Live: Six more Palestinians die of famine as Israel blocks Gaza aid
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Karim Khan has questioned whether Israel is "interfering in and attempting to manipulate" a UN investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him, following comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since late last year, the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) has been examining sexual misconduct allegations by one female ICC staff member against Khan, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor - allegations he has strongly denied.
But on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that four more women have made accusations against Khan. Netanyahu's claims have never been mentioned in the public domain before, and Khan has confirmed that he is wholly unaware of them.
Khan’s spokesperson told MEE that Khan "has no knowledge whatsoever of the women referred to by Mr Netanyahu".
The spokesperson said that the prosecutor believes the Israeli leader's comments raise "profound questions" as to whether Israel is "interfering in and attempting to manipulate" the UN investigation, and that Netanyahu "is making significant efforts to discredit both the ICC and Mr Khan personally".
Read more: Has Netanyahu sabotaged his own campaign against Karim Khan?
The death toll in Gaza continues to climb, with at least 71 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks today, including 19 people who were seeking aid.
Medical sources say 41 of those killed were in Gaza City alone.
The Israeli army claimed a reservist was killed in a friendly fire incident in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, bringing the number of confirmed military deaths since the start of the war to 900.
The Israeli claim could not be independently verified, earlier in the day Hamas said they had killed several Israeli soldiers.
Israeli media say the military and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet carried out a drone strike in Gaza City targeting Abu Obeida, the longtime masked spokesperson for Hamas’s Qassam Brigades.
No additional details have been released, and Hamas has not yet issued a response.
Israel’s decision to halt humanitarian pauses in Gaza City is making it “even harder” to deliver desperately needed aid, Chris McIntosh, Oxfam’s humanitarian response adviser, told Al Jazeera.
Speaking via videolink from Deir el-Balah, McIntosh described severe shortages across the enclave, saying food and basic goods are now priced far beyond what most Palestinians can afford.
He added that reversing the crisis is “as simple as opening the crossings and allowing the trucks, already loaded with supplies, to enter Gaza at a steady, unhindered pace”.
“There’s nothing complicated about fixing the famine. The major holding point is the Israeli authorities and their insistence on keeping the blockade in place for ‘security reasons’,” McIntosh said.
Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli forces have killed at least 63 Palestinians in attacks across the besieged enclave since dawn.
Medical officials reported that 35 of those killed were in Gaza City, while 14 others were Palestinians seeking aid.
The Houthis announced on Saturday that their prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, was killed along with other officials in an Israeli air strike on Thursday.
In a statement, the Houthi-run Yemeni presidency said the ministers were targeted during a routine government workshop assessing their performance.
Some ministers were killed or wounded, though their identities were not disclosed.
Despite the attack, the presidency insisted that the government would continue to function without disruption. "We remain steadfast in supporting Gaza," the statement added.
Read more: Yemen's Houthis confirm prime minister killed in Israeli strike
Over a dozen Palestinians, mostly children, were reportedly killed in an Israeli strike on a popular bakery and a tent in al-Nasser area, west of Gaza City.
Yemen's Houthis announced on Saturday that Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi and several senior officials from the movement were killed in an Israeli air strike targeting a meeting in the capital Sanaa.
"In the midst of the battle with the Israeli enemy, we mourn to our people a group of martyrs from the national leadership," the Houthis said in a statement.
The European Union (EU) has called on the US to reconsider its decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials ahead of the United Nations General Assembly next month.
"In the light of the existing agreements between the UN and its host state, we all urge for this decision to be reconsidered," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
On Friday, the US announced that it barred Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from travelling to New York for the UN meeting, where several countries are set to recognise Palestine as a state, including allies of the US.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has indicated that his government supports ending trade agreements with Israel in order to stop the war in Gaza.
Rasmussen said Israel's actions in Gaza "exceed self-defence", stressing that greater pressure must be applied to stop the war and address the humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged enclave.
Gaza has become the "most dangerous place in the world for children", Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram told Al Jazeera, warning that the territory has transformed into a place where their lives are being destroyed.
Ingram said that since the start of the war, an average of 27 children have been killed every day - the equivalent of losing an entire classroom daily.
"This happens as children play, learn, sleep and try to find what they need to survive," she said.
The Unicef spokesperson highlighted the dire conditions children face in the besieged enclave, including famine, the lack of humanitarian aid, a collapsing health sector, and relentless Israeli bombardment.
"Every child in Gaza has experienced unspeakable levels of fear and suffering, and Unicef estimates that nearly one million children are in need of psychosocial support," she added.
Hospitals in Gaza have received the bodies of over 66 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.
This raises the death toll from Israel's genocide in Gaza to 63,371 since 7 October 2023, with an additional 159,835 Palestinians wounded.
More than 35 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since the early hours of Saturday.
At least 20 of them were killed in Gaza City, which has faced escalating Israeli assaults since the start of August.
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, warned that the expulsion of Gaza City residents could pose a threat to civilians.
"It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions," Spoljaric said.
"Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care."
The ICRC president noted that Israeli expulsion orders do not ensure safe conditions for displaced individuals, making their expulsion not only "unfeasible but incomprehensible" under current circumstances.
