Here’s how things stand on Tuesday, January 2, 2024:
Latest updates
- Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi has said that Israel will not boycott the International Court of Justice case launched by South Africa.
- The Israeli Supreme Court has struck down a highly disputed law passed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in July, designed to roll back the power of the country’s high court.
- Authorities in Gaza have issued a list of 127 Egyptian and Omani nationals who can travel through the Rafah crossing with Egypt today at 7am local time (05:00 GMT).
- The Gaza health ministry has published a list of 19 people who have been approved for medical evacuation from Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt today. These include children and patients with severe illnesses, including cancer.
- UN agency OCHA reported the first case of the demolition of Palestinian property in 2024, in al-Maniya in Bethlehem. In 2023, 1,119 structures were demolished in the West Bank.
Demolitions reported today, 1 January 2024, in Al Maniya, #Bethlehem, #WestBank, occupied #Palestinian territory.
2023 ended with 1,119 structures demolished and 2,210 people displaced, as a result, in the #WestBank.
All statistics here: https://t.co/hG9VUlAUXf pic.twitter.com/Q3Wx3ptphN
— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) January 1, 2024
- The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has denied an Israeli news report claiming that Blair would take the lead in resettling refugees from Gaza in Arab and other countries.
- “No such discussion has taken place. Nor would Tony Blair have such a discussion, the idea is wrong in principle. Gazans should be able to stay and live in Gaza,” the institute wrote on X.
The Channel 12 report in Israel linking Tony Blair to a discussion about a ‘role’ in the ‘voluntary resettlement of Gazans’ in Arab and other countries is a lie. The story was published without any contact with Tony Blair or his team. No such discussion has taken place. Nor would… https://t.co/DEHRykbb0w
— Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (@InstituteGC) January 1, 2024
Human impact and fighting
- Abdul Rahman al-Bahsh, 23, who was in prison since May 2022, has been announced dead by the Israeli prison service, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reported, from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
- He is the seventh prisoner to die in an Israeli jail since the outbreak of violence on October 7.
- Israeli air strikes have reportedly hit several neighbourhoods in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
- The Israeli army is reportedly shelling the Maghazi refugee camp and the Rafah coastline.
- On Monday, at least 21 people were killed and dozens were injured as a result of the bombardment in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
- At least 15 of these deaths were in the Magazhi refugee camp. Six people were killed in Jabalia’s Bir al-Naja area, added Wafa.
- The Syrian state news agency (SANA) has reported that Israel carried out air strikes early on Tuesday morning, causing some material damage along the outskirts of Damascus city.
- Wafa also reported that the Jerusalem Governorate published an annual report, detailing violations against the residents of Jerusalem by the Israeli government and military.
- According to the report, in 2023, 51 residents were killed and about 3,081 were arrested. The report said 55,158 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque “with heavy protection from heavily armed special occupation forces”.
Raids in the West Bank
- The Israeli military has prevented ambulances and medical personnel from reaching a Palestinian man wounded during a raid in the city of Qalqilya, Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut reports.
- Medical personnel were reportedly shot at while they tried to reach the injured Palestinian in Qalqilya, where clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers broke out during the raid.
- Wafa reports that on Monday evening, the Israeli forces seized a house and turned its roof into an observational point in Bethlehem’s town of al-Khader.
