According to a recent report by Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007, Israeli military operations have left 23,357 dead and 59,410 injured in Gaza since the war began. 147 people were killed in the last 24 hours. still under this new assessment, which could not be independently verified.
Israel vowed to “destroy” the Islamist movement – considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union – after its attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which by one count killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians. Agence France-Presse (AFP) based on the Israeli assessment. About 250 people were taken hostage; About a hundred of them were released during a ceasefire in late November, and 132 are still held by various Palestinian armed groups.
This Wednesday, the Israeli army said it hit “more than 150 targets” in the areas of Maghazi camp (center) and Khan Younes (south) and discovered 15 tunnels. According to an AFP journalist, Khan Younes and Rafah (South) were subjected to intense bombings.
Houthi “biggest attack” foiled
British and American forces shot down eighteen drones and three missiles fired by the Houthis in the Red Sea on Tuesday evening. The British government on Wednesday described it as the “biggest attack yet” by Yemeni rebels. “Overnight,” the British ship HMS Diamond and American warships “successfully repelled the largest-ever attack by the Iranian-backed Houthis in the Red Sea,” the defense secretary wrote. British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, on the social network
“The Diamond has thwarted several drone attacks in its direction and those of merchant vessels in the area,” the minister added, specifying that there were no injuries to the crew or damage to the British ship. A few hours earlier, the American army announced that eighteen drones and three missiles fired by the Houthis had been shot down as part of a “complex” attack.
The rebels claimed responsibility for the attack and said in a statement. Finally, the United Nations Security Council scheduled a vote for Wednesday on a resolution condemning attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on commercial and commercial vessels in the Red Sea region and would demand an immediate end.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers In the Red Sea, the multinational force led by the United States defies the Houthi attacks
Antony Blinken met with Mahmoud Abbas
During his meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, reiterated that the United States supports “tangible steps” toward the creation of a Palestinian state, a long-term goal that the far-right Israeli government has led Benjamin Netanyahu against.
He then said the Palestinian leader was “determined” to reform the Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank. In 2007, the Palestinian Authority lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas and exercised limited power in the West Bank. After his meeting with Mr. Blinken, Mr. Abbas traveled to Jordan, where he discussed “pressure for an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza during talks with King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi.
Mr. Blinken also accused Iran of “supporting” and “encouraging” attacks in the Red Sea. He demanded that Yemeni rebels – who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza – stop their attacks. In this regard, and before traveling to Cairo on Thursday, Mr. Blinken arrived on Wednesday afternoon in Bahrain, a member of the Maritime Defense Coalition in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Read the editorial: Middle East: The United States is at risk of impotence
Six rescue workers have died in an Israeli attack, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent
This was announced by the Palestinian Red Crescent the death of six people, including four of his rescuers, in the attack on an ambulance in central Gaza, which he blamed on the Israeli army. According to the Red Crescent, the ambulance was at the entrance to Deir Al-Balah, on the main artery that crosses the Gaza Strip from north to south. The Israeli army contacted by AFP did not comment.
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Earlier on Wednesday, the Hamas-run Health Ministry reported that several people were killed in an Israeli attack near a hospital in the Deir Al-Balah neighborhood. According to the ministry, more than 120 ambulances have been destroyed and 326 health care workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
“Gaza's health system is already devastated and health workers and humanitarian workers are constantly hampered in their efforts to save lives due to hostilities,” the Gaza chief denounced last week. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization, responded to the bombing of the Red Crescent compound in Khan Younes.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers The statement of a doctor returning from Gaza: “I had to take care of a baby whose arm and leg had been torn off and was lying on the ground.”
South Africa accuses Israel of “genocidal acts”.
By taking on Israel, which it accuses of being “genocidal” in Gaza, at the United Nations' highest court on Thursday, January 11, the South African government hopes to emerge on the international stage and gain popularity at home before the elections for their party are at risk. In an 84-page petition to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, South Africa calls on the judges to urgently order Israel to “immediately end its military operations in the Gaza Strip.”
Pretoria believes Israel “has engaged in, continues to engage in, and risks continuing to engage in acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” Comments Israel called an “absurd blood libel.” To defend this first case brought by the country to the International Court of Justice, Pretoria is sending “an elite team” of lawyers, highlighted Cathleen Powell, professor of international law at the University of Cape Town. Former British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn will join a South African delegation to hearings at the International Court of Justice this week, the Associated Press reports.
Also read: Call for “genocide” against Israel: South Africa goes to the front
The journalist says he was tortured by the Israeli army
London-based media Al-Araby Al-Jadid announced on Tuesday the release of one of its Palestinian journalists, Diaa Al-Kahlout, who has been detained by Israel since December. The reporter and correspondent in Gaza was one of dozens of Palestinians arrested by Israel in northern Gaza in early December and whose images were broadcast by Israeli television channels.
They were seen in their underwear and blindfolded under the guard of Israeli soldiers. These images made the rounds on social media and sparked a lively controversy. The Israeli army had cited security reasons to justify its actions and portrayed those arrested as Hamas fighters, something the Palestinian Islamist movement had denied with “lies.”
Mr. Kahlout was released in the Gaza Strip, said Al-Araby Al-Jadid, a Qatari media group news site. The 37-year-old journalist told his employer that he had been subjected to “unspeakably harsh” conditions since his arrest, saying he had been beaten and tortured. According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, 38 Palestinian journalists were arrested and 31 are still in detention.
Also read: Article reserved for our subscribers Israel justifies its mass arrests of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip