Live: Palestinian death toll in Gaza nears 26,000

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered his government to boycott the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, over its stance on the Israel-Palestine war.

Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek was planning to attend the event, which is a meeting place for the global business and political elite, but was instructed by Erdogan not to go, according to Bloomberg.

Erdogan has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and has strongly condemned Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

Western allies in Jordan and the Gulf states have also offered rhetorical support for the Palestinians, but Erdogan has been more vocal in supporting Hamas, putting him at odds with Europe and the US which consider Hamas a "terror" group. 

Read more: Turkey's Erdogan orders officials to skip Davos over Gaza war

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported that US President Joe Biden's envoy, Amos Hochstein, made a proposal during his visit to Beirut last week to push Hezbollah operatives seven kilometres from the border with Israel and station the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon.

According to the report by Al-Akhbar, considered to be aligned with Hezbollah, Hochstein said that "there is no need for a withdrawal [of the organisation] to north of the Litani River".

Good morning readers of Middle East Eye,

We are on day 102 of the Israeli war on Gaza and the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has passed another grim milestone with at least 24,100 Palestinians deaths recorded by hospitals, 10,600 of them children and 7,200 women.

At least 60,317 people are also wounded in the Strip, many go without proper health care treatment.

There are more than 8,000 missing, who are believed to be dead and buried under rubble. 

Here are the major developments from the last few hours: 

• The UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) says Israeli authorities are denying access to northern Gaza for deliveries of medicines and fuel to run water and waste pumps
• The Israeli army says it has redeployed an elite unit from Gaza to the occupied West Bank, where it says the situation is “spiralling”
• Israeli attacks killed at least 25 people in Gaza on Monday night, including 11 Palestinians from two families in Miraj, in the north of Rafah
• Israel says another soldier has been killed in Gaza, at least 186 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since 7 October
• The UN Secretary-General says a “heavy, widespread & unrelenting bombardment” is preventing Gaza aid deliveries
• Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian property continue in West Bank
• Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region’s Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has condemned a “cowardly attack” from Iran on the region’s capital, Erbil, which reportedly killed four people

Good evening MEE readers. The war on Gaza has now surpassed 101 days, and Israel's military campaign does not have an end in sight.

At least 132 Palestinians were killed over the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, which reported that more than two dozen were killed on Monday night alone.

The death toll now stands at 24,100 Palestinians. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden released a statement marking the 100 days of war, with not a single mention of the word Palestinian.

Here are the latest developments from today:

• The leader of UK's Labour Party Keir Starmer has said that the party will no longer abide by its previous promise to recognise a Palestinian state unilaterally

• Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said they destroyed the headquarters of Israel's intelligence agency Mossad in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to state media

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered his government to boycott the World Economic Forum in Davos over its stance on the war in Gaza

• Dozens of protesters blocked the entrance to an American weapons manufacturing plant in rural Vermont, where they called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to arming Israel's military

• Yemen's Houthi movement claimed an attack on a US shipping vessel in the Gulf of Aden, and said it will continue to consider all American and British ships in the Red Sea as targets

• Israel's military spokesman announced that the 36th division, one of four military divisions fighting in Gaza, is withdrawing from the enclave

• Al-Qassam Brigades released a new video in which an Israeli captive said that two other hostages were killed by Israeli air strikes. The statement was coupled with footage of the two dead Israeli hostages, Yossi Sharabi and Itai Svirsky. Israel denied that one of the hostages was killed by Israeli fire

We are going to be taking a pause in our coverage but will be back soon. To stay up to date on the latest news, follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube.

The leader of UK's Labour Party Keir Starmer has said that the party will no longer abide by its previous promise to recognise a Palestinian state unilaterally, and will now only do so as a result of a two-state solution with Israel.

Starmer told the Jewish Chronicle that Speaking Labour was "committed to the two-state solution."

"Recognition has to be part of a process, and an appropriate part of the process," he said.

Wayne David, the Labour party's shadow Middle East minister, said the move was a departure from "T-shirt politics".

"It’s not about the Labour government going, 'right we recognise Palestine’, big deal!" David said, adding that the party's previous position would have “counted for very little apart from antagonising some people”.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least 25 Palestinians were killed, and dozens more injured, by Israeli strikes across Gaza on Monday night.

In Miraj, in the north of Rafah, at least 11 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli bombing of a house. In Khan Younis, al-Nasser Hospital received the bodies of eight people who were killed in an Israeli attack in the southern city.

Four Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli attack on al-Bureij refugee camp and two Palestinians were killed in a strike on Tal al-Hawa in Gaza City in the north.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said they destroyed the "espionage headquarters" of Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The IRGC said they attacked espionage centres near Iraq's northern city of Erbil with ballistic missiles, according to Iranian state media.

Explosions were heard in an area some 40 kilometres northeast of Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, three security sources told Reuters.

Two dead and five wounded civilians had been brought to a local hospital after the explosions, two medical sources told the agency.

"Ballistic missiles were used to destroy espionage centers and gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups in the region late tonight," the IRGC said in a statement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered his government to boycott the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, over its stance on the Israel-Palestine War.

Turkey’s treasury and finance minister, Mehmet Simsek, was planning to attend the event, which is a meeting place for the global business and political elite, but was instructed by Erdogan not to go, according to Bloomberg.

Erdogan has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause and has strongly condemned Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

Western allies in Jordan and the Gulf states have also offered rhetorical support for the Palestinians, but Erdogan has been more vocal in supporting Hamas, putting him at odds with Europe and the US which consider Hamas a "terror" group. 

Read more: Turkey's Erdogan orders officials to skip Davos over Gaza war

Motaz Azaiza, a young Palestinian journalist from Gaza, posted a video on social media recounting his coverage of the war over the past 100 days.

"Hundred days of losing, suffering, pain, fighting to survive and showing the RAW realities to the whole world," Azaiza said.

While the war on Gaza has had a tremendous physical and mental toll of Gaza's residents, journalists have been facing this trauma while also reporting on the war.

Nearly a thousand people attended a pro-Palestine march in New York City on Martin Luther King Jr Day, demanding an end to Israel's war in Gaza and rallying for healthcare.

"This march is a call to demand an end to the genocide, to end all US aid to Israel, to lift the siege and blockade on Gaza in order to prevent the healthcare system’s total collapse and hundreds of thousands of more deaths from illnesses if the bombs do not kill them first," the organisers of Within Our Lifetime (WOL) wrote on social media. 

To read the full story, click below.

New Yorkers march for Palestine on Martin Luther King Jr Day

Zarah Sultana, a member of UK Parliament, said that after she called for a ceasefire in Gaza, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak responded with an Islamophobic trope by asking her to tell Hamas to de-escalate.

Sultana said that the British prime minister told her she should: "call on Hamas and the Houthis to de-escalate the situation"

"This is an Islamophobic trope – as if by being Muslim, I am responsible for Hamas and the Houthis," Sultana said on Twitter.

Dozens of protesters on Monday blocked the entrance to an American weapons manufacturing plant in rural Vermont, where they called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to arming Israel's military.

The protesters blocked the entrance during a shift change, preventing employees from being able to enter, clock in, and begin their work.

"To be clear: it is our government that bankrolls the occupation. It is our government that bankrolls and arms Israel’s genocidal campaign," April, an organiser with the protest, said in a statement shared with MEE.

"Weapons manufacturers like Raytheon depend on us to make profit, so they use fear to keep us divided. As an American Jew, I reject solutions that pit Jews and Palestinians or Arabs against each other. We build safe communities through solidarity."

The US has been the biggest supporter of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, much of that support coming in the form of weapons shipments to the country to aid and replenish Israel's arms stockpile.

The Biden administration has fast-tracked multiple shipments of bombs and munitions to the country and sent thousands of pounds of weapons.

RTX, formerly known as Raytheon, is a key American defence contractor that provides weapons systems for Israel's military. RTX makes missiles for Israel's Iron Dome defence system, and also makes parts, including bombs and missiles, for the F-35 fighter jet.

US President Joe Biden released a statement on Sunday regarding the state of the roughly 100 Israeli hostages that continue to be held 100 days into the war on Gaza.

The statement, the only one made regarding the 100-day anniversary of the war, makes no mention of the tens of thousands of Palestinians that have been killed by Israel’s military - the majority of them women and children.

The statement was heavily criticised online, with many accusing Biden of erasing the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed an attack on a US shipping vessel in the Gulf of Aden and said it will continue to consider all American and British ships in the Red Sea as targets.

The attack, which struck the Gibraltar Eagle vessel carrying steel products, occurred earlier on Monday and comes after the US and UK engaged in a series of air strikes on areas on mainland Yemen.

The Houthis described the attack as a “victory for the oppression of the Palestinian people”.

“The Yemeni armed forces consider all American and British ships and warships participating in the aggression against our country as hostile targets within the target bank of our forces,” the Houthis said in a statement on their Telegram channel.

Israel's military spokesman announced that the 36th division, one of four military divisions fighting in Gaza, is withdrawing from the enclave.

The division will return to Israel for rest and training before any decision is made as to whether it will be redeployed. The other three divisions will remain in Gaza.

Israel has said it is wrapping up its intense phase of the fighting in Gaza and will shift to a lower intensity phase in the war.

The 36th division had been deployed to northern Gaza, the area hit hardest by Israel's military campaign in the first few months of the war.