Gaza death toll surpasses 20,000
The UN Security Council vote on a bid to boost aid to the Gaza Strip has been delayed at the request of the US
More than 10 weeks since Israel began bombarding the Gaza Strip, the death toll has crossed 20,000, according to Palestinian officials.
According to the latest reports from Gaza's Government Media Office, at least 8,000 children and 6,200 women are among those killed, as reported by Al Jazeera.
The grim milestone was passed as the United Nations Security Council postponed a key vote on a bid to boost humanitarian aid for Gaza for the third time to avoid a veto from the United States, which traditionally shields its ally Israel from UN action, says Al Jazeera.
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Since a seven-day truce collapsed on 1 December, the war has entered a more intensive phase with ground combat previously confined to the northern half of the territory now spread across its length.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it is "clear that the conflict will move and needs to move to a lower intensity phase".
"We expect to see and want to see a shift to more targeted [Israeli] operations with a smaller number of forces that's really focused in on dealing with the leadership of Hamas, the tunnel network and a few other critical things," he said. "And as that happens, I think you'll see as well the harm done to civilians also decrease significantly."
In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousand of people have been pushed since early December by Israel's continued onslaught, air strikes hit a building near a hospital close to an Al Jazeera crew reporting live on air, killing at least 10 people.
"More air strikes are conducted, more victims fall due to the expansion of the Israeli military operations in the areas that are supposed to be safe zones where the majority of Gazans have been urged to flee," Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said in reporting from Rafah.
"The air strike took place in an area considered to be very densely populated, and it's a miracle that no more than this number of people were killed," he added.
Key Security Council vote postponed
The UN Security Council vote on a bid to boost aid to the Gaza Strip and ask the UN to monitor humanitarian aid deliveries there has been delayed at the request of the US, diplomats said.
According to the United Arab Emirates envoy to the UN, Lana Nusseibeh, the vote will take place on Thursday.
