Israel-Palestine live: Israel’s response to South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ ends

Hundreds of people gathered in Beirut on Thursday to attend the funeral of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed by Israeli forces this week.

Mourners chanted as they carried his coffin. 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that the death toll in Gaza has reached 22,438 since the start of the war on 7 October. 

At least 57,614 people have also been wounded in Israeli attacks, the ministry added.

Around 125 Palestinians have been killed and 318 wounded in the past 24 hours. 

The Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza has been flooded following heavy rains and the collapse of sewage systems, according to Al Jazeera. 

Floodwater has reached up to people's knees and concern is rising that the floodwater could accelerate the spread of disease in Gaza. 
 

A week after the principal of Ironi Yud Daled High School in Tel Aviv was suspended for sharing an article about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Yael Ayalon returned to school. 

Ayalon had shared an article about the plight of children in Gaza and the limited Israeli media coverage of the war in a private Facebook post. 

Following her post, a brawl broke out during a student demonstration at the school. 

A mob of students waving Israeli flags chanted in response, "Go home", and poured water and threw objects at the principal from the windows.

The teachers' union wrote a letter to the country’s Minister of Education Yoav Kisch, calling on him to support the school principal. 

“Such public humiliation of a woman educator who leads a school could not have happened if it were not for an atmosphere that allows educators to be attacked, especially those who express an opinion that does not follow the groove,” the statement said. 

The United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said he is “very disturbed” by comments made by Israeli ministers about transferring Gaza's population to other countries.

“Eighty-five percent of people in Gaza are already internally displaced. They have the right to return to their homes,” Turk said in a post on X.

International law bans “the forcible transfer of protected persons within or deportation from occupied territory,” he added. 

“Eighty percent of the people, or four out of five people, in famine or a catastrophic type of hunger [globally] are in Gaza right now,” said Arif Husain, the chief economist of the World Food Programme, speaking to the New Yorker magazine. 

Globally right now, there are about 129,000 people facing famine or a catastrophic type of hunger, said Husain, who works for the United Nations. 

In Gaza alone there are 570,000 people facing famine or a catastrophic type of hunger, he added. 

“The bottom line is that, in Gaza, pretty much everybody is hungry at the moment,” said Husain.

“China opposes attacks against civilian vessels,” a spokesperson for the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said without mentioning any group.

“I believe all sides need to play a constructive and responsible role in safeguarding the security of shipping lanes in the Red Sea,” China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs added. 

China is not a member of the US-led naval coalition patrolling the Red Sea. However, as one of the world’s largest shipping countries, it has a strong interest in seeing stability in the region. 

In a post on X, Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, rejected US requests to release withheld Palestinian Authority funds. 

“I greatly appreciate the support of the USA and President Biden for Israel, but as long as I am the Minister of Finance, we will not transfer a single penny to the Palestinian Authority that will go to the families of the terrorists and Nazis in Gaza,” said Smotrich.

Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on 7 October, Smotrich repeatedly voiced absolute rejection of fully transferring the Palestinian taxes that Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said at least one person was killed and six people have been wounded in an Israeli strike that hit the fifth floor of its headquarters in Khan Younis, in a post on X. 

The Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, alleged without evidence on a radio show in the UK that "every mosque, every school" in Gaza has access to an underground tunnel that Hamas uses. 

When pressed if that meant destroying every building in Gaza, Hotovely said "do you have another solution?"

Israel often claims that buildings are being used by Hamas but often provides little or no evidence to back its claims. 

More than 400,000 cases of infectious diseases have been reported in Gaza since 7 October, according to UN spokesperson, Florencia Soto Nino, with some 180,000 people suffering from upper respiratory infections.

There have also been more than 136,000 cases of diarrhoea reported, half among children under the age of five.

She added the UN has been unable to deliver urgently needed life-saving humanitarian assistance north of Wadi Gaza for three days due to access delays and denials as well as active conflict.

Good morning readers of Middle East Eye,

We are on the 90th day of the war in Gaza and the Palestinian death toll is officially 22,313 with 57,296 wounded and more than 7,000 missing who are believed to be dead and buried under rubble.

Overall, around four percent of Gaza's population have been killed, wounded or gone missing in less than three months of bombardment.

The majority of victims are children and women, according to health officials.

Here are the major developments from the last few hours: 

• The International Court of Justice will hear South Africa and Israel on 11 and 12 January regarding genocide charges over Gaza
• A senior Hezbollah official reportedly is among nine members killed in the latest Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon
• One Palestinian killed, many arrests in Israeli raids on homes in occupied West Bank
• At least 20 Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis and four in Rafah, as Israeli bombardments of Gaza continue, Wafa reports
   

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered a highly anticipated speech Wednesday, warning that the assassination of a senior Hamas official in Beirut would “not go unpunished" by the Iran-aligned group. 

Nasrallah said the Israeli strike that killed Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official with close links to Tehran and Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah “was very serious.”

Arouri was killed in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, which Hezbollah controls.

Hezbollah faces a deterrence challenge as it weighs how to respond to the Israeli strike. In his speech, Nasrallah struck a note of caution, refusing to say exactly when or how Hezbollah would respond. 

He also provided a lengthy description on how Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” movements function across the region, saying they operate independently of each other, taking into account their own interests and those of their populations.

He said Hezbollah had honed its response to the war in Gaza to take into account other issues facing Lebanon. 

The US said it wasn’t informed by Israel of the Beirut strike beforehand and downplayed concerns that Arouri’s killing in Lebanon’s capital could escalate tensions, saying risks of the Gaza war widening  were “not any higher today” than before the assassination.

Shortly after Nasrallah’s speech, Reuters reported that a local Hezbollah official and three other members of the group were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.

In another major development, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced it will hold public hearings next week on South Africa’s allegation that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza.

Here are the major developments from the last few hours:

• Israel pounded Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip Wednesday with artillery and air strikes, killing at least 20 people.
• The EU’s top diplomat slammed Israeli ministers who called for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza
• The US and its allies issued a final ultimatum to the Houthis to stop maritime attacks in the Red Sea or “bear the responsibility of the consequences”
• Jordan’s foreign minister said Israel’s goal is to 'ignite' the West Bank and Lebanon while dragging the West into a regional war
• The US warned that Hamas still has a "significant force posture" inside Gaza and that Israel is unlikely to erase the group from existence

We're going to be taking a pause in our live coverage. However, you can stay up to date on the latest developments from Gaza and Israel. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and Telegram.