Live: Palestinian death toll in Gaza nears 26,000

The Lebanese group says it carried out three attacks on Israeli soldiers in the last several hours, achieving direct hits in all cases.

The announcement was made on Telegram, where the group said they targeted the Al-Summaqa sites, Ramtha in the Shebaa Farms, Mount Nader and in an Israeli army base in Khirbet Ma’ar.
 

The world is watching a famine develop in Gaza that could kill many times more than the 24,000 Palestinians who have already perished in Israel’s merciless blitzkrieg. 

Last month, more than 90 percent of Gaza’s population was estimated to be facing high levels of acute food insecurity, categorised as Phase 3 or crisis levels. Of those, more than 40 percent were in a state of emergency (Phase 4), and more than 15 percent in a catastrophic situation, the fifth and final phase.

The famine is projected to develop rapidly in the coming weeks. By early February, if nothing changes, the entire population of Gaza is projected to be in the crisis phase, half in the emergency phase, and more than half a million people in the catastrophic phase, with households experiencing an extreme lack of food, starvation and exhaustion.

These are not the projections of the Palestinian health ministry, dismissed collectively by western media as “Hamas-run”, but of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), drawing on data from UN agencies and NGOs. Three weeks ago, the IPC warned that Gaza would have the highest share of people in the world facing acute food insecurity - and so it has turned out to be.

Read more: Arab despots' failure to stand up to Israel could fuel an explosion

Nearly 20,000 babies have been born during Israel's continuing war in Gaza, while 135,000 children in the Gaza Strip under the age of two are at “severe risk” of malnutrition UNICEF warned on Friday.

“The situation of pregnant women and newborns in the Gaza Strip is beyond belief, and it demands intensified and immediate actions,” Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson, said.

“The already precarious situation of infant and maternal mortality has worsened as the healthcare system collapses.”

"The already precarious situation of infant and maternal mortality has worsened as the healthcare system collapses," Ingram stressed, adding that mothers face unimaginable challenges in accessing adequate medical care, nutrition, and protection before, during, and after birth.

Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and their babies are living in "inhumane conditions, makeshift shelters (with) poor nutrition and unsafe water."

"This is putting about 135,000 children under the age of two at severe risk of malnutrition," she warned.

The UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, has told a press conference in Spain that Israel has violated international law with its brutal bombing of the Gaza Strip which has killed more than 24,700 Palestinians. 

“Israel has done a number of things that are largely illegal,” Albanese said at a press conference in Madrid. “International humanitarian law must be respected to protect people not participating in combat: Civilians, prisoners of war, the sick and the wounded," she said.

“This means distinguishing between combatants and civilians, and ensuring that military attacks are proportionate to avoid excessive harm to civilians.

"Instead, what happened was more than 100 days of heavy bombing. In the first two weeks, 6,000 bombs were used weekly, bombs each weighing 2,000 pounds [about a tonne], in very crowded areas," she added.

Israeli forces have renewed heavy shelling and ground attacks across the northern Gaza Strip after two weeks of relative calm.

Eyewitnesses told Middle East Eye the bombing on Thursday night was one the heaviest in days.

"The shelling from fighter jets, tanks and warships did not stop for one moment," a resident of Gaza City, who did not want to be named for safety concerns, said. "Most people in the northern Gaza Strip did not sleep."

At the turn of the year, Israeli ground troops retreated from vast areas across the northern Gaza Strip following weeks of intense shelling, turning their attention to southern Gaza. Many people returned to their homes after the army withdrawal.

Earlier this week, however, intensified attacks returned to the north, forcing many to flee again.

"A lady arrived in our area this morning and said soldiers raided some homes, detaining the men and forcing the women out," the Gaza resident said.

"People are terrified that the ground invasion will return at the same scale it was at the beginning.

"They're afraid the same barbarity of invading homes, burning them and killing people inside will return. No one knows what is going on."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is facing a criminal probe during a visit to Switzerland, Swiss prosecutors said, amid reports of crimes against humanity over the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (BA) confirmed on Friday, the Times of Israel said, that it had received a criminal complaint against the Israeli president, who was at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos on Thursday to discuss the Gaza war.

“The criminal complaints will now be examined in accordance with the usual procedure,” BA says in a statement, adding that it is in contact with the foreign ministry “to examine the question of the immunity of the person concerned”.

It does not say what the specific complaints were, or who filed them.

But a statement allegedly issued by the people behind the complaint, entitled “Legal Action Against Crimes Against Humanity” and obtained by AFP, says several unnamed individuals had filed charges with federal prosecutors and with cantonal authorities in Basel, Bern and Zurich.

The statement says the plaintiffs were seeking a criminal prosecution in parallel to a case brought before the UN’s International Court of Justice by South Africa, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Addressing the issue of immunity, the statement suggests that it could be lifted “in certain circumstances”, including in cases of alleged crimes against humanity, adding that “these conditions are met in this case”.

At least 142 people have been killed by Israel’s bombing of Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Another 278 were wounded in the same period.

The emergency government in Israel managing the ongoing war on Gaza may be “close to collapse”, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

The Israeli outlet said “the question is no longer whether an election will take place in 2024, but rather when in 2024,” as Netanyahu’s position becomes increasingly untenable.

“In fear of voters’ reaction, moreover, Netanyahu has even gone as far as to conceal his transition to Stage 3 of the war not only from his own war cabinet but also from the general public," the report said.

However, it said an election is unlikely to take place imminently as most coalition members have received their budgets and are reluctant to shake things up despite public demand for a vote.

The deputy executive director of the UN children’s fund has warned that children in the besieged Gaza Strip are facing dire hunger and disease.

Ted Chaiban, the deputy executive director of Unicef, described the Gaza Strip as the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.

"We have said this is a war on children. But these truths do not seem to be getting through," he said in a statement. 

“The little food that is available doesn’t meet children’s unique nutritional needs. As a result, thousands of children are malnourished and sick,” he said in a statement.

“If this decline persists, we could see deaths due to indiscriminate conflict compounded by deaths due to disease and hunger,” he said.

“We need a major breakthrough. The sheer mass of civilians on the border is hard to fathom and the conditions they live in are inhuman," he added.

The death toll from this mornings Israeli air strike that hit an apartment block near the Gaza City health facility has now reached 15 according to the Palestinian press agency Wafa. 

At least 77 Palestinians were killed on Thursday night and Friday morning, Wafa reported and dozens more wounded. 

The Palestinian foreign ministry says it supports Chile and Mexico’s request for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate crimes against civilians during the Gaza war.

“The court must fulfil its mandate towards Palestinian victims and ensure justice for crimes committed by Israeli officials, without fear or favour,” the ministry said.

The ICC is an independent judicial body that has jurisdiction over individuals charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Mexico and Chile, in their appeal, said there was “growing concern over the latest escalation of violence, particularly against civilian targets, and the alleged continued commission of crimes under the Court’s jurisdiction.”

Egyptian officials are conducting talks with representatives from the Houthi group in Yemen as well as with Iran in an attempt to reduce tensions in international waters, Arabic-language news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Friday.

In recent days, “intensive Egyptian security meetings have taken place with prominent leaders from the Ansar Allah group,” an anonymous Egyptian official told the news outlet, using the Houthi group’s official title.

Cairo reportedly criticised the 12 January US and UK-led strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, as well as  subsequent US strikes, saying it believes the answer to ending the Houthi blockade in the Red Sea is not militaristic.

“It is better to push for a solution that accelerates the end of the main cause, which is the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip,” the Egyptian official told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

The Houthis have stated that they are targeting ships with ties to Israel as a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza and in a bid to pressure Israel to stop the onslaught in the besieged strip.

As part of Egypt’s efforts to calm international waters, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is expected to visit Cairo in the coming days, the news outlet added.

The world-famous German nightclub Berghain, renowned on the global techno scene, has been accused of cancelling a gig by an artist for holding pro-Palestinian views.

The French-Lebanese DJ Arabian Panther was due to appear at Berghain in Berlin on Friday last week when he was told that the event would be cancelled. 

The DJ took to Instagram to express his frustration at being silenced over his views. 

"I was supposed to make my Berghain debut tonight for a Ritmo Fatale label’s night. Berghain decided to cancel my appearance as Arabian Panther due to my pro-Palestine stance," said the DJ. 

"In order to avoid any negative publicity, Berghain has chosen to cancel the party & close the club this Friday, January 12, 2024 and provided ‘renovation work’ as the official reason to all the booking agencies.

Read more: Berlin's Berghain cancels Arabian Panther gig over DJ's pro-Palestine views

Russian and Chinese vessels transiting through the Red Sea will be granted safe passage, a senior Houthi official tells Russian outlet Izvestia in an interview, AFP reported. 

Senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti insisted the waters around Yemen, which some shipping firms are avoiding due to the ongoing attacks from the Ansarallah group, are safe so long as vessels are not linked to certain countries, particularly Israel.

“As for all other countries, including Russia and China, their shipping in the region is not threatened,” he says.

“Moreover, we are ready to ensure the safe passage of their ships in the Red Sea, because free navigation plays a significant role for our country.”

Attacks on vessels “in any way connected with Israel” will continue, he adds.

At least 24 cases of Hepatitis A and thousands of cases of jaundice have been detected in the Gaza Strip, as access to clean water remains severely restricted, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on X, formerly Twitter.

“The inhumane living conditions — almost no drinking water, clean toilets or ability to keep the surroundings clean — will allow hepatitis A to spread further,” Ghebreyesus writes, describing the health crisis as “explosive.”

“The capacity to diagnose diseases remains extremely limited. There is no functioning laboratory. The capacity to respond remains limited too,” he adds.

“We continue to call for unimpeded and safe access of medical aid and for health to be protected.”