Here’s how things stand on Thursday, January 4, 2024:
Latest updates and human impact:
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has confirmed that it will hold public hearings at The Hague on January 11 and 12 regarding South Africa’s case against Israel.
- Rafah municipality head Ahmed al-Soufi told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that the number of displaced people who arrived in Rafah in the southernmost part of Gaza is about one million, since the war broke out on October 7. The usual population of Rafah is about 300,000.
- As fire exchanges continue between Israel’s northern border and Lebanon’s southern border, the Israeli army says that it will continue its attack on Lebanese territory as it sees fit, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported from occupied East Jerusalem.
- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his heavily armed forces would fight to the finish if Israel chose to extend the war to Lebanon.
- The latest Israeli strikes killed four men who were reportedly Hezbollah members in the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura.
- Fourteen members of one family — the Salah family — were killed overnight in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
- Israeli strikes continue in the vicinity of al-Amal hospital, the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
- Israeli aerial and ground attacks have recently targeted the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
Diplomacy and aid delivery:
- Senior US Education Department policy adviser Tariq Habash resigned in protest of President Joe Biden’s approach to the war. “The President must call for a permanent ceasefire,” he wrote in an X post on Wednesday.
- Humanitarian agencies have been unable to deliver aid to the north of the Gaza Strip for the past three days, United Nations agency OCHA reported on Wednesday. OCHA added that active conflict coupled with access delays was the reason for this, but did not state who was responsible.
- The Dutch foreign ministry called recent remarks by Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir regarding Palestinian resettlement from Gaza as “irresponsible”, in a post on X on Wednesday.
- The Netherlands, Germany, France and Saudi Arabia have also condemned Israel’s calls for the forced migration of Palestinians.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set for another visit to the Middle East, his fourth since the war broke out in Gaza. He intends to make a stop in Israel.
Raids in the West Bank:
- A raid that started in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem has entered its second day, Al Jazeera’s Salhut reported. Residents are saying that a massive number of Palestinians have been arrested, but the number has not been confirmed yet.
- In Nur Shams, armoured bulldozers have destroyed infrastructure and people’s homes have been ransacked, reported Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan from East Jerusalem.
- Water lines, store fronts, commercial establishments and homes were destroyed.
- Another raid is taking place in Tubas, on the northeastern side of the occupied West Bank. Salhut has reported that a Palestinian has died in gunfights there.
- Several other raids are happening in Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem.
- A young Palestinian man was detained on Wednesday night after being shot in the foot in Qalqilya, Wafa reported.
