Gaza Turmoil
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Gazans dying from lack of food, clean water, hospitals without power & medicine: UN chief
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 20, 2024
Anti-Israel protest at Italy jewellery fair turns violent
Protesters have clashed with police in the Italian city of Vicenza after a demonstration against the presence of Israeli exhibitors at an international jewellery fair, AFP reports.
Police used water cannon against demonstrators who fired smoke bombs and flares after violence erupted after a planned march by hundreds of people, some holding up banners saying “Free Palestine” and “Stop Bombing Gaza”.
More than 1,300 exhibitors from almost 40 countries are showing at the Vicenzaoro fair, which opened on Friday and runs until Tuesday, according to organisers.
A spokesperson told AFP the clashes took place several kilometres away and had no impact on the event while declining to give information on the Israeli presence at the fair.
Netanyahu tells Biden opposed to Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he told US President Joe Biden that he rejected Palestinian sovereignty in the Gaza Strip, in a call the day before, AFP reports.
“In his conversation with President Biden, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that after Hamas is destroyed Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
A senior Hamas official dismissed Biden’s comments about the possibility of Israel agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“The illusion that Biden is preaching about a state of Palestine and its characteristics does not fool our people,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the group’s political bureau, said in a statement.
“Biden is a full partner in the genocidal war and our people do not expect any good from him.”
All universities in Gaza damaged or destroyed, Palestinian news agency says
All universities in Gaza have now been destroyed or at least damaged, CNN reports quoting WAFA, the Palestinian news agency.
CNN says it asked the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for a response to these claims and has geolocated images of damage to the university that matches its location. The IDF has not yet responded.
Buildings housing the graduate and undergraduate studies were struck, Al-Israa University, south of Gaza City, claimed.
The university said the IDF looted artifacts “before blowing up the museum building to cover up the traces of their crime.” CNN asked the IDF about this claim and is waiting for a response.
At least 16 cemeteries in Gaza have been desecrated by Israeli forces: report
The Israeli military has desecrated at least 16 cemeteries in its ground offensive in Gaza, leaving gravestones ruined, soil upturned, and, in some cases, bodies unearthed, CNN reports.
In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where fighting escalated earlier this week, Israeli forces destroyed a cemetery, removing bodies in what the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) told CNN was part of a search for the remains of hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 terror attacks.
CNN says it reviewed satellite imagery and social media footage showing the destruction of cemeteries and witnessed it firsthand while traveling with the IDF in a convoy. Together the evidence reveals a systemic practice where Israeli ground forces have advanced across the Gaza Strip.
The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, violates international law, except under narrow circumstances relating to that site becoming a military objective, and legal experts told CNN that Israel’s acts could amount to war crimes.
Fighting across Gaza as Israel drops leaflets seeking its hostages
Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Saturday while its planes dropped leaflets on the southern area of Rafah urging Palestinians seeking refuge there to help locate hostages held by Hamas, residents said.
Palestinian fighters battled tanks trying to push back into the eastern suburbs of the Jabalia area in northern Gaza, where Israel had started pulling out troops and shifting to smaller-scale operations, residents and militants said.
22 Palestinians arrested in occupied West Bank
At least 22 Palestinians, including a woman and children, were arrested overnight in occupied West Bank by Israeli forces, Al Jazeera reports quoting the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
The arrests were carried out in Hebron, Nablus, Tubas, Bethlehem, Jenin and Jerusalem and “were accompanied by widespread raids and abuse, in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes, the destruction of infrastructure, and the confiscation of money and vehicles”, the organisation said.
This brings the total number of arrested Palestinians since October 7 to 6,115.
Iran says Israel strike kills Guards’ Syria intelligence chief, 3 others
An Israeli strike on Damascus killed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence chief for Syria and his deputy as well as two other Guards members, AFP reports.
“The Revolutionary Guards’ Syria intel chief, his deputy and two other Guards members were martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel,” Iran’s Mehr news agency was quoted as saying by the AFP.
In a statement, the Revolutionary Guards confirmed four of its members were killed in the strike on the Syrian capital and accused Israel of being behind the attack.
UK unable to conclude Israel followed international law in Gaza, court documents show
UK government legal advisers were unable to conclude that Israel complied with international humanitarian law in its war in Gaza, the Guardian has reported, citing court documents.
The UK Foreign Office in November expressed “serious concerns” about potential breaches of international humanitarian law in the first of several internal reviews into arms exports to Israel in light of the war in Gaza, the Guardian said.
But after receiving reassurances from Israel, officials ultimately concluded it did not have sufficient information on compliance, according to the newspaper.
Based on the internal reviews, the government’s export control joint offered foreign secretary David Cameron the option of continuing exports but keeping them under review, suspending exports for use in Gaza, or suspending all arms sales to Israel – with Cameron opting for the first option.
The documents emerged as part of a legal challenge by the Global Legal Action Network against the Department for Business and Trade’s decision not to revoke arms export licences to Israel.
Palestinian fighters resurgent in Jabalia, claim 4 days of attacks on Israelis: Analysts
Palestinian fighters have claimed attacks on Israeli forces in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza for a fourth consecutive day, amid assessments that armed groups in Gaza are “re-infiltrating” areas in the north of the territory that Israel previously considered “cleared”.
The last time Palestinian fighters claimed four straight days of attacks in Jabalia was between December 24 and 27, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) said in their latest Gaza battlefield assessment.
“Palestinian fighters continued to attack Israeli forces in three areas of the northern Gaza Strip where Israeli forces previously conducted clearing operations,” the US-based think tanks said.
US State Department confirms death of US citizen in occupied West Bank: Report
The United States Department of State has confirmed the death of a US citizen in the occupied West Bank, CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan has reported.
“We can confirm the death of a US citizen civilian in the West Bank on January 19, 2024 … We are working to understand the circumstances of the incident [and] have asked the Government of Israel for further information … ” Brennan quoted a State Department spokesperson as saying in a post on X.
Tawfiq Ajaq, 17, was killed by Israeli forces in al-Mazra’a al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, the Palestinian state news agency, Wafa, reported on Friday.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby had earlier said the White House was “seriously concerned” about the report and was seeking more information from counterparts in the region.
They ordered them to bend down and executed them’
Human rights groups have been gathering testimonies of summary executions of Palestinians by Israeli forces.
Al Jazeera has obtained footage and witness accounts from members of one family. They say that on December 19, Israeli soldiers executed at least 19 civilians in Gaza City.
“Tanks and bulldozers surrounded the building. Shells had been hitting the building for days. The situation was desperate,” Umm Odai Salem, mother of one of those killed, said.
“On December 19, Israeli soldiers entered the building. They banged on our door. My husband opened it and told them we are all civilians. They took him to another apartment. I followed them, pleading with them to let him go because we are civilians. They beat me and my daughters up. They put us women in one place and threatened us with guns and knives. They made us strip. They searched us, insulting us using the most terrible words.
“My husband was one of the 19 men killed in this building. They ordered them to bend down and executed them. They killed them all.”
Nearly 20,000 babies born into Gaza war 'hell': UN
GENEVA (AFP) - The United Nations said on Friday (Jan 19) that thousands of babies had been born in conditions "beyond belief" in Gaza since the war there erupted more than three months ago.
Spokeswoman Tess Ingram, back from a recent visit to the Gaza Strip, described mothers bleeding to death and one nurse who had performed emergency caesareans on six dead women.
Nearly 20,000 babies have been born into the war that began after the Hamas attacks inside Israel on Oct 7, according to the UN children's agency UNICEF.
Hezbollah warns Israel against continued 'aggression'
BEIRUT (AFP) – A top official from Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group on Friday warned Israel would "receive a real slap in the face" if it expanded the conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Since the surprise October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, there have been near daily exchanges of cross-border fire between the Israeli army and militant group Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian militants.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded border villages, with the violence killing more than 195 people in Lebanon, including at least 142 Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP tally.
US carries out fresh strikes against Yemen's Huthis
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US military carried out another round of strikes against Yemen's Huthi rebels on Friday, targeting missile launchers that were preparing for attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the White House said.
Washington is seeking to reduce the Iran-backed Huthis' military capabilities, but the Yemeni rebels are still able to continue their attacks despite a week of strikes, and they have vowed that they will keep targeting merchant vessels.
The Huthis began striking Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israeli-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, and subsequently declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
Biden says Palestinian state still possible after Netanyahu call
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Joe Biden said Friday it was still possible Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could agree to some form of Palestinian state, after the two leaders spoke for the first time in nearly a month amid tensions over the Gaza war.
Their call came a day after Netanyahu said he opposes allowing Palestinian sovereignty in the wake of the conflict with Hamas, deepening Israeli divisions with key backer Washington over the conduct of Israel's offensive and what comes next.
But Biden said after the call that it was not impossible Netanyahu might come round to some form of so-called two-state solution, mooted for decades as a way to end tensions in the Middle East, despite the Israeli premier's comments.
Women and children are main victims of Gaza war, with 16,000 killed, UN says
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Women and children are the main victims the Gaza war, with some 16,000 killed and an estimated two mothers losing their lives every hour since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, the U.N. agency promoting gender equality said Friday.
As a result of the more than 100-day conflict, UN Women added, at least 3,000 women may have become widows and heads of households and at least 10,000 children may have lost their fathers.
In a report released Friday, the agency pointed to gender inequality and the burden on women fleeing the fighting with children and being displaced again and again. Of the territory’s 2.3 million population, it said, 1.9 million are displaced and “close to one million are women and girls” seeking shelter and safety.
