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

Palestinian tribal leaders in Gaza have denounced Israeli army proposals to divide Gaza into areas ruled by Palestinian tribes or clans rather than a single political entity.

“The occupying state seeks to cover up its failure in Gaza and create confusion and strife in Palestinian society,” Akef al-Masry, the commissioner-general of the Supreme Authority for Palestinian Tribes, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Masry called for an end to political divisions between Hamas and Fatah, stressing that unified national leadership was needed "to strengthen the people’s steadfastness and to prevent opportunities for all the occupation’s plans".

According to reports of the plan envisioned by the Israeli army, the tribes would look after the civil administration of the Gaza Strip and each have individual arrangements with Israel.

Israeli state broadcaster Kan News said the plan was expected to be presented to the war cabinet soon.

 Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague to contest South Africa's genocide accusations, an Israeli government spokesman said on Tuesday.

South Africa on Friday launched a case for the ICJ stating that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention and calling for a halt to its military operations in Gaza.

"The State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at The Hague to dispel South Africa's absurd blood libel," spokesman Eylon Levy told an online briefing.

"We assure South Africa's leaders, history will judge you, and it will judge you without mercy," he added.

Levy said that Hamas bore full moral responsibility for the war and was "waging from inside and underneath hospitals, schools, mosques, homes and UN facilities".

He added that South Africa was complicit in Hamas' crimes against Israelis, without elaborating.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that several people were killed and wounded after Israel bombed its headquarters in Gaza's Khan Younis.

"The occupation renews its bombardment of the PRCS headquarters in #KhanYounis for the second time, resulting in several fatalities and wounded among the 14,000 displaced individuals housed in the PRCS’s premises and the adjacent Al-Amal Hospital," it wrote on X on Tuesday. 

A group of wounded survivors of the Hamas-led attack on a music festival on 7 October in southern Israel are suing Israeli security forces over alleged negligence. 

Forty-two plaintiffs who attended the Supernova rave, near the besieged Gaza Strip, filed a civil suit for $56m at a Tel Aviv court on Monday against the Israeli military, police, defence ministry and the Shin Bet security service.

“Hamas murdered 364 partygoers, and kidnapped 40 to Gaza, some of whom were released, and some of whom are missing. Many were injured physically or mentally, including the plaintiffs,” the civil action read.

“A single phone call by IDF officials to the commander responsible for the party to disperse it immediately in view of the expected danger would have saved lives and prevented the physical and mental injuries of hundreds of partygoers, including the plaintiffs,” the lawsuit continued.

Read more: Survivors of 7 October rave attack sue Israeli security forces

Only 15 percent of Israelis want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remain in office after the war, according to a poll published on Tuesday.

The poll was conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) among 746 respondents between 25 and 28 December. 

While 15 percent wanted Netanyahu to stay on as prime minister, opposition figure Benny Gantz garnered support from 23 percent of respondents. Around 30 percent had no preferred leader.

A previous IDI survey in December found that 69 percent of Israelis thought that elections should be held as soon as the conflict ends.

In a different question, 56 percent of interviewees said continuing the military offensive in Gaza was the best way to recover Israeli captives held in the territory. Meanwhile, 24 percent favoured a swap deal including the release of thousands more Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.

Israeli forces killed 207 Palestinians in the past 24 hours in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said, while adding that 338 people were also wounded.

The total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October now stands at 22,185. At least 57,000 have been wounded.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Israeli army confirmed that it struck “military infrastructure belonging to the Syrian army” and used its jets to target infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli army rarely comments on attacks it makes in Syria. 

Palestinian reporter Suleiman Maswadeh told the Israeli state broadcaster Kan News that a post-war scenario in Gaza being considered is to divide Gaza into areas ruled by Palestinian tribes or clans rather than a single political entity.

According to the colonial plan envisioned by Israel, the tribes would look after the civil administration of the Gaza Strip and each have individual arrangements with Israel.

According to KAN 11, the plan was devised by the Israeli army and is expected to be presented to the war cabinet.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has condemned the “kidnapping” of an infant Palestinian girl by an Israeli soldier in Gaza.

“The kidnapping of the infant girl from the Gaza Strip is evidence that the occupation army is committing the most heinous crimes against civilians without oversight or accountability,” it said in a statement. “The Ministry calls on the occupation authorities to immediately hand over the infant to the Palestinian National Authority.”

An Israeli soldier revealed last week that an officer took a Palestinian infant from Gaza after Israeli air strikes likely claimed the lives of her family. 

Shachar Mendelson, a friend of the soldier, told Army Radio on Sunday that Captain Harel Itach, from the Givati Brigade, who was later killed in battles in the northern Gaza Strip on 22 November, took the Palestinian orphan back into Israel. 

At present, very little is known about the whereabouts of the baby girl, when exactly she was taken or who her family are.

Israel has not responded publicly to any of the allegations. The Army Radio clip was also deleted after it became widely circulated.

More than 4,156 students have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Education said on Tuesday.

At least 381 schools have also been bombed or damaged, the ministry added.

Turkish police detained 33 individuals based in Turkey for allegedly spying for Israel, Turkish public news agency Anadolu Agency (AA) reported on Tuesday.

Police detained the individuals in Istanbul and seven other provinces on charges of “carrying out international espionage activities” on behalf of the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, against foreign nationals residing in Turkey for humanitarian reasons.

The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office alleges that the police investigation detected that the individuals aimed to carry out activities such as reconnaissance, pursuit, assault and kidnapping against foreign nationals residing in Turkey.

AA said that 13 suspects were still at large. Turkey has been systematically conducting similar police operations against individuals allegedly spying for Israel for the last couple of years.

In December, Turkish intelligence and police detained 44 suspects who are believed to have been working for Mossad to spy on Palestinians living in Turkey.

Turkish daily Sabah reported the suspects had been pretending to work as private consultants but their real mission was to monitor Palestinians and Palestinian-operated groups and NGOs.

Jordanian activist Majd al-Faraj has been arrested by Jordanian authorities for his pro-Palestinian activism, according to his supporters. 

Majd al-Faraj was a leading voice in the pro-Palestine protests in the country "chanting what many Jordanians think and demand" said Samar Saeed in a post on X, adding that the chants included "No to normalisation with Israel, no to Israeli embassy in Jordan, no to American imperialism."

Jordan was one of the first Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel in 1994.

Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons report being beaten by prison guards, and threatened with violence if they refuse to kiss the Israeli flag, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday. 

The testimonies were submitted to Haaretz and human rights groups.

One Palestinian testimony described the treatment prisoners faced: "Eleven prisoners were put in a cell that usually held a third of that. [The guards] threw the food on the floor, sometimes they mashed it with their feet, and every day – under the pretext of a "search" – they would beat the prisoners with iron sticks."

On Tuesday it was announced that a seventh Palestinian prisoner died in an Israeli jail since 7 October. 

A fifth Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to reports. 

In addition to the four Palestinians killed in Azzun,  the Israeli army killed another Palestinian.