Since the start of the war, Israeli military operations have left 23,357 dead and 59,410 injured in Gaza, according to a latest report from Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007. In the last twenty-four hours, 147 people have been killed , still according to this new assessment, which could not be independently verified.
Israel vowed to “destroy” the Islamist movement – considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union – after its attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which killed some 1,140 people, mostly civilians. , according to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP) based on the Israeli assessment. Around 250 people were taken hostage; around a hundred of them were released during a truce at the end of November, and 132 are still being held by different Palestinian armed groups.
This Wednesday, the Israeli army said it had hit “more than 150 targets” in the areas of the Maghazi camp (center) and Khan Younes (south), and discovered 15 tunnels. According to an AFP journalist, Khan Younes and Rafah (South) suffered intense bombings.
British and US forces shot down eighteen drones and three missiles fired by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Tuesday evening, in what the British government on Wednesday saw as the Yemeni rebels’ “largest attack” to date. “Overnight,” the British ship HMS Diamond and U.S. warships “successfully repelled the largest attack to date in the Red Sea by the Iranian-backed Houthis,” the defense minister wrote. British defense, Grant Shapps, on the social network
“The Diamond foiled several drone attacks in its direction and that of merchant ships in the area,” added the minister, specifying that there were no injuries to the crew or damage caused to the British ship . The American army had announced a few hours earlier that eighteen drones and three missiles fired by the Houthis had been shot down, as part of a “complex” attack.
The rebels claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement on X that a “large number” of missiles and drones had targeted a US ship that was “providing support” to Israel in its war against Hamas. Finally, the United Nations Security Council scheduled a vote on Wednesday on a resolution that would condemn and demand an immediate end to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on merchant and commercial ships in the Red Sea region.
During his meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, reaffirmed that the United States supports “tangible steps” towards the creation of a Palestinian state, a long-term goal to which the Israeli government aims. The extreme right, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is opposed.
He then said the Palestinian leader was “committed” to reform of the Palestinian Authority sitting in the occupied West Bank. In 2007, the Palestinian Authority lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas and only exercised its limited power in the West Bank. After his meeting with Mr. Blinken, Mr. Abbas traveled to Jordan, where he discussed “push for an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza during talks with King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
Mr. Blinken also accused Iran of “supporting” and “encouraging” attacks in the Red Sea. He demanded that Yemeni rebels – who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza – stop their attacks. In this context, and before going to Cairo on Thursday, Mr. Blinken arrived Wednesday afternoon in Bahrain, a member of the coalition to defend maritime traffic in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Palestinian Red Crescent announced the death of six people, including four of its rescuers, in the attack on an ambulance in the center of the Gaza Strip which it attributed to the Israeli army. The ambulance was at the entrance to Deir Al-Balah, on the main artery that crosses the Gaza Strip from north to south, according to the Red Crescent. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not comment.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Hamas-run health ministry reported that several people were killed due to an Israeli strike near a hospital in the Deir Al-Balah neighborhood. More than 120 ambulances have been destroyed and 326 healthcare workers killed since October 7 in Gaza, according to the ministry.
“Gaza’s health system is already on its knees, and health personnel, like humanitarians, are continually blocked in their efforts to save lives because of the hostilities,” denounced the head of Gaza last week. World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reacting to the bombing of Red Crescent premises in Khan Younes.
By confronting Israel, which it accuses of “genocidal acts” in Gaza, before the highest court of the UN on Thursday January 11, the South African government hopes to emerge on the international scene and gain popularity at home before elections at risk for his party. In an 84-page petition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, South Africa urges judges to urgently order Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations” in the Gaza Strip .
Pretoria believes that Israel “has engaged, is engaging and risks continuing to engage in acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” Comments that Israel called an “absurd blood libel.” To defend this first case brought by the country before the ICJ, Pretoria is sending “an elite team” of lawyers, underlined Cathleen Powell, professor of international law at the University of Cape Town. Former British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn will join a South African delegation for this week’s hearings at the ICJ, the Associated Press reports.
The Al-Araby Al-Jadid media, based in London, announced Tuesday the release of one of its Palestinian journalists detained by Israel since December, Diaa Al-Kahlout. The reporter, correspondent in Gaza, was one of dozens of Palestinians arrested in early December by Israel in the north of the Gaza Strip and whose images were broadcast by Israeli television channels.
They were seen in their underwear, blindfolded, under the guard of Israeli soldiers. These images made the rounds on social networks and sparked a lively controversy. The Israeli army had cited security reasons to justify its actions, the detainees being presented as Hamas fighters, which the Palestinian Islamist movement had denied, denouncing “lies”.
Mr. Kahlout was released in the Gaza Strip, said Al-Araby Al-Jadid, a news site owned by a Qatari media group. The journalist, 37, told his employer he had faced “unspeakably harsh” conditions since “the moment” he was arrested, saying he had been beaten and tortured. According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, 38 Palestinian journalists have been arrested and 31 are still in detention.