Gaza live: Gaza death toll rises to 35,80
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An Israeli military statement posted on X that it had killed a commander of the Hezbollah group in Lebanon’s Tyre region on Tuesday.
Israel referred to Qassim Saqlawi as “the commander of the rocket and missile unit in the coastal division” of the group.
Hezbollah confirmed his death following the attack, without providing a rank.
Israeli forces have shot dead five Palestinians people during an assault on the Jenin refugee camp the Palestinian Wafa news agency said on Tuesday citing the health ministry.
The victims included a doctor, a teacher and a student.
Local media published a photo of what it said was a student killed riding his bike.
Edem Wosornu, who works for the the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs briefed the UN Security Council on the situation in Gaza. This is what she had to say:
- Some 75 percent of the population, or 1.7 million people, have been forcibly displaced within Gaza, many of them up to five times
- At least 800,000 people who fled Rafah due to Israel’s forced evacuation orders have sought refuge in Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah, resulting in “horrendous” conditions at these sites
- There are not adequate toilets, water points, drainage and shelter in Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah for fleeing Palestinians
- Gaza remains on the brink of famine, with some 1.1 million Palestinians facing “catastrophic levels of hunger”
Palestinian rights organisations Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights called the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to request arrest warrants against Israeli leaders as “a crucial step” towards ending Israel’s war on Gaza.
In a statement, the three organisations said the ICC announcement follows after “tireless efforts by Palestinian and international civil society organisations demanding the issuance of arrest warrants” for members of Israel’s war cabinet.
“While we welcome the issuing of charges for crimes against humanity, there is also a public catalogue of genocidal statements of intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, including through the intentional denial of aid,” the organisations said.
“For these reasons, genocide as an additional crime should be included in an amendment to the charges,” they added.
Amal Clooney has been named amongst the key experts who advised the International Criminal Court on seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Monday.
In a statement released shortly after the news broke, Khan said he was "grateful for the advice" given to him by a panel of experts, which included Clooney.
Clooney is a world-renowned human rights lawyer who has worked on a number of serious global conflicts. She has been married to actor George Clooney since 2014.
The Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, has welcomed the ICC prosecutor’s request to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
“The era of impunity for Israeli decision-makers is over,” the group said in a statement.
“The international community is signalling to Israel that it can no longer maintain its policy of violence, killing and destruction without accountability. Likewise, the request for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders for the crimes of October 7 is important and draws a red line where harm to civilians is concerned,” it said.
“The ICC intervention and ICJ rulings are a chance for us, Israelis, to realise what we should have understood long ago: that upholding a regime of supremacy, violence and oppression necessarily involves crimes and severe violation of human rights.”
The first way that Hamas's top leadership should be prosecuted for war crimes in the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza is by being killed by Israel's military, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said during a news briefing on Monday.
"We absolutely believe that Hamas should be held accountable. That could either be through the prosecution of the war effort by Israel. It could be by being killed. It could be by being brought to justice in an Israeli court," Miller told a crowd of reporters at the State Department.
"The Israeli government should hold them accountable on the battlefield. And if not a battlefield, then a court of law."
The comments came in response to an announcement made earlier on Monday by the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, in which Khan said he was seeking arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders: its political leader Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its armed wing, Ibrahim al-Masri, better known as Mohammed Deif, and the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.
Read more: In response to ICC warrants, US says Hamas should be ‘killed’ or prosecuted by Israel
A UN warehouse in Gaza has not received food aid from the newly-opened US-built pier for two days, an unnamed UN official has told the Reuters news agency.
The UN did not receive any aid from the pier on Sunday or Monday, with the official saying, “they’ve not seen trucks for a while”.
“We need to make sure that the necessary security and logistical arrangements are in place before we proceed,” the official said.
Good morning Middle East Eye readers,
It's day 228 of Israel's war on Gaza. This is a recap of the last few hours to get you up to speed this morning:
- Intensified fighting continues across Gaza, with several people killed in Israel attacks in central Gaza and at least 18 killed in Jabalia and Beit Lahiya in the north
- ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has filed an application for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh
- Some Western countries, including the US, UK, Italy and Germany, have condemned the move, arguing simultaneous applications for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders and Israeli officials creates a false equivalency
- US President Joe Biden denied allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza."What's happening in Gaza is not genocide," Biden said at a Jewish heritage event at the White House on Monday
Biden said that US support for Israel was “ironclad” during a Jewish heritage event where he also denied a genocide was taking place in Gaza.
"What's happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that,” Biden said.
He said the US was committed to hunting down Hamas's Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar.
“We stand with Israel to take out Sinwar and the rest of the butchers of Hamas. We want Hamas defeated. We're working with Israel to make that happen," he said.
MEE reported previously that the US is focused on tracking down Sinwar, in the hope it will help them push Israel declare to declare victory in Gaza and end to the war.
France said it supports the International Criminal Court’s “independence” but stopped short of outright backing the ICC prosecutor's decision to call for warrants of arrest against Israeli and Hamas leaders.
“France has been warning for many months about the imperative of strict compliance with international humanitarian law and in particular about the unacceptable nature of civilian losses in the Gaza Strip and insufficient humanitarian access,” France’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.
France said it supported the court and "the fight against impunity in all situations,” adding that it was committed to a political solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
US President Joe Biden denied allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
"What's happening in Gaza is not genocide," Biden said at a Jewish heritage event at the White House on Monday.
Biden’s remarks come as his administration slams the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s call for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
The Israeli military said it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” likely launched from Syria and also downed two targets coming from the east of the country, likely from Iraq on Monday night.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group for Shia paramilitaries, claimed it launched two drones at Eliat.
Video posted on social media showed customers at an outdoor Hookah bar around Eliat watching an explosion in the night sky. MEE couldn't confirm the authenticity of the video.
EU foreign policy Josep Borrell issued a muted statement in response to the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s call for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
“I take note of the decision of the ICC Prosecutor to apply for warrants of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant,” Borrell wrote on X.
He said the ICC’s mandate was to prosecute “the most serious crimes under international law,” adding “all states that have ratified the ICC statutes are bound to execute the Court’s decisions".
High-profile Democratic lawmakers have staked out opposing positions to the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s call for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
A statement by US Senator Bernie Sanders listed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar as leaders that “engage in war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
"The ICC prosecutor is right to take these actions.”
Sander’s endorsement is in stark contrast to Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer who called the ICC prosecutor’s call for arrest warrants “reprehensible”.
"For decades and decades the ICC has shown it harbors deep biases against Israel….this decision is another glaring example of that bias,” Schumer said.
