Israel has negotiated an arrangement with Qatar that will allow for the delivery of medications to hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza "in the next few days", the Israeli prime minister's office said Friday. Israel earlier mounted its defence against South Africa's accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
This blog is no longer being updated. Click here for more on the Israel-Hamas war.
Summary:
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Israel made an arrangement with Qatar that will allow the delivery of medications to hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza, a statement from the Israeli prime minister's office said on Friday.
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Accused by South Africa of committing genocide against Palestinians, Israel insisted at the International Court of Justice that its war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide.
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Yemen’s Houthi rebels vowed fierce retaliation for US and UK strikes against them, further raising the prospect of a wider conflict in a region already beset by Israel's war in Gaza.
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Gaza's entire 2.3 million population is in a food crisis, with 576,000 people at catastrophic or starvation levels, according to a UN World Food Programme report issued at the end of December.
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Israeli officials say 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel, among them 695 Israeli civilians including 36 children. Militant fighters took some 240 hostages during the attack, and 136 are still in Gaza, Israeli foreign ministry adviser Tal Becker said on January 12.
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At least 23,469 people have been killed and 59,604 wounded in Israel's ensuing assault on the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
Yesterday's key developments:
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An Israeli strike killed two Hezbollah-affiliated medics in south Lebanon in what the Lebanese group called a "blatant attack" on a first-aid clinic.
- US special envoy Amos Hochstein said he was hopeful diplomacy could calm tensions on the disputed border between Lebanon and Israel, where the Israeli military and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for three months.
- Iran's navy seized an oil tanker on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman that once was at the heart of a major crisis between Tehran and Washington, said officials, a move that further escalates tensions in the Mideast waterways.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
