Middle-East
US, Britain strike Yemen's Houthis in a new wave, retaliating for attacks by Iran-backed militants
The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. But Washington once more did not directly target Iran as it tries to find a balance between a forceful response and intensifying the conflict.
The latest strikes against the Houthis were launched by U.S. warships and American and British fighter jets. The strikes follow an air assault in Iraq and Syria on Friday that targeted other Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend.
The Houthi targets were in 13 different locations and were struck by U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, by British Typhoon FGR4 fighter aircraft and by the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and the USS Carney firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, according to U.S. officials and the U.K. Defense Ministry. The U.S. officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the military operation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. warned that its response after the soldiers’ deaths at the Tower 22 base in Jordan last Sunday would not be limited to one night, one target or one group. While there has been no suggestion the Houthis were directly responsible, they have been one of the prime U.S. adversaries since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said that more than 26,000 people have been killed and more than 64,400 wounded in the Israeli military operation since the war began.
The Houthis have been conducting almost daily missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and they have made clear that they have no intention of scaling back their campaign despite pressure from the American and British campaign.
Read: US forces strike Houthi sites in Yemen as Biden says allied action hasn't yet stopped ship attacks
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, said “military operations against Israel will continue until the crimes of genocide in Gaza are stopped and the siege on its residents is lifted, no matter the sacrifices it costs us.” He wrote online that the “American-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will meet escalation with escalation.”
The Biden administration has indicated that this is likely not the last of its strikes. The U.S. has blamed the Jordan attack on the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of Iranian-backed militias. Iran has tried to distance itself from the drone strike, saying the militias act independently of its direction.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that the military action, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels.”
He added: “We will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”
The Defense Department said the strikes targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems, radars and helicopters. The British military said it struck a ground control station west of Yemen's capital, Sanaa, that has been used to control Houthi drones that have launched against vessels in the Red Sea.
Read: Houthi rebels strike a US-owned ship off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, raising tensions
President Joe Biden was briefed on the strikes before he left Delaware on Saturday for a West Coast campaign trip, according to an administration official.
The latest strikes marked the third time the U.S. and Britain had conducted a large joint operation to strike Houthi weapon launchers, radar sites and drones. The strikes in Yemen are meant to underscore the broader message to Iran that Washington holds Tehran responsible for arming, funding and training the array of militias — from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen — who are behind attacks across the Mideast against U.S. and international interests.
Video shared online by people in Sanaa included the sound of explosions and at least one blast was seen lighting up the night sky. Residents described the blasts as happening around buildings associated with the Yemeni presidential compound. The Houthi-controlled state-run news agency, SABA, reported strikes in al-Bayda, Dhamar, Hajjah, Hodeida, Taiz and Sanaa provinces.
Hours before the latest joint operation, the U.S. took another self-defense strike on a site in Yemen, destroying six anti-ship cruise missiles, as it has repeatedly when it has detected a missile or drone ready to launch. The day before the strikes the U.S. destroyer Laboon and F/A-18s from the Eisenhower shot down seven drones fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen into the Red Sea and the destroyer Carney shot down a drone fired in the Gulf of Aden and U.S. forces took out four more drones that were prepared to launch.
The Houthis’ attacks have led shipping companies to reroute their vessels from the Red Sea, sending them around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope — a much longer, costlier and less efficient passage. The threats also have led the U.S. and its allies to set up a joint mission where warships from participating nations provide a protective umbrella of air defense for ships as they travel the critical waterway that runs from the Suez Canal down to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
During normal operations about 400 commercial vessels transit the southern Red Sea at any given time.
Read: Who are the Houthis and why did the US and UK retaliate for their attacks on ships in the Red Sea?
In the wake of the strikes Friday in Iraq and Syria, Hussein al-Mosawi, spokesperson for Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the main Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, said Washington “must understand that every action elicits a reaction.” But in an AP interview in Baghdad, he also struck a more conciliatory tone. "We do not wish to escalate or widen regional tensions,” he said.
Iraqi officials have attempted to rein in the militias, while also condemning U.S. retaliatory strikes as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and calling for an exit of the 2,500 U.S. troops who are in the country as part of an international coalition to fight the Islamic State group. Last month, Iraqi and U.S. military officials launched formal talks to wind down the coalition’s presence, a process that will likely take years.
Hamas shows signs of resurgence in parts of Gaza where Israeli troops largely withdrew weeks ago
Hamas has begun to resurface in areas where Israel withdrew the bulk of its forces a month ago, deploying police officers and making partial salary payments to some of its civil servants in Gaza City in recent days, four residents and a senior official in the militant group said Saturday.
Signs of a Hamas resurgence in Gaza's largest city underscore the group's resilience despite Israel's deadly air and ground campaign over the past four months. Israel has said it's determined to crush Hamas and prevent it from returning to power in Gaza, an enclave it has ruled since 2007.
In recent days, Israeli forces renewed strikes in the western and northwestern parts of Gaza City, including in areas where some of the salary distributions were reported to have taken place.
Four Gaza City residents told The Associated Press that in recent days, uniformed and plainclothes police officers deployed near police headquarters and other government offices, including near Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest. The residents said they saw the return of civil servants and subsequent Israeli airstrikes near the makeshift offices.
The return of police marks an attempt to reinstate order in the devastated city after Israel withdrew a significant number of troops from northern Gaza last month, a Hamas official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The official said the group’s leaders had given directions to reestablish order in parts of the north where Israeli forces had withdrawn, including by helping prevent the looting of shops and houses abandoned by residents who had heeded repeated Israeli evacuation orders and headed to the southern half of Gaza.
During Israel's ground offensive, many homes and buildings were left half-standing or reduced to piles of scrap, rubble and dust.
Saeed Abdel-Bar, a resident of Gaza City, said a cousin received funds from a makeshift Hamas office near the hospital that was set up to distribute $200 payouts to government employees, including police officers and municipal workers.
Since seizing control of Gaza nearly 17 years ago, Hamas has been operating a government bureaucracy with tens of thousands of civil servants, including teachers, traffic cops and civil police who operate separately from the group's secretive military wing.
The partial salary payments of $200 for at least some government employees signal that Israel has not delivered a knockout blow to Hamas, even as it claims to have killed more than 9,000 Hamas fighters.
Ahmed Abu Hadrous, a Gaza City resident, said Israeli warplanes struck the area where the makeshift office is located multiple times earlier this week, including Saturday morning.
The strikes come roughly a month after Israeli military leaders said they had broken up the command structure of Hamas battalions in the north, but that individual fighters were continuing to carry out guerrilla-style attacks.
Meanwhile, combat continued in southern Gaza on Saturday.
At least 11 people were injured when Israel’s military fired smoke bombs at displaced people sheltering at the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent in the southern city of Khan Younis, the organization said. It didn’t elaborate, and the Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The injuries followed a siege that the Israeli military has laid on the Red Crescent's facilities for 12 days, the organization said.
The charity also said it documented the killing of 43 people, including three staff members, inside the buildings by Israeli fire in those 12 days. Another 153 were injured, it said.
At least 17 people, including women and children, were killed in two separate airstrikes overnight in Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, according to the registration office at a hospital where the bodies were taken.
The first strike hit a residential building east of Rafah, killing at least 13 people from the Hijazi family. The dead included four women and three children, hospital officials said. The second strike struck a house in the Jeneina area of Rafah, killing at least two men and two women from the Hams family.
“Two children are still under the rubble, and we don’t, still we don’t know anything about them,” relative Ahmad Hijazi said.
The 17 bodies were taken to the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, the main health facility in Rafah, and were seen by an AP journalist.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said Saturday that 107 people were killed over the preceding 24-hour period, bringing the wartime total to 27,238. More than 66,000 people have been wounded.
More than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has taken refuge in Rafah and surrounding areas. A United Nations official on Friday said Rafah was becoming a “pressure cooker of despair.”
Israel's defense minister warned earlier this week that Israel might expand combat to Rafah after focusing for the last few weeks on Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza. While the statement has alarmed aid officials and international diplomats, Israel would risk significantly disrupting strategic relationships with the United States and Egypt if it were to send troops into Rafah.
International mediators continue to work to close wide gaps between Israel and Hamas over a proposed cease-fire deal put forth this week, nearly four month since Hamas and other militants captured about 250 hostages during their deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war.
Hamas continue to hold dozens of captives, after more than 100 were released during a one-week truce in November. Those releases were in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The conflict has leveled vast swaths of the tiny coastal enclave, displaced 85% of its population and pushed a quarter of residents to starvation.
Meanwhile, United States — which has negotiated tenants of the deal along with Israel, Egypt and Qatar — launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard late Friday, in the opening salvo of retaliation for the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan last weekend.
Are Israel and Lebanon prepping for a full-scale war?
The prospect of a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia terrifies people on both sides of the border, but some see it as an inevitable fallout from Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
Such a war could be the most destructive either side has ever experienced.
Israel and Hezbollah each have lessons from their last war, in 2006, a monthlong conflict that ended in a draw. They’ve also had four months to prepare for another war, even as the United States tries to prevent a widening of the conflict.
Here’s a look at each side’s preparedness, how war might unfold and what’s being done to prevent it.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2006?
The 2006 war, six years after Israeli forces withdrew from south Lebanon, erupted after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed several others in a cross-border raid.
Israel launched a full-scale air and ground offensive and imposed a blockade that aimed to free the hostages and destroy Hezbollah’s military capabilities — a mission that ultimately failed.Israeli bombing leveled large swaths of south Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs. Hezbollah fired thousands of unguided rockets into northern Israel communities.
The conflict killed some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
A United Nations resolution ending the war called for withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and a demilitarized zone on Lebanon’s side of the border.
Despite the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers, Hezbollah continues to operate in the border area, while Lebanon says Israel regularly violates its airspace and continues to occupy pockets of Lebanese land.
HOW PROBABLE IS WAR?
An Israel-Hezbollah war “would be a total disaster,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last month, amid a flurry of shuttle diplomacy by the U.S. and Europe.
Iran-backed Hezbollah seemed caught off-guard by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, a regional ally. Since then, Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged daily cross-border strikes, escalating gradually. Israel also carried out targeted killings of Hezbollah and Hamas figures in Lebanon.
More than 200 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also more than 20 civilians, have been killed on Lebanon’s side, and 18 on Israel’s.
Tens of thousands have been displaced on both sides. There are no immediate prospects for their return.
Israeli political and military leaders have warned Hezbollah that war is increasingly probable unless the militants withdraw from the border.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hasn’t threatened to initiate war but warned of a fight “without limits” if Israel does. Hezbollah says it won’t agree to a ceasefire on the Israel-Lebanon border before there’s one in Gaza and has rebuffed a U.S. proposal to move its forces several kilometers (miles) back from the border, according to Lebanese officials.
Despite the rhetoric, neither side appears to want war, said Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon. However, “a miscalculation could potentially trigger a wider conflict that would be very difficult to control,” he said.
HOW PREPARED ARE THEY?
Both Hezbollah and the Israeli military have expanded capabilities since 2006 — yet both countries also are more fragile.
In Lebanon, four years of economic crisis have crippled public institutions, including its army and electrical grid, and eroded its health system. The country hosts more than 1 million Syrian refugees.
Lebanon adopted an emergency plan for a war scenario in late October. It projected the forcible displacement of 1 million Lebanese for 45 days.
About 87,000 Lebanese are displaced from the border area. While the government is relying on international organizations to fund the response, many groups working in Lebanon can’t maintain existing programs.
The U.N. refugee agency has provided supplies to collective shelters and given emergency cash to some 400 families in south Lebanon, spokesperson Lisa Abou Khaled said. The agency doesn’t have funds to support large numbers of displaced in the event of war, she said.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders said it has stockpiled some 10 tons of medical supplies and backup fuel for hospital generators in areas most likely to be affected by a widening conflict, in anticipation of a blockade.
Israel is feeling economic and social strain from the war in Gaza, which is expected to cost over $50 billion, or about 10 percent of national economic activity through the end of 2024, according to the Bank of Israel. Costs would rise sharply if there’s war with Lebanon.
“No one wants this war, or wishes it on anyone,” said Tal Beeri of the Alma Research and Education Center, a think tank focusing on northern Israel security. But he said he believes an armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is inevitable, arguing that diplomatic solutions appear unlikely and would only allow Hezbollah’s strategic threats to increase.
Israel has evacuated 60,000 residents from towns nearest the border, where there’s no warning time for rocket launches because of the proximity of Hezbollah squads.
In a war, there would be no point in additional evacuations since the militia’s rockets and missiles can reach all of Israel.
After the Oct. 7 attack, the war in Gaza had broad domestic support, even if there’s now a growing debate over its direction. Around half of Israelis would support war with Hezbollah as a last resort for restoring border security, according to recent polling by the think tank Israel Democracy Institute.
In Lebanon, some have criticized Hezbollah for exposing the country to another potentially devastating war. Others support the group’s limited entry into the conflict and believe Hezbollah’s arsenal will deter Israel from escalating.
HOW WOULD WAR PLAY OUT?
A full-scale war would likely spread to multiple fronts, escalating the involvement of Iranian proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen — and perhaps even draw in Iran itself.
It could also drag the U.S., Israel’s closest ally, deeper into the conflict. The U.S. already has dispatched additional warships to the region.
Hezbollah has 150,000 to 200,000 rockets and missiles of various ranges, said Orna Mizrahi of the Israeli think tank Institute for National Security Studies. This arsenal is at least five times larger than that of Hamas and far more accurate, she said.
The militia’s guided projectiles could reach water, electricity or communications facilities, and densely populated residential areas.
In Lebanon, airstrikes would likely wreak havoc on infrastructure and potentially kill thousands. Netanyahu has threatened to “turn Beirut into Gaza,” where Israel’s air and ground incursion has caused widespread destruction and killed more than 26,000 people, according to Hamas-controlled Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israel is far more protected, with several air defense systems, including the Iron Dome, which intercepts rockets with a roughly 90% success rate. But it can get overwhelmed if a mass barrage of rockets is fired.
Some 40% of Israel’s population live in newer homes with private safe rooms fortified with blast protection to withstand rocket attacks. Israel also has a network of bomb shelters, but a 2020 government report says about one-third of Israelis lack easy access to them.
Lebanon has no such network, and shelters would be of little use against massive “bunker buster” bombs Israel has dropped in Gaza.
Hezbollah has limited air defenses, while those of the Lebanese army are outdated and insufficient because of budget shortfalls, said Dina Arakji, with the UK-based risk consultancy firm Control Risks.
The Lebanese army has remained on the sidelines over the past four months. In 2006, it entered fighting in a limited capacity, but it’s unclear how it would react in the event of a new Israel-Hezbollah war.
ICJ ruling offers hope for protection of civilians enduring apocalyptic conditions in Gaza: UN experts
The landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) offers the first concrete hope to protect civilians in Gaza enduring apocalyptic humanitarian conditions, destruction, mass killing, wounding and irreparable trauma, UN experts said on Wednesday.
“The ruling is a significant milestone in the decades-long struggle for justice by the Palestinian people,” the experts said in a statement issued from Geneva.
The ICJ found it plausible that Israel’s acts could amount to genocide and issued six provisional measures, ordering Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocidal acts, including preventing and punishing incitement to genocide, ensuring aid and services reach Palestinians under siege in Gaza, and preserving evidence of crimes committed in Gaza.
Israel military operation destroys a Gaza cemetery. Israel says Hamas used the site to hide a tunnel
“We echo the sense of urgency demonstrated by the Court in its short, two-week deliberation, as hundreds of Palestinians, primarily women and children, are being killed by Israeli forces every day, resulting in a death toll of 26,751 people in Gaza over the past three months. This amounts to over 1% of the population.
“The court order is urgently needed to protect the very existence of the Palestinian people from potentially genocidal actions the Court has ordered Israel to halt and prevent,” the experts said.
“Given the dire situation on the ground and the careful wording of the Court, we believe that the most effective way to implement the provisional measures is through an immediate ceasefire.”
In the ICJ proceedings, South Africa contended that Israel is violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention with its military assault on Gaza, which began on 8 October, after the attack by Hamas and Palestinian armed groups in Israel, which killed 1,200 people and wounded many more. 240 people were also taken hostage in the attack.
During oral hearings earlier this month, Israel sought to have the case dismissed by the ICJ judges—a motion that was rejected last Friday (26 January).
“We see the decision as dismissing Israel’s justification of its actions as self-defence in compliance with international humanitarian law,” the experts said.
“The Court found that Israel cannot continue to bombard, displace, and starve the population of Gaza, while allowing its officials to dehumanise Palestinians through statements that may amount to genocidal incitement.”
According to the experts, the period since 7 October marks one of the grimmest in the histories of both Palestine and Israel.
The 7 October attack, which the experts firmly condemned as war crimes, sent shockwaves across the world.
Fighting across Gaza as UN aid agency faces more cuts
In Israel, families continue to mourn the dead and heal the wounds of terror they experienced on 7 October.
Reiterating that all parties to the conflict, including Hamas, remain bound by international humanitarian law, the ICJ called for the release of the hostages.
“Their fate remains unknown, an agony for families longing for their safe return,” the experts said.
“In the spiralling violence that followed, marked by ineffective or absent international pressure, and politicisation of UN fora, the ICJ’s order tilts the balance toward a global order based on justice and international law,” the experts said. “This is the only basis for lasting peace and stability between Palestinians and Israelis.”
“We call on Israel to adhere to the ICJ order. The burden now shifts to Israel, to show that it has effectively eliminated the risk of genocide that the Court found to be plausible. By the time Israel reports to the Court in one month, Palestinians must have access to food, water, healthcare, and safety, that have long been denied to them,” they said.
In light of the urgency of the situation and the real risk of irreparable harm to the people in Gaza, the experts also urged states parties to the Genocide Convention to abide by their obligations to prevent genocide, taking all measures in their power to ensure implementation of the ICJ’s provisional measures. The experts also stressed the critical role that civil society plays to give effect to this ruling.
Israel notes 'significant gaps' after cease-fire talks with US, Qatar, Egypt but says constructive
The experts are: Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Cecilia M. Bailliet, Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity; Aua Baldé (Chair-Rapporteur), Gabriella Citroni (Vice-Chair), Angkhana Neelapaijit, Grażyna Baranowska, Ana Lorena Delgadillo Perez, Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances; Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development; Tomoya Obokata, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; Ashwini K.P. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; Alexandra Xanthaki, Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights; Bina D’Costa, Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls; Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Ms Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of freedom of opinion and expression; Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Livingstone Sewanyana, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Robert McCorquodale (Chair-Rapporteur), Fernanda Hopenhaym (Vice-Chair), Pichamon Yeophantong, Damilola Olawuyi, Elzbieta Karska, Working Group on business and human rights; Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association; Claudia Mahler, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons; Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
Israel military operation destroys a Gaza cemetery. Israel says Hamas used the site to hide a tunnel
The Islamic cemetery in southern Gaza was demolished, graves excised from the earth. A skull with no teeth rested atop the sandy, churned rubble.
The neighborhood of Bani Suheila in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, which soldiers showed foreign journalists Saturday, was obliterated, transformed by the military’s search for underground Hamas tunnels. An Associated Press journalist saw a destroyed mosque and — where the cemetery had once been – a 140-meter-(yard)-wide pit that gave way to what the army called a Hamas attack tunnel underneath. The military said Monday that combat engineers had demolished part of the network, releasing a video showing massive explosions in the area.
As Israel moves forward with a ground and air campaign in Gaza that health officials in the besieged enclave say has claimed over 26,000 Palestinian lives, the military’s destruction of holy sites has drawn staunch criticism from Palestinians and rights groups, who say the offensive is also an assault on cultural heritage. Under international law, cemeteries and religious sites receive special protection — and destroying them could be considered a war crime.
Israel says Hamas uses such sites as military cover, removing them of these protections. It says there is no way to accomplish its military goal of defeating Hamas without finding the tunnels, where they say the militants have built command and control centers, transported weapons and hidden some of the 130 hostages it is believed to be holding. They say digging up the tunnels involves unavoidable collateral damage to sacrosanct spaces.
“We’re not naive anymore,” said Israeli Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, who led journalists around the site Saturday.
Israel has made similar arguments in operations in and around Gaza hospitals.
Goldfus brought journalists inside a tunnel shaft he said stretched underneath the mosque and the cemetery. The journalists walked down a long concrete tunnel that branched in multiple directions and arrived at a small collection of rooms soldiers alleged were used by Hamas militants as a command and control center.
It included three domed rooms — one with four chairs, one with a desk, and a kitchen with empty cans of beans and a spice rack. A military commander said the tunnel, which contained a power transformer, fans, piping with wires and light switches, stretched 800 meters (yards) and was connected to a larger tunnel network in southern Gaza.
The army says it has found similar warrens of rooms in tunnels all over the Gaza Strip. It alleged the quarters shown to journalists Saturday included the office of a Hamas commander, an operations room, and living quarters for senior members of Hamas. It said the tunnel was used to plan attacks against the military.
The demolished cemetery, according to a satellite analysis, appears to have been the Shuhadaa Bani Suheila graveyard.
Since Israel declared war against Hamas on Oct. 7, it has repeatedly accused the Islamic militant group of using Gaza’s civilian sites as cover for military use. It says that military operations — from raiding hospitals to digging up cemeteries and destroying holy sites — are necessary to dismantle the militants’ command centers and bunkers.
On Oct. 7, Hamas militants poured into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and dragging some 250 hostages back to Gaza. Over 100 hostages were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has displaced most of the 2.3 million population. According to a U.N. monitor, the military has damaged 161 mosques in the course of its operations. The agency said it has not tracked the number of cemeteries that were damaged.
On Saturday, Goldfus swept his gloved hand across the moonscape surrounding him. The golden dome of the mosque was cracked and off-kilter, slumping down onto its shattered walls.
Goldfus said that Israeli forces destroyed the mosque after militants fired at them from within its grounds. Footage circulated on Israeli media showed soldiers using explosives to blow out the mosque's first floor walls, collapsing it.
UNESCO has called on both Hamas and Israel to refrain from attacking culturally important sites.
Under the Rome Statute, the 1998 treaty that established the International Criminal Court, cemeteries and mosques receive special protection as “civilian property.” The destruction of these sites can be considered a war crime, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Israel argues the sites lose their protection when they are used for military purposes, and when the operational gain from targeting them outweighs the loss of civilian life and infrastructure.
Goldfus said that forces had found other traces of Hamas activity in the area, from confiscated AK-47s to a map of the border between Gaza and Israel that he said Hamas might have used for the Oct. 7 attack.
He said destroying the mosque and digging up the cemetery was integral to locating some 60 tunnel shafts in the area. The journalists were shown only one shaft.
Dismantling the tunnel network, Goldfus said, posed a “riddle” to forces. He said it is difficult to operate in the area without harming sacred sites and even human remains.
“We try to move them aside as much as possible,” he said when asked about the excavated bodies. “But remember, when we are fighting in this place, and your enemy is flanking you again and again and again, and using these compounds to hide in, there’s not much you can do.”
Fighting across Gaza as UN aid agency faces more cuts
Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in different parts of Gaza on Monday, even in northern areas where the army has been operating for months, and militants fired a barrage of around 15 rockets at central Israel for the first time in weeks.
Cease-fire talks are ongoing, but Israel has said “ significant gaps ” remain in any potential agreement. The talks are meant to bring about some respite to Gaza and secure the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages still held by militants.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, most of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Despite the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the besieged territory, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians faced more funding cuts Monday. Some Western countries froze vital funds for UNRWA amid accusations that 12 of its roughly 13,000 employees in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war.
The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. About 250 people were taken captive, according to Israeli authorities.
Here's the latest:
UN URGES DONOR COUNTRIES TO AID PALESTINIAN REFUGEES ACROSS MIDEAST
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations is urging all donor countries to ensure they meet “the dire needs” of millions of Palestinians who rely on the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — not only in Gaza but in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Right now, the outlook for the UNRWA and the Palestinians it serves “is very bleak,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday.
“The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met,” he said.
Major donors to UNRWA, including the U.S. and some European Union members including Germany, have suspended funding following accusations that 12 of its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
The EU, a major donor, has not suspended aid, and its next disbursement isn’t scheduled until the end of February. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell spoke to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday about the allegations and “the EU will determine upcoming funding decisions in light of the outcome of the investigations,” the EU said in a statement Monday.
Dujarric said the contracts of the accused employees have been terminated, the U.N.’s internal watchdog is investigating, and the U.N. Secretariat is ready to cooperate with any “competent authority” able to prosecute any UNRWA employee involved “in acts of terror.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will host a meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York on Tuesday afternoon, the spokesman said, and he met the U.S. ambassador and is speaking to the Jordanian and Egyptian leaders on Monday.
Dujarric welcomed a letter from 20 international aid organizations including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and Save The Children, supporting Guterres’ call for a resumption of donor support to UNRWA.
“The NGO community understand the critical work that UNRWA does right now in keeping people alive,” he said.
Dujarric said the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza are continuing to work as the war continues, including helping over one million people in overcrowded UNRWA shelters.
“We are open to answering any and every question that they (donors) may have,” the U.N. spokesman said.
This entry has been corrected to show the European Union has not suspended funding to UNRWA.
ISRAEL'S DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS ISRAEL HAS UPPER HAND IN GAZA WAR
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister says Israel has gained the upper hand in its battle against Hamas.
Speaking to troops in southern Israel on Monday, Yoav Gallant said Israel has killed or wounded half of Hamas’ army.
“”The terrorists don’t have supplies, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements,” he said.
The military says it has battled militants and called in airstrikes in recent days in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been destroyed and where the military has been operating for months.
New evacuation orders were issued on Monday for parts of Gaza City, indicating there is still heavy fighting there. Palestinian militants have also kept up rocket fire, including a barrage that set off air raid sirens in central Israel on Monday.
“We have already eliminated at least a quarter of Hamas’ terrorists, I think even more, and there is a similar number of wounded,” he added, without giving any specific figures. Israel has previously said it has killed about 9,000 Hamas militants, though it has not provided evidence to back up the claim.
Gallant said the campaign to eliminate Hamas’ capabilities will take months, but that the “hourglass has flipped against them.”
QATAR'S PRIME MINISTER HINTS AT PROGRESS ON CEASE-FIRE AND HOSTAGE RELEASE
WASHINGTON — Qatar’s prime minister said senior U.S. and Mideast mediators had achieved a framework proposal to present to Hamas for freeing hostages and pausing fighting in Gaza.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani spoke at the Atlantic Council in Washington after talks Sunday in Paris among U.S., Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials seeking a new round of cease-fires and hostage releases in Gaza.
Al-Thani said the mediators had made “good progress” and achieved a “foundation for the way forward.”
The foreign mediators had tried to bridge gaps in Israeli and Hamas demands and intended to now present them to Hamas, he said.
“We are hoping to get them to a place … where they engage positively and constructively in this process,” he said of Hamas.
Al-Thani gave no details of the proposal, but said an outline presented by one of the event moderators that called for a phased release of hostages and an extended cease-fire was “well-informed.” Hamas has demanded a permanent cease-fire ahead of any further releases of hostages held by Hamas militants and others in Gaza.
PROBE SUGGESTS DRONE THAT KILLED TROOPS IN JORDAN WAS CONFUSED WITH A RETURNING U.S. DRONE
WASHINGTON — A drone that killed three American troops and wounded dozens of others in Jordan may have been confused with an American drone returning to the U.S. installation, according to a U.S. official.
The official, who was not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity, said Monday the preliminary accounts suggest the enemy drone that struck the installation known as Tower 22 may have been mistaken for an American drone that was also in the air at the same time.
The official said that as the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, a U.S. drone was also returning to base. As a result, there was no effort to shoot down the enemy drone.
Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed.
ISRAELI PARLIAMENT CONSIDERS EXPELLING MEMBER WHO SUPPORTS SOUTH AFRICA'S GENOCIDE CASE
JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament has held a hearing on whether to expel a lawmaker for supporting South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the U.N. world court.
The lawmaker, Ofer Cassif, is from the Arab-Jewish Hadash party in the Israeli parliament and one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
The proceedings Monday came in response to Cassif signing a petition supporting South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Cassif defended himself in front of other lawmakers, denying the charge that he was encouraging “armed struggle” against Israel. If his fellow lawmakers vote otherwise, he could be removed from his post.
Cassif has repeatedly faced reprimand from other lawmakers for his anti-war positions.
Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Cassif was suspended from the parliament for 45 days after other lawmakers said some of his statements had drawn inappropriate parallels between the Holocaust and Israel’s wartime policy. Since the attack, Israel has cracked down on anti-war speech and demonstrations.
ISRAELI KIBBUTZ MEMBERS CALL FOR HOSTAGE RELEASE DEAL
KFAR AZA, Israel — Members of a devastated kibbutz in southern Israel visited the shells of their destroyed homes nearly four months after the Hamas attack.
Those who gathered in Kfar Aza on Monday, including a woman who was released from captivity and family members of hostages still held in Gaza, called for a cease-fire deal to return their loved ones.
Amit Soussana, who was held hostage for 55 days in Gaza, stood outside her roofless home on Monday and recalled how she hid for three hours as Hamas militants rampaged through her community. Eventually, the attackers lobbed a grenade into her living room to force her out.
Security footage from the kibbutz captured her struggling against her attackers before a group of seven eventually subdued her.
The wide-ranging Hamas-led attack into southern Israel killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and led to the capture of around 250. Soussana was among more than 100 who were released in November in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
In the first weeks of her captivity, she says her ankles were chained and she was held in complete darkness. She says the guards “abused me and the other hostages” and held them deep underground in a tunnel with very little food.
Of the 37 young people living in her neighborhood, 12 were killed, and seven were kidnapped. Two of Soussana’s neighbors, Alon Shamriz and Yotam Haim, managed to escape their captors but were mistakenly killed by Israeli soldiers in December.
Relatives of those still held in Gaza have staged mounting protests calling for another cease-fire and exchange.
Liran Berman’s twin brothers, Gali and Ziv, 26, are among those still being held in Gaza.
“We see that when there’s a deal, hostages return, and in between, when there isn’t, only bodies come back,” he said.
GERMANY CONDEMNS ATTACK ON US TROOPS IN JORDAN
BERLIN — Germany has condemned the fatal attack on U.S. troops in Jordan that Washington has blamed on Iran-backed militias and is calling on Tehran to exert its influence on regional allies to prevent further escalation.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer on Monday underlined Berlin’s solidarity with Jordan and the U.S.
He added that “in view of the extremely tense situation in the region, this act is completely irresponsible and could lead to pushing the region further toward escalation.”
Fischer said: “We expect from Iran that it finally exert its influence on its allies in the region so that there is no uncontrolled conflagration, in which no one can have an interest.
5 PALESTINIANS KILLED BY ISRAELI FORCES IN THE WEST BANK
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian authorities say five Palestinians, including a 16-year old boy, have been killed by Israeli forces in separate shootings across the occupied West Bank on Monday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the boy was killed near the Israeli settlement of Tekoa. The ministry gave no further details, but the Israeli military said the boy had attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on soldiers at a guard post.
In other violence, the Palestinian Health Ministry said two men, one of them age 18, were shot dead by Israeli troops in the southern West Bank city of Dura. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said that Israeli forces opened fire after clashing with Palestinians from the area.
Two other men were killed — one of them in the southern city of Hebron and the other in the central town of Silwad, it said.
The Israeli army said one of its counterterrorism operations in the town of Dura overnight Sunday sparked a riot in the town. It said its forces then opened fire in response to dozens of Palestinian protesters hurling stones at its troops.
In the town of Yamoun, near Jenin, Israeli forces said its troops returned fire at a wanted suspect they were trying to arrest, hitting the man.
EU SEEKS TO APPOINT EXPERTS TO CONDUCT AN AUDIT OF UNRWA
BRUSSELS — The European Union wants to appoint independent experts to conduct an audit of the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency to ensure that UNRWA staff can't be involved “in terrorist activities.”
The 27-nation bloc is one of the biggest donors of humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians in Gaza, but was not scheduled to provide more funding to UNRWA before the end of February.
Israel has accused a dozen UNRWA employees of taking part in the Hamas attack in October that ignited the war and stoked deadly instability across the Middle East. Several countries have frozen funding to the agency.
The EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, says it “expects UNRWA to agree to carrying out an audit of the agency to be conducted by EU appointed independent external experts.”
The audit would focus “specifically on the control systems needed to prevent the possible involvement of its staff in terrorist activities.”
IRAQ CONDEMNS DRONE STRIKE THAT KILLED 3 US TROOPS IN JORDAN
BAGHDAD — Iraq's government condemned the drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan near the Syrian border Sunday, in an apparent effort to distance itself from an attack that was likely carried out by one of the country's multiple Iranian-backed militias.
Government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said in a statement on Monday that Iraq is “monitoring with a great concern the alarming security developments in the region” and called for “an end to the cycle of violence.” The statement said that Iraq is ready to participate in diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation.
An umbrella group for Iran-backed factions known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed dozens of attacks against bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began. On Sunday, the group claimed three drone attacks against sites in Syria, including near the border with Jordan, and one inside of “occupied Palestine” but so far hasn't claimed the attack in Jordan.
MAN WOUNDED IN ATTACK OUTSIDE ISRAELI MILITARY BASE
JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities say a 20-year-old man has been seriously wounded after an attack outside a military base in Haifa in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said a motorist carried out a car ramming attack on Monday before exiting the vehicle and trying to attack soldiers with an ax. The soldiers shot at the attacker, the military said. It wasn't immediately clear if the attacker was killed.
Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said that paramedics were treating a 20-year-old man with “serious lower limb injuries,” and had evacuated him to a hospital in serious condition.
The attack came as tensions have spiked around the region over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Earlier this month, a woman was killed in a similar attack north of Tel Aviv.
AUSTRIA SUSPENDS PAYMENTS TO UNRWA
BERLIN — Austria is joining a string of Western partners in suspending payments to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees after Israel accused a dozen of its employees of taking part in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that started the war.
The Foreign Ministry in Vienna said in a statement Monday that Austria “will provisionally suspend all further payments to UNRWA in coordination with international partners” until all the accusations are “fully cleared up” and there is clarity on the consequences.
It called on the UNRWA agency and the wider U.N. to conduct a “comprehensive, quick and complete investigation.”
JAPAN SUSPENDS FUNDING FOR THE UN AID AGENCY IN GAZA
TOKYO — Japan has suspended additional funding for UNRWA while the agency conducts an investigation into allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
It said Japan is “extremely concerned about the alleged involvement of UNRWA staff members in the terror attack on Israel” last year.
The ministry noted the dedication of many UNRWA staff in providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza and said: “Japan has been strongly urging UNRWA to conduct an investigation in a prompt and complete manner and to take appropriate measures, including strengthening governance with UNRWA, so that UNRWA can firmly fulfill the role it should play.”
Israel notes 'significant gaps' after cease-fire talks with US, Qatar, Egypt but says constructive
Israel said “significant gaps” remain after cease-fire talks Sunday with the United States, Qatar and Egypt but called them constructive and said they would continue in the week ahead, a tentative sign of progress on a potential agreement that could see Israel pause military operations against Hamas in exchange for the release of remaining hostages.
The U.S. announced its first military deaths in the region since the war began and blamed Iran-backed militants for the drone strike in Jordan that killed three American service members amid concerns about a wider conflict.
The statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office on the cease-fire talks did not say what the “significant gaps” were. There was no immediate statement from the other parties.
The war has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, destroyed vast swaths of Gaza and displaced nearly 85% of the territory’s people. Israel says its air and ground offensive has killed more than 9,000 militants, without providing evidence. The Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostages.
With Gaza's 2.3 million people in a deepening humanitarian crisis, the United Nations secretary-general called on the United States and others to resume funding the main agency providing aid to the besieged territory, after Israel accused a dozen employees of taking part in the Hamas attack that ignited the war.
Communications Director Juliette Touma warned that the agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, would be forced to stop its support in Gaza by the end of February.
CEASE-FIRE TALKS TO CONTINUE
Sunday's intelligence meeting included CIA Director Bill Burns, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
Ahead of the meeting, two senior Biden administration officials said U.S. negotiators were making progress on a potential agreement that would play out over two phases, with the remaining women, elderly and wounded hostages to be released in a first 30-day phase. It also would call for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The officials requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations.
More than 100 hostages, mainly women and children, were released in November in exchange for a weeklong cease-fire and the release of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking to troops, said that “these days we are conducting a negotiation process for the release of hostages” but vowed that as long as hostages remain in Gaza, “we will intensify the (military) pressure and continue our efforts — it’s already happening now.”
At least 17 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes that hit apartment buildings in central Gaza, according to an Associated Press journalist who saw the bodies at a local hospital. One hit a building in Zawaida, killing 13 people, and the other an apartment block in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing four.
Also Sunday, 10 Palestinians were killed in a strike that hit a residential building in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, said Dr. Moataz Harara, a physician at Shifa Hospital, where the dead were taken.
Israel's military said troops were engaging in close combat with Hamas in neighborhoods of the southern city of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest.
US DEATHS HIGHLIGHT REGIONAL TENSIONS
The three deaths announced by Biden were the first U.S. fatalities in months of strikes against American forces across the Middle East by Iranian-backed militias amid the war in Gaza. U.S. Central Command said 25 service members were injured.
U.S. officials were working to conclusively identify the group responsible for the attack, but assessed that one of several Iranian-backed groups was responsible. Jordanian state television quoted a government spokesperson as contending the attack happened across the border in Syria. U.S. officials insisted it took place in Jordan, which U.S. troops have long used as a basing point.
The U.S. in recent months has struck targets in Iraq, Syria and Yemen to respond to attacks on American forces and to deter Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from continuing to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The war in Gaza has sparked concerns about a regional conflict. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has increasingly called for restraint in Gaza and for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into the territory while supporting the offensive.
A GAZA LIFELINE AT RISK OF ‘COLLAPSE’
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the abhorrent alleged acts" of staff members accused in the Oct. 7 attack "must have consequences,” but added the agency should not be penalized by the withholding of funding, and "the dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”
The United States, the agency’s largest donor, cut funding over the weekend, followed by eight other countries including Britain and Germany. Together, they provided nearly 60% of UNRWA’s budget in 2022.
Guterres said that of the 12 employees accused, nine were immediately terminated, one was confirmed dead and two were still being identified. He said they would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.
UNRWA provides basic services for Palestinian families who fled or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding the country’s creation. The refugees and their descendants are the majority of Gaza’s population.
Since the war began, most of the territory’s 2.3 million people depend on the agency’s programs for “sheer survival,” including food and shelter, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.
A quarter of Gaza’s population is facing starvation as fighting and Israeli restrictions hinder the delivery of aid, which has been well below the daily average of 500 trucks before the war
In the past week, hostages’ family members and supporters have blocked aid trucks from entering at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Dozens again blocked the entry on Sunday, chanting “No aid will cross until the last hostages return.”
The military later declared the area around the crossing a closed military zone, which would prohibit protests there.
With Gaza's future being debated, thousands, including far-right lawmakers in Netanyahu’s coalition and senior Cabinet ministers, gathered in Jerusalem to call for renewing Jewish settlement in Gaza. Settlements there were evacuated in 2005, ending a 38-year-occupation, during a unilateral withdrawal of troops that bitterly divided Israel.
Crowds chanted “death to terrorists” as far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took the stage and declared it was “time to encourage immigration” of Palestinians from Gaza.
The international community, including the U.S., has said it will oppose any attempts to expel Palestinians from Gaza. It also overwhelmingly considers settlements on occupied territory illegal.
Netanyahu has said such views do not reflect official policy and he has no plans to resettle Gaza, but he has released few details of a postwar vision for the territory.
Embattled UN agency warns its aid operation in Gaza is 'collapsing' over a wave of funding cuts
The head of the main U.N. aid agency in the war-battered Gaza Strip warned late Saturday that its work is collapsing after nine countries decided to cut funding over allegations that several agency employees had participated in the deadly Hamas attack against Israel four months ago.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said he was shocked such decisions were taken as “famine looms” in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. “Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment,” he wrote on X. “This stains all of us.”
His warning came a day after he announced he had fired and was investigating several agency employees over allegations that they participated in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war. The United States, which said 12 agency employees were under investigation, immediately said it is suspending funding, followed by several other countries, including Britain, Italy and Finland.
The agency, which has 13,000 employees in Gaza, most of them Palestinians, is the main organization aiding Gaza’s population amid the humanitarian disaster. More than 2 million of the territory's 2.3 million people depend on it for “sheer survival,” including food and shelter, Lazzarini said, warning this lifeline can “collapse any time now.”
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, destroyed vast swaths of Gaza and displaced nearly 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million people. The Hamas attack in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 hostages were taken.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Saturday after the International Court of Justice ruling to limit death and destruction in the military's Gaza offensive, declaring that “we decide and act according to what is required for our security.”
Among the first deaths reported since the ruling, witnesses said three Palestinians were killed in an airstrike that Israel said targeted a Hamas commander.
Israel's military is under increasing scrutiny now that the top United Nations court has asked Israel for a compliance report in a month. The court's binding ruling on Friday stopped short of ordering a cease-fire, but its orders were in part a rebuke of Israel's conduct in its nearly 4-month war against Gaza's Hamas rulers.
At least 174 Palestinians were killed over the past day, the Health Ministry in Gaza said. It does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its tolls, but has said about two-thirds are women and children.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying the militants embed themselves in the local population. Israel says its air and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 9,000 militants.
Israel's military said it had conducted several “targeted raids on terror targets” in the southern city of Khan Younis in addition to the airstrike in nearby Rafah targeting a Hamas commander.
Bilal al-Siksik said his wife, a son and a daughter were killed in the Rafah strike, which came as they slept. He said the U.N. court ruling meant little since it did not stop the war.
“No one can speak in front of them (Israel). America with all its greatness and strength can do nothing," he said, standing beside the rubble and twisted metal of his home.
More than 1 million people have crammed into Rafah and the surrounding areas after Israel ordered civilians to seek refuge there. Designated evacuation areas have repeatedly come under airstrikes, with Israel saying it would go after militants as needed.
In Muwasi, a narrow coastal strip once designated as a safe zone but struck in recent days, displaced Palestinians tiptoed on sandaled feet through garbage-lined puddles in damp and chilly weather. Walls of sheets and tarps billowed in the wind. A mother wept after rain leaked in and soaked the blankets.
“This is our life. We have nothing and we left (our homes) with nothing,” said Bassam Bolbol, whose family ended up in Muwasi after leaving Khan Younis and finding no shelter in Rafah.
Frustration with the uncertainty grows. As thousands of Gazans fled Khan Younis toward Muwasi, Israel shared video showing a crowd appearing to call for bringing down Hamas.
The case brought by South Africa to the U.N. court alleged Israel is committing genocide against Gaza's people, which Israel vehemently denies. A final ruling is expected to take years.
The court ordered Israel to urgently get aid to Gaza, where the U.N. has said aid entering the territory remains well below the daily average of 500 trucks before the war. The U.N. also says access to central and northern Gaza has been decreasing because of "excessive delays" at checkpoints and heightened military activity.
The World Health Organization and the medical charity MSF issued urgent warnings about the largest health facility in Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital, saying remaining staff could barely function with supplies running out and intense fighting nearby.
WHO footage showed people in the crowded facility being treated on blood-smeared floors as frantic loved ones shouted and jostled. Cats scavenged on a mound of medical waste.
“These are the only painkillers left we have. If you want to count them, they are only for maybe five or four patients,” Dr. Muhammad Harara said.
Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement that Nasser Hospital lacked anesthesia and other medicines for intensive care units and had “dangerous” shortages of blood.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has increasingly called for restraint and for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza while supporting the offensive.
More mediation lies ahead in search of a deal to secure the release of hostages who remain captive in Gaza. Over 100 were released in a swap for Palestinian prisoners during a week-long cease-fire in November. An unspecified number of the remaining 136 are believed to be dead.
The U.S. CIA director will meet in Europe with the head of the intelligence agencies of Israel and Egypt and with the prime minister of Qatar, according to three people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.
Netanyahu in his address said he would not take back “a single word” of his earlier criticism of Qatar, again accusing it of hosting Hamas leaders and funding Hamas.
“If they position themselves as a mediator, so please, let them prove it and bring back the hostages, and in the meantime deliver the medicines to them,” he said.
While the prime minister's comments appeared to be aimed at his right-leaning base of supporters, other Israelis again gathered in Tel Aviv and outside Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem to call for new elections, frustrated with the government's failure to bring all hostages home. Israel also was marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, alongside other countries around the world.
Hamas has said it will only release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Key takeaways from UN court’s ruling on Israel’s war in Gaza
The U.N. world court on Friday came down hard on Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, calling on Israel to “take all measures” to prevent a genocide of the Palestinians. But it stopped short of demanding an immediate cease-fire, as the South African sponsors of the case had hoped.
All sides tried to claim victory with the ruling, seizing on different elements that buttressed their positions.
Israel celebrated the court’s rejection of the cease-fire request and said it had endorsed the country’s right to self-defense. Yet harsh criticism of Israel’s campaign in Gaza could further dent its image in the court of public opinion.
The Palestinians welcomed what amounted to an overwhelming rebuke of Israel’s wartime tactics by a lopsided majority of judges over the heavy death toll and humanitarian disaster in Gaza. The six measures in the ruling were approved by margins of 15-2 and 16-1, with even Israel’s representative on the court joining the majority on two of the questions.
As Israel presses ahead with its offensive, Friday’s ruling adds to the growing international criticism of Israel and could put more pressure on it to scale back or halt the operation altogether.
Airstrikes in central Gaza kill 15 overnight while fighting intensifies in the enclave's south
Here are some takeaways from Friday’s ruling:
NO RULING ON GENOCIDE
The court did not rule on the core issue of whether Israel’s devastating military offensive against Hamas amounts to genocide. That question likely won’t be answered by the court for years.
But it did not rule out the possibility that Israel is conducting genocidal acts. In imposing “provisional measures,” the court found that concerns about possible genocide merit further review.
It called on Israel “to take all measures within its power” and “ensure with immediate effect” that its military does not commit genocidal acts, including those causing the unnecessary deaths of Palestinians or humanitarian suffering.
It also called on Israel to prevent “public incitement to commit genocide,” pointing to a series of inflammatory statements by Israeli leaders. Israel was ordered to report back to the court within one month on steps it is taking to meet these demands.
The court said it was gravely concerned about the fate of the hostages and called for their immediate and unconditional release. But the decision focused almost entirely on the plight of Gaza’s Palestinian civilians and urged Israel to do more to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid.
Yuval Shany, an expert on international law at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, said the ruling was “not great” but could have been worse.
“The finding that South Africa’s claims are plausible is not good,” he said. “But it’s something that Israel can live with.”
Top UN court stops short of ordering cease-fire in Gaza and demands Israel contain deaths
THE WAR GOES ON
Nothing in the court’s ruling requires Israel to halt the war from a legal standpoint.
Israeli leaders vowed Friday to press aheagotchd with the offensive, insisting that they already are in compliance with international law and committed to allowing humanitarian supplies into the besieged territory.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the genocide allegation as “outrageous,” noting that the ruling came on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Netanyahu pointed out that Hamas, which killed 1,200 and kidnapped 250 on Oct. 7, seeks Israel’s destruction.
Barak Medina, a human rights expert at Hebrew University’s law school, said the effects of the ruling on the battlefield are “marginal.”
He said calls to ramp up humanitarian aid and crack down on incitement might have some small effects on policies. “But in terms of the main aspect of the military operation, one would not expect any change on the ground,” he said.
INCREASED SCRUTINY
While Israel moves ahead on the battlefield, Friday’s ruling shined an additional bright and critical spotlight on the Israeli offensive.
The war, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, has killed over 26,000 Palestinians and led to widespread destruction, displacement and disease, according to local health officials and international aid agencies.
The United States, Israel’s closest and most important ally, has repeatedly voiced concerns about the civilian death toll and the broader international community has repeatedly called for an immediate cease-fire. The tough language adopted by the court, coupled with the requirement to report back to it, added to the global scrutiny and puts more pressure to scale back or stop the offensive.
Merav Michaeli, leader of Israel’s opposition Labor Party, called the ruling a “yellow card” against a government that she said “is causing enormous international damage to the country.”
A former head of the Israeli military’s international law department said the decision would worsen Israel’s global standing and undermine legitimacy for the war.
“It’s a huge threat,” said Pnina Sharvit Baruch, now a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. “It eventually impacts also our national security. We need our allies. We cannot manage here on our own.”
UN court keeps genocide case against Israel alive as Gaza death toll surpasses 26,000
PRESSURE ON THE US
Despite its concerns about harm to civilians, the United States has so far backed the Israeli war effort, shielding Israel from international criticism and continuing to deliver weapons to the military.
Friday’s ruling draws unwelcome attention to the U.S. position — a stance that has put it at odds with allies and threatened to hurt President Joe Biden’s standing with the Democratic Party’s progressive wing as he seeks re-election.
“States now have clear legal obligations to stop Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people in Gaza and to make sure that they are not complicit,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said.
It said the provisional ruling “should serve as a wakeup call for Israel and actors who enabled its entrenched impunity.”
The ministry is part of the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized self-rule government in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The U.S. has said it would like to see a revitalized authority, ousted by Hamas in 2007, return to power in Gaza after the war.
Balkees Jarrah, the associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group that has accused Israel of committing war crimes in past rounds of fighting, said Friday’s “landmark decision puts Israel and its allies on notice.”
“The court’s clear and binding order raises the stakes for Israel’s allies to back up their stated commitment to a global rules-based order by helping ensure compliance with this watershed ruling,” she said.
Airstrikes in central Gaza kill 15 overnight while fighting intensifies in the enclave's south
Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat urban refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip overnight killed at least 15 people, including a 5-month-old baby, as health authorities in the besieged territory said the death toll since the start of the war has surpassed 26,000.
In southern Gaza, Israeli forces pushed further into the city of Khan Younis, where the intensity of the fighting has increased in recent days. The Israeli military on Friday ordered residents of three neighborhoods and the Khan Younis refugee camp to evacuate to a coastal area.
The camp, like others in Gaza, was initially settled by Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and has since been built up into a district of the wider city. The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yehya Sinwar, and the commander of the group’s military wing, Mohammed Deif, both grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp.
The intense fighting came as the United Nations’ top court on Friday stopped short of ordering a cease-fire in Gaza, as sought by South Africa, which has accused Israel of genocide in its military offensive. Instead the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, demanded that Israel try to contain death and damage. The court also rejected a request by Israel, which rejects the genocide accusation, that the case be thrown out.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Friday that the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the war stood at 26,083, with 64,487 Palestinians wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its death toll, but has said about two-thirds of those killed were women and children.
Over the last 24 hours, 183 people were killed and 377 others were wounded, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said in a statement.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas’s unprecedented attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250. Israel says about 130 hostages remain in Gaza after a round of releases during a brief cease-fire in November, although about 30 are believed to no longer be alive. Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll for positioning fighters and military hardware in dense residential neighborhoods.
Israel's near-complete seal on Gaza has left almost the entire population of 2.3 million reliant on a trickle of international aid able to enter the territory each day. U.N. officials say about a quarter of the population now faces starvation.
Aid groups have struggled to bring food, medicines and other supplies to northern Gaza, where Israel's ground invasion first targeted and where Israel says it now largely has control.
Uday Samir, a 23-year old Gaza City native, said many of the basic foods such as flour, lentils and rice are now impossible to find across the city.
“Now, what is available is animal feed,” said Samir. “We grind it and bake it.”
All supplies enter Gaza in the south, either through the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing or Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing. Aid groups say fighting and Israeli restrictions have made deliveries to the north difficult. When convoys do travel north, supplies are often snatched by hungry Palestinian before the trucks reach their destination.
Israel's assault is now focused on Khan Younis and a number of refugee camps in central Gaza,
The Israeli military said its troops were engaging in close urban combat with Hamas fighters across neighborhoods of Khan Younis, calling in airstrikes and attack helicopters to hit militants spotted with RPGs and weapons. Earlier this week, it also ordered the evacuation of most of the western half of the city. Hamas has also reported that its fighters are battling Israeli forces in the heart of the city.
Further north, the bodies of 15 people, including seven members of one family, were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, an AP journalist at the hospital said. The 15 were killed during separate strikes on two apartment buildings in Nuseirat, which lies just below the demarcation line between the northern and southern portions of the territory, drawn by Israel early in the war.
The offensive has decimated large swathes of the territory, and the United Nations and other aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian disaster. More than 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced.