Gaza Crisis
Live Reporting
Israel detains 28 more Palestinians in occupied West Bank
The Israeli army has detained 28 more Palestinians in military raids carried out across the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups.
“The arrests were marked by abuse, severe beatings, and threats against detainees and their families, in addition to widespread acts of sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes,” the Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
According to the statement, the new arrests brought to 5,810 the number of Palestinians arrested by Israel in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
Figures released by the two groups last month showed that at least 8,800 Palestinians, including 80 women, were held at Israeli prisons.
PA Foreign Ministry says it’s time for international justice to win
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry says South Africa’s case before the ICJ is a historic event and that what encourages Israel to commit crimes is “international failure and complicit countries who supply Israel with lethal weapons, political support and the using the vetoing power in international bodies”.
“Holding Israel – the illegal occupying power accountable – using all legal tools, and through international justice institutions and international law enforcement, is the main focus of the legal strategy of the State of Palestine, and the core of the diplomatic and international movement,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry reiterated its continued coordination and full support, and thanked the leadership and people of South Africa for “the courageous step and action in order to mobilise the international community to clarify Israel’s commission of the crime of genocide and its legal dimensions”.
Blinken in Cairo amid reports of renewed prisoner-exchange talks
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Cairo after an Israeli delegation landed in Egypt’s capital on Wednesday, reportedly for a new round of talks on a possible prisoner swap.
Egypt, Qatar and the US have served as mediators between Israel and Hamas. About half the captives held in Gaza were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November, and mediators have tried since then to reach agreement on another round of exchanges accompanied by a halt in fighting.
However, Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh said this week: “They will never recover their hostages unless all our prisoners in the occupation prisons are released.”
Efforts to negotiate another swap were disrupted by the assassination of a top Hamas official in Beirut last week.
Global trade drops 1.3 percent on Red Sea attacks: Institute
Global trade declined by 1.3 percent from November to December 2023 as attacks on merchant vessels in the Red Sea led to a plunge in the volumes of cargo.
Currently, about 200,000 containers are being transported via the Red Sea daily, down from some 500,000 per day in November, the German Kiel Institute for the World Economy said.
Diversions in response to the attacks have led to journeys between Asian production centres and European consumers taking up to 20 days longer, said Julian Hinz, director of Kiel’s trade policy research centre.
“This is also reflected in the declining trade figures for Germany and the EU, as transported goods are now still at sea and have not already been unloaded in the harbours as planned,” Hinz said in a statement.
‘Consequences’ if Houthi attacks continue in the Red Sea: US
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield has lashed out at Iran for “supplying advanced weapons systems to the Houthis”.
At a UNSC meeting, she alleged Tehran provided the Yemen-based armed group with drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, which she said have been used in attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
The US knows Iran is involved in planning Houthi attacks, and while it isn’t seeking a confrontation with Tehran, “Iran also has a choice: to continue providing or withhold its support for the Houthis, without which the Houthis would struggle to effectively track and strike vessels through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden”, she said.
Thomas-Greenfield told the council on Wednesday: “If the Houthi attacks continue, there will be consequences.”
South Africans welcome ICJ genocide case against Israel
South Africa’s move to take Israel to the UN’s International Court of Justice over genocide charges has been welcomed by many South Africans.
Today, many have gathered outside the Palestinian embassy in Pretoria to watch the proceedings.
Given South Africa’s history of apartheid, colonialism and racism, this is something many South Africans identify with very strongly in terms of the subjugation of a particular ethnic group.
South Africa’s government says Israel, as the occupier of a territory and a people, has the obligation to abide by the UN conventions and prevent genocide, including what it calls “collective punishment”.
UN: Attacks collapsing Gaza’s health system
Just one-fifth of the 5,000 beds needed to meet trauma and emergency needs in Gaza are available, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric says.
He noted more than three-quarters of the 77 primary health centres are not functioning at all.
“The ongoing hostilities in Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis – coupled with evacuation orders in nearby areas – are putting three hospitals at the risk of closures: Al-Aqsa, Nasser, and the Gaza European hospital,” Dujarric said.
“Some 350,000 people with chronic illnesses and about 485,000 people with mental health disorders continue to experience disruptions in their treatments in Gaza,” Dujarric said.
About 1.9 million displaced people are at risk of communicable diseases because of poor living conditions, overcrowded shelters, and lack of access to proper water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, the UN says.
White House official to visit Beirut, seeking to ease Israel-Lebanon tensions
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senior White House adviser Amos Hochstein is expected to visit Beirut on Thursday, a US official said late on Wednesday, as part of US efforts to ease tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Washington fears Israel's war in Gaza could spread violence across the region, with armed groups backed by Israel's arch-rival Iran launching solidarity attacks in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has been trading fire with the Israeli military across Lebanon's southern border since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza three months ago, prompting Israel's heavy assault the Palestinian enclave.
Artillery shelling north of Nuseirat camp
Israeli forces are shelling an area north of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The refugee camp, located near Deir al-Balah, has repeatedly come under Israeli military fire during the war.
ICJ opens hearings against Israel on genocide charges in Gaza
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations’ top court opens hearings Thursday into South Africa’s allegation that Israel’s war with Hamas amounts to genocide against Palestinians, a claim that Israel strongly denies.
South Africa is initially asking the International Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip as part of a case that is likely to take years to resolve.
The dispute strikes at the heart of Israel’s national identity as a Jewish state created in the aftermath of the Nazi genocide in the Holocaust.
US intel suggests Hezbollah eyeing attacks on US targets: Report
US intelligence officials say fears are rising over potential attacks by Hezbollah on American interests in the Middle East, a news report says.
Quoting four unnamed US officials, Politico reported rising tensions from Israel’s war on Gaza and confrontations with Hezbollah in Lebanon have US security agencies concerned. Two American officials said Hezbollah “could be considering attacks on both US troops or diplomatic personnel overseas”.
One analyst highlighted that Iran-backed groups are already hitting US targets with regularity.
“The Lebanon front is ready to kick off and these Iranian militia are pounding the US in eastern Syria and Iraq,” Politico quoted Andrew Tabler, a former State Department official, as saying. “It’s interesting that this is all going on in the background and people are focusing on the Gaza theatre, but the war is actually much larger than that.”
Great deal of expectation in Gaza before ICJ hearing
South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ has brought a great deal of expectation across the Palestinian territories, most profoundly in the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, people understand that the court has no authority to enforce its decisions and that enforcement action can be blocked.
However, they view the hearings as a way to potentially bring provisional measures to stop conditions from worsening in Gaza, where civilian killings continue.
Israeli forces withdraw from Jenin as vehicles targeted with explosive devices
Local media has reported clashes overnight between the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Israeli forces in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli military vehicles, which stormed Jenin overnight tonight and began demolishing structures, have been targeted with explosive devices and gunfire. Israeli forces have begun withdrawing from the city.
Raids and arrests have been reported in the following locations elsewhere in the occupied West Bank:
The Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem
A man was arrested in the town of Anabta, east of Tulkarem
A father and his son were arrested in the village of Bitello, west of Ramallah
Two men were arrested in the towns of Qaryut and Beita, south of Nablus
Israel believes ICJ will stop short of demanding halt to Gaza war: Report
Officials at Israel’s Ministry of Justice have told the Haaretz newspaper that they believe the International Court of Justice will issue injunctions against the country, but it will fall short of ordering a cessation to fighting in Gaza.
Injunctions may include calling for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to enter into the besieged enclave and allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza.
‘No food shortage in Gaza,’ Israeli official says
Sufficient aid is entering Gaza and there is no food shortage, an Israeli official says.
Moshe Tetro, with the Israeli defence body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said Israel has been willing to increase the amount of aid entering Gaza. He blamed international aid groups for struggling to process and receive the humanitarian relief.
“The assessment we all, with the UN and other organizations, show there is sufficient aid. In terms of food, the reserves in the Gaza Strip are sufficient for the near term. There is no food shortage in Gaza.”
Earlier, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency was forced to cancel six planned missions to northern Gaza. “The barrier is access. We call on Israel to approve requests by WHO and other partners to deliver humanitarian aid.”
White House special envoy to visit Lebanon as tension with Israel escalates
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden, will meet with officials in the Lebanese capital Beirut today in a bid to “restore calm”, a US National Security Council spokesperson said.
“The United States has made clear it does not support the ongoing conflict spreading into Lebanon and continues to exhaust all diplomatic options to see Israeli and Lebanese civilians return to their homes and live in security and stability,” the spokesperson said.
There are concerns that cross-border clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah in Lebanon will escalate into all-out war, particularly after Israel assassinated top military commanders in the Iran-backed group using drone strikes this week.
South Africa’s ICJ case will go back decades
What we expect today is to hear from South Africa, their application for preliminary measures, basically to argue that Israel is committing genocide, not preventing genocide, not doing enough to deal with those who are committing genocide.
What’s interesting is that South Africa will be laying out a case that goes back before October 7.
This is to counter the argument that Israel will be putting forward where it’s going to highlight the atrocities Hamas committed on October 7, that what it is doing in Gaza is self-defence and that it is taking the utmost care not to target civilians.
What South Africa is going to argue – going back in time decades – is that this is simply a pattern of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people and that it has simply escalated to unprecedented levels now.
Hamas ‘neither defeated nor destroyed’ in northern Gaza: Monitors
Hamas has released video footage as evidence that its fighters are confronting Israeli forces in northern Gaza, and said that it still has a “strong and cohesive command-and-control network in the Gaza Strip”, war monitors said.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said that Hamas, and other armed Palestinian groups, continue to attack Israeli forces “despite the [Israeli military] announcing on January 6 that it had ‘dismantled’ the 12 Hamas battalions in the northern Gaza Strip”.
Hamas’s “military forces are neither defeated nor destroyed at this time, however”, the ISW and the CTP said in their latest battlefield assessment.
Palestinian fighters from three other armed groups continued to attack Israeli forces in central Gaza on Wednesday and battles were ongoing in southern Khan Younis.
There were no reports of rockets fired towards Israel from Gaza on Wednesday, while in southern Lebanon Hezbollah and other fighters carried out two attacks on northern Israel, according to the US-based think tanks.
Seven killed, many injured in attack on Khan Younis house: Report
The Palestinian state news agency, Wafa, has reported that seven people were killed and 25 injured in an Israeli attack on a residence in Khan Younis city in southern Gaza.
Local sources told Wafa that women and children were among the casualties.
‘Still no endgame’ as Blinken concludes latest Middle East tour: Analysts
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to end his latest tour of the Middle East in Egypt.
On his fourth tour of the Middle East since the war in Gaza began Blinken has already visited Israel and the West Bank, as well as Bahrain, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Analysts described the latest tour as an attempt at “face-saving”, as Blinken sought to walk a fine line between exerting influence over Israel and failing to publicly exercise any real leverage.
“We want this war to end as soon as possible,” Blinken told reporters on Tuesday.
But three months into the war, an “endgame” remains elusive, said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, the director of research for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).
“There’s still no plan,” he told Al Jazeera.
Israel’s ‘standing’ on world stage will change if ICJ delivers guilty verdict
If Israel is found guilty of these charges of genocide or intent to commit genocide, it is going to change their standing in the international community.
The Israelis will find themselves with diplomatic problems because it will be difficult for countries who are standing with Israel, like the United States, to continuously justify the actions that have been going on in this war.
So a lot to look for in tomorrow’s initial hearing where South Africa will present evidence and then on Friday when the Israelis will have a chance to defend themselves.
UN relief official says rules of war ‘must be upheld’
Martin Griffiths says via X that “parties must protect civilians, including humanitarian workers”. The UN humanitarian chief was commenting on four Palestine Red Crescent ambulance crew members killed by an Israeli air strike in Deir Al-Balah.
At least 40 Palestinians were killed and wounded yesterday after Israeli forces struck a home near the entrance of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah.
UN Security Council demands immediate end to Huthi Red Sea attacks
UNITED NATIONS (United States) (AFP) – The United Nations Security Council demanded on Wednesday an "immediate" end to attacks by Yemen's Huthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea.
The resolution passed "demands that the Huthis immediately cease all such attacks, which impede global commerce and undermine navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace and security."
It was adopted after Russia, as well as China, Mozambique and Algeria, abstained.
Blinken says Abbas 'committed' to reform as Gaza war rages
RAMALLAH (AFP) - US top diplomat Antony Blinken on Wednesday (Jan 10) said Mahmud Abbas was committed to reforming the Palestinian Authority to potentially reunite war-torn Gaza and the occupied West Bank under its leadership.
Blinken laid out Gaza's possible future after meeting Palestinian president Abbas in Ramallah and Bahrain's King Hamad in his fourth Middle East tour aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas war from escalating.
The bloodiest ever Gaza war has raged since the unprecedented Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7 and killed more than 23,000 people in the besieged Palestinian territory, according to its health ministry.
Israel to face Gaza genocide charges at World Court
GAZA (Reuters) - Israel prepared to defend itself on Thursday (Jan 11) at the top UN court against accusations of genocide in Gaza, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rebuffed for the first time calls by some right-wing ministers to permanently occupy the enclave.
As Israel's war in Gaza continued to rage, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, also known as the World Court, was to hold hearings on Thursday and Friday in a case brought by South Africa in December claiming Israel's war against Hamas militants in Gaza violates the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said on Wednesday: "Tomorrow, the State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice to dispel South Africa's absurd blood libel, as Pretoria gives political and legal cover to the Hamas Rapist Regime."
