Palestine-Israel war
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White House official meets Qatari officials on Gaza hostages
The White House has said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has met visiting officials from Qatar, as the United States works on a possible deal involving the release of hostages in Gaza, Reuters reports.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Air Force One that Sullivan would meet with families of the remaining American hostages.
Journalists supporting Palestine continue facing pressure by Western media
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) January 30, 2024
Canada to provide $29.8m funding for humanitarian assistance to Gaza
Canada has announced new $29.8 million funding to provide food, water and other humanitarian assistance to Gaza, Reuters reports.
The funds will be allocated to international agencies, including the World Food Programme, Unicef and the World Health Organisation, Global Affairs Canada said in a statement.
WHO says Israeli allegations against UNRWA a ‘distraction’
The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to continue funding the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), calling Israeli allegations against the UN body a “distraction” from the onslaught in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
“The discussion right now is much of a distraction of what is going on every day, every hour in Gaza,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told a UN press briefing in Geneva.
Arguing that while these claims should be investigated, he said they currently serve as a “distraction”, from measures preventing an entire nation’s access to food, water, and electricity.
They also distract from the “continuous shelling” of Palestinians in Gaza, even in designated safe areas, as well as from attacks on “shelters, schools, hospitals”, he added.
At least 12 countries — Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Finland, Australia, UK, Netherlands, US, France, Austria, and Japan — have suspended funding for UNRWA, which was established in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.
Health Ministry: Death toll in Gaza reaches 26,751
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip says the number of Palestinians killed by Israel since October 7 has risen to 26,751.
At least 65,636 others have been wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Some 114 Palestinians were killed and 249 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added
Israeli Knesset speaker to visit US House with captive families
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana has been invited to the US House of Representatives in early February, and will soon head to the US accompanied by a released child captive and relatives of captives remaining in Gaza.
Ohana, also accompanied by lawmakers from both the ruling coalition and the opposition, will meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson with the goal of getting more Congressional support for Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Israeli media.
He will be joined by Emily Hand, the 9-year-old girl who was released by Hamas in November, and her father, in addition to relatives of captives still held in the Strip.
Ohana is also scheduled to speak at the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting at the UN in New York next week, and will meet with other members of Congress, AIPAC leaders and Jewish organizations.
Asked about potential US strikes on Iran, Russia calls for calm
The Kremlin, asked about potential US attacks on Iranian interests, said tensions in the Middle East are high and steps are needed to “de-escalate rather than de-stabilise” the wider region.
The comments by spokesman Dmitry Peskov come after US defence chief Lloyd Austin vowed the US would take “all necessary actions” to defend its troops after a deadly drone attack in Jordan by Iran-backed fighters.
The administration of President Joe Biden has said it is not seeking a war with Iran.
UN Security Council to hold consultation session on Gaza
The UN Security Council will hold a closed consultation session on the situation in the Gaza Strip.
The Chief Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator in Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, will brief members of the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in the blockaded territory.
On Wednesday, the Security Council will hold a session, at the request of Algeria, to discuss the order issued by the International Court of Justice to Israel to prevent genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas says it will respond to Jenin hospital killings
Hamas said the Israeli army’s “crimes will not go unanswered” after it assassinated three young Palestinian men at Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin city in occupied West Bank.
It said the killings are a “continuation of the occupation’s ongoing crimes against our people from Gaza to Jenin” and pointed out that one of the men was injured and in bed when he was killed.
Of the three men, Hamas confirmed that one was one of its members, and another was with the Jenin Battalion. The third was also a Palestinian fighter.
Palestinian fighters “will not be intimidated by assassinations or weakened by the crimes of the cowardly enemy”, it said.
Israel increasingly ‘impeding life-saving aid’ into Gaza: UN
More and more Israel is denying or restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to the United Nations.
In the second half of January, “humanitarian partners continue to observe an increasing trend in denied and restricted access to the northern and central areas of Gaza”, said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
It cited excessive delays for aid convoys before or at Israeli checkpoints and heightened military attacks in central Gaza.
“Threats to the safety of humanitarian personnel and sites are also frequent, not only impeding the delivery of time-sensitive and life-saving aid, but also posing serious risks to those involved in humanitarian efforts.”
Red Sea attacks force vessels to reroute as shipping industry faces crisis
The global shipping industry faces a crisis with two of the world’s main maritime routes disrupted.
At the Panama Canal, a major crossing between Asia and the US, authorities have reduced traffic by 36 percent due to an ongoing drought.
Some companies had planned to reroute via the Red Sea, but that’s become risky as the Yemen-based Houthis have been attacking ships in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.
‘Great deal of panic’ in Rafah after another night of bombing
The Israeli military continues bombing, killing and maiming Palestinians across Gaza, including an overnight attack on a residential home in eastern Rafah city, close to an area designated a “safe zone”.
The house was destroyed and a number of people are reported dead. It caused a great deal of panic and concern as people believe the military operation is expanding step by step.
In Khan Younis, most of the intense fighting is taking place in the vicinity of al-Amal Hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society, as well as around Nasser Hospital.
Nasser is the largest public health facility in Khan Younis and is under military siege for the ninth day in a row now. There is an extreme shortage of medical supplies and people are unable to go in and out of the hospital.
The al-Amal Hospital, where hundreds of people have been sheltering, has come under heavy artillery shelling, as well as constant attacks on people trying to leave for a safer area.
Israeli ‘evacuation orders’ affect much of Gaza Strip: UN
The “evacuation orders” issued by the Israeli army for Palestinians have directly impacted much of Gaza and its besieged population, according to the latest UN report.
The report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has tracked the orders, which come suddenly and leave Palestinians with little time. They started from the beginning of December, when the Israeli military started dividing the Gaza Strip into blocks.
Since December 1, the orders have covered 158 square kilometres (61 square miles), which amounts to 41 per cent of the Gaza strip.
“This area was home to 1.38 million Palestinians before October 7,” it said, adding that it contained 161 shelters hosting over 700,000 internally displaced Palestinians.
EU funding to UNRWA has ‘not been suspended’: Borrell
The European Union’s foreign policy chief has issued a statement saying that EU funding to UNRWA has “not been suspended”.
“Ongoing funding commitments by the EU have been implemented and funding has not been suspended,” a statement from Josep Borrell’s office said.
“The role of UNRWA is vital in the current circumstances in Gaza,” the statement added. “2 million people desperately need the aid provided by UNRWA and other UN agencies.”
Borrell welcomed “swift and decisive measures taken by UNRWA” in light of “very serious allegations against a number of UNRWA staff members”, and said “the EU will determine upcoming funding decisions in light of the outcome of the investigation”.
The European Union is one of UNRWA’s largest donors, providing around one-tenth of the UN agency’s funding per 2022 figures.
Israeli military says men killed in hospital were members of ‘Hamas terrorist cell’
The Israeli military has said that three men who were killed in the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin city were members of a “Hamas terrorist cell” planning to carry out terror attacks.
Writing on Telegram, the Israeli military said one of the men “had recently been involved in promoting significant terrorist activity and was hiding” in the hospital.
Two brothers were also assassinated, the post said. One was a member of the Jenin Battalion and was involved in numerous terror attacks, the Israeli military alleges, while the second was a member of Islamic Jihad and was also “involved in terror activities in the area”.
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the post reads.
Earlier we reported that an Israeli special forces unit entered the Ibn Sina Hospital overnight disguised as doctors, nurses and civilians, shooting the men while they slept without attempting to arrest them.
Palestine MoH: Israeli military carrying out ‘massacre inside hospitals’
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said Israel is guilty of “dozens of crimes… against treatment centers and staff” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
In a post on Telegram confirming the assassination of three Palestinian men by Israeli special forces inside the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin city, the ministry said that the Israeli military was “committing a new massacre inside hospitals”.
“The Minister of Health urgently called on the United Nations General Authority, international institutions and human rights organizations to put an end to the series of daily crimes committed by the occupation against our people and health centers in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” it wrote.
The Israeli military has claimed the three men – who were shot by undercover agents as they slept inside the hospital – were members of a “Hamas terrorist cell”.
Undercover Israeli forces kill three Palestinians inside Ibn Sina Hospital
This is an unusual event.
The Israeli military has been targeting hospitals in various ways throughout the duration of this war, as we know. But, going into a hospital as – essentially – a targeted hit squad to kill people inside the hospital, that has not happened since the beginning of this latest round of violence.
What we know about this is that overnight an undercover special forces unit went into the Ibn Sina Hospital, which is in the west of Jenin.
They were undercover in that they were dressed as doctors. Some of them dressed as nurses. Some of them dressed as civilians.
This unit was comprised of [Israeli] police and army. They went up to the third floor of the hospital and there they shot and killed three young Palestinians.
It doesn’t look like there was any attempt to arrest these men. So they went in there and they killed them as they were sleeping.
We understand that one of them was taking treatment in the hospital and had been for some three months since he was injured by the Israeli army.
Al Jazeera Arabic’s reporter in Jenin is saying that two of the people were brothers.
One of them was connected to the al-Qassam Brigades. That’s the armed wing of Hamas. The other two were connected to the Jenin Battalion. That’s Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
EU funding to UNRWA has ‘not been suspended’: Borrell
The European Union’s foreign policy chief has issued a statement saying that EU funding to UNRWA has “not been suspended”.
“Ongoing funding commitments by the EU have been implemented and funding has not been suspended,” a statement from Josep Borrell’s office said.
“The role of UNRWA is vital in the current circumstances in Gaza,” the statement added. “2 million people desperately need the aid provided by UNRWA and other UN agencies.”
Borrell welcomed “swift and decisive measures taken by UNRWA” in light of “very serious allegations against a number of UNRWA staff members”, and said “the EU will determine upcoming funding decisions in light of the outcome of the investigation”.
The European Union is one of UNRWA’s largest donors, providing around one-tenth of the UN agency’s funding per 2022 figures.
UN resolutions and ICJ ruling are ‘building blocks’: Palestinian ambassador
Majed Bamya, Palestine’s deputy UN representative, has said that recent international diplomatic and legal efforts are important, even if they have not yet led to an immediate ceasefire.
“Invoking the genocide convention … is part of an important and decisive shift that has been in the making for a long time [and] is long overdue. The massacres have not stopped but it is yet important,” Bamya said in a social media post.
“We are not dealing with a law-abiding state,” Bamya added. “Israel violates binding law, binding Security Council resolutions, binding international court decisions, binding treaties.”
“And yet these are building blocks that have helped defeat the Israeli narrative and isolate the Israeli position,” he said.
Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an interim ruling ordering Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.
The UN Security Council (UNSC) is set to discuss the ICJ’s ruling on Wednesday this week, following a request from Algeria.
On November 15 last year, the UNSC adopted a resolution calling for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” before Israel and Hamas agreed to a seven-day pause beginning on November 24.
Enemy drone that killed US forces in Jordan likely mistaken for friendly drone: Report
US officials told the Associated Press news agency that US forces may have mistaken an enemy drone for one of their own and let it pass unchallenged into a desert base in Jordan where it killed three US troops and wounded dozens.
As the enemy drone approached the base in Jordan at low altitude, a US drone was also returning to the military installation known as Tower 22, according to a preliminary report cited by two officials who spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.
As a result, there was no effort to shoot down the enemy drone that hit the US outpost. Trailers where troops slept sustained the brunt of the strike, while surrounding trailers sustained damage from the blast and flying debris.
Tower 22 is equipped with counter-drone systems, such as Coyote drone interceptors, according to the AP.
Asked if the failure to shoot down the enemy drone was “human error”, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh responded that the US Central Command was still assessing the matter, the AP reports.
More than 40 US soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Israeli forces destroy power and water lines in refugee camps
Local media reports ongoing raids by Israeli forces in the Nur Shams refugee camp and the Tulkarem refugee camp near the city of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military is restricting movement in the camps while its bulldozers damage infrastructure including roads, water, internet and electricity lines, the Wafa news agency reports.
Footage published by local media shows water flowing from a large storage tank in the Nur Shams camp.
Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, raids and arrests have been reported in the following locations:
The town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah
The town of Ya’bad in Jenin
The town of Burqa, northwest of Nablus
A man was arrested in the Al-Arroub camp in Hebron
A man was arrested in the village of Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah
The Israeli military fired tear gas at Palestinian men walking in the street in Bethlehem
Five Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces in Jenin allege torture
Five Palestinians arrested by the Israeli military during a raid on the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Monday say that they were tortured in custody, Wafa reports.
The men were taken to an Israeli settlement called Mabu Dothan south of Jenin, where they say soldiers handcuffed, blindfolded and beat them over the course of 10 hours. Israeli soldiers also submerged them in cold water, the men said.
The men were transferred to the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on their release.
Replace Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory with “protection” force: UN envoy
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has again called for Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territory to be replaced by a “protection presence”, in a post on social media highlighting the daily abuses inflicted by Israeli forces on people under their control.
Accompanying a video clip showing an Israeli soldier physically assaulting a young Palestinian boy in Hebron for no apparent reason, Albanese said: “This is what Apartheid enforced through military rule looks like”.
Describing the assault on the boy as “an unchilding experience”, the UN envoy on the human rights situation in occupied Palestinian territories said Israel’s military needs to be replaced as it had “proven unwilling and unable to act as a good faith occupier for decades” and for “generations of Palestinians”.
UNRWA ‘cannot be replaced’, say 21 humanitarian aid organisations
Twenty-one aid organisations – including ActionAid, Oxfam and Save the Children – have issued a joint statement in support of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA.
“We are outraged that some donors have united to suspend funding for UNRWA … amid a rapidly worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” the organisations said.
“UNRWA is the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza and their delivery of humanitarian assistance cannot be replaced by other agencies working in Gaza,” the organisations, many of which also provide humanitarian assistance in the besieged Palestinian enclave, wrote.
Some “152 UNRWA staff have already been killed and 145 UNRWA facilities damaged by bombardment”, since October, the organisations also noted.
New Zealand suspends UNRWA funding
New Zealand on Tuesday became the latest country to suspend funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said New Zealand had paused funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) until Israeli allegations against some of its staff are investigated.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday the UN was working to “swiftly and efficiently” investigate the allegations and that “the contracts of the staff members directly involved have been terminated”, as the UN had announced on Friday.
“At this point, the outlook for UNRWA and the millions of people it serves, not only in Gaza, but also in East Jerusalem, in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, is very bleak,” Dujarric added.
