Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 439

The United States has said it disagrees with Human Rights Watch’s accusation that Israel was carrying out “acts of genocide” in the Gaza Strip by damaging water infrastructure, AFP reports.

“When it comes to a determination of something like genocide, the legal standard is just incredibly high, and so the finding in this scenario we just disagree with,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

“That does not take away from the fact that there is a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to ask the International Court of Justice for an opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by international groups, Reuters reports.

The Norwegian-drafted resolution was adopted by the 193 members with 137 votes in favour. Israel, the United States and 10 other countries voted no, while 22 countries abstained.

The Israeli army claims, without providing evidence, that the deadly attacks carried out on the two school shelters were a “precise strike”, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement on Telegram, the army said the attack targeted “terrorists who were operating in command and control centres” in the buildings.

The schools, which housed Palestinians displaced by the conflict, killed at least 15 and wounded 30.

An investigation carried out by Israeli daily Haaretz has revealed that Israeli soldiers stationed in Gaza’s Netzarim Corridor have been targeting surrendering individuals as well as women and children, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

“Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza told Haaretz that anyone who crosses an imaginary line in the contested Netzarim corridor is shot to death, with every Palestinian casualty counting as a terrorist — even if they were just a child,” Wafa says.

Read more here.

President Asif Ali Zardari expressed solidarity with Palestinians during a meeting with Palestinian Ambassador to Pakistan Ahmad Jawad A Rabei in Islamabad, a statement from the presidency reads.

According to the statement, the president reiterated Pakistan’s “unwavering moral and diplomatic support” for Palestine and expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people.

“Pakistani people share equally in the struggle and suffering of Palestinians,” President Zardari said.

Hospitals and health facilities do not exist any more in the northern part of the Strip, except for one health facility that is largely damaged by the daily drone and aerial attacks as well as heavy artillery shelling, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports.

“The entire northern part of the Strip has turned almost uninhabitable,” Mahmoud says. “Major parts of it, including the Jabalia refugee camp, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon, have become unrecognisable.”

Mahmoud adds that it is not just the enclave’s north that is suffering from a military siege. He says that the past few hours have been quite violent and reported an attack on a house in the eastern part of Gaza City as well as two evacuation centres.

Full Palestinian membership at the UN is the key to security and stability in the Middle East, President Mahmoud Abbas said while addressing the D-8 summit in Cairo, Al Jazeera reports.

Abbas said the Palestinian people are facing daily Israeli massacres, starvation and attempts to forcibly displace them.

“This requires the immediate implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2735 demanding a ceasefire, the entry of aid, full withdrawal from Gaza and Palestine assuming its responsibilities in the Strip.” he added.

“Achieving security and stability in the region requires Palestine to obtain full membership in the UN and more international recognition” of the Palestinian state, Abbas said.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 10 Palestinians at two shelters housing displaced families and wounded several other people in eastern Gaza city, medics told Reuters.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said Pakistan has consistently condemned in the strongest possible terms Israel’s “naked aggression” against Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria.

Addressing the D-8 Summit in Cairo today, he called the demonisation of UNRWA by Israel equally condemnable.

“This has to be stopped, as UNRWA’s operations offered the sole lifeline to millions of hapless, helpless victims of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank,” he continued.

The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says it investigated Israel’s attack on a Gaza City mosque on November 16 last year that killed more than 15 Palestinians, including women and children, Al Jazeera reports.

It said the probe found no military targets, “such as objects or armed individuals, inside the mosque or in its surrounding area at the time of the attack”.

“According to the investigation’s findings, at approximately 4:45am on Wednesday, 16 November 2023, Israeli aircraft struck Al-Hassan Mosque in the Al-Sanafur area of Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, without any prior warning,” the monitor said.

“The attack involved one or two heavy, high-explosive bombs and occurred just as worshippers began their dawn prayers.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned the Yemeni Houthis that they “will pay a heavy price” after Israel launched strikes in Yemen in response to a missile attack from the armed group, AFP reports.

“After Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime in Syria, the Huthis are almost the last remaining arm of Iran’s axis of evil,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “The Houthis are learning and will learn the hard way, that those who strike Israel will pay a very heavy price for it. “

Senior newsroom figures at Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle are cultivating a culture of fear among journalists who are tasked with reporting on Israel’s war on Gaza, 13 staff members and freelancers currently working for the network — plus a former long-term correspondent — have told Al Jazeera.

They accuse DW of pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias, allege that they have heard colleagues make Islamophobic and dehumanising remarks about Palestinians and protesters, in the Berlin office with impunity, and have shared with Al Jazeera several internal documents — one of which lists “possible comebacks” for anchors to use during live interviews with “pro-Palestinian voices” who make “controversial statements” — such as accusing Israel of war crimes.

Other documents include a separate style guide specifically for covering Israel and the Palestinian territories, which informs staff that the word “Palestine” cannot be used in coverage “as it has not yet gained the status of a state”.

Read more here.

Amnesty International has projected the message “End Gaza genocide” in 24 languages spoken in the European Union onto the European Commission headquarters in Brussels before a meeting of the bloc’s leaders, Al Jazeera reports.

In a damning report released earlier this month, Amnesty concluded that Israel’s devastating onslaught on Gaza meets the legal threshold for genocide.

Amnesty has called on EU leaders meeting today to halt all arms transfers to Israel, ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and ensure justice and accountability for Israeli crimes.

Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed six people in operations in two refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, AFP reports.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said it was looking into the reported deaths.

The ministry of health in Ramallah announced that four Palestinians were killed and three were injured “as a result of the (Israeli) bombing of a vehicle in Tulkarem camp”, in the northern West Bank.

Earlier, the ministry said two Palestinians were killed in a raid in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus.

One of the dead was 80-year-old Halima Abu Leil, according to the ministry, which said she was fatally shot in the chest and leg. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed her death after transporting her to the hospital.

The ministry also announced the death of a 25-year-old man in the same raid. His passing was confirmed by the Red Crescent.

The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 45,129 people have been killed during more than 14 months of Israeli bombardment, AFP reports.

The toll includes 32 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 107,338 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since fighting broke out on October 7, 2023.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip in a new report documenting the 14-month conflict, AFP reports.

The report documents 41 attacks on MSF staff including air strikes on health facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys. The NGO said it was forced to evacuate hospitals and health centres on 17 occasions.

“We are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped and bombed,” said Christopher Lockyear, MSF’s secretary general.

Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations that its campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.

MSF’s report, entitled ‘Gaza: Life in a Death Trap’, said the siege of the Palestinian territory has drastically reduced humanitarian aid, with only 37 trucks authorised daily in October 2024, compared with 500 before the conflict.

Read more here.

Israeli aircraft have bombed a group of citizens in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, killing three people, Al Jazeera reports citing the Wafa agency.

The Palestinian Information Centre has also reported the attack.

A British lawmaker has urged the government to take stronger action against Israel, calling for a full arms embargo and comprehensive sanctions to stop its attacks on the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports.

Richard Burgon, an independent Member of Parliament for Leeds East, told Anadolu that more needs to be done to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza, as the government’s calls for a cease-fire were not enough.

“I think we’ve seen the call for a cease-fire from politicians and governments end up feeling a bit like a ritual, because it’s clear that (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu is not going to listen to calls from governments for a cease-fire. What’s needed is action from governments, and that means, in my opinion, an end to all arms sales to Israel and also sanctions on Israel,” he said.

Read more here.

The Israel Broadcasting Authority says fragments of a missile have been found outside the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) building in Jerusalem, adding that there are no reports of damage, Al Jazeera reports.

It is not clear if the debris was related to a Houthi attack earlier. The armed group said it launched two ballistic missiles targeting an area south of Tel Aviv where debris hit a school, causing a building to collapse. There were no injuries.

Israel also attacked Yemen overnight, hitting power stations, ports and an oil facility, according to local media.

The Israeli military has stormed Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports.

The health ministry says that 80-year-old Halima Saleh Aw Lail has been killed in the raid, after succumbing to her wounds to the chest and leg.

Two other people have been wounded, aged 65 and 21, by Israeli live bullets, Wafa said, citing the Red Crescent. It added that Israeli forces prevented ambulances from entering the refugee camp to assist them.

According to Wafa, “confrontations” between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters were still ongoing inside the camp.

The Israeli forces have arrested at least 14 Palestinians, including two children, in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports, citing the Wafa news agency.

The report cited the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Prisoner’s Club saying the arrests took place in the governorates of Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron and Tulkarem.

Israeli soldiers threatened the detainees and their families and vandalised their homes, it added.

A number of people were temporarily arrested also in the town of Beit Awwa, west of Hebron, according to Wafa.

At least six people have been killed in Israeli artillery firing on the al-Nuzha street in Jabalia al-Balad, northern Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

Hamas says Israel’s attacks in Yemen after Houthi rebels fired a missile at the country were a “dangerous development”, Al Jazeera reports.

“We regard this escalation as a dangerous development and an extension of the aggression against our Palestinian people, Syria and the Arab region,” Hamas said in a statement as Israel struck ports and energy infrastructure in Yemen after intercepting a missile attack by the Houthis.

Al Masirah TV, the main news outlet run by the Houthis, said nine people were killed in Israeli attacks on the western province of Hodeidah, including seven people in the port of as-Salif and two people at the Ras Isa oil facility.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, called on the Houthis to launch more attacks on Israel.

“We commend the missile attack carried out by our loyal brothers, the Ansar Allah in Yemen, targeting the heart of the Zionist entity,” the group said in a separate statement.

“We praise their steadfast support for Gaza and call on them to escalate their attacks until the occupation submits and ends its genocidal war.”

A 65-year-old Palestinian man has been shot in his back by Israeli forces during their raid into Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports citing Palestinian Red Crescent sources.

The injured man was taken to hospital, the report said.

Local sources told Wafa that Israeli soldiers stormed the camp, resulting in violent clashes during which the soldiers fired live bullets, gas and sound bombs.

The agency said the Israeli forces deployed their snipers on the roofs of some buildings around the camp.