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

Iran's foreign ministry condemned Israel after the assassination of Hamas' deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon on Tuesday. 

Nasser Kanaani, the foreign ministry's spokesperson, said Israel resorted to the targeted killing after suffering "heavy and irreparable defeat" by Palestinian resistance, according to the Tasnim news agency. 

He added the assassination was another proof that Israel was "founded upon assassination and crime" and a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty.

Israeli forces raided the occupied West Bank cities of Tulkarm and Qalqilya on Wednesday, local media have said. 

Explosions and exchanges of fire were heard in Tulkarm, likely indicating clashes between Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops.

Translation: The moment an explosive device was detonated near an occupation army vehicle in Tulkarm camp

Israel fighter jets launched a serious of heavy air strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Wednesday morning, according to local media. 

The bombing destroyed residential towers east of Nuseirat, located in the central Gaza Strip. 

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

On Tuesday, a senior Hamas official was killed in an attack in Beirut, Lebanon that Hezbollah and Hamas blamed on an Israeli drone strike.

The assassination of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri and at least six other commanders of Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, marks a significant escalation in the war on Israel’s northern border.

The strike occurred in Dahiyeh, a southern Beirut suburb which is a stronghold of Hezbollah. The group maintains its headquarters in the densely populated area.

Israel did not confirm or deny the strike, but Israeli lawmaker Danny Danon said the assassination was a joint effort between the Israeli military and the country’s spy services in a social media post.

Hezbollah said that the attack "will not go without a response or punishment," adding that the group has "its finger on the trigger” as it weighs retaliation.

How will Hezbollah retaliate 

The strike is a major challenge to Hezbollah’s power of deterrence.

A Hezbollah strike beyond Israel's northern border region could widen the war into Lebanon, bringing it to the capital of Beirut.

While many Lebanese have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians, others are reluctant to see their impoverished country dragged into a full-blown war. 

The attack was condemned by senior officials across the region.

The head of Hamas's political bureau Ismail Haniyeh called it a“craven assassination,” while Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the assassination was a  "crime perpetrated by known criminals"

Lebanese acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati said it was "an Israeli crime" designed to draw Lebanon into the war in Gaza.

Abbas Ibrahim, Lebanon’s former security chief and a key interlocutor between the US and Iran-backed groups in the region, denounced Arouri’s killing as an attack on Lebanese sovereignty.

So far, Hezbollah has yet to retaliate in a significant way, but the situation is tense with Israel preparing for a potential ballistic missile attack, Axios reported. 

Other developments

• Protests engulfed the occupied West Bank in response Arouri’s assassination
• Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned after her remarks at a US Congressional hearing sparked a fierce backlash that she was condoning anti-semitism
• Malaysia endorsed South Africa’s application before the International Court of Justice in The Hague alleging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
• A Malta-flagged container ship called for a US-led coalition warship after seeing three nearby explosions in the Red Sea 
• The US clashed publicly with some of Israel’s senior cabinet ministers over their call for a forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza
• The stock prices of some container shipping companies rallied by double digits amid Houthi Red Sea attacks

The World Health Organization “deplored” on Tuesday Israel’s attack on the Palestinian Red Crescent Society run al-Amal hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

“Hospitals, ambulances, health workers, and people seeking care must be protected, at all times, under international humanitarian law. Today’s bombardments are unconscionable,” WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus, said in a post on X.

The Israeli strikes killed at least five civilians, including a five-day-old baby, the PRCS said earlier on Tuesday.

Ghebreyesus reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire to the fighting, and “the accelerated and unimpeded flow” of food, medical supplies, other essential items Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

“Gazans are still receiving only a fraction of the supplies they had access to before the war, just as only a fraction of Gazans in need of medical evacuation are being evacuated,” he said.

“This is unacceptable in light of the dire humanitarian catastrophe which has unfolded over three months.”

The stock prices of some container shipping companies rallied by double digits on Tuesday, as Houthi attacks sparked concerns that a vital waterway to global trade is becoming inaccessible.

Israeli container shipping company Zim’s share price was up 13.37 percent on Tuesday, while Maersk, the Danish shipping giant operating more than 700 vessels, was up 6.38 percent.

Container shipping companies rallied despite the general stock market slumping, with the S&P 500 down .57 percent.

The Houthis have escalated their attacks in recent days, widening strikes on ships not directly linked to Israel experts say.

On Sunday, the US directly engaged with the Houthis for the first time in the Red Sea, killing 10 Houthi fighters as they attacked a Maersk vessel.

In another escalation, Iran said Monday it dispatched a naval frigate to the Red Sea.

The geopolitical chaos is proving to be a windfall for container ship companies, which can charge higher freight rates because they have to take longer journeys around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.

Read more: Stock prices of shipping companies are soaring because of Houthi attacks

The US clashed publicly Tuesday with some of Israel’s senior cabinet ministers over their call for a forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Monday there should be a “migration of the residents of Gaza” outside of the besieged enclave, adding that Israel should re-establish settlements there.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed those statements on Monday, saying Israel will maintain permanent control of Gaza after the war.

US President Joe Biden has publicly promised Washington’s Arab allies to prevent a forced displacement of Palestinians and has opposed Israel reoccupying Gaza.

On Tuesday, State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller took the unusual step of directly calling out the two ministers.

“The United States rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible,” he said in a statement.

Ben Gvir fired back on Tuesday saying, “We are not another star in the American flag.”

“The United States is our best friend but before everything else, we will do what is good for the State of Israel,” he said, reiterating his demand for the forced displacement of “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians from Gaza.

Read more: 'Hellfire' and chaos in Rafah tests Biden's opposition to displacement

Hezbollah said on Tuesday it attacked a group of Israeli soldiers near the vicinity of Marj with missiles.

The attack is the first cross-border fire by Hezbollah since top Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri and other commanders of the al-Qassam Brigades were assassinated by an Israeli drone strike in a southern suburb of Beirut earlier Tuesday.

The attack happened across from the Lebanese border town of Markaba, Hezbollah said. 

Israeli officials say they are bracing for potential long-range ballistic missile attacks by Hezbollah.

British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Tuesday that a Malta-flagged container ship called for a US-led coalition warship after seeing three nearby explosions. 

Citing radio intercepts, Ambrey said that three missiles had been fired from the direction of Yemen's Taiz Governorate, near the port of Mokha.

Another vessel reported seeing a small boat, about 50 metres in length, around 1.6 km from the site of the explosions, Ambrey added.

On Sunday, a US Navy helicopter sunk three small Houthi boats that were attacking an AP Moller-Maersk container ship. The direct fighting between the US and Houthis marked an escalation in maritime attacks. The Houthis said 10 of their members were killed.

The Houthis claim they are only targeting vessels linked to Israel, but in recent days analysts have said the Houthis appear to be widening their attacks.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Malta-flagged vessel had Israeli links.

Malaysia has endorsed South Africa’s application before the International Court of Justice in The Hague alleging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“Malaysia welcomes the application by South Africa instituting proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ),” Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The legal action against Israel before ICJ is a timely and tangible step towards legal accountability for Israel's atrocities in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) at large.”

Like South Africa, Malaysia has taken a lead among countries in the global south, but outside of the Middle East, condemning Israel for its war in Gaza.

In December, Kuala Lumpur banned Israeli vessels from docking at Malaysian ports.

About 65 percent of the south east Asian country’s population is muslim with smaller minorities of buddhists and christians.

Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Israel on Tuesday for the assassination of Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in a southern Beirut suburb that is home to Hezbollah’s headquarters.

“We consider the crime of killing Saleh al-Arouri and his companions in the heart of Beirut’s Dahiyeh a dangerous aggression against Lebanon and its people, security, sovereignty and resistance,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

“The criminal enemy — which after ninety days of crime, killing and destruction was unable to subjugate Gaza — is resorting to a policy of assassination,” Hezbollah said.

The Israeli strike is a major challenge to Hezbollah’s power of deterrence.

Responding to the strike beyond Israel's northern border region could widen the war into Lebanon, bringing it to the capital of Beirut.

While many Lebanese have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians, others are reluctant to see the impoverished country dragged into a full-blown war.

A Hezbollah response that leads to further direct Israeli intervention in Lebanon could also exacerbate sectarian tensions in the mediterranean country.  

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously vowed that:  “any assassination on Lebanese soil against a Lebanese, Syrian, Iranian or Palestinian will be met with a decisive response. We will not allow this to be tolerated and we will not allow Lebanon to become a new killing field for Israel.”‌‌

Abbas Ibrahim, Lebanon’s former security chief and a key interlocutor between the US and Iran-backed groups in the region, has denounced the Israeli assassination of Saleh al-Arouri as an attack on Lebanese sovereignty.

“The attack on Lebanese sovereignty through the assassination of the martyr Saleh al-Arouri and his companions is an Israeli attempt to escape forward after this enemy was unable to achieve any achievement in Gaza other than murders and massacres,” he wrote on the social media platform, X.

“Perhaps this aggression presents an imaginary victory before entering the third phase of the war.”

Ibrahim, who hails from Lebanon’s Shia community, maintains ties with Hezbollah and the Syrian government, but also Washington.

Ibrahim was involved in mediating a landmark maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon, and has also attempted to position himself as a negotiator for the release of hostages held in Gaza.

The head of Hamas's political bureau Ismail Haniyeh has slammed Israel’s “craven assassination” of senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on Tuesday. 

"The assassination of the leader al-Arouri and his brothers by the occupation is a fully-fledged terrorist act, a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, and an expansion of its aggression,” Haniyeh said. 

Haniyeh confirmed Arouri’s death along with six other Hamas officials after what Lebanese media said was an Israeli drone strike on Arouri in a southern suburb of Beirut and Hezbollah stronghold. 

“All these assassinations and attacks will make us stronger and more determined than ever. This is the history of the resistance and our movement. We always become stronger and more determined,” Haniyeh said.

Underscoring the seriousness of the Beirut strike, Haniyeh compared Arouri’s death to the Israeli assassination of other senior Hamas leaders, including the group’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

“Just as these assassinations did not affect the march of the revolution and its escalation, the assassination of the martyr al-Arouri and his brothers will not affect the march of the revolution.”

Hamas media have released the names of two leaders of the group’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, killed along with Saleh al-Arouri in an Israeli strike in Beirut.

Samir Findi Abu Amer and Azzam Al-Aqraa Abu Ammar were killed alongside the senior Hamas official in Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiyeh, according to Hamas's Al Aqsa TV channel.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the military is at a “very high level of readiness - in all arenas, in defense and offense”, as the country braces for retaliation by Hezbollah.

“We are in a high state of readiness for any scenario,” Hagari said, without acknowledging the strike.

The Palestinian Authority has condemned an Israeli strike in Beirut that killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri. 

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Tuesday said the assassination of the Hamas deputy leader was a  "crime perpetrated by known criminals" and warned about the "risks and consequences that could follow", according to a statement issued by his office.

Two security officials in Lebanon said Arouri was killed in an Israeli drone strike that killed a total of six people in a southern Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah, according to local media.

The Palestinian Authority, which has limited governing power in the occupied West Bank, is dominated by Fatah, a rival to Hamas.

Arab leaders in Egypt and Qatar have been trying to reduce tensions between the two, as part of a peace plan to end the Gaza war.