Live Updates: Israel dropped 65,000 tonnes of bombs in 'genocidal war' on Gaza

Thursday, January 4, 2024

05:50 GMT - Israel dropped more than 65,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza

Israeli army has bombarded besieged Gaza with more than 45,000 missiles and bombs that weighed more than 65,000 tonnes, the Gaza Media Office has said.

"Occupation aircraft dropped over 45,000 missiles and giant bombs, some of them weighing two thousand pounds of explosives, during the comprehensive genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, deliberately targeting entire residential areas," it said.

"The weight of the explosives dropped by the army on the Gaza Strip exceeded 65,000 tonnes, which is more than the weight and power of three nuclear bombs like those dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima."

05:20 GMT - Second Biden admin official resigns over US support for Israel

A senior official in the US Education Department has stepped down, citing President Joe Biden's handling of Israel's brutal war in besieged Gaza, the latest sign of dissent in the administration.

Tariq Habash, special assistant in the Education Department's Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, said: "I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government."

"I cannot be quietly complicit as this administration fails to leverage its influence as Israel’s strongest ally to halt the abusive and ongoing collective punishment tactics that have cut off Palestinians in Gaza from food, water, electricity, fuel, and medical supplies, leading to widespread disease and starvation," said Habash.

04:40 GMT - Biden re-election campaign staffers warn Biden could lose votes

About Seventeen Biden re-election campaign staffers have issued a warning in an anonymous letter that Biden could lose voters over his handling of Israel's war on besieged Gaza, urging him to call for a ceasefire.

"Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict," the staffers wrote in the letter.

04:14 GMT - Netherlands slams Israeli ministers' call for Palestinian ethnic cleansing

The Netherlands has said that Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's calls for the expulsion of Palestinians from besieged Gaza are "irresponsible."

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Amsterdam supports a two-state solution.

"The Netherlands rejects any calls for Palestinian displacement from Gaza or reduction of Palestinian territory," it said.

03:40 GMT — Slovenia rejects expulsion of Palestinians outside Gaza

Slovenia has rejected the idea of the Israeli government's suggestion of mass displacement of Palestinians from besieged Gaza, according to the Foreign Ministry.

"Slovenia rejects the recent statements of members of the Israeli government who proposed mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaze," it said in a statement on social media.

"We once again call for respect for international law and international humanitarian law and the protection of the civilian population in Gaza," said the statement.

03:00 GMT - Intense shelling targets vicinity of Al Amal Hospital

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said that Israeli artillery vehicles are shelling the vicinity of the Al Amal Hospital, which is affiliated with the humanitarian organisation, in Khan Younis in the southern besieged Gaza.

"The intense artillery targeting is escalating around Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis," it said in a statement.

It clarified that shelling is at a distance of less than "a hundred meters" from the hospital.

02:23 GMT - Iran blames Israel, US for Kerman carnage as Gaza endures siege

Iran has blamed Israel and the US for twin bomb blasts that killed at least 103 Iranians in the country's south, ripping through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guard general Qasem Soleimani four years after his killing in a US strike.

"Washington says USA and Israel had no role in the terrorist attack in Kerman, Iran. Really? A fox smells its own lair first," the Iranian president's political deputy, Mohammad Jamshidi, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"Make no mistake. The responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist regimes [Israel], and terrorism is just a tool," he added.

02:12 GMT - About 1 million displaced Palestinians enter Rafah since October 7

A Palestinian official in besieged Gaza has told Anadolu Agency that the number of displaced people who arrived in Rafah in the southernmost part of the enclave is about one million since the beginning of Israeli war's on Gaza.

"The total number of people present in the city of Rafah at the moment is not less than 1.3 million, with the city's population being around 300,000," said Ahmed al Soufi, the head of Rafah municipality.

He said the number in shelters belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, is about 713,000, including those displaced outside the premises of the centres but registered with the UN agency.

02:05 GMT - Saleh Arouri's family says his 'assassination will not deter our people from their struggle'

Dalal Arouri, the sister of assassinated Hamas deputy chief Saleh al Arouri, has said that the Israeli assassination of his brother in Lebanon "will not deter our people from their struggle, and it will not break the resistance."

"In 2002, Israel committed crimes in the Jenin refugee camp, and a stronger generation emerged. What about the current generation who witnesses this war? New leaders will emerge," she said during an interview with Anadolu Agency at Arouri's house in northwest Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

"We thank God; his martyrdom is a pride for Palestine, and his blood, like that of the other martyrs, is not more precious than the blood of the people of Gaza," she added.

02:00 GMT - Palestinian man speaks of torture by Israeli troops

Abu Muhammed has revealed to Anadolu Agency the torture he endured during his nine days in captivity in the besieged Gaza under invasion by Israeli forces.

Muhammed, detained in a raid in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, said that Israeli soldiers instructed residents to come out. Residents were forced to undress and walk naked, he said.

Their homes were burned in a line-up, causing "immense sorrow."

Muhammed, along with others, recounted being taken to a market and being forced to kneel in the cold for about "five hours" before being transferred to the Zikim area near Israel.

For our live updates from Wednesday, January 3, click here.