Here you can find our situation update published yesterday.
On the 110th day of the war, fierce fighting broke out between the Israeli army and Hamas on Wednesday, January 24, in Khan Younes, southern Gaza. According to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, Israeli bombings there overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday claimed 125 lives. While this city has become the epicenter of the fighting, the Israeli army claims that officials of the Palestinian Islamist movement are in Khan Younes.
According to the Hamas media office, the clashes are currently taking place around three hospitals in the city, including Nasser Hospital, which is surrounded “on all sides” by dozens of tanks, leaving only a “corridor” open for people to escape . “Thousands of displaced people in Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals had to leave overnight and this morning for Rafah,” on the border with Egypt, the Hamas office said. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday complained about an “indescribable” situation in Khan Younes hospitals.
Shots kill 9 in UN shelter in Khan Younes
Two tanks opened fire on a U.N. training center-turned-refugee home in Khan Younes on Wednesday, killing “9 people and wounding 75,” said Thomas White, director of the U.N. Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Gaza. The affected building “accommodates 800 people,” it said in its statement. UNRWA and the WHO tried to contact the center on Wednesday, added Mr White, who had previously reported “burning buildings and mass casualties”.
The entire complex houses 10,000 people, said James McGoldrick, acting United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, deploring “another incident in which a building used for humanitarian purposes was damaged or hit.” For UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, these attacks represent “a blatant violation of the basic rules of war.”
Israel is accused of “genocide”: the International Court of Justice will make a decision on Friday
The United Nations' highest court said on Wednesday that it would hand down its decision on Friday on urgent measures demanded by South Africa, which accuses Israel of “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Pretoria took urgent legal action last month, arguing that post-Shoah Israel is violating the United Nations Genocide Convention signed in 1948. South Africa wants the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue “interim measures,” emergency orders to protect Palestinians in Gaza from possible violations of the convention.
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The court will therefore only decide on South Africa's request for emergency measures and not on the fundamental question of whether Israel is actually committing genocide – this could take years. However, it could order Israel to end its military operation in Gaza. The orders of the International Court of Justice, which decides disputes between countries, are legally binding and final. However, it does not have the ability to enforce this. For example, it ordered Russia to suspend its invasion of Ukraine. “No one will stop us, neither The Hague nor the Axis of Evil nor anyone else,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned.
NGOs are calling for an end to all arms sales to Israel and Palestinian armed groups
Sixteen humanitarian organizations, including Médecins du Monde, Oxfam and Amnesty International, called on Wednesday for all countries to stop supplying Israel and Palestinian armed groups with weapons “that can be used to commit violations of international humanitarian law and human rights.” .
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They call for an “immediate ceasefire” and call on the United Nations Security Council to take “measures” to put an end to these arms deliveries: “The international community has long delayed compliance with these commitments.” » The NGOs are also attacking the “ Bombings” and the “Israeli siege” that “deprive the civilian population of vital elements and make Gaza uninhabitable.” They also claim that 167 aid workers were killed in Gaza, “the highest number in any conflict” in the 21st century.
Houthis order UN staff from the US and UK to leave Yemen
In a letter addressed to the acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, on Wednesday, the Yemeni Houthi Foreign Ministry announced that “officials and workers of American and British nationality (…) must prepare to leave the country within thirty days.” The letter also instructs foreign organizations not to employ American and British citizens for operations in Yemen.
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The decision follows attacks by the United States and Britain, which, with the support of other countries, are trying to curb attacks by the Iran-aligned group on international maritime traffic in the Red Sea. Last week, the US government also added the Houthis back to its list of terrorist groups. The Houthis said their attacks were part of solidarity with the Palestinians.