waved at the crowd, who held up Chinese flags and flowers. A band played patriotic songs and the crowd sang along.

Since his own trip to space, Yang has sent off many Chinese astronauts on their missions. But Thursday’s launch was especially emotional, coming just days after the 20th anniversary of his own historic flight.

Completed late last year, the Tiangong – or “heavenly palace” in Chinese – is one of the two space stations currently in orbit. With a lifespan of 15 years, it could become the only one left when the NASA-led International Space Station (ISS) retires in 2030.

China has already announced plans to expand the Tiangong in coming years, adding three modules to its existing three to allow more astronauts to stay abroad at the same time. Currently, it can house a maximum of three astronauts, compared with seven at the ISS.

Yang said he was thrilled to see a younger generation of Chinese “taikonauts” taking up the baton. “In them, I see the strength of our reserve force, and the hope for the future development of China’s aerospace industry,” he said.

Two of the Shenzhou-17 crew members – Tang Shengjie, 33, and Jiang Xinlin, 35 – are new comers, having joined China’s third batch of astronauts only a little over three years ago.

They are led by Tang Hongbo, 48, who hails from the country’s second batch of astronauts.

Tang, a former fighter jet pilot, was on China’s first crewed mission to its space station in 2021. His return to the Tiangong also set a new record for the shortest interval between two spaceflight missions by Chinese astronauts.

China’s space ambition

Tiangong has become a symbol of China’s ambition and capabilities in space, after Chinese astronauts were shut out of the ISS, a US-led collaboration with Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, for more than two decades.

Since 2011, NASA has been effectively banned from cooperating with China, after Congress passed the Wolf Amendment due to espionage-related concerns. That exclusion has at least in part spurred Beijing to build its own space station.

China has sought to open up its station to collaboration with international partners, including by hosting experiments from other countries. And that offer will be all the more appealing after the ISS retires, which is scheduled around 2030.

“The other nations that participate in spaceflight, particularly human spaceflight, they’ve been talking to China. And so if they’re the only game in town, that’s the only way that these companies or these countries can participate in human spaceflight, until we get these commercial space stations that are partially funded by NASA into orbit and operational,” Chiao said.

Beijing for years has been leveraging its rising prowess as a global space power to offer partnerships and development opportunities to other countries.

As China and the United States intensify their economic, technological and geopolitical rivalry on Earth, space has become a natural extension – and crucial frontier – in their great power competition.

Following the demise of the Soviet Union’s space program, the US has enjoyed a period of unparalleled leadership in space. But in recent years, US observers and politicians have warned that America’s dominance could soon be challenged by China’s fast-growing space capabilities.

That concern has only deepened with a series of important and high-profile Chinese achievements.

In 2019, China became the first country to land on the far side of the moon. A year later, it successfully put into orbit its final Beidou satellite, setting the stage to challenge the US Global Positioning System (GPS). And in 2021, it became the only country after the US to put a functioning rover on Mars.

China’s ambitions do not end there. Next year, it plans to bring back the first samples ever collected from the moon’s far side. By the end of this decade, it wants to send astronauts to the moon and build an international lunar research station. A number of countries have reportedly joined onto its planned lunar station, including Russia, Venezuela and South Africa.

Chiao, the retired NASA astronaut, said the main challenge now facing China’s space program is to get the operational experience that an organization like NASA has.

“We’ve been operating spacecraft, space shuttle, space station for decades. And we have so much experience and know-how on training astronauts on operating in space – and that’s where they’re playing catch up,” he said.

The lines of tanks, self-propelled artillery, armoured vehicles and army bulldozers stretch across the horizon near Israel’s border with Gaza. Pointing towards the enclave, they are ready to go.

And yet, for days, they haven’t moved.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have amassed huge number of troops and military hardware along the border almost immediately after Hamas launched the deadliest ever terror attack on Israeli soil on October 7. On top of its regular force, the IDF has also called up 300,000 reservists who reported to their bases within hours.

But despite the build-up and the widespread expectations that a ground incursion was imminent, the IDF has so far refrained from putting boots on the ground, focusing instead on a large-scale aerial bombardment.

The inaction has prompted questions about Israel’s strategy – and its planned endgame for Gaza.

On top of everyone’s mind is the fate of the more than 200 hostages who are still held by Hamas in Gaza and who could be endangered if Israel invades.

The hostages include Israeli civilians and soldiers as well as foreign nationals and children as young as 9 months. Among them are scores of hostages holding foreign passports from 25 different countries, including Mexico, Brazil, the United States, Germany and Thailand, according to the Israeli government.

This makes the situation even more complicated for Israel, because it needs to consider its allies’ interests.

Four of the people held captive – two Israeli women and two American woman – have been released in recent days, giving hopes that more could follow.

US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron all visited Israel in the past few days. All stressed that Israel has the right to defend itself and offered support. But each also urged caution and pressed for more time to negotiate.

They have also emphasized the need to avoid further civilian casualties.

The IDF says its strikes are targeting Hamas and its infrastructure, but the civilian death toll has been enormous. According to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave, more than 5,790 people, including more than 2,000 children have been killed so far, although President Biden has said he has “no confidence” in those figures.

At least 35 UN staffers have also been killed in Gaza, the majority due to Israeli airstrikes, according to the United Nations.

The bloodshed has prompted huge anger and condemnation across the Arab world, sparking fears that if the campaign continues, the war between Israel and Hamas could spiral into a regional conflict.

This fear is likely among the factors considered by the Israeli government as it weights the pros and cons of a major ground offensive following its current aerial campaign.

While the IDF has poured most of its resources into the areas around the Gaza Strip, it has also clashed with Hezbollah at its border with Lebanon. If Israel goes all in on a ground operation of Gaza, the powerful Iran-backed Islamist movement could see an opportunity to intervene and attack from the north.

Israel and its allies have warned Hezbollah not to get involved. Nevertheless, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah met top officials from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by Hezbollah.

Many nations and international aid organizations, including the United Nations, have also been pressuring Israel to hit pause and allow more aid to come into the enclave.

Gaza has been under blockade by Israel and Egypt for years, but after the Hamas attack, Israel also cut off its electricity, food, water and fuel supplies. Israel has said it restored water supply on October 15, Gaza water authorities say however they cannot verify that because there is no electricity to run a pumping station. The United Nations says civilians still have no clean water access and have resorted to drinking to well water that is “extremely high in salt and poses immediate health risks,” according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has repeatedly called for a humanitarian ceasefire and told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that “clear violations of international humanitarian law” are being witnessed in Gaza. His statements, which also said that Hamas’ attacks had not happened in a vacuum, prompted calls for Guterres’ resignation from Israeli diplomats for his resignation.

While the IDF has said it is ready the decision to launch any action sits with Israeli government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has been facing the worst crisis of his entire political career even before the attack by Hamas. His plans for a judicial overhaul have sparked months of large scale protests and demands for his resignation.

The fact that Hamas’ October 7 attack came as a surprise to his government, the IDF and the Israeli intelligence community has angered the nation. Polls published in Israeli media suggest Netanyahu’s approval ratings have dropped after the attack.

Netanyahu has tried to quash some of this anger by appointing an emergency war cabinet with opposition leaders, but there have been already been speculations in Israeli media about cracks emerging.

Netanyahu has always been more risk-averse when it comes to major decisions and a full-scale invasion into Gaza comes with huge political risks domestically and internationally. The brutality of the Hamas attack sparked a huge wave of solidarity among Israel’s allies.

But this support might start waning if the already horrific civilian toll in Gaza continues to climb.

Meanwhile, other members of the unity government and the IDF are insisting Hamas has to be “totally eliminated.”

Perhaps to dismiss the speculations of disagreement, Netanyahu issued a statement on Monday saying he was full agreement with his defense minister and the army.

“We back each other and we back the IDF – our soldiers and our commanders,” he said, adding, “We make the decisions here and in the War Cabinet unanimously.”

But, at least for now, there seems to be no decision. Netanyahu addressed the nation on Wednesday evening, repeating once again that the government is “preparing for a ground incursion.”

“I will not detail when, how or how many, or the overall considerations that we are taking into account,” he said.

Meanwhile on the Gaza border, the troops remain ready. It’s a tense wait, with drones buzzing overhead and the constant sound of explosions echoing through the open space.

The Vatican has accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop who stepped down after a sex scandal involving clergy from his diocese in the southern Polish city of Sosnowiec.

According to Poland’s state news agency, the parish has been hit by a string of scandals over the past few years involving priests under the administration of Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak.

In a farewell message on the parish website this week, Kaszak thanked the congregation for its “effort and dedication in building the Church of Sosnowiec,” but did not give a reason for his resignation.

He asked parishioners for forgiveness for his “human limitations,” saying “if I have offended anyone or neglected something, I am very sorry.”

In a press release Tuesday, the Polish Apostolic Nunciature said, “The Holy Father Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak from the service of Bishop of Sosnowiec,” and named Archbishop Adrian Galbas of Katowice as his replacement.

The allegations that precipitated the bishop’s resignation are connected to an incident in September, widely reported in Polish media, in which a priest identified as Fr. Tomasza Z allegedly hosted several other priests and a male prostitute at his apartment.

An ambulance was called after the sex worker lost consciousness, though paramedics were initially not allowed inside to attend to the victim until police were called.

Fr. Tomasza Z has since been dismissed, according to PAP.

A furious diplomatic spat between Israel and the United Nations has broken out, with Israeli officials calling for the resignation of Secretary General Antonio Guterres after he said Hamas’ October 7 attacks on the country “did not happen in a vacuum.”

At a Security Council meeting, Guterres called for a humanitarian ceasefire on Tuesday amid the deepening crisis in Gaza, and told the Security Council that “clear violations of international humanitarian law” are being witnessed.

He called Hamas’ October 7 murder and kidnap rampage “appalling,” and said “nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.”

“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” Guterres said. “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished.”

“But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Excellencies, even war has rules,” he added.

His comments angered Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who was in the chamber as Guterres spoke. “In what world do you live?” said Cohen. “Definitely, this is not our world.”

Writing on social media later, Cohen said that “after the October 7th massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called on Guterres to resign, saying he had “expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder.”

Then, on Wednesday, Erdan said his country will block visas for United Nations officials. It had already rejected an application by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, Erdan told the Israeli Army Radio channel.

“It’s time we teach them a lesson,” added Erdan.

The deepening spat exposes tensions around the calls from some international observers for a ceasefire, amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

In an effort to “set the record straight,” Guterres said Wednesday he was “shocked by misinterpretations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council – as if I was was justifying acts of terror by Hamas.”

“This is false. It was the opposite,” he told reporters, restating his condemnation of the October 7 attacks.

But Guterres did not back away from his Tuesday call for a ceasefire, or from his nod towards the historical treatment of Palestinians.

Erdan responded to Guterres’ comments later Wednesday, doubling down on his earlier criticism of the Secretary General. Erdan called it a “disgrace” that Guterres did not retract or apologize for his comments.

“A Secretary-General who does not understand that the murder of innocents can never be understood by any ‘background’ cannot be Secretary-General,” Erdan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

The main United Nations agency working in Gaza said it would be forced to halt its operations by Wednesday evening due to a lack of fuel, with the territory having faced days of airstrikes and near-total blockade following the Hamas attacks.

Efforts in the UN to endorse a ceasefire have so far been scuppered, with the US vetoing a draft resolution raised by Brazil last week.

Nearly three weeks since the outbreak of fighting, the UN’s Security Council remains divided on how to proceed with the crisis.

Two differing resolutions on the matter, introduced by the US and Russia, both failed to pass on Wednesday.

The draft resolution from the US called for “humanitarian pauses,” not a ceasefire, to allow for aid to reach Gazan civilians. The US previously vetoed a Brazilian draft calling for a humanitarian pause.

But Russia and China vetoed the US resolution – a move US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield described as “deeply” disappointing.

Following her comments, China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said “what we oppose is that the draft text does not call on the parties concerned to stop the indiscriminate and asymmetrical use of force.”

The Russian resolution proposed Wednesday also failed to gain the Council’s approval.

The Israeli government has said there are more than 200 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In an update posted Wednesday, it said 135 of the hostages hold foreign passports from 25 countries. Thailand, with 54, had the most nationals held of any country, followed by Argentina with 15 nationals, then Germany and the US with 12 each.

The World Health Organization meanwhile reiterated calls on Tuesday for a ceasefire, saying it is “unable to distribute fuel and essential, life-saving health supplies to major hospitals in northern Gaza due to lack of security guarantees.” Six hospitals in Gaza have been forced to shut due to a lack of fuel, WHO added.