Here’s how things stand on Sunday, February 4, 2024:
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
- At least 92 people were killed overnight in the besieged strip’s southern city of Rafah, where displaced Palestinians have been sheltering, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
- At least two children were killed in the attack as Israeli forces hit a kindergarten, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
- Concerns over a potential Israeli ground incursion into Rafah have mounted in recent days, with hundreds of thousands of displaced seeking refuge from the fighting there in makeshift shelters and encampments.
- A strike on a fuel tank near the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis killed one person and damaged hospital buildings, Wafa reported.
- Israeli soldiers continue to film themselves committing crimes even after an ICJ ruling ordering Israel to take action to prevent genocide in Gaza, the Bisan Research and Development Center said.
- Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he wants to see allegations that staff from the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks “fully examined”, but people in Gaza should not be left “literally starving”.
- Since October 7, at least 27,238 people have been killed and 66,452 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza. The revised death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- The United States and the United Kingdom have issued a joint statement saying their militaries – with support from allies including Australia, Bahrain and Canada – hit 36 Houthi targets in 13 locations across Yemen.
- Separate from its air strikes on Yemen, the US military says it shot down six Houthi antiship missiles as they were preparing to launch against vessels in the Red Sea.
- The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to address the US’s recent air strikes on Iraq and Syria.
- Iran says the US attacks inside Iraq and Syria are a “strategic error” that will only add to tensions and instability in the Middle East.
- On negotiations for the release of captives and a ceasefire in Gaza, a top Hamas official in Lebanon said the Palestinian group needed more time to “announce our position” on a proposed framework.
Occupied West Bank
- Israeli forces continue with their nearly daily raids across the occupied West Bank.
- Overnight, Israeli soldiers stormed Beita in the south of Nablus, Arrabeh in the south of Jenin, the Shu’fat refugee camp in northern Jerusalem, and Qaffin in the north of Tulkarem.
