Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 397

The Israeli army has detained eight Palestinians from Tabaqa, southwest of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, according to the Wafa news agency, Al Jazeera reports.

Soldiers stormed the town and broke into several houses before making the arrests. Earlier, the army detained five other Palestinians also from the Hebron governorate.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has issued a statement saying the bloc condemns an “incident which put at risk an Unifil convoy and left several peacekeepers wounded”, a day after six Malaysian peacekeepers were injured by an Israeli drone strike that killed three Lebanese people in a car nearby, Al Jazeera reports.

Borrell did not directly name Israel and said “all parties must ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and allow them to carry out their vital mission under Unifil’s mandate”.

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva says it “categorically rejects” a damning UN report on Israel’s conduct during its Gaza offensive and accused the UN of relying on “unverified information”, Al Jazeera reports.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report that found 70 per cent of verified casualties in the Gaza Strip were women and children.

The youngest death was a one-day-old boy and the oldest a 97-year-old woman. The most common age group of children killed in Israeli attacks was between five and nine years old.

“If committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, further to a state or organisational policy, these violations may constitute crimes against humanity,” the UN report said.

“And if committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, they may also constitute genocide.”

The Israeli military has said it is planning to reopen the Kissufim crossing into central Gaza to increase the flow of aid into the southern end of the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports.

The move comes amid growing international pressure on Israel to get more aid into Gaza, where aid agencies have warned of a gathering humanitarian crisis in the north of the enclave, where Israeli troops have been conducting a major operation for more than a month.

The new crossing would be opened following engineering work over recent weeks by army engineers to build inspection points and paved roads, the army said.

“In the Israeli media there’s been extensive coverage of the incident (clashes with Israeli football fans in Amsterdam), but what’s been omitted is what led up to the confrontations – the anti-Arab chants, “Death to Arabs”, the provocations and so on,” reports Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh.

Odeh adds that these kinds of chants are “mostly normalised in Israeli sports” and can be heard at football games all the time.

“The fact that there was such a strong anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian expression by the Israeli fans in Amsterdam, on the field and in the streets — was omitted from the news coverage because it’s so normalised,” Odeh reports.

Hezbollah said its fighters launched missiles at an air base in central Israel, the latest attack by the Iran-backed group in more than a month of fighting, AFP reports.

Hezbollah said it “targeted the Tel Nof Air Base, south of Tel Aviv… with a salvo of advanced missiles. “

The head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that states supplying weapons to Israel as it pursues conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon despite evidence of violations of international law are empowering belligerents elsewhere.

Tirana Hassan, HRW’s Executive Director, said that countries like the United States, Germany and Britain could influence Israel’s actions and should do so by ending arms sales.

“If there continues to be military support to the Israeli Defense Force and they (Western governments) know that these weapons are being used in the commission of war crimes, then that should be enough for weapons sales and transfers to stop,” she told Reuters in an interview.

“At this stage, the parties that could have some sort of influence and curb the behavior of the warring parties, when it comes to Israel, it’s the US, it’s the UK, and it’s Germany, and it’s through weapons sales and transfers.”

Read the full Reuters story here.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri says riots in Amsterdam following a European League match reflect a response to Israel’s continued “massacres” in Gaza with no international intervention to stop the killing, Al Jazeera reports.

“The events in Amsterdam confirm that the ongoing genocide in Gaza, broadcast live without international action to halt it and hold those responsible accountable, can lead to such spontaneous reactions,” Abu Zuhri said.

“Ending the genocide in Gaza is fundamental to respecting and protecting human rights, ensuring regional and global peace and security.”

Yoav Gallant officially stepped down in a ceremony that replaced him with Israel Katz, the former foreign minister, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Gallant earlier this week, Al Jazeera reports.

Gallant thanked the military and warned the war’s “mission is not yet complete; we must meet our moral and traditional obligation, and the war’s objective is to bring home the remaining 101 hostages who haven’t yet seen their families and homes”.

Katz, his replacement, is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran cabinet minister.

The Gaza health ministry has said that at least 43,508 people have been killed in more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.

The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 102,684 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since fighting broke out on October 7, 2023.

Louise Wateridge, senior emergency officer for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in northern Gaza, spoke to Al Jazeera about the situation for Palestinians under Israeli siege.

She has said that Israeli authorities are preventing Palestinians from accessing essentials for their survival, including water.

“People have been left to their fate in the streets, and many remain trapped under rubble with no possibility to save them,” she added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that he was confident in the diplomatic efforts of the new Trump administration to help end the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, AFP reports.

On the Middle East, Erdogan said he was banking on Trump “to tell Israel to stop”.

“Continuing the policies of the Biden era will deepen the deadlock in the region and spread the conflict,” he said, suggesting “cutting arms supplies to Israel would be a good place to start” to end the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.

The Israeli military has banned all of its personnel from travelling to the Netherlands after several Israelis were injured in clashes after a Europa League football match in Amsterdam, AFP reports.

“Following an assessment of the situation, the army forbids all personnel serving in the army from travelling to the Netherlands until further notice,” the military said in a statement.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says she’s “outraged” by “vile attacks targeting Israeli citizens in Amsterdam” after clashes following a football match led to arrests and hospitalisations, Al Jazeera reports.

“I strongly condemn these unacceptable acts,” von der Leyen wrote after speaking with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

“Anti-Semitism has absolutely no place in Europe. And we are determined to fight all forms of hatred.”

Al Jazeera Arabic has confirmed the killing of four Palestinians in the Israeli attack on northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya town.

Earlier, Al Jazeera‘s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah that the Israeli bombing of Beit Lahiya has been going on for hours, hitting residential homes and agricultural land.

“We’ve been getting testimonies that buildings have been destroyed and civilians are stuck underneath,” he said.

Lebanon state media said the Israeli army detonated explosives planted inside houses in three border villages that have been battered by the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, AFP reports.

“Since this morning, the Israeli enemy’s army has been carrying out bombing operations inside the villages of Yaroun, Aitaroun and Maroun al-Ras in the Bint Jbeil area, with the aim of destroying residential homes there,” the official National News Agency said, the latest in a string of similar incidents that have impacted the flashpoint border area.

France is mulling new sanctions on those enabling the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, regarded as illegal under international law, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said during a visit to the territory, AFP reports.

“France has been a driving force to establish the first sanction regime at the European level targeting individuals or entities, either actors or accomplices of settlement activities”, Barrot said after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah.

“This regime has been activated two times already and we’re working on a third batch of sanctions targeting these activities that again are illegal with respect to international law.”

Barrot renewed France’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned settlement activities “threaten the political perspective that can ensure durable peace for Israel and Palestine”.

“These attacks from extremist and violent settlers are not only completely inexcusable, not only contrary to international law, but they weaken the perspective of a two-state solution,” Barrot said.

The United Nations has condemned the staggering number of civilians killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, saying women and children comprised nearly 70 per cent of the thousands of fatalities it had managed to verify, AFP reports.

The UN rights office said it had verified 8,119 of the more than 34,500 people reportedly killed during the first six months of the conflict, finding “close to 70pc to be children and women”.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has condemned clashes in Amsterdam after a Europa League football match, saying the “shocking images” of violence were reminiscent of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year, AFP reports.

“We see with horror this morning, the shocking images and videos that since October 7th, we had hoped never to see again: an antisemitic pogrom currently taking place against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans and Israeli citizens in the heart of Amsterdam, Netherlands,” Herzog said in a statement on X.

At least 13 people were killed in the north of the besieged enclave, bringing the total number of deaths to 17, Al Jazeera reports, citing medical sources.

An Israeli air attack hit the eastern areas of Gaza City, and another attack hit a house in the Jabalia refugee camp.

It was also reported that two Palestinians were injured in an Israeli bombing of the entrance to Halima al-Sadia School in Jabalia, which houses displaced people.

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned against launching an “instinctive” response to Israeli air strikes on the Islamic republic last month, AFP reports.

“Israel aims to bring the conflict to Iran. We must act wisely to avoid its trap and not react instinctively,” the adviser, Ali Larijani, told state television last night.

A Senate panel has cleared a bill seeking to prescribe jail terms and fines for preaching Zionism and displaying its symbols.

The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Bill recommends up to three years of imprisonment or a fine of Rs40,000, or both, for anyone who knowingly or intentionally engages in the preaching of Zionism to incite hatred in society.

The proposed bill seeks punishment for up to two years or imposition of fine or both for anyone who knowingly or intentionally displays symbols of Zionism to spread hatred and disturb peace.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill says that Zionism is an ethnic, religious and political school of thought, which adopts extremist and strict ways and means to attain its objectives.

The proposed legislation is yet to be introduced in either of the two houses of the parliament for approval.

Read more here:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent two rescue planes to the Netherlands after Israeli football fans were reportedly injured in clashes in Amsterdam, AFP reports.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity and demands that the Dutch government and security forces take vigorous and swift action against the rioters, and ensure the safety of our citizens,” his office said in a statement.

The prime minister’s office did not say what led to the “very violent incident against Israeli citizens”, but Dutch media AT5 reported clashes on Thursday night between fans at a Europa League match in which Israeli football team Maccabi Tel-Aviv faced Ajax Amsterdam.

The report said numerous fights as well as acts of vandalism had occurred in the city centre. A police spokesperson told ANP news agency that 57 people had been arrested.

The United Nations has been planning for the possible return of Donald Trump and the cuts to US funding and engagement with world body that are likely to come with his second term as president, Reuters reports.

There was a sense of “dj vu and some trepidation” at the 193-member world body, said one senior Asian diplomat, as Republican Trump won Tuesday’s US election over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

“There is also some hope that a transactional administration will engage the UN on some areas even if it were to defund some dossiers. After all, what bigger and better global stage is there than the United Nations?” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Trump has offered few specifics about foreign policy in his second term but supporters say the force of his personality and his “peace through strength” approach will help bend foreign leaders to his will. He has vowed to solve the war in Ukraine and is expected to give strong support to Israel in its conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Read more here.