South Africa opens Gaza ‘genocide’ case against Israel
The war in the Middle East has entered a courtroom in The Hague as judges hear a claim that Israel should halt its military offensive in Gaza to prevent Palestinians falling victim to genocide.
South Africa brought Israel before the International Court of Justice, seeking an emergency order to call off the invasion.
In two days of hearings, South Africa will present its case in a three-hour session before Israel takes the floor in reply on Friday.
A 17-judge panel led by US lawyer Joan Donoghue and Russia’s Kirill Gevorgian is hearing the arguments in the Peace Palace in the Dutch administrative capital.
Two ad hoc judges were sworn in before proceedings began, with each side able to nominate someone for the bench if there is no judge of that nationality already.
Israel’s war on Gaza ‘nothing short of destruction of Palestinian life,’ lawyer tells court
Tim Stickings reports:
South African lawyer Adila Hassim said Israel’s campaign amounted to “nothing short of destruction of Palestinian life” as the International Court of Justice opens in The Hague.
Showing the court pictures of body bags as she laid out the allegation of genocide, she said Israel had killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians in violation of international law.
“The devastation, we submit, is intended to and has laid waste to Gaza beyond any acceptable legal, let alone humane, justification,” she said.
In addition, the displacement of Palestinians is part of a deliberate campaign to “impose conditions on Gaza that cannot sustain life”, Ms Hassim told ICJ judges.
Referring to Israel’s command for Palestinians to move south in the first phase of its ground invasion, she said: “The order itself was genocidal”.
A lack of aid leading to hunger, the denial of adequate shelter and sanitation, and attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system, are also part of a genocidal campaign, the court heard.
South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi spoke of a “clear pattern of conduct” including the destruction of hospitals and denial of aid to Gaza.
He also quoted a series of statements by Israeli political and military leaders in which they allegedly “declared their genocidal intent”.
Among the words cited were a remark by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant that Israel was “fighting human animals” and references by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a violent passage of scripture.
“The language of systematic dehumanisation is evident here,” said Mr Ngcukaitobi, who said such statements were not mere rhetoric but shaped Israel’s policy.”
Israeli shelling kills civilian in south Lebanon
Nada Atallah reports from Beirut:
One Lebanese civilian, Hassan Tawil, was killed during an Israeli artillery shelling on Kfar Kila on Wednesday, a Hezbollah official told The National.
This brings the total number of civilians killed in Lebanon since the border conflict began to 23, including three journalists. More than 140 Hezbollah fighters have been killed.
Israel says 14 Israelis have been killed, including nine soldiers.
Diplomatic efforts are intensifying amid an escalation in the border conflict between the two countries in recent weeks.
US envoy Amos Hochstein seeks to ease Lebanon-Israel border tensions in Beirut visit
Jamie Prentis reports from Beirut:
Senior US envoy Amos Hochstein is expected to arrive in the Lebanese capital Beirut amid heightened tensions over cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon.
Mr Hochstein will explore efforts for a ceasefire, according to a US official, and will discuss the demarcation of Lebanon and Israel’s contested land border.
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah says its attacks are a response to Israel’s war in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by its ally Hamas. But its leader Hassan Nasrallah has also hinted that the fighting represents an opportunity for Lebanon to reclaim land that it considers part of its territory.
There are believed to be 13 contested points, as well as the occupied Shebaa Farms.
Houthi leader hits back at UN resolution after attack on US ships
The head of Yemen’s Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, Mohammed Al Houthi, has said that the UN resolution on navigation in the Red Sea is a “political game” and that the US was the one breaking international laws.
The UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning about 30 attacks on shipping in the vital international waterway, demanding an immediate halt to attacks.
The resolution condemned “in the strongest terms” the attacks since November 19, “when the Houthis attacked and seized the Galaxy Leader and its crew”, referencing a Japanese-owned, Israel-linked ship with a multinational crew.
UK marine agency reports ‘incident’ off Oman coast
The UK Marine Trade Operations agency has reported an “incident” off the coast of Oman.
Authorities are investigating the incident, said to have taken place 50 nautical miles east of Sohar, it said on X.
It comes amid regular Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, with the militant group claiming to target vessels bound for Israel amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
No attacks off the coast of Oman have been reported since the war began in October.
Vessels in the area are advised to proceed with caution, the agency added.
UN relief chief condemns killing of Red Crescent staff
The head of the UN’s relief agency has condemned the killing of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulance workers while on duty in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday.
“Such devastating news. We mourn the loss of these brave colleagues,” Martin Griffiths wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“The rules of war are clear: Parties must protect civilians, including humanitarian workers. These rules must be upheld.
The fighting must end,” he added.
Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the killing of the ambulance crew was “unacceptable”.
“Protection of patients and health care workers is not negotiable. They must never be targeted.”
Top UN court opens hearings on South Africa’s allegation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
The UN’s top court is to open hearings into South Africa’s allegation that Israel’s war in Gaza amounts to genocide against Palestinians.
South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of Israel’s offensive in the enclave as part of a case that is likely to take years to resolve.
Israel has sent a strong legal team to counter the case.
“I think they have come because they want to be exonerated and think they can successfully resist the accusation of genocide,” said Juliette McIntyre, an expert on international law at the University of South Australia.
Last year, the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry urged the court to “immediately take action to protect the Palestinian people and call on Israel, the occupying power, to halt its onslaught against the Palestinian people, in order to ensure an objective legal resolution.”
Two days of preliminary hearings will begin with lawyers for South Africa explaining why the country has accused Israel of “acts and omissions” that are “genocidal in character”.
– Associated Press
Widespread raids reported across occupied West Bank overnight
The Israeli army has stormed several towns and cities across the occupied West Bank in the past 12 hours.
The Wafa news agency reported raids in Jenin and its refugee camp, Nablus, Al Bireh, Kafr Ni’ma, Azzun, Qalqilya, Jericho and Hebron.
The military distributed “threatening leaflets” to residents in Beitunia, near Ramallah, after detaining many.
Israel has deployed increasingly deadly tactics in the West Bank since October 7, including drone strikes on refugee camps.
It has detained thousands of people across the West Bank, including Gazan workers unable to return home due to the war.
Seven killed and dozens injured in Khan Younis strike
At least seven people were killed and 25 wounded in an Israeli strike overnight on a home in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Palestinian media has reported.
Women and children were among the victims of the strike on the Abu Namous family home, the Wafa news agency reported.
Israel has intensified its strikes on southern Gaza as it continues its ground invasion of the enclave.
More than 23,300 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza since the war began in October.
Yemen’s Houthis say UN resolution on navigation on the Red Sea is ‘political game’
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam has said the United Nations resolution on navigation on the Red Sea is a “political game” and accused the US of breaking international law.
It comes after the UN adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate halt” to Houthi attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea, accusing the group of undermining regional security and global commerce.
The Houthis have claimed the attacks as “legitimate defence” in response to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“We call on the Security Council to immediately release 2.3 Million people from the Israeli-American siege in Gaza,” Mr Salam wrote on X.
The Houthis have vowed to attack ships linked to Israel or bound for Israeli ports as the war continues. However, many of the targeted ships have had no links to Israel.
UN adopts resolution demanding an immediate halt to Red Sea Houthi attacks
Adla Massoud reports from the UN:
The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution condemning and demanding an immediate halt to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
The text, co-sponsored by the US and Japan, received 11 votes in favour and four abstentions – Russia, China, Mozambique and Algeria.
The resolution “condemns in the strongest terms the at least two dozen Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels since November 19, 2023, when the Houthis attacked and seized the Galaxy Leader and its crew”.
It calls for the immediate release of the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship with links to an Israeli company.
Leaders of Jordan, Egypt and Palestine say Gazans must be able to return to homes
Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Hamza Hendawi reports from Jordan:
King Abdullah II of Jordan discussed ways to prevent expulsion of Gazans with the leaders of Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, in the Jordanian city of Aqaba on Wednesday, official media reported.
The discussions come as the US intensifies its diplomatic drive to contain the Israel-Hamas conflict that has raged for three months.
The king met Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was winding up a mission in the region after urging Israel to limit civilian casualties.
Iran’s Khamenei calls for vigilance and readiness after US warnings
Sinan Mahmoud reports from Iraq:
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the “Resistance Front” on Wednesday to stay vigilant and to continue their attacks amid fears of Gaza war escalation.
Mr Khamenei’s statement came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it had been made clear to Iran that support to the Houthis in Yemen, who have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, must end.
“Let the ‘Resistance Front’ on alert while facing the usurpation and arrogance,” Mr Khamenei said on the X social media platform.
Blinken meets Bahrain’s King Hamad
Willy Lowry reports from Washington:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met Bahrain’s King Hamad as he enters the end of a week-long trip to the Middle East.
Mr Blinken and the King Hamad discussed the “reckless and dangerous Houthi attacks” that have threatened commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the US State Department said.
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a barrage of missiles and drones at shipping routes on Tuesday evening, which were intercepted by the US Navy.
Earlier on Wednesday Mr Blinken warned Iran and the Houthis that there would be “consequences” if the attacks continued.
UN ‘very concerned’ over attacks on Red Sea trade
The UN raised the alarm on Wednesday over increasing attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, blamed by western countries on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and the risk of escalation in the region.
The intensifying attacks have caused shipping companies to bypass the route and divert around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, significantly adding to journey times and cost.
“We continue to be very concerned about the situation in the Red Sea, not only because of the situation itself, and the risks that it causes to global trade and to the environment and to lives, but also the risk of the escalation of the broader conflict in the Middle East,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
The UN Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution later on Wednesday demanding the Houthis stop attacking maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
The resolution “condemns in the strongest terms the at least two dozen Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels since November 19, 2023, when the Houthis attacked and seized the Galaxy Leader and its crew,” according to the draft text.
– AFP
Army chief says no Lebanese village is beyond Israel’s reach
Israel’s army chief on Wednesday said his troops could destroy any village in Lebanon, increasing the threats against the Hezbollah militant group across the border.
The Israeli military has been exchanging fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is a key ally of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, almost every day since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7.
Israel’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi told soldiers in Gaza their actions in the besieged Palestinian territory had convinced him that they could take the fight into Lebanese territory if needed.
“We’ve fought in Gaza, so we know how to do it in Lebanon if we have to,” Mr Halevi said, according to a statement from the Israeli army.
“After what you did [in Gaza], there is not a village in Lebanon that you cannot enter and destroy.”
– AFP
Mayor says Israeli strike killed civilian in south Lebanon
An Israeli strike killed a civilian in a border town in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, a local official said.
Kfar Kila Mayor Hasan Sheyyet said a resident “was killed during an Israeli artillery strike while he was in his garden”, adding he was “a civilian with no party affiliation”.
The official National News Agency identified the man as Hasan Ali Tawil and said he was killed when “an Israeli artillery shell fell near his house in Kfar Kila”.
Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, there has been a near-daily exchange of fire at the Lebanese-Israeli border, between Israel’s army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally.
– AFP
Senior Israeli politician repeats call to destroy large parts of Gaza
A deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament has increased calls to destroy large parts of Gaza — comments that were quoted in South Africa’s complaint to the world court that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.
The International Court of Justice will start hearing the case on Thursday.
South Africa has submitted an 84-page document in which it says that Israel’s actions, including killing Palestinians and causing serious mental and bodily harm, “are genocidal in character”.
It says that Israeli officials have expressed genocidal intent. Israel has vehemently denied the claims.
“I said to burn the terrorists. I don’t think this is inappropriate and I stand behind my words,” Nissim Vaturi, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, told an ultra-Orthodox radio station on Tuesday.
Mr Vaturi said that after the Israeli military called for the evacuation of more than a million Palestinians from northern Gaza, those who remained should be assumed to be involved in fighting and “should be eliminated”.
The UN said its shelters in the northern part of the territory house about 160,000 people, including many women and children.
Other civilians have sought refuge in homes and hospitals.
The hardline politician said he was banned from X, formerly Twitter, in November for posting “Burn Gaza and no less!”
– AP
UN health agency appeals for permission to deliver aid to Gaza
World Health Organisation director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is appealing to Israel’s government to approve its requests and those by its partners to deliver humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.
Dr Tedros said the UN health agency has been forced to cancel six planned missions to the northern parts of the enclave since December 26 because requests for access were rejected.
They included one planned for Wednesday.
“The barrier to delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza is not the capabilities of the UN, WHO or our partners,” Dr Tedros said at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
“The barrier is access. We call on Israel to approve requests by WHO and other partners to deliver humanitarian aid.”
He said the situation was “indescribable” and that nearly 90 per cent of Gaza’s population had been displaced from their homes.
– AP
