Summary of the day so far
It’s 5.03pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv and 6.03pm in Sana’a, Yemen. Here are some of the latest developments:
The US and UK will impose new sanctions on leaders of the Iran-aligned Houthi group, which will include at least four senior figures being subject to asset freezes and travel bans, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday citing people familiar with the plan. Senior ministers in the Houthi administration in Yemen would also be sanctioned, with an announcement expected as early as Thursday.
The targeting of ships linked to Israel will continue until aid reaches the Palestinian people in Gaza, Yemen’s Houthis leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi said on Thursday in a televised speech. The group’s leader added that the results of the latest US and British escalation would be counterproductive and would not affect “our will and determination”.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Thursday renewed calls for Israel to protect civilians after a deadly strike on a UN shelter in Gaza that brought rare US condemnation. “We have reaffirmed this with the government of Israel and it is my understanding that they are, as is necessary and appropriate, looking into this incident,” Blinken said, without saying at what level discussions took place.
Nasser hospital in Khan Younis has run out of food, anaesthetics and painkillers. “The health and humanitarian situation in the hospital is extremely catastrophic due to the siege by the Israeli occupation forces,” the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said.
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday accused Qatar, a key mediator in efforts to free its hostages, of being “largely responsible” for the 7 October Hamas attack. “One thing is clear: Qatar will not be involved one bit in what happens in Gaza the day after the war,” he said. His comments came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recorded allegedly telling hostages’ families this week that Qatar’s mediation was “problematic” when it came to resolving the hostage crisis.
Qatar accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of obstructing mediation efforts in the Gaza war and prioritising his career after a leaked recording allegedly captured him calling the Gulf state “problematic”. Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said “we are appalled by the alleged remarks”.
Thomas White, the director of affairs in Gaza for the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said on Thursday that the situation in Khan Younis, southern Gaza ‘underscores a consistent failure’ to uphold international humanitarian law. He said the “persistent attacks on civilian sites” were “utterly unacceptable and must stop immediately”. White also said that an attack on UN Relief and Works Agency shelter in Gaza housing thousands of displaced people, had killed at least 12 people and injured 75 people, including 15 who were in a critical condition. White said a number of missions to reach the dead and injured were denied, without directly saying the attempts had been blocked by Israel. He said UN teams were only able to reach the site in the evening. Israel has denied responsibility for the attack, in which two tank shells hit an UNRWA training centre.
People were seen fleeing near an aid distribution point in the Zeitoun district of Gaza City on Wednesday as gunfire was heard in the background. The video, shared on social media, showed crowds jostling and rushing, some with animal carts. Many people were seen carrying aid as they ran.
Israel’s military says it is looking into allegations that its forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians queueing for aid in northern Gaza City, reports Al Jazeera. At least 20 people were killed and 150 injured in the attack at the Kuwait roundabout, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the health ministry said a “massacre” had been carried out on “hungry mouths”. Victims were being treated at al-Shifa hospital, which is out of medical supplies and only has a few doctors working, Qudra said.
An Israeli government spokesperson said they expect the international court of justice (ICJ) to throw out the “spurious” genocide allegations on Friday. The remarks come as the ICJ is to give its highly anticipated verdict on South Africa’s request for an interim ruling in its genocide case against Israel on Friday.
Air raid alarms were sounded in Israel on Thursday, marking the first time in almost four days that projectiles were apparently launched from the Gaza Strip towards the country, reports the Times of Israel. Sirens were activated in the evacuated border community of Netiv Ha’asara, with no reports of injuries or damage.
The Houthis in Yemen should be labelled as a terrorist group by the UK government, a top lawyer told parliament on Thursday. Independent crossbench peer Lord Pannick argued that the actions and ideology of the Iran-backed group warrant its so-called proscription. His comments came after the UK and US conducted their second round of joint strikes on Houthi targets this week after continued attacks on Red Sea shipping.
Lord Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, who is in the Middle East for talks with Israeli leaders and Qatari mediators, has called for an end to the Israeli “bottlenecks” preventing aid reaching Gaza and backed an immediate pause in the fighting. Cameron also met the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the occupied West Bank, where he discussed his Gaza plan to “move from a pause – to get aid in and hostages out – towards a sustainable ceasefire, leading to a long-term political solution, including a Palestinian state”.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “appalling”, with a quarter of the population grappling with catastrophic levels of food insecurity, as he renewed the UN’s plea for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. “Everyone in Gaza is hungry,” he said.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 Palestinians in Khan Younis in the last 24 hours, says Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Al Jazeera reported that at least three people including two children had been killed by Israeli shelling of the al-Satar al-Gharbi area of Khan Younis.
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, said the conflict in Gaza shows the UN and other world bodies have lost their effectiveness and called on Muslim countries and other nations to unite for a new “fair world order”. Reporting from Ankara on Wednesday, where Raisi met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Al Jazeera journalist Sinem Köseoğlu said Raisi demanded the political and economic isolation of Israel, with the Iranian president saying “cutting the lifelines” would be an effective way of ending “Israel’s oppression and murders”.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society transported a number of injured people to hospital on Thursday morning after Israeli forces targeted an apartment building in Rafah, southern Gaza. At least one person was killed in the strike, which happened at dawn in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, reported Al Jazeera.
The fatal shooting of American-Palestinian teenager, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar while driving a pickup truck in the occupied West Bank was unprovoked, the sole passenger has said, describing apparent Israeli fire hitting the back of the vehicle before it overturned several times on a dirt road.
A 72-year-old Israeli woman held captive by Hamas militants for nearly 50 days has told an Israeli TV channel that she was held at length in a dark, humid tunnel where she met the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar.
Violent clashes overnight were reported in the occupied West Bank as Israeli forces raided the city of Jenin. The local Palestinian militant group, the Jenin Brigades, said its men were engaged in heavy exchanges of fire with the Israeli military, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, while Al Jazeera wrote that one Palestinian had been arrested. The Qatari broadcaster also cited the Palestinian Wafa news agency as reporting that Israeli forces had destroyed monuments to dead Palestinians and that city streets had been torn up by Israeli bulldozers.
Thousands of Indians have flocked to a recruitment centre in India for jobs as construction workers in Israel, willing to take the risk of going to a country embroiled in a devastating war in Gaza.
The number of antisemitic acts registered in Belgium rose sharply since the Hamas attack against Israel that triggered a war in Gaza, according to figures released on Thursday by Unia, an independent public body fighting discrimination. Unia that said it received 91 reports related to the Israel-Gaza conflict between 7 October and 7 December last year, compared with 57 reports for the whole of 2022.
Updated
Irene Shashar, a survivor of the Holocaust, has called on the EU to end antisemitism and help bring peace to the Middle East, in an impassioned speech to MEPs on Thursday.
“It breaks my heart to see my grandchildren growing up in war,” Shashar said, referring to conflict between Israel and Hamas since the 7 October attacks. Her speech to lawmakers during a plenary session in Brussels came as the European parliament marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Nazis killed about 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. “I won against Hitler. I am finally home but my grandchildren must now fight for its survival,” Shashar said, as she called for the release of all Israeli hostages from Hamas. You can watch Shashar speak in the video here:
Houthis in Yemen should be labelled as a terrorist group by the UK government, says top lawyer
The Houthis in Yemen should be labelled as a terrorist group by the UK government, a top lawyer told parliament on Thursday, reports PA Media.
The independent crossbench peer Lord Pannick argued that the actions and ideology of the Iran-backed group warranted its so-called proscription. His comments came after the UK and US conducted their second round of joint strikes on Houthi targets this week after continued attacks on Red Sea shipping.
The peer is a public law and human rights barrister, and has worked on a number of high-profile cases including those related to Shamima Begum, Gina Miller, Boris Johnson, Max Mosley, the BBC and the British Olympic Committee, and has argued cases before the UK supreme court, the European court of justice and the European court of human rights.
Pannick told the House of Lords:
Following the actions of the Houthis in pursuance of their slogan: ‘Death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews’, and given the recent protests in this country in support of this appalling organisation, is it not high time for the government to bring before parliament a motion to proscribe this organisation as terrorist group?”
AP reports that the leader of the House of Lords, Lord True, responded: “We are sanctioning members of the Houthi organisation. But I totally agree with his characterisation of the organisation and their nature and I can assure him that all these matters will be kept under careful and constant review.”
The call for the Houthis to be labelled a terrorist group comes a week after the US government announced a similar designation. The US state department said on 17 January that it would designate Ansar Allah, commonly referred to as the Houthis, as a “specially designated global terrorist group” in 30 days’ time.
Updated
Targeting of ships linked to Israel will continue until aid reaches Gaza, says Yemen's Houthi leader
The targeting of ships linked to Israel will continue until aid reaches the Palestinian people in Gaza, Yemen’s Houthi leader, Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, said on Thursday, reports Reuters citing a televised speech.
“Our country will continue its operations until food and medicine reach the people of Gaza,” he said. The group’s leader added that the results of the latest US and British escalation would be counterproductive and would not affect “our will and determination”.
Updated
US and UK will impose new sanctions on Houthi leaders - report
The US and UK will impose new sanctions on leaders of the Iran-aligned Houthi group, which will include at least four senior figures being subject to asset freezes and travel bans, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday citing people familiar with the plan.
Senior ministers in the Houthi administration in Yemen would also be sanctioned, with an announcement expected as early as Thursday, reports Reuters citing the news article.
We will update this post with more detail when further information comes in.
Updated
Blinken again asks Israel to protect civilians after UN shelter attack
The US secretary of state on Thursday renewed calls for Israel to protect civilians after a deadly strike on a UN shelter in Gaza that brought rare US condemnation.
Two tank shells struck the UN shelter on Wednesday in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younis, killing 12 people, according to the UN. On a visit to Angola, Antony Blinken told reporters that the UN shelter was “essential and it has to be protected”, AFP reports.
“We have reaffirmed this with the government of Israel and it is my understanding that they are, as is necessary and appropriate, looking into this incident,” Blinken said, without saying at what level discussions took place.
The Israeli army is the only force known to have tanks operating in the Gaza Strip. It said it would conduct a thorough review and held out the possibility that the strike was a result of Hamas fire.
In contrast with Israel’s frequent criticism of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Blinken credited the agency for its efforts “to help people who are in desperate need”.
“The work that the UN is performing in Gaza is quite literally life-saving and no one else can do it – and no one else is doing it,” he said.
Updated
Thousands of people have flocked to a recruitment centre in India for jobs as construction workers in Israel, willing to take the risk of going to a country embroiled in a devastating war in Gaza.
Jobs are hard to find in India and many of the men who were waiting for a job interview on Thursday said they could earn about $1,600 (£1,260) a month in Israel, roughly four times what they would get paid in India, if they could find a job, AFP reports.
The states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have each advertised for about 10,000 positions for skilled construction workers in Israel.
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Here are some of the latest images coming out of Gaza, Israel and elsewhere on the news wires today:
An Israeli government spokesperson said they expect the international court of justice (ICJ) to throw out the “spurious” genocide allegations on Friday, Reuters reports.
The remarks come as the ICJ is de to give its highly anticipated verdict on South Africa’s request for an interim ruling in its genocide case against Israel on Friday.
The ruling, if granted, would probably take the form of an order to Israel to announce a ceasefire in Gaza and allow more UN humanitarian aid into the country.
Read more on the interim ruling here:
Updated
People were seen fleeing near an aid distribution point in the Zeitoun district of Gaza City on Wednesday as gunfire was heard in the background.
The video, shared on social media, showed crowds jostling and rushing, some with animal carts. Many people were seen carrying aid as they ran.
On Tuesday, the World Food Programme said very little food aid had made it beyond southern Gaza since the start of the conflict with Israel, and pockets of the Palestinian enclave remained at risk of famine. An Israeli government spokesperson said there were “no limitations on the admission of humanitarian aid”.
Updated
Israel military looking into claims its forces opened fire on Palestinians queueing for aid, reports Al Jazeera
Israel’s military says it is looking into allegations that its forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians queueing for aid in northern Gaza City, reports Al Jazeera.
At least 20 people were killed and 150 injured in the attack, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. A spokesperson for the health ministry said an attack had been carried out on “hungry mouths”.
“The Israeli occupation committed a new massacre against thousands of hungry mouths who were waiting for aid,” Ashraf al-Qudra said, reports Al Jazeera citing a statement on Telegram.
He said the attack occurred at the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City and that the number of dead was likely to rise because of serious injuries suffered by dozens of the injured. The victims were being treated at al-Shifa hospital, which is out of medical supplies and only has a few doctors working, Qudra said.
Updated
Air raid alarms were sounded in Israel on Thursday, marking the first time in almost four days that projectiles were apparently launched from the Gaza Strip towards the country, reports the Times of Israel.
The publication said sirens were activated in the evacuated border community of Netiv Ha’asara, with no reports of injuries or damage. The previous alerts near Gaza had sounded on Sunday afternoon.
Situation in Khan Younis 'underscores a consistent failure' to uphold international humanitarian law, says UNRWA director
Thomas White, the director of affairs in Gaza for the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said on Thursday that the “persistent attacks on civilian sites” in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, are “utterly unacceptable and must stop immediately”.
In a statement published on the UNRWA website, White writes:
Persistent attacks on civilian sites in Khan Younis are utterly unacceptable and must stop immediately. People are being killed and injured. As fighting intensifies around hospitals and shelters hosting the displaced, people are trapped inside and lifesaving operations are impeded.”
As fighting intensified over recent days in the area, White said 12 people had been confirmed dead and 75 people had been injured, 15 of whom are in a critical condition. The UNRWA training centre, which was hosting thousands of people, was hit yesterday by two shells and caught fire, he said.
"Persistent attacks on civilian sites in #KhanYounis are utterly unacceptable and must stop immediately.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) January 25, 2024
Every measure must be taken to protect civilians."
📍#Gaza Full Statement @TomWhiteGaza: civilians trapped amid intensified attacks in Khan Younis ⬇️https://t.co/f4X8XdNrXQ pic.twitter.com/hriYVfDmRb
A number of missions to assess the situation were denied, added White, describing how on Wednesday evening the UN finally managed to reach the affected areas to treat trauma patients, bring medical supplies and evacuate injured patients to Rafah.
White said:
Heavy fighting near the remaining hospitals in Khan Younis, including Nasser and al-Amal has effectively encircled these facilities, leaving terrified staff, patients and displaced people trapped inside. Al Khair hospital has shut down after patients, including women who had just undergone C-section surgeries, were evacuated in the middle of the night.
The situation in Khan Younis underscores a consistent failure to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks. This is unacceptable and abhorrent and must stop.
He concluded: “Every measure must be taken to protect civilians. I remind all parties that protection of hospitals, clinics, medical personnel and UN premises is explicitly enshrined within international law.”
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Gaza and Israel on the news wires today:
Antisemitic acts on the rise in Belgium since Israel-Gaza war began, says report
The number of antisemitic acts registered in Belgium rose sharply since the Hamas attack against Israel that triggered a war in Gaza, according to figures released on Thursday by an independent public body fighting discrimination.
The Associated Press (AP) cited a report by Unia that said it received 91 reports related to the Israel-Gaza conflict between 7 October and 7 December last year, compared with 57 reports for the whole of 2022. Remarks or acts considered as antisemitic, including cases of Holocaust denial made up most of the reports, it said. In 66 cases, a clear reference was made to the Jewish origin of the person or people targeted.
Most of the cases involved hate messages, more than half of them online, but there were also comments made in public areas. Unia is also collaborating with the public prosecutor’s office and Belgian police in nine cases of assault and damage, it said.
Belgium has a Jewish population of about 29,000, according to the World Jewish Congress. Many European countries have also registered a rise in reported antisemitic acts and comments since the outbreak of the war.
The Unia report cited cases of beatings, graffiti and the desecration of dozens of graves in the Jewish section of a cemetery close to the city of Charleroi.
By way of comparison, Unia said it received four to five reports a month relating to antisemitism in 2022.
Unia said it also received eight reports of discrimination or hate speech linked to the Palestinian origin, Arab origin or the Muslim belief of the people targeted between 7 October and 7 December.
Updated
Nasser hospital has run out of food, anaesthetics and painkillers, says Gaza health ministry
According to Al Jazeera, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has confirmed that Nasser hospital in Khan Younis has run out of food, anaesthetics and painkillers.
“The health and humanitarian situation in the hospital is extremely catastrophic due to the siege by the Israeli occupation forces,” the ministry said.
We will update this post with more information as it comes in.
Updated
Qatar 'will not be involved one bit' in what happens in Gaza after the war, says Israeli minister
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday accused Qatar, a key mediator in efforts to free its hostages, of being “largely responsible” for the 7 October Hamas attack, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
His comments came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recorded allegedly telling hostages’ families this week that Qatar’s mediation was “problematic” when it came to resolving the hostage crisis.
Qatar is the “patron of Hamas and is largely responsible for the massacre committed by Hamas of Israeli citizens”, Smotrich said on X. He wrote: “Qatar is a country that supports terrorism and finances terrorism.”
AFP reports that Smotrich accused western governments of being “hypocritical” in maintaining close relations with Doha. “The west can and should exert much stronger leverage on it and bring about the release of the hostages immediately,” he said.
“One thing is clear: Qatar will not be involved one bit in what happens in Gaza the day after the war.”
Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators in the conflict since it erupted after the Hamas attack. In November, they helped broker a week-long truce that saw the release of 105 hostages, the Israelis among them in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas condemned the comments from Smotrich and Netanyahu, saying they were “targeting the sisterly State of Qatar”.
“We affirm that Qatar is playing an active political role in order to stop the aggression against our people,” Taher al-Nono, a senior Hamas figure said in a statement seen by AFP, adding that such remarks were hindering progress on the “prisoner exchange file”.
Smotrich’s remarks come as US President Joe Biden’s Middle East envoy Brett McGurk was in the region for talks aimed at brokering a new deal to free the remaining captives in exchange for a pause in fighting.
A Palestinian source familiar with the talks told AFP that a Hamas delegation had travelled to Cairo on Tuesday to meet Egypt’s intelligence chief and discuss new ceasefire proposals.
On Wednesday, Qatar said it was “appalled” by the remarks attributed to Netanyahu.
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Samah Khalid Naji is 18, and along with six other members of her family, is living in the bombed-out remains of their house in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. It was destroyed in October by an Israeli missile strike.
The Guardian spent two days with Samah and her family in December to see the remains of their house and how they are surviving the war. She told the film-maker Majdi Fathi about why they decided this was the safest place for them to be. You can view the video here:
UK foreign secretary calls for an end to Israeli 'bottlenecks' preventing aid reaching Gaza
My colleague Patrick Wintour has written on the latest from the UK foreign secretary David Cameron’s visit to the Middle East, where he is meeting Israeli leaders and Qatari mediators:
Lord Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, who is in the Middle East for talks with Israeli leaders and Qatari mediators, has called for an end to the Israeli bottlenecks preventing aid reaching Gaza and backed an immediate pause in the fighting.
He said: “It’s vital that we can get it [aid] into Gaza. Then once it’s in, get it around Gaza. What I was saying to the Israelis. They have got to deal with the bottlenecks. Make sure the crossing points are open more often. Checking more quickly. Crucially give the visas to the UN staff to get the aid around Gaza. I think they understand that. There are bottlenecks in the system. They have got to move faster.”
Cameron was in Qatar after visiting Israel, where he met the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and differed with the Israelis over the flow of aid, a two state solution and the need for an immediate end to the fighting.
He said: “We need an immediate pause in the fighting because we’ve got to not only get the aid in, but crucially we’ve got to get those hostages out. And what I think we can do now is plan for how you turn that pause into a permanent, sustainable ceasefire without a return to fighting. That’s what I was pushing on him. And that’s what I’ll be talking about here today.
“For that to happen, a lot of things would have to happen. You’d have to see the Hamas leadership leave Gaza, you’d have to see the instruments of terrorism being dismantled in Gaza, but you’ve also got to see a political perspective so that Palestinian people can see that there is a route to having a Palestinian state, to having a new future. So it’s all those things together that need to form part of a proper plan.”
The UK last week altered the emphasis of its approach to peace talks saying it wanted to focus on securing an immediate humanitarian pause to get all the hostages out and aid in. During that indefinite pause negotiations could be held to secure a “sustainable ceasefire” without a return to further fighting.
Updated
'Everyone in Gaza is hungry' says UN secretary general
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “appalling”, with a quarter of the population grappling with catastrophic levels of food insecurity, as he renewed the UN’s plea for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
In remarks given at a meeting of the security council focused on the Middle East on Wednesday, Guterres said:
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is appalling. With winter bearing down, 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza face inhumane, squalid conditions, struggling to simply make it through another day without proper shelter, heating, sanitary facilities, food, and drinking water.
Everyone in Gaza is hungry – with a quarter of Gaza’s population – more than half a million people – grappling with catastrophic levels of food insecurity.”
He also spoke about disease spreading in Gaza “as the health system collapses”, stating that only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were “even partly functional”.
“That means the people of Gaza not only risk being killed or injured by relentless bombardments; they also run a growing chance of contracting infectious diseases like hepatitis A, dysentery, cholera,” said Guterres. “Without functioning hospitals, and with minimal opportunities for patients to exit Gaza, thousands suffering from chronic diseases like cancer and kidney failure are at risk of dying.”
He called for a functioning medical evacuation system, describing it as “urgently needed”.
“Everyone in Gaza is hungry.”
— United Nations (@UN) January 24, 2024
– @antonioguterres says the humanitarian situation in Gaza is appalling, with a quarter of the population – more than half a million people – grappling with catastrophic levels of food insecurity. https://t.co/qMJWf7gBMx pic.twitter.com/jEfCTwpJla
Guterres opened his speech by condemning “the horrific terror attacks launched by Hamas against Israel, with over 250 people taken hostage”. He added: “Nothing can justify deliberate killing, injuring, kidnapping of civilians, the use of sexual violence against them – or the indiscriminate launching of rockets towards civilian targets.” Guterres demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
The UN secretary general then spoke about the situation in Gaza for Palestinian civilians: “More than 25,000 people, mainly women and children, have reportedly been killed in operations launched by Israeli forces. More than 60,000 others have been reportedly injured.”
Guterres referred to the escalating attacks in Khan Younis in recent days. He said: “The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history.”
“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people” he said.
He described the deaths of his 153 UN colleagues in the region as a “a source of bottomless grief for us all”.
Updated
At least 50 Palestinians killed in Khan Younis in the last 24 hours, says health ministry
Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 Palestinians in Khan Younis in the last 24 hours, says Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
Al Jazeera reports that at least three people including two children have been killed by Israeli shelling of the al-Satar al-Gharbi area of Khan Younis.
Updated
ICJ to deliver interim ruling on genocide case against Israel on Friday
My colleague, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour, has written on the international court of justice’s highly anticipated ruling due tomorrow:
South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, is flying to The Hague to be present on Friday when the ICJ delivers its verdict on South Africa’s request for an interim ruling in its genocide case against Israel.
The ruling, if granted, would probably take the form of an order to Israel to announce a ceasefire in Gaza and allow more UN humanitarian aid into the country.
The announcement of Pandor’s travel plans does not necessarily mean South Africa knows the verdict will be in its favour, but does reflect a confidence in Pretoria that its request is going to be met at least partially.
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Iran president calls for ‘cutting the lifelines’ with Israel at meeting in Turkey, reports Al Jazeera
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, said the conflict in Gaza shows the UN and other world bodies have lost their effectiveness and called on Muslim countries and other nations to unite for a new “fair world order”, reports Al Jazeera.
Reporting from Ankara on Wednesday, where Raisi met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Al Jazeera journalist Sinem Köseoğlu said the main agenda of the meeting had been Israel’s war on Gaza.
She reports Raisi as demanding the political and economic isolation of Israel, with the Iranian president saying “cutting the lifelines” would be an effective way of ending “Israel’s oppression and murders”. Israel will be the “defeated party” in the war in Gaza, he added.
Reporting comments made at a news conference after the meeting on Wednesday, Köseoğlu said Erdoğan told the room that the pair had discussed ending Israel’s “inhumane” attacks on Gaza and the need for fair and lasting peace in the region.
“We agreed on the importance of refraining from steps that will further threaten the security and stability of our region,” he said. He also added that they had agreed to continue cooperation against cross-border threats.
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The Palestine Red Crescent Society has transported a number of injured people to hospital on Thursday morning after Israeli forces targeted an apartment building in Rafah, southern Gaza, the humanitarian organisation said in an update on X.
At least one person was killed in the strike, which happened at dawn in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, reports Al Jazeera.
🚑 The PRCS’s teams transported many injuries early this morning as the IOF targeted the apartment of the Al-Ghoul family in Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood in #Rafah
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 25, 2024
📷 Photos by: Volunteer Misbah Mkheimar pic.twitter.com/p2yBlEGQ0V
A 72-year-old Israeli woman held captive by Hamas militants for nearly 50 days has told an Israeli TV channel that she was held at length in a dark, humid tunnel where she met the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. The Associated Press reports:
Adina Moshe was taken captive from kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October. She was freed in late November as part of a deal that saw roughly 100 hostages, mostly women and children, released in exchange for a temporary ceasefire and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
“Hello. How are you? Everything OK?” Moshe said Sinwar told them in the Hebrew he had learned during a long incarceration in Israel. In her interview with Israeli Channel 12 she said the hostages bowed their heads and did not respond. Another visit followed three weeks later, she said.
Moshe said militants raided the home she shared with her husband, David, who was shot in the leg. They snatched her out from the window of her house’s safe room and another militant went back in to shoot her husband dead, she said. Before being killed, he blew her a farewell kiss, she said.
She was then taken into Gaza on a motorcycle flanked by two armed militants. She said one of them painfully ripped an earring from her ear and that before he could swipe the other one she offered it up. He took all her jewelry and a passerby stole her glasses, she said.
Moshe and a group of other hostages were marched into Hamas’s extensive tunnel network, walking for five hours down five underground flights through dark and airless shafts until they reached a subterranean room where they were told they’d be released in the coming days.
“We believed them. We believed that would be the first thing Israel would do,” she said.
It ended up taking nearly 50 until she was freed.
“I told all the guys, ‘We’ll be here for at least two months and not because of Hamas,’” she said, indicating she harbored anger toward Israel for not securing her release earlier.
Moshe spent her days with other hostages — men, women and children — as armed guards stood by. They ate small portions of canned goods and rice that dwindled with time, she said. The room was lit only by a small LED light.
Updated
The British foreign minister, David Cameron, has met the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank.
Cameron said he had discussed his Gaza plan to “move from a pause – to get aid in and hostages out – towards a sustainable ceasefire, leading to a long-term political solution, including a Palestinian state”.
I met President Abbas to discuss the situation in the West Bank and Gaza.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) January 25, 2024
I set out our plan to move from a pause - to get aid in and hostages out - towards a sustainable ceasefire, leading to a long term political solution, including a Palestinian state. pic.twitter.com/2KGkxMzZlU
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Death toll in attack on UNRWA shelter rises to 12, UN says
The death toll in an attack on UN Relief and Works Agency shelter in Gaza housing thousands of displaced people has risen to 12, according to a statement by Thomas White, deputy humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.
White said a number of missions to reach the dead and injured were denied, without directly saying the attempts had been blocked by Israel. He said UN teams were only able to reach the site in the evening.
Another 75 people were wounded including 15 who were in a critical condition. Israel has denied responsibility for the attack, in which two tank shells hit an UNRWA training centre.
White said Israeli attacks on Khan Younis – to where Israel had previously told civilians to flee – had forced al-Khair hospital to shut down with “women who had just undergone C-section surgeries … evacuated in the middle of the night”.
Two other hospitals, al-Amal and Nasser – the largest remaining hospital in Gaza and one of only two in the southern half of the territory that can still treat critically ill patients – have now been encircled by heavy fighting “leaving terrified staff, patients and displaced people trapped inside”, White said.
He continued:
The situation in Khan Younis underscores a consistent failure to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks. This is unacceptable and abhorrent and must stop.
Updated
The fatal shooting of an American-Palestinian teenager driving a pickup truck in the West Bank was unprovoked, the sole passenger has said, describing apparent Israeli fire hitting the back of the vehicle before it overturned several times on a dirt road.
At least 10 bullets struck the truck, which was seen by the Associated Press after Israeli investigators examined it. Most hit the back windshield and truck bed, supporting 16-year-old Mohammed Salameh’s account of the incident that killed his friend, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, 17, a Louisiana native.
In an initial statement, Israeli police said Friday’s shooting targeted people “purportedly engaged in rock-throwing activities along Highway 60,” a main West Bank thoroughfare. Police didn’t identify who fired the shots but described the incident “ostensibly involving an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian.”
In an interview with the Associated Press Salameh denied suggestions he and Abdel Jabbar had been throwing stones and said there had been no attempt to arrest him. The AP reported:
Salameh – interviewed Tuesday along with Abdel Jabbar’s father, Hafeth, in the family’s ancestral village of Al-Mazra’a Ash-Sharquiya – said he and his friend were driving on a dirt road several hundred meters from Highway 60. He said shots suddenly hit the back of the truck, striking Abdel Jabbar.
Salameh said the pickup overturned several times, and he managed to get out and run back to the village for help.
Hafeth Abdel Jabbar said that when he arrived, he found his son’s lifeless body in the pickup, amid shattered glass and blood stains. He rejected claims that his son had thrown stones as “a big lie”. Even if the teenagers had thrown rocks, he said, they posed no imminent threat – to police, military, or civilians – as they drove through the brush.
The White House has demanded a transparent investigation into the death, which came after repeated US warnings that Israel must rein in rising violence against Palestinians in the territory. The teenager’s family said US embassy officials visited the village, photographed the car and interviewed relatives.
Hafeth Abdel Jabbar said that when he and other relatives arrived, Israeli soldiers trained their guns on them and made two of them take their shirts off to show they weren’t a threat.
He said he ignored the soldiers and ran to the car, which had landed upright. He described his son’s body as splayed on the passenger side of the car, where blood pooled onto the floor and spread to the backseat.
He said he and others began extricating his son’s body, loading him into an ambulance.
Tawfic Abdel Jabbar was pronounced dead upon arrival at a Ramallah hospital. Video his father provided shows the car about 500 meters from the highway.
“It’s a scene that I hope never happens again,” Hafeth said Tuesday. “You have six or seven Israeli soldiers pointing the gun at you. Telling you not to go see your son. Your 17-year-old son is inside the car, dead from them, shot from the back.”
Updated
Key event
There have been violent clashes in the West Bank overnight as Israeli forces raided the city of Jenin, local media have reported.
The local Palestinian militant group, the Jenin Brigades, said its men were engaged in heavy exchanges of fire with the Israeli military, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, while Al Jazeera wrote that one Palestinian had been arrested.
The Qatari broadcaster also cited the Palestinian Wafa news agency as reporting that Israeli forces had destroyed monuments to dead Palestinians and that city streets had been torn up by Israeli bulldozers.
The Israeli military and settlers have killed 360 Palestinians, including 92 children, across the West Bank since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, according to the UN.
In response to the statement by Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari, Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has accused Doha of “supporting and funding terrorism.”
In a post on X, Smotrich accused Qatar of being “largely responsible” for the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and called on western countries to apply more pressure on it to bring an immediate release of the hostages.
קטר היא מדינה תומכת טרור ומממנת טרור. היא הפטרונית של חמאס והיא אחראית במידה רבה לטבח שביצע חמאס באזרחי ישראל. היחס של המערב כלפיה צבוע ומבוסס על אינטרסים כלכליים פסולים. המערב יכול וצריך להפעיל עליה מנופים חזקים בהרבה ולהביא לשחרור החטופים באופן מידי.>> https://t.co/ziQpGs6ROX
— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) January 24, 2024
In fact it has been widely reported that Israel encouraged Qatari payments to Hamas.
The New York Times last month noted that Benjamin Netanyahu said as far back as 2012 that it was important to keep Hamas strong as a counterweight to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and that strong rival Palestinian groups would lessen the pressure on him to negotiate a Palestinian state.
Qatar 'appalled' by alleged Netanyahu remarks
Qatar has accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of obstructing mediation efforts in the Gaza war and prioritising his career after a leaked recording allegedly captured him calling the Gulf state “problematic”.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al Ansari, wrote on X:
We are appalled by the alleged remarks attributed to the Israeli prime minister in various media reports about Qatar’s mediation role. These remarks if validated, are irresponsible and destructive to the efforts to save innocent lives, but are not surprising ....
If the reported remarks are found to be true, the Israeli PM would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages.
In a leaked recording from a meeting with hostage families that aired on Israel’s Channel 12 news on Tuesday, Netanyahu called Qatar “problematic”, Associated Press reported. Netanyahu allegedly said:
You haven’t seen me thank Qatar, have you noticed? I haven’t thanked Qatar. Why? Because Qatar, to me, is no different in essence from the UN, from the Red Cross and in a way it’s even more problematic. However, I’m willing to use any mediator now who can help me bring them [the hostages] home.
Asked to comment on Qatar’s statement and whether the leaked recording was authentic, an Israeli government spokesperson said Israel “cannot go into details regarding the efforts and steps taken to release the hostages”.
Qatar, where several Hamas political leaders are based, has served as the main mediator between the movement that governs Gaza and Israeli officials in the conflict.
In November, Qatar helped secure a seven-day pause in fighting, during which 110 Israeli and foreign hostages were released from Gaza in return for 240 Palestinians released from Israeli captivity.
In the recording, Netanyahu went on to say that Qatar has leverage over Hamas because it funds the movement. He told the hostage families that he recently “got very angry with the Americans” for renewing a deal to extend US military presence at a base in Qatar.
Updated
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis with me, Helen Livingstone.
Qatar has accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of obstructing mediation efforts in the Gaza war after a leaked recording allegedly captured him calling the Gulf state “problematic”.
“We are appalled by the alleged remarks attributed to the Israeli Prime Minister in various media reports about Qatar’s mediation role,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al Ansari, said on social media platform X.
“If the reported remarks are found to be true, the Israeli PM would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages,” he wrote.
More on that soon. In other key developments:
More than 25,700 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, local authorities said on Wednesday. The latest figures included 210 Palestinians killed and nearly 400 injured in the past 24 hours. About 85% of the besieged strip’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced from their homes, now dealing with cold, hunger and disease in unsanitary and chaotic makeshift displacement camps.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday that it had “encircled” Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, after two days of heavy fighting, in what Israeli officials described as the last large ground assault in the three-month-old war before a shift to “lower intensity” operations. Approximately 88,000 Palestinians live in Khan Younis, which is also hosting an estimated 425,000 people displaced by fighting elsewhere in the tiny coastal territory.
Thousands of people sheltering in hospitals in Khan Younis are now trapped by Israel’s assault on the southern city. By Wednesday morning, fierce battles had reached the gates of Khan Younis’s three main hospitals – al-Aqsa, Nasser and al-Amal – making it difficult for civilians to flee, according to Ocha, the UN humanitarian agency. About 18,000 people were believed to be sheltering in the grounds of Nasser hospital alone, Ocha said, along with 850 patients. People fleeing the vicinity of Nasser hospital have been shot at by Israeli tanks as well as attack drones, according to reports. The Palestinian Red Cross Society, which runs al-Amal hospital, said troops had blockaded its staff inside. Israel says Hamas fighters operate in and around hospitals, which hospital staff and Hamas deny.
The White House condemned Wednesday’s deadly shelling of a UN shelter in southern Gaza, reiterating its position that Israel has a “responsibility to protect civilians” as it prosecutes its war with Hamas. The Gaza director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said earlier Wednesday that two tank shells had hit a building sheltering 800 people in the city of Khan Younis, with reports that nine people had died and 75 more were injured.
The UNRWA commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, said the number of killed was “likely higher”, adding that the incident was “once again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war”. Meanwhile, at least eight people were critically injured after Israeli forces targeted a school in Khan Younis that was sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, according to reports.
The World Health Organization’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean said Israel was continuing to target health institutions in Gaza. Ahmed Al-Mandhari said 660 attacks were recorded on health institutions, about half of them in northern Gaza, adding that attacks on health institutions were a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
Two ships sailing close to the Gulf of Aden were forced to seek the support of the US navy after explosions were heard nearby, as the Houthi group kept up their assault on commercial shipping off the coast of Yemen. The Houthis have also written to the UN demanding that all UK and US staff leave the country within a month.
The international court of justice in The Hague said it would deliver its ruling this week on whether or not to grant emergency measures against Israel. The UN court said the 17-judge panel would hand down its ruling on Friday at 1200 GMT. The court could order Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza, although it has no way to enforce its orders.
An Israeli government spokesperson ruled out a Gaza ceasefire, despite reports that negotiations on hostage releases were progressing and repeated international calls for Israel to cease its months-long bombardment of the Gaza Strip. “Israel will not give up on the destruction of Hamas, the return of all the hostages … There will be no ceasefire,” the Israeli government spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, accused Israel of holding up aid deliveries to Gaza. The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is open “24/7” but the procedures by Israel to allow the entry of aid are obstructing the process, Sisi said on Wednesday, adding that “this is part of how they exert pressure on the issue of releasing the hostages.”
Israeli forces arrested 35 Palestinians, including a woman and former prisoners, in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to data released by the Palestinian prisoners’ affairs authority, bringing the total number of Palestinians arrested in the occupied West Bank since 7 October to 6,255. Meanwhile, Israeli troops on Wednesday reportedly demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of assisting in the killing of four Israelis near a settlement in the occupied West Bank in June.
UN member states must stop arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups, more than a dozen international humanitarian and human rights organisations urged in a joint statement on Wednesday. They called on countries to “stop fuelling the crisis in Gaza and avert further humanitarian catastrophe and loss of civilian life”.
US strikes against militias in Iraq prompted the most scathing criticism yet from Baghdad, with the prime minister’s office accusing Washington of contributing to a “reckless escalation” of regional violence. The Pentagon announced earlier on Wednesday that it had carried out overnight retaliatory strikes against three facilities linked to Iran-backed militias in response to its own forces coming under attack at an Iraqi airbase at the weekend.
The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, met Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem as part of his Middle East visit. Cameron, who is on his second visit to the region since returning to government, pressed for an immediate humanitarian pause in the fighting and raised “the importance of a two-state solution”, Downing Street said.
