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

The Israeli army said on Wednesday that they have carried out attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. 

The statement further said that several launches were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory and that the Israeli army retalitated. 
 

Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets on Wednesday urging residents of Al-Nusairat Camp in middle Gaza to evacuate their homes- an area that was designated safe earlier.

"We fled from Beit Lahia to Gaza City and then to Al-Nusairat Camp. Today, they instructed us to flee our houses in blocks 2348, 2325, 2347, 662, 2322, 2324, and 2346, including Al-Salam, Al-Shouhada, Besan, and Alyarmouk neighborhoods," Laura, a displaced mum of four  in block 2322 told Middle East Eye.

"This is our third evacuation. Every time we flee to a safer area, they mark it as unsafe again. We feel helpless and hopeless. We have been trying to find a car to move us but no driver is willing to drive under bombardment,” she added.

According to Laura, Rafah has become overcrowded as Israel forces residents from different areas to move there. The overcrowding has caused starvation and disease to spread, raising concerns that it could cause more preventable deaths.

" They are making life hell for us. I am a mum of four children who are terrified by the bombardment. We fled our homes without clothes or money. The situation is dire, and the world is silent," she said. 

Reporting by Walaa Sabah

Scores of Palestinians who have been displaced by Israeli bombing have been forced to leave the Palestinian Red Crescent compound after it was bombed on 2 January.

Thousands of Palestinians have been sheltering in and around the building as Israel escalated its attacks around Gaza.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has expressed concern for their safety and called the targeting of the buildings “alarming.”
 

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will visit Turkey on Saturday as part of his regional tour to discuss the Gaza crisis, two Turkish sources familiar with the visit told Middle East Eye.

Blinken is expected to meet his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan. He may also meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan if the presidency wants a meeting.

Blinken’s vist comes as the Turkish Parliament’s committee on foreign affairs advanced Sweden’s Nato bid last week, meeting a key demand by Washington.

Turkey has been pressuring Washington to approve a key F-16 sale for dozens of planes to Turkey.

Ankara has also tried to put pressure on Blinken and other top American officials to put an end to the Israeli invasion invasion and bombardment of Gaza.

The US Embassy in Ankara declined to comment.
 

Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility for targeting a container ship which said it was headed for Israel on Wednesday.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the group targeted the CMA CGM Tage container ship and also warned the US, saying that any attack will not pass without a response or punishment”.

The statement comes three days after US naval forces killed 10 Houthi fighters and sunk three Houthi boats while they said they were responding to the group’s attack on a separate container ship.
 

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told a US delegation on Wednesday that the current priority is to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

Sisi stressed the importance of "responsible action" to avoid widening the conflict in the region, a statement from the presidency read.
 

Israeli jets bombed a house in Jabalia north of Gaza City, killing at least 2o people, according to local media. 

At least 20 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in two explosions that were reported near the cemetery where top commander Qassem Soleimani is buried, according to Iranian media.

Officials have yet to determine if the blasts were the result of an accident or an attack, but some reports said they were caused by gas canisters exploding at the scene.  

An Israeli lawmaker has called for the destruction of all houses in Gaza and the building of settlements over the ruins. 

In an interview with Channel 12, Zvi Sukkot said that building "Jewish settlement on ruins of Palestinian villages is a message we must convey".

He earlier said that Gaza should be reoccupied and annexed, with settlements built there and land given to Israeli soldiers.

Palestinian cities are observing a commercial strike after the killing of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in a Beirut strike on Tuesday. 

Shops were shuttered across the occupied West Bank Wednesday morning as protests were expected in city centres.

"Here in Hebron, like elsewhere in the homeland, we are expressing our sadness for the cowardly crime of assassinating Saleh al-Arouri, who studied here and lived in the city for a long time," Mofeed al-Sharabati, an activist, told Middle East Eye. 

"His assassination is a clear sign the Israeli army is failing in Gaza and so they went to Lebanon."

A sombre feeling prevailed in the West Bank, but residents the killing will not break the will of the Palestinian people. 

"The occupation assumes that by killing leaders they can kill our souls and end the resistance," Suhail Naser al-Din, a Hebron resident, said.

"But as long as there's an occupation there will always be resistance."

Reporting by Mosab Shawer

Israeli forces have killed at least 128 Palestinians in air strikes across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday. 

This brings the death toll since 7 October to at least 22,313 with 57,296 wounded and 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.

Israel is in talks with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other nations to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza, Zman Yisrael reported on Wednesday.

The news website quoted an unnamed source in the security cabinet as saying: "Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others." 

On Tuesday, Israel's Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel said the "Gaza problem is not just our problem" and that "the world should support humanitarian emigration", according to Zman Yisrael's political analyst Shalom Yerushalmi.

The report comes amid a push by Israeli officials for what they call "voluntary migration" of Palestinians out of Gaza, which experts say is a form of forced displacement. 

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) is deeply concerned at any potential for escalation that could have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the Blue Line, spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said on Wednesday.

"We continue to implore all parties to cease their fire, and any interlocutors with influence to urge restraint," she added.

Reporting by Reuters.

Analysts and legal experts have cast doubt as to whether South Africa will follow through with its pledge and prosecute citizens who are fighting for Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip, given Pretoria's years-long inability to hold dual-nationals accountable for serving in foreign armies.

Early last month, the South African foreign ministry said it was "gravely concerned" by reports that some South African nationals were fighting with the Israeli army despite it being prohibited under South African law.

In what was referred to as a watershed moment, the ministry said the State Security Agency (SSA) was tracking down individuals believed to be fighting for Israel and that naturalised citizens, not South Africans by birth, risked being stripped of their citizenship for engaging in a war that the country "does not support or agree with".

Several analysts and experts, however, told Middle East Eye that while they were encouraged by the government's initial statement, the ministry did not actually commit to prosecuting individuals fighting for Israel but simply warned them of the possibility that it could.

The experts said the ministry's statement also failed to explain whether South African authorities would prosecute the men, or if this would be the responsibility of private complainants and legal teams.

Read more: Will South Africa prosecute its citizens fighting for the Israeli army in Gaza? 

The Israeli army continued to order Palestinians to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, forcing many to constantly relocate. 

On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets calling on civilians in several areas in Khan Younis to move. 

"I fled from Gaza Cty to the Qizan Al-Najjar area after the ground invasion began. Qizan Al-Najjar, between Rafah City and Khan Younis, was marked safe earlier," Younus, a Palestinian man, told Middle East Eye.

"Three days ago, we received another leaflet to leave Block 87. Today, they added Blocks 83, 84, and 86. I am in Block 85. It was not on the list of blocks to flee, but we are only one street apart from block 86, which makes it very difficult to stay in the middle of the bombardment.

"At the same time, we do not have any other place to relocate to.  Many people fled from Al-Batn Al-Sameen, near Nasser Hospital. We think Israel wants to launch a ground invasion near Nasser Hospital and this is why they force people to leave."

Reporting by Walaa Sabah.