Live Updates: Gaza death toll from Israeli attacks jumps to 24,448

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

10:20 GMT - Gaza death toll from Israeli attacks jumps to 24,448

The Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza since October has surged to 24,448, the Health Ministry in the blockaded enclave has said.

The ministry in a statement said 61,504 others were also injured, adding that Israeli forces committed 16 massacres across the coastal territory in the last 24 hours, leaving 163 people killed and 350 others wounded.

“Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads and rescuers can’t reach them,” the ministry said.

09:15 GMT - Four Palestinians killed in Israeli shelling in occupied West Bank camp

Four Palestinians were killed in Israeli shelling in Tulkarm camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent has said in a statement.

08:35 GMT - Hamas slams Germany over possible move to provide Israel with tank ammo

The Palestinian group Hamas has criticised Germany for reportedly considering sending thousands of tank shells to the Israeli army.

In a statement, Hamas said the delivery of this ammunition would turn Germany into a “direct partner in the war on our (Palestinian) people in Gaza."

"It seems Germany is reproducing its history full of sins against humanity, it is undeterred from the lessons of the recent past," the statement added.

On Tuesday, the German Der Speigel newspaper reported that Germany is considering the delivery of nearly 10,000 rounds of 120mm precision tank ammunition for the Israeli army.

07:55 GMT - Qatar and France send medicine for hostages in Gaza

A shipment of medicine for dozens of hostages has been en route to Gaza after France and Qatar mediated the first agreement between Israel and Hamas since a weeklong cease-fire broke down in November.

The medicines will be shipped through Egypt and delivered to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will then hand them over to Hamas.

Qatar said the deal also includes the delivery of additional medicine and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave.

07:20 GMT - Israeli police break up rally in Tel Aviv protesting war on Gaza

Israeli police have broken up a rally in Tel Aviv protesting the ongoing war on Gaza, according to Israeli media.

Haaretz daily reported that the police aggressively dispersed the rally under the claim that it "harms the feelings of the public."

Claiming the small gathering was "illegal," police officers were seen confiscating a banner saying "Stop the Massacre" in Gaza.

The Walla news website also reported that the Israeli police preemptively blocked an anti-war rally in Haifa, northern Israel that was set for Saturday.

07:00 GMT - Israeli strike kills three Palestinians near Balata refugee camp

At least three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli drone strike on a car near the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said that it was able to reach the site after the Israeli forces withdrew from the area and recovered the body of a youth.

“Israeli forces reportedly hold the bodies of other young men along with the vehicle before withdrawing from the area,” the news agency said.

06:20 GMT - Israeli attacks kill 13 Palestinians in Khan Younis

At least 13 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a report has said.

Dozens of Palestinians were also injured in air and land attacks, said the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Israeli jets also targeted Palestinian homes west of Khan Younis with air strikes and artillery fire, it added.

05:47 GMT - Preventing new forced displacement is 'absolute priority': Borrell

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said the absolute priority now is to prevent a "new de facto forced displacement" out of Gaza.

Noting that over 80 percent of the population has already been displaced within the besieged enclave, Borrell said "in humanitarian terms, the situation is horrific" in an op-ed published Monday in the French daily Le Monde.

"Now the absolute priority is to prevent a new de facto forced displacement out of Gaza, which is legally forbidden and morally unacceptable," he said.

05:00 GMT - US Senate rejects measure to force human rights report on Israel

The US Senate has rejected a resolution that would have forced the State Department to produce a report within 30 days examining whether Israel committed human rights violations in its invasion of Gaza.

As voting continued, 54 senators voted to set the resolution aside, thus meaning it cannot move ahead in the 100-member Senate.

The vote was forced by Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. While the measure was handily defeated, it reflected growing concern among some of President Joe Biden's fellow Democrats, especially on the left, over the supply of US weapons to Israel despite the war's steep toll on Palestinian civilians.

04:33 GMT - Palestinian envoy says there is no way ICJ would rule in favour of Israel

The Palestinian ambassador to Britain has said "there is no way" that the International Court of Justice [ICJ] would rule in favour of Israel, and for the first time in history, the "genocide" has been recorded and transmitted live by the people who were executed.

Husam Zomlot's remarks came during a news conference in London on the ongoing Israeli attacks and genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel before the ICJ in the Hague in the Netherlands.

Touching on the Israeli attacks, Zomlot said the destruction of Gaza is a "deliberate genocide and ethnic cleansing...deliberate in its intent and execution."

03:30 GMT - Israel confirms Gaza aid deal as concerns grow of widening war

Israel has pummelled Gaza and confirmed reaching a deal with Hamas resistance group to deliver medicines to captives and desperately needed aid to civilians in the war-torn Palestinian territory following Qatari mediation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed the deal and said: "The medicines will be forwarded by Qatari representatives in the Gaza Strip to their final destination."

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza since a cross-fence attack by Hamas on October 7 which Tel Aviv says killed more than 1,100 people.

02:56 GMT - Jordan says economy hit by Israel's war on Gaza

Jordan's Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh has said the Gaza war's negative impact on the country's aid-dependent economy had put the brakes on a promising performance last year that had seen a surge in tourism revenues and higher growth.

"Last year (2023) before October 7 economically was an extremely, extremely promising year," Khasawneh said.

Khasawneh said disruptions to Red Sea shipping on the main East-West route caused by Houthi attacks was the latest hit alongside the plunge in tourism that had prior to the October 7 blitz by Hamas on Israel seen a boom that outstripped levels nearly five years ago

02:46 GMT - France's Macron says 'priority is ceasefire' in besieged Gaza

French president has said that a ceasefire in besieged Gaza is "a priority."

"All lives matter," the president reiterated, but blamed the Palestinian resistance group Hamas for the current situation in the region.

He recalled that France has delivered humanitarian aid to those in need in Gaza but stressed that the "priority is a ceasefire."

"France is attached to peace and stability in Lebanon," the president said.

02:30 GMT - US to relist Yemen's Houthis as specially designated global terrorists: reports

The Biden administration is expected to soon announce plans to redesignate Iran-allied Houthi group in Yemen as specially designated global terrorists, AP and Reuters news agencies reported.

The decision comes as the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The group says it has attacked Israel-linked or Israel-bound ships in response to Israel's harsh siege and brutal invasion of Gaza.

The administration is expected to make the announcement on Wednesday, a US official said.

02:15 GMT - Bernie Sanders forces US senators into test vote on military aid to Israel

In a notable test, Senator Bernie Sanders is forcing colleagues to vote on record whether to investigate human rights abuses in Israel's brutal war on besieged Gaza, a step toward potentially limiting US military aid to Israel.

The Senate vote, a first of its kind tapping into a decades-old law, would require the US State Department to, within 30 days, produce a report on whether Israel's war in Gaza is violating human rights and international accords. If so, US military aid to Israel, long assured without question, could be quickly halted.

While the Senate is unlikely to approve the measure, the vote by senators will begin to reveal the depth of unease among US lawmakers over Israel's prosecution of the war.

For our live updates from Tuesday, January 16, click here.