Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said on Tuesday that “there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous” than the lawsuit filed in the international court of justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocidal actions against Palestinians in the Gaza war.
Speaking to the visiting US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Reuters reports Herzog censured South Africa for bringing the case, which is due to begin hearings on Thursday, and thanked Washington for its support of Israel.
More than 23,000 Palestinians are said by the health ministry there to have been killed by Israeli military action in the 13-and-a-half weeks since 7 October, with more than 85% of Palestinians in Gaza displaced from their homes by order of the Israeli military. Independent experts estimate as much as 40% of the housing in Gaza has already been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli assault.
The UN has previously said that 40% of the population in Gaza is at risk of starvation, with limited humanitarian aid getting into the territory. Israel insists on inspecting all aid delivered, and has periodically cut off utilities and communications within Gaza.
Here is a photograph issued of the meeting between Israel’s president Isaac Herzog and US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv.
During the public portion of the meeting Herzog said a lawsuit filed in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in its Gaza offensive was “atrocious and preposterous”.
Reuters reports he went on to say:
Actually our enemies, Hamas, in their charter, call for the destruction of our nation, the State of Israel – the only nation-state of the Jewish people.
We will be there at the International Court of Justice and will present proudly our case of using self-defence under our most inherent right under international humanitarian law.
Herzog added Israel must win “because it is a war that affects international values and the values of the free world.”
Israel launched its campaign after the surprise attack inside southern Israel by Hamas on 7 October which killed about 1,200 people, and during which an estimated 240 people were seized and abducted into Gaza as hostages. Just over 100 of those hostages have subsequently been released.
In the last 45 minutes a series of warning sirens have sounded in northern Israel, including at kibbutz Yiftah, Safed and Birya.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said on Tuesday that “there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous” than the lawsuit filed in the international court of justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocidal actions against Palestinians in the Gaza war.
Speaking to the visiting US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Reuters reports Herzog censured South Africa for bringing the case, which is due to begin hearings on Thursday, and thanked Washington for its support of Israel.
More than 23,000 Palestinians are said by the health ministry there to have been killed by Israeli military action in the 13-and-a-half weeks since 7 October, with more than 85% of Palestinians in Gaza displaced from their homes by order of the Israeli military. Independent experts estimate as much as 40% of the housing in Gaza has already been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli assault.
The UN has previously said that 40% of the population in Gaza is at risk of starvation, with limited humanitarian aid getting into the territory. Israel insists on inspecting all aid delivered, and has periodically cut off utilities and communications within Gaza.
The Times of Israel is reporting that “a high-level Israeli delegation” arrived for talks in Cairo last night, which it says is an indication that “indirect talks” about freeing hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are “back on track”.
Meanwhile, some families of Israeli hostages being held have gathered for a planned protest at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. They are intending to draw attention to the plight of the estimated more than 130 people still being held after being abducted from southern Israel on 7 October.
Shai Wenkert, whose 22-year-old son is a captive, told the Ynet news site: “We will arrive at Kerem Shalom crossing to prevent the entry of goods and medications to the Gaza Strip.”
In a statement Israel’s military has said it has expanded its ground operation in the city of Khan Younis inside the Gaza Strip.
The IDF claims that “dozens of terrorists were killed” and “large quantities of weapons and underground terror tunnel shafts were located”. The claims have not been independently verified.
In the statement, issued on the Telegram messaging app, it said:
Over the past day, IDF troops expanded ground operations in Khan Younis and conducted strikes in which approximately 40 terrorists were killed. In addition, significant terror tunnel shafts were located, as well as a variety of weapons, including 12 AK-47 rifles, four loaded RPG launchers, dozens of grenades, cartridges, and military vests.
The statement also claimed to have “conducted a targeted raid on a military compound in Khan Younis” and also said that “the Israeli navy also struck military posts, storage facilities, and vessels used by Hamas’s naval forces”.
Israel says that 182 of its soldiers have so far been killed during fighting inside the Gaza Strip. The health ministry in Gaza says more than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military activity since 7 October. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures issued during the conflict.
Israel’s assault on Gaza intensified over the past 24 hours, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said in its latest update, with 249 Palestinians killed, and another 510 injured, according to figures from the territory’s ministry of health.
It said the Israeli offensive in central Gaza and in Khan Younis in the south was having a particularly awful impact, with “rapidly rising casualties” and “devastating consequences for tens of thousands of civilians” many of whom were already displaced having fled fighting in northern Gaza.
The deadliest Israeli strikes on Monday included one on residential houses in Deir al-Balah, in which 10 people were reportedly killed and tens injured, and one on UNRWA preparatory school of al-Maghazi, where displaced people were sheltering and where an unknown number were killed.
It also said Israeli authorities were denying permission to OCHA and the World Health Organization to deliver urgent medical supplies. It said:
For instance, on 8 January, a planned mission by OCHA and WHO to deliver urgent medical supplies to the Central Drug Store in Gaza City and al-Awda hospital in Jabalia, as well as planned missions to deliver vital fuel to water and sanitation facilities in Gaza City and the north, have been denied by the Israeli authorities.
This marked the fifth denial of a mission to al-Awda hospital in Jabalia and Central Drug Store in Gaza City since 26 December, leaving five hospitals in northern Gaza without access to life-saving medical supplies and equipment.
The Israeli military has published the names of four soldiers who have died in Gaza, bringing the total number of those killed in the territory to 182.
The dead were named as Sgt 1st Class (res) Gavriel Bloom, Sgt 1st Class (res) David Schwartz, Sgt 1st Class (res) Yair Hexter, and Sgt Roi Tal.
Graphic video has emerged from the West Bank, showing three men being shot dead at close range by Israeli forces on Monday night in the city of Tulkarem.
The videos, which are circulating on social media and could not be verified, show soldiers continuing to fire at an injured Palestinian lying on the ground and an Israeli armoured vehicle running over one of the bodies of the dead men before halting and then continuing over the body, dragging it for several metres.
The Israeli military (IDF) claimed the men were militants, according to Al Jazeera. The broadcaster said that the militant Tulkarem Brigade said only one of those killed was a fighter. Neither claim could be verified.
A fourth man was reportedly shot in the leg and arrested by the Israeli military.
Al Jazeera said clashes broke out in Tulkarem after the IDF went into arrest a wanted Palestinian fighter.
The city, and much of the West Bank, have been the scene of repeated clashes since the Hamas invasion of 7 October, as the IDF carries out raids.
A total of 329 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF and Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 7 October, according to the UN. The dead include 84 children.
More than 4,000 Palestinians, including more than 600 children, have been injured in the West Bank.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is in Tel Aviv, where he will try to convince the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to begin serious negotiations on postwar governance in Gaza, do more to protect civilians in Gaza, and allow more aid into the territory.
“I will press on the absolute imperative to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it,” said Blinken, who has spent the past two days holding talks with Arab leaders.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, will tell Blinken that civilians in Gaza will not be allowed back to the north of the territory unless more of the hostages held by Hamas are released, Axios reported citing two senior Israeli officials.
The US has offered staunch support to Israel since the outbreak of its war with Hamas three months ago, but Netanyahu has angered Washington by so far refusing to offer any detailed public plans for the governance of Gaza when Israel’s military offensive ends. He has rejected the US’s preferred option, the creation of unified Palestinian state comprising of the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel has also come under growing pressure from the US, its closest ally, and Arab leaders to scale back its assault on Gaza.
The US president, Joe Biden, confronted on Monday by protesters shouting “ceasefire now” while visiting an historic Black church in South Carolina, said he had been “quietly” working to encourage Israel to ease its attacks and “significantly get out of Gaza”.
Israeli officials have said the operation is entering a new phase of more targeted warfare, but there has been no apparent respite in the fighting. The death toll in Gaza has continued to mount steadily, with at least 23,084 Palestinians killed and thousands more buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Blinken is also on a mission to prevent the conflict from escalating further; in the latest signs the war is spreading beyond the borders of Israel and Gaza, Israel killed a top commander of Hamas’s ally Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Monday as well as a Hamas commander in Syria.
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East with me, Helen Livingstone.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is in Tel Aviv, where he will hold meetings aimed at persuading the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to scale back Israel’s assault on Gaza, and begin serious negotiations on postwar governance in Gaza as well as doing more to protect civilians there.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, will tell Blinken that civilians in Gaza will not be allowed back to the north of the territory unless more of the hostages held by Hamas are released, Axios reported citing two senior Israeli officials.
Blinken, who flew in late on Monday from the Saudi oasis town of AlUla, has spent the past two days holding talks with Arab leaders. He said he had found a “clear interest in the region” in normalising relations with Israel, but only if the war ended and a clear pathway to Palestinian statehood could be found.
On his fourth trip to the Middle East in the three months Blinken is also attempting to stop the conflict spreading beyond Israel and Gaza; Israel killed a top commander of Hamas’s ally Hezbollah in south Lebanon on Monday as well as a Hamas commander in Syria.
More on that soon. In other key developments:
At least 23,084 Palestinians have been killed and 58,926 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the Gaza health ministry on Monday. The ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 249 Palestinians were killed and 510 were wounded in the previous 24 hours.
The UN rights office has said it is “very concerned” by the number of journalists killed in the war in Gaza, a day after two Al Jazeera reporters were killed in an alleged Israeli strike on their car. The killing of journalists “must be thoroughly, independently investigated to ensure strict compliance with international law, and violations prosecuted”, the UN office said on Monday. Meanwhile, Israel’s supreme court has rejected a request from international media organisations to allow journalists to report in Gaza.
The only hospital remaining in central Gaza is on the verge of shutting down amid intense fighting that has engulfed the area, a UN spokesperson has said. Medics, patients and displaced people have been fleeing from Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, according to witnesses. The Israeli military has dropped leaflets designating areas surrounding Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah as a “red zone”, the International Rescue Committee said.
Three Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday.
Joe Biden’s speech at Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, South Carolina, was interrupted by pro-Palestine activists, who called for a ceasefire in Gaza. As the protest dissipated, Biden said: “I have been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza and using all that I can to do that.”
Israel has killed a senior military commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Wissam Hassan al Tawil, in an air strike in southern Lebanon approximately 6km from the border. It comes amid warnings from Lebanese security sources that the assassination could lead to a further escalation in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Shia armed movement.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has killed a Hamas operative who it claimed was responsible for rockets attacks against Israel from Syria. Hassan Hakashah was killed by Israeli forces in Beit Jinn in Syria, the IDF said in a statement on Monday.
Israel is carrying out an unprecedented wave of deadly strikes in Syria targeting cargo trucks, infrastructure and people involved in Iran’s weapons lifeline to its proxies in the region, sources have told Reuters. The sources said Israel had shifted strategies following the 7 October attack by Hamas fighters into Israeli territory and the ensuing Israeli bombing campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement has released video footage it claimed showed an Israeli hostage taken during the 7 October attacks. The hostage has been named by Israeli media as Elad Katzir, 47, from Nir Oz kibbutz.
UN experts have demanded accountability for sexual violence allegedly carried out by Hamas militants against Israeli civilians during the 7 October attacks, saying that mounting evidence of rapes and genital mutilation point to possible crimes against humanity. Israeli authorities have opened an investigation into possible sexual crimes during the most deadly attack on Israel in its history.
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2024-01-09 06:14:00Z
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