Gaza live: Gaza death toll rises to 35,80

The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights has obtained video footage showing that trucks filled with humanitarian aid have been accumulating in Egypt near the Rafah crossing with Gaza.

Earlier this month, Israeli forces launched an offensive on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, and seized the crossing, which put a halt to the aid that was entering the enclave.

In its new submission to the International Court of Justice, South Africa called for an end to Israel's "genocidal" war in Gaza and for its attack on the southern city of Rafah to be halted.

South Africa's ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela said that Israel's "genocide" in Gaza has "just reached a new and horrific stage."

"South Africa had hoped, when we last appeared before this court, to halt this genocidal process to preserve Palestine and its people," Madonsela told the ICJ.

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South Africa is asking the International Court of Justice to order Israel to cease its military operations in Gaza and to "totally and unconditionally" withdraw from the entirety of the enclave.

Gaza's media office has published a list of more than 100 academics, university professors and researchers who have been killed by Israeli aggression since its war on Gaza began on 7 October.

“In addition, the occupation completely destroyed more than 103 universities and schools, in addition to partially destroying 311 universities and schools,” the office said in a statement, calling on “all universities and educational sectors in all countries of the world to condemn this crime".

Yemen's Houthis will target any ships bound for Israeli ports that they can reach, even in areas beyond the Red Sea, the group's leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Thursday.

Reporting by Reuters

Al Jazeera is reporting that fighting is "raging" in Jabalia refugee camp, with residential neighbourhoods being pounded by "constant shelling" over the last few hours.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement that it had attacked four Israeli army Merkava tanks in the camp.

It added that the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Jihad, had attacked an additional tank, killing and wounding Israeli soldiers.

Emerging far fight Netherlands coalition is planning to move the embassy of the Netherlands to Jerusalem.

In a draft coalition agreement, the partners said they would investigate “the appropriate time in which the move of the embassy to Jerusalem can occur.”

A provisional agreement to form a right wing government was reached yesterday, following the November elections in which the pro-Israel, far-right Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders received the highest share of the vote.

South African delegate Professor Max du Plessis told the ICJ that instead of complying with the orders it issued in January, Israel has defied the court by "trapping, besieging and bombarding overcrowded Rafah".

He added that Israel's current offensive on the city is the "deadliest phase of this ongoing genocide".

He said that the court's initial orders were made because the right of existence of the Palestinian population in Gaza is currently at risk of irreparable prejudice, the only effective way of preserving this right is through prevention.

South Africa is seeking these new measures before it's too late for prevention to be possible he said.

Citing the UN's declaration that "no one in Gaza is safe," he emphasised that "no one in Gaza is safe".

South Africa's second representative, Professor Vaughan Lowe, told the ICJ that the provisional measures already issued to Israel by the court were "not effective" in protecting Palestinians against genocide, and asked the court to "reassert its own authority and the authority of international law".

He said the current Israeli offensive on Rafah is "the last step in the destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people".

“It was Rafah that brought South Africa to the court, but it is all Palestinians - as a national ethnic and racial group - who need the protection from genocide that the court can order,” he said.

Vusi Madonsela, South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, said in his opening remarks at the International Court of Justice hearing that the genocide in Gaza is "ongoing".

He added that South Africa's fourth submission to the court was triggered not only by the offensive in Rafah but by an intensification of the Israeli assault across Gaza in the last few days.

Three Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and Palestinian officials.

The victims were Ayman Ahmad Mubarak, 26, Husam Imad Da’bas, 22, and Mohammed Yusif Nasrallah, 27.

During the same raids, 11 branches of the same money exhange company were searched by Israeli forces and reportedly lost around 4 million shekels in the raids, or over $1m, according to Al Jazeera.

Israeli forces also confiscated computers and safes, along with everything inside them.

Israel's defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said the offensive on Rafah "will intensify" as extra troops are sent to join the ground operation.

"This operation will continue as additional forces will enter [the area]. Several tunnels in the area have been destroyed by our troops and additional tunnels will be destroyed soon," he said in a statement.

"This activity will intensify - Hamas is not an organization that can reorganize, it does not have reserve troops, it has no supply stocks, and no ability to treat the terrorists that we target. The result is that we are wearing Hamas down," he added.

Two people were killed in an Israeli air strike that targetted their vehicle near the southern Lebanese town of Seddiqine, Lebanon’s Annahar news site is reporting.

The news agency also reported that two others were killed in a raid in the area.

Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has called for financial support from Arab countries, saying that the government has not received the funds it expected from international and regional partners.

"It has now become critical to activate the Arab safety net, to boost the resilience of our people, and to enable the government to carry out its duties,"  Abbas said at an Arab League summit on Thursday.

Four Palestinians, including a pregnant woman, have been killed in an Israeli strike on a home in the al-Faluja area of Jabalia, Wafa news agency is reporting.