Israeli fire led to death of six soldiers in Gaza blast, three more killed
The IDF is investigating an unintended detonation that killed six Israeli troops, as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken puts Israel’s Prime Minister on notice over mounting Palestinian casualties. Warning: Graphic
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The United States’ top diplomat Antony Blinken put Israel on notice over mounting civilian deaths in its counteroffensive against Hamas.
More than three months after the terror group launched a savage massacre in Israel, Blinken travelled to Tel Aviv to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on “the importance of avoiding further civilian harm” in the Gaza Strip.
Blinken also voiced hope that, after the war, Israel could push on with its efforts towards regional integration, following its US-brokered normalisation deals with the United Arab Emirates and other states.
“I think there actually are real opportunities there, but we have to get through this very challenging moment,” Blinken said.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller added, however, that Blinken reaffirmed US “support for Israel’s right to prevent the terrorist attacks of October 7 from being repeated”.
In the longer term, Miller added that Blinken “reiterated the need to ensure lasting, sustainable peace for Israel and the region, including by the realisation of a Palestinian state”.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it was probing a blast in Bureij that killed six of its engineers who were working on the demolition of a Hamas tunnel.
About half an hour before the planned demolition, a nearby tank fired at suspicious movement. The tank was near the detonation cord at the time the shell was launched.
“According to the probe, the detonating cord was somehow activated as a result of the blast from the tank shelling, and led to the premature massive explosion of the tunnel system while the combat engineers were still working on preparing it for demolition,” the IDF said in a statement.
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SHELLING NEAR HOSPITAL WHERE THREE DOCTORS REMAIN
The United Nations says that shelling was once again reported near the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza.
All staff members and many patients were evacuated from the hospital on January 7 due to intense fighting nearby, but one emergency doctor and two surgeons remain at the facility.
According to the latest UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) situation report 126 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 241 injured in a 24-hour period between Monday and Tuesday afternoon.
UNOCHA also reports only 15 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functional and at least 330 Palestinians, including 84 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
INTERNATIONAL COURT INVESTIGATING CRIMES AGAINST JOURNALISTS
Reporters without Borders (RSF) says that it has received assurances from Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), that crimes against journalists are being examined as part of his investigation into the situation in Palestine.
The media rights group has filed two complaints with the ICC regarding journalist killings in Gaza since October 8.
“The massacre of journalists in Gaza, at least 79 of whom have been killed since 7 October, demands a determined response from the ICC,” RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire said.
The ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor opened an official investigation into the situation in Palestine in May 2021.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE ICC AND GAZA. Following the two last complaints filed by @RSF_inter with the @IntlCrimCourt regarding journalists killed in Gaza, the office of Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC assures our organisation that crimes against journalists are given special… https://t.co/5c674bX5OIpic.twitter.com/kZcXSu6hSK
— Christophe Deloire (@cdeloire) January 8, 2024
ISRAEL ACCUSED OF ‘GENOCIDAL ACTS’ IN UN TOP COURT
Israel and South Africa will face off at the UN’s top court from Thursday, after Pretoria accused Israel of “genocidal acts” in Gaza - charges the Israelis have dismissed as “blood libel”.
In an 84-page submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa urged judges to order Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations” in Gaza.
South Africa alleges that Israel “has engaged in, is engaging in, and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza”.
Israel has angrily hit back at the accusations, with government spokesman Eylon Levy vowing to fight the South African case he described as “absurd blood libel”.
“How tragic that the rainbow nation that prides itself on fighting racism will be fighting pro bono for anti-Jewish racists,” added Levy.
“No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas,” said Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Top officials from the two countries will face off in the ICJ’s Great Hall of Justice housed in the extravagant Peace Palace in The Hague - a world away from the death and destruction seen recently in Gaza and Israel.
ISRAEL ADMITS TARGETED ATTACK THAT KILLED JOURNALISTS
The IDF has told CNN it carried out an airstrike that killed two journalists working for Al Jazeera in Gaza.
The military said they were “targeting a terrorist”.
“An IDF aircraft identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops. We are aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit,” an IDF spokesperson told CNN.
As reported earlier, one of the journalists killed was Hamza Al-Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh. Wael’s wife, daughter, another son and grandson were also killed months prior in an Israeli airstrike.
When pressed by CNN if they knew there journalists in the car, the IDF said: “For now we can’t elaborate. We will let you know when we have more information.”
ONE IN 100 PEOPLE IN GAZA KILLED
Statistics show about one out of every 100 people in Gaza has been killed since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced at least 22,835 people have been killed, which is one per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.27 million people.
The Ministry said 58,416 people had been injured.
According to CNN, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza, which tends to have slightly higher numbers than the Palestinian Ministery of Heatlh due to delays in transmitting information to the West Bank, put the total at 23,084 dead on Monday. It said 58,926 people had been injured.
ISRAELI STRIKE KILLS HEZBOLLAH LEADER
Hezbollah has announced the killing of a top “commander”, naming him as Wissam Hassan Tawil.
It said he died “on the road to Jerusalem” - the phrase used for fighters killed by Israel.
Tawil “had a leading role in managing Hezbollah’s operations in the south”, the Hezbollah security official said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
The official added that the commander, who held several other top positions in the group, “was killed in an Israeli strike targeting his car in the south”.
Tawil was the highest-ranking Hezbollah member to be killed since the group and Israel began exchanging near-daily cross-border fire after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.
This, on top of the killing of Hamas’s deputy leader in Beirut last week, has raised fears of a wider conflagration.
KILLING OF HAMAS LEADER MAY AFFECT HOSTAGE NEGOTIATIONS
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani have revealed last week’s killing of Hamas leader Saleh Al-Arouri may affect hostage negotiations.
More than 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza after being kidnapped by Hamas militants during the deadly October 7 attack.
Qatar has played a central role in mediating hostage negotiations and helped secure the freedom of previous hostages.
“We are not giving up; we are moving forward,” Al-Thani said during a press conference. “We are continuing our discussions with the parties and trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring assistance for humanitarian relief and the release of the hostages.”
‘TROUBLING REPORTS’ OF HOSPITAL EVACUATION ORDERS
Hundreds of patients and health workers from Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital “are not currently known”, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said.
In a post on X, Mr Ghebreyesus described a report from the hospital’s director that “over 600 patients and most health workers” have been “forced to leave” the hospital as “troubling”
He described the hospital’s services as “vital”, adding that WHO staff who visited the hospital in the day before the evacuation order saw “sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors.”
“The bloodbath in Gaza must end,” Mr Ghebreyesus said.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have all withdrawn staff from the hospital in the last two days, due to Israeli bombardment.
- with AFP
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