Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 412

Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal spoke to Al Jazeera about the situation in northern Gaza.

He said that several areas in the northern Gaza Strip are being subjected to continuous Israeli bombardment and accused Israel of “deliberately displacing citizens from this region”.

“About 2,300 people have been killed or are missing since the start of the Israeli military operation in northern Gaza in early October,” he said. “The shortage of fuel is a major problem for rescue crews, severely hindering their ability to reach those in need.”

Gazans see little hope that International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli leaders will slow down the onslaught on the Palestinian territory, where medics said at least 24 people were killed in fresh Israeli military strikes, Reuters reports.

Gazans saw the ICC’s decision to seek the arrest of Israeli leaders for suspected war crimes as international recognition of the enclave’s plight. But those queuing for bread at a bakery in the southern city of Khan Younis were doubtful it would have any impact.

“The decision will not be implemented because America protects Israel, and it can veto anything. Israel will not be held accountable,” said Saber Abu Ghali, as he waited for his turn in the crowd.

Saeed Abu Youssef, 75, said even if justice were to arrive, it would be decades late: “We have been hearing decisions for more than 76 years that have not been implemented and haven’t done anything for us.”

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The UN aid chief has said that a staggering 281 aid workers have been killed around the world so far this year, making 2024 the deadliest year for humanitarians, AFP reports.

“Humanitarian workers are being killed at an unprecedented rate, their courage and humanity being met with bullets and bombs,” said Tom Fletcher, the United Nations’ new under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

With more than a month left to go of 2024, the “grim milestone was reached”, he said, after 280 humanitarians were killed across 33 countries during all of 2023.

“This violence is unconscionable and devastating to aid operations,” Fletcher said.

“States and parties to conflict must protect humanitarians, uphold international law, prosecute those responsible, and call time on this era of impunity.”

Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza was driving up the numbers, his office said, with 333 aid workers killed there, most from the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

G7 ministers meeting in Italy next week will discuss the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said, adding that the issue required further analysis, AFP reports.

After her defence minister said that Italy would have to arrest Israel’s premier if he visited, Meloni said she would “delve deeper” into the ICC’s decision and it would be on the agenda of a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers in Fiuggi, near Rome, on Monday and Tuesday.

Anyone sought by International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants should surrender to the Hague-based court for a fair trial and face justice, said a key UN official one day after landmark arrest warrants were issued for Israel’s premier and former defence minister, Anadolu reports.

“I urge all individuals subject to ICC arrest warrants to surrender to the Court to face justice in a fair trial,” Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, said on X.

“I urge all countries to cooperate with the Court to enforce arrest warrants,” he added.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has denounced the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defence minister, Anadolu reports.

“The ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” said Biden in a statement. “Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

He said the US “will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

The Gaza health ministry has warned that all hospitals in the enclave would have to stop or reduce services “within 48 hours” for lack of fuel, blaming Israel for blocking its entry, AFP reports.

“We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation’s (Israel’s) obstruction of fuel entry,” Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza’s field hospitals, said during a press conference.

At least four Italian peacekeepers were slightly injured in an explosion caused by two rockets hitting a Unifil base in southern Lebanon, Italy’s Defence Ministry has said, Al Jazeera reports.

The attack at the UNP 2-3 base in Chamaa, which hosts the Italian contingent, is the latest in a string of attacks against the UN mission which has been tasked with preventing hostilities from escalating in the south of Lebanon since its establishment in 2006.

“From an initial reconstruction, two rockets hit a bunker on the base and a room near the international military police, causing damage to the surrounding infrastructure. Some glass shattered due to the explosion, hitting the four soldiers,” the ministry said in a statement.

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Five medics were killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said, Reuters reports.

The ministry said three medics were killed and three others were wounded when they were targeted in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese town of Qotrani.

An earlier Israeli strike on a vehicle had killed two medics in southern Lebanese town of Deir Qanoun Ras Al-Ain, the ministry had said.

Two medics were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a vehicle in southern Lebanese town of Deir Qanoun Ras Al-Ain, the Lebanese health ministry said, according to Reuters.

Cyprus, which has close ties with Israel, considers arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as binding in principle, a government source has told Reuters.

“The decision is being studied and we have no comment on that. As a matter of principle, the decisions of the International Criminal Court are both respected, and binding,” said the government source, requesting anonymity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for his show of “moral clarity” after inviting him to visit despite an ICC arrest warrant, AFP reports.

“Faced with the shameful weakness of those who stood by the outrageous decision against the right of the State of Israel to defend itself, Hungary” is “standing by the side of justice and truth,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

France has said it had taken note of the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas chief Mohammed Deif, AFP reports.

“France takes note of this decision. True to its long-standing commitment to supporting international justice, it reiterates its attachment to the independent work of the court,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement, without specifying if the men would be arrested if they entered French territory.

The German government’s position on delivering weapons to Israel is “unchanged” after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, a spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

“Arms deliveries to Israel are always subject to a case-by-case assessment, and that remains the case now,” the spokesperson said.

“Our attitude towards Israel remains unchanged.”

Nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza following the October 7 attacks last year, the World Health Organization said, AFP reports.

The UN health agency said that 226 health workers have been killed in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict, with nearly 70 per cent of those deaths since the tensions escalated into all-out conflict in September.

Pro-Palestinian groups have taken the Dutch state to court, urging a halt to arms exports to Israel and accusing the government of failing to prevent what they termed a genocide in Gaza, AFP reports.

The NGOs argued that Israel is breaking international law in Gaza and the West Bank, invoking, amongst others, the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention set up in the wake of the Holocaust.

“Israel is guilty of genocide and apartheid” and “is using Dutch weapons to wage war”, said Wout Albers, a lawyer representing the NGOs.

Israeli authorities will stop holding Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank under administrative detention, or incarceration without trial, the defence ministry has announced, according to AFP.

The practice, used against Palestinians and Israelis who may be deemed security threats, “is inappropriate” for Israel to employ against settlers who “face severe Palestinian terror threats and unjustified international sanctions”, said Defence Minister Israel Katz in a statement.

He added that prosecution or “other preventive measures” would be used to deal with criminal acts in the West Bank.

Israeli settler violence, intimidation and harassment has driven more than 1,720 Palestinians in Bedouin and other herding communities from their homes in the occupied West Bank in just over a year, according to the UN, Al Jazeera reports.

Also, between November 12 and 18, a total of 25 Palestinians, including children, were displaced as a result of Israeli settler violence directed against them, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest situation report on the occupied West Bank.

Among the 1,722 Palestinians displaced in total by settlers since October 7 2023, there were 835 children, according to OCHA.

In one attack by armed settlers on November 15, assailants threatened Palestinian families to leave their homes at gunpoint and warned they would be set on “fire if they stayed”.

“During the attack, settlers broke the windows and physically assaulted both the father and his son” who were in one of the homes that were raided, the UN said.

“The father later reported that his family was traumatized and had to leave without gathering their belongings,” OCHA adds.

Palestinian ambulance crews have retrieved the bodies of two people killed in Gaza’s southern town of Khirbet al-Adas, near Rafah, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

Meanwhile, the death toll from an earlier attack on a tent camp in the al-Mawasi area of central Gaza has risen to three, including two children.

Slovenia will respect arrest warrants for Israel and Hamas leaders issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and “will fully comply”, Prime Minister Robert Golob was quoted as saying by Slovenian news agency STA late on Thursday, Reuters reports.

The atmosphere has been very tense over the past 24 hours, especially in the north of the Strip, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.

Beit Lahiya’s Kamal Adwan Hospital was squarely targeted overnight, especially its emergency gate where a group of people were hit.

“Once medics rushed to the hospital’s courtyard to reach the wounded, they were targeted by an Israeli quadcopter drone,” Azzoum said.

Witnesses said the drone dropped grenades, injuring six medical staff. One of them is described as in a critical condition. He’s now getting treatment inside the hospital. The facility’s water tanks and oxygen station also suffered significant damage.

Ireland would be prepared to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he came to the country following the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued on Thursday, Prime Minister Simon Harris said, Reuters reports.

“Yes absolutely. We support international courts and we apply their warrants,” Harris told national broadcaster RTE when asked if Netanyahu would be arrested if he arrived in Ireland for whatever reason.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said he would invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Hungary, saying he would guarantee that an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu would “not be observed”, Reuters reports.