Summary of the day
It is 5.18pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv and 6.18pm in Sana’a. Here are the latest developments from today:
Rafah is a “pressure cooker of despair”, said the UN humanitarian office, as Palestinians flee south today. It said hostilities in Khan Younis had forced more people to flee to Rafah in the south of Gaza. “Thousands of Palestinians have continued to flee to the south, which is already hosting over half the population of about 2.3 million people … Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair, and we fear for what comes next,” said Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN agency.
Israeli forces will continue their Gaza military campaign to Rafah, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant has said, despite the huge numbers of Palestinian civilians there.
Israel and Hamas appear to be inching closer towards a deal for a ceasefire and a release of some of the hostages still being held by the militant group in Gaza. Qatar, which has been mediating between Israel and Hamas, indicated that the militant group had given its initial support for a deal after weeks of delicate and secretive negotiations. However, while an aide to Hamas’s political leader said the group had received details of the proposed deal, it had yet to deliver a reply.
Fighting in Gaza raged on Friday with scores of people reportedly killed overnight. The Hamas press office reported Israeli air and artillery bombardment around Khan Younis – southern Gaza’s main city and the focus of recent fighting. AFP said that Israeli aircraft had again dropped leaflets calling on civilians to leave the area around al-Shifa hospital’s compound.
Nearly four months of fighting has left Gaza “uninhabitable”, the UN said, while the Israeli siege had resulted in dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicines.
UNRWA said vital supplies of fuel and bread flour for Gaza risked running dry, while schools, clinics and rubbish collections in the West Bank and three countries across the Middle East could cease operating by the end of the month if funding cuts for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were not restored.
A Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) employee was killed due to Israeli gunfire towards the organisation’s building in Khan Younis. Hidaya Hamad, who was the director of the youth and volunteers department in Gaza for the PRCS, was at the organisation’s headquarters when she was killed.
More than 1 million children in Gaza are in need of mental health support, says Unicef. Jonathan Crickx, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef in the Palestinian territories told a media briefing in Geneva, via video link from Jerusalem on Friday: “Children don’t have anything to do with this conflict. Yet they are suffering like no child should ever suffer.”
At least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been left unaccompanied or separated, according to estimates from the UN. Crickx called for a ceasefire so that Unicef could conduct a proper count of children who are unaccompanied or separated, trace relatives, and deliver mental health support.
The UK could officially recognise a Palestinian state after a ceasefire in Gaza without waiting for the outcome of what could be years of talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a two-state solution, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said. Speaking during a visit on Thursday to Lebanon intended to tamp down regional tensions, the foreign secretary said no recognition could come while Hamas remained in Gaza, but that it could take place while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were continuing.
Catherine Russell, Unicef’s executive director, has said that “the situation for children in Gaza grows bleaker every day”. In a post on X, Russell said: “The world cannot abandon them.”
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 112 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 148 were injured in the past 24 hours.
Belgium’s ministry of foreign affairs has summoned the Israeli ambassador to Belgium and strongly condemned the bombing of the Belgian development agency Enable. Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, the Israeli ambassador to Belgium, said: “Israel has been notified by the Belgian MFA on this incident yesterday at 22.00 [23.00 Israeli time]. We are currently investigating the circumstances around the alleged incident and will update the authorities once we receive more information.”
President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran said in a televised speech: “We will not start any war, but if anyone wants to bully us they will receive a strong response.”
Israeli security forces continued to limit the number of people able to worship at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for Friday prayers. It is the 17th consecutive week that restrictions on worship have been imposed.
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser in Damascus has allegedly been killed in an Israeli missile attack that targeted a southern district of the Syrian capital, according to semi-official Iranian news sites, reported Al Jazeera. The news organisation said Iranian news sites had identified the adviser as Saeid Alidadi without sharing his rank.
The towns of Tayr Harfa and the outskirts of Wadi Hassan and Majdel Zoun in Lebanon were targeted by Israeli aerial and artillery strikes, reported Al Jazeera citing Lebanon’s NNA news agency. It added that Israeli warplanes also targeted the outskirts of the southern towns of Marwahin, Zibqin, and Jabal Balat.
The Syrian military says it downed a number of Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights that it said were targeting south Damascus on Friday, state news agency Sana reported citing a military source.
Attacks against US forces will continue, said Iraq’s armed group al-Nujaba. The Iran-backed Iraqi armed group said on Friday it will continue launching attacks on US forces until they withdraw from Iraq and the Gaza war ends. “Any [US] strike will result in an appropriate response,” al-Nujaba’s leader, Akram al-Kaabi, said in a statement.
A US federal court has dismissed a case accusing President Joe Biden and other senior US officials of being complicit in Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza, reports Al Jazeera. Despite the dismissal, the court’s decision urged Biden and his colleagues to examine “the results of their unflagging support” for Israel, including its human rights implications, says the Qatar-funded media organisation.
Turkish police arrested seven people on Friday on suspicion of selling information to the Israeli intelligence service the Mossad, reports Associated Press, citing the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Joe and Jill Biden will join families at Dover air force base in Delaware on Friday to honour three US service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan. The deaths were the first US fatalities blamed on Iran-backed militia groups in the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began. Biden vowed on Thursday to never forget their sacrifice to the nation and said they “risked it all”.
Large crowds of Houthi supporters took to the streets in Sana’a, Yemen on Friday to protest against US-led strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen and to show support to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Saudi Arabia would be willing to accept a political commitment from Israel to create a Palestinian state, rather than anything more binding, in a bid to get a defence pact with Washington approved before the US presidential election, three sources have told Reuters.
Half of US adults believe Israel’s war in Gaza has “gone too far”, a finding driven mainly by growing disapproval among Republicans and political independents, according to a poll by the Associated Press (AP) and the Norc centre for public affairs research.
Sweden’s intelligence service said on Friday that the investigation into a foiled attack on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm this week was being treated as a potential terrorist crime.
A far-right Israeli minister has been disinvited from a German-Israeli conference due to be opened by the German justice minister, Marco Buschmann, Germany’s Taz newspaper has reported.
Israel has accused the Australian government of forgetting “Hamas’s culpability” for the war in Gaza, in a sign of growing tensions as ministers consider reinstating funding to UNRWA.
Turkish authorities have formally arrested 25 suspects in connection with the shooting of a man during a service at a church in Istanbul last weekend, justice minister Yılmaz Tunç said on Friday.
Several members of the Palestinian-American community have refused to meet the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, in Washington, the Huffington Post has reported.
The latest pro-Palestine march of hundreds of thousands of protesters through central London will end with a rally near Downing Street after a climbdown from the Metropolitan police. After a meeting on Thursday afternoon, organisers of the march said they had been given permission for the end stage of Saturday’s demonstration to take place on Whitehall.
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Thousands of Houthi supporters took to the streets in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital city, on Friday to protest against US-led strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen and to show support to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Here are a couple of images from the news wires:
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The towns of Tayr Harfa and the outskirts of Wadi Hassan and Majdel Zoun in Lebanon have been targeted by Israeli aerial and artillery strikes, reports Al Jazeera citing Lebanon’s NNA news agency.
It adds that Israeli warplanes also targeted the outskirts of the southern towns of Marwahin, Zibqin, and Jabal Balat.
Al Jazeera also cited a Times of Israel report that said sirens had sounded in four towns close to the Lebanon border: Kiryat Shmona, Tel Hai, Kfar Yuval and Ma’ayan Baruch. It added that the sirens were warnings of two waves of incoming rocket fire.
The news organisations said the communities have been largely evacuated of civilians since 8 October, when Lebanon’s Hezbollah group and the Israeli military began trading fire.
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More than 1 million children in Gaza in need of mental health support, says Unicef
Jonathan Crickx, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef in the Palestinian territories also said the mental health of children in Gaza was being severely affected by the war. Crickx was speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, via video link from Jerusalem on Friday, reports AFP, during which he also spoke about the number of children in Gaza separated from their parents.
“They present symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite, they can’t sleep, they have emotional outbursts or panic every time they hear the bombings,” he said.
Before the conflict erupted, Unicef estimated that more than 500,000 children in the Gaza Strip needed mental health and psycho-social support. Now it believes that “almost all children are in need” of such help – more than one million children, said Crickx.
“Children don’t have anything to do with this conflict. Yet they are suffering like no child should ever suffer,” said Crickx. “No child should ever be exposed to the level of violence seen on 7 October – or to the level of violence that we have witnessed since then.”
He called for a ceasefire so that Unicef could conduct a proper count of children who are unaccompanied or separated, trace relatives, and deliver mental health support.
UN estimates at least 17,000 Gaza children separated from parents
At least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been left unaccompanied or separated, according to estimates from the UN.
“Each one has a heartbreaking story of loss and grief,” said Jonathan Crickx, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef in the Palestinian territories. Each one “is a child who is coming to terms with a horrible new reality”.
“This figure corresponds to 1% of the overall displaced population – 1.7 million people,” he told a media briefing in Geneva, via video link from Jerusalem on Friday, reports AFP.
Crickx said that tracing who the children were was proving “extremely difficult”, as sometimes they were brought to a hospital and “they simply can’t even say their names” due to shock or being injured. He said that during conflicts, it was common for extended families to take care of children who lost their parents.
However, in Gaza, “due to the sheer lack of food, water or shelter, extended families are themselves distressed and face challenges to immediately take care of another child as they themselves are struggling to cater for their own children and family”, said Crickx.
Broadly, Unicef terms separated children as those who are without their parents, while unaccompanied children are those who are separated and also without other relatives.
Palestinian Red Crescent Society employee killed by Israeli gunfire in Khan Younis, says organisation
A female Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) employee has been killed due to Israeli gunfire towards the organisation’s building in Khan Younis, says the humanitarian organisation.
According to Al Jazeera, the Palestinian news agency Wafa had earlier reported that three civilians were killed and three others injured on Friday, including a PRCS employee. The death of the PRCS employee, Hidaya Hamad, has now been confirmed by the organisation.
Our colleague Hidaya Hamad, the Director of the Youth and Volunteers Department in Gaza, was killed due to the occupation's gunfire while she was present at the PRCS's headquarters in #KhanYunis.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 2, 2024
RIP Hidaya 🙏#NotATarget ❌ #Gaza #IHL pic.twitter.com/menGali3zC
In a post on X, the PRCS said Hamad, who was the director of the youth and volunteers department in Gaza, had been at the organisation’s headquarters in Khan Younis when she was killed.
Al Jazeera said that the PRCS had reported that Israeli snipers continued to fire at the building, which shelters thousands of displaced individuals. PRCS said its teams are unable to transfer the wounded to the nearby al-Amal hospital due to the ongoing gunfire.
🚨Urgent:A number of displaced individuals at the PRCS building were killed and others wounded as a result of the Israeli snipers opening fire towards the PRCS building in #KhanYunis.#NotATarget ❌ #IHL #Gaza
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 2, 2024
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US president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will join families at Dover air force base in Delaware on Friday to honour three US service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan, reports AP.
The deaths were the first US fatalities blamed on Iran-backed militia groups in the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began. Biden vowed on Thursday to never forget their sacrifice to the nation and said they “risked it all”.
Defence secretary Lloyd Austin and CQ Brown, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, will join the Bidens for the transfer in Dover, where such events take place when US service members are killed in action. They will also meet with the families privately ahead of the dignified transfer.
The service members killed Sunday were all from Georgia – Sgt William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt Kennedy Sanders of Waycross and Sgt Breonna Moffett of Savannah. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted to sergeant rank.
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Israel and Hamas appear to be inching closer towards a deal for a ceasefire and a release of some of the hostages still being held by the militant group in Gaza, while the UN children’s agency has warned that 17,000 children have been left without families or been separated from them by the conflict.
Qatar, which has been mediating between Israel and Hamas, indicated that the militant group had given its initial support for a deal after weeks of delicate and secretive negotiations.
However, while an aide to Hamas’s political leader said the group had received details of the proposed deal, it had yet to deliver a reply.
A Qatari official later clarified to Reuters that there was “no deal yet” and that although “Hamas has received the proposal positively”, Qatar was “waiting for their response”.
Taher al-Nono, an adviser to the Qatar-based Hamas politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh, said: “We cannot say the current stage of negotiation is zero and at the same time we cannot say that we have reached an agreement.”
Haniyeh was expected to travel to Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on the issue of a ceasefire.
Read more of Peter Beaumont’s report here: Israel and Hamas closer to ceasefire deal amid warning over Gaza children.
Vital supplies of fuel and bread flour for Gaza risk running dry, while schools, clinics and even rubbish collections in the West Bank and three countries across the Middle East could cease operating by the end of the month if funding cuts for UNRWA are not restored, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees has warned.
In Gaza, where the UN has warned of an imminent famine affecting 2 million people, UNRWA delivers flour to make bread, and fuel for desalination plants, and runs networks of warehouses and lorries for aid. UNWRA-run schools have transformed into shelters housing tens of thousands of people.
UNRWA also runs hundreds of schools in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. If the agency completely stops operating, these schools would close, leaving an estimated 500,000 children without education.
Other aid agencies in Gaza that are dependent on UNRWA for coordinating aid supplies would struggle to cope if it stopped functioning.
“They all rely in one way or another on UNRWA,” said Juliette Touma, head of communications for UNRWA. “For example, Unicef brings in children’s vaccines, but the people who administer them, who put the jab in kids’ arms, are UNRWA nurses.”
Twelve donor states suspended funding after accusations that 12 of its staff took part in the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel. The agency currently estimates that the donor suspensions have cost it at least $440m.
Read more of Ruth Michaelson’s report here: Warning aid to Gaza and beyond at risk of collapse due to UNRWA funding cuts
This diagram shows the extent of damage inflicted on the Gaza Strip by Israeli military forces between 7 October and 29 January.
Images from today show that the bombardment of the Gaza Strip continues.
Reuters has spoken to displaced Palestinians in Rafah about their struggles to communicate with loved ones due to the unreliable communications in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its military campaign.
Gaza’s phone network, run by local provider Paltel, has reported more than ten total collapses in service provision since 7 October which it has attributed to Israel’s offensive. Even when its network has been partly working, it has said, it has struggled to maintain service in many areas because of the fighting.
Ahmed Abu Daka had walked a long way from his tent in Rafah to a rise where an Egyptian network connection was reachable.
“The internet is really weak. Sometimes you wait hours to send only one message,” he said.
“I wait for a long time, sometimes an hour, waiting for a message from family and relatives trapped in Nasser hospital, to be reassured about them. We wait for hours to be reassured about them, check on them and know about the danger surrounding them,” he said.
Mariam Odeh said she had been separated from parts of her family who stayed in Khan Younis.
“We want to communicate with our relatives, reassure them and tell them we are still alive. What shall I say? I cry for this situation we’re facing,” she said.
“Every day we come to the Egyptian border to call our relatives because when they call there is no service, even in Rafah. When they call us they can’t connect,” she said.
“We call them to reassure them about us, that we are alive. That we are not martyred like the others.”
Israeli security forces have continued to limit the number of people able to worship at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for Friday prayers.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that Israeli forces “searched many worshippers, restricting their access to the Old City and preventing them from reaching al-Aqsa mosque … military checkpoints were erected … [and] a significant number of worshippers had to perform Friday prayers near the Asbat Gate, one of the main gates of the holy site, and in the Ras al-Amoud neighbourhood, having been denied access.”
It is the 17th consecutive week that restrictions on worship have been imposed.
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112 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 112 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 148 were injured in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 27,131 Palestinians have been killed and 66,287 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Belgian foreign ministry summons Israeli ambassador and condemns bombing of development agency
Belgium’s ministry of foreign affairs has summoned the Israeli ambassador to Belgium and strongly condemned the bombing of the Belgian development agency Enable.
Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, the Israeli ambassador to Belgium, told the Guardian:
Israel have been notified by the Belgian MFA on this incident yesterday at 22:00 (23:00 Israel time).
We are currently investigating the circumstances around the alleged incident and will update the authorities once we receive more information.”
🔴 Belgium summons the Ambassador of #Israel in Belgium and strongly condemns the bombing of Belgian development agency @Enabel_Belgium.
— 🇧🇪 Belgium MFA (@BelgiumMFA) February 2, 2024
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Pro-Palestine march in London will end near Downing Street, say police
The latest pro-Palestine march of hundreds of thousands of protesters through central London will end with a rally near Downing Street after a climbdown from the Metropolitan police.
Following a meeting late on Thursday afternoon, organisers of the march said they had been given permission for the end stage of Saturday’s demonstration to take place on Whitehall.
Just hours earlier the Met had insisted that the “scale and frequency of marches” was causing serious disruption and that they did not support a request to extend the march into Whitehall.
The UK could officially recognise a Palestinian state after a ceasefire in Gaza without waiting for the outcome of what could be years of talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a two-state solution, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said.
Speaking during a visit on Thursday to Lebanon intended to tamp down regional tensions, the foreign secretary said no recognition could come while Hamas remained in Gaza, but that it could take place while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were continuing.
You can listen to Cameron’s comments in this clip:
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Foiled attack on Israeli embassy in Stockholm being treated as potential 'terrorist crime', says security service
Sweden’s intelligence service said on Friday that the investigation into a foiled attack on the Israeli embassy in Stockholm this week was being treated as a potential “terrorist crime”, reports AFP.
Police were called to the embassy on Wednesday after a “dangerous object” was discovered on its grounds, which the national bomb squad destroyed after determining it was “live”. Police declined to comment on what the object was but media have reported it was a hand grenade.
“The preliminary investigation launched by the Swedish police authority on 31 January, following the discovery of a dangerous object at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, has been taken over by the Swedish Security Service,” the service said in a statement.
“In connection with this, the criminal classification has been changed to a terrorist crime,” it added. The Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, said in a post to X that the embassy had been “subject to an attempted attack”. “We will not be intimidated by terror,” Kulman added.
Today we were subject to an attempted attack against the Embassy of Israel in Stockholm and its employees. We thank the Swedish authorities for their swift response. We will not be intimidated by terror.
— Ziv Nevo Kulman 🇮🇱🎗️ (@zivnk) January 31, 2024
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105 killed in Gaza overnight, says health ministry
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 105 people were killed overnight, while the Hamas press office reported Israeli air and artillery bombardment around Khan Younis – southern Gaza’s main city and the focus of recent fighting.
AFP reports that leaflets calling on civilians to leave had again been dropped by Israeli aircraft over al-Shifa hospital’s compound.
Nearly four months of fighting had left Gaza “uninhabitable”, the UN said, while the Israeli siege had resulted in dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicines.
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Hamas gives ‘initial’ support to Gaza truce plan as fighting rages - reports
Fighting in Gaza raged on Friday with scores reported killed overnight, after Qatar said Hamas had given its “initial” support to a hostage-prisoner exchange deal that would pause its war with Israel, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
After a truce proposal agreed with Israeli negotiators was presented to Hamas on Thursday, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said there were hopes of “good news” about a fresh pause to the fighting “in the next couple of weeks”.
Ansari said a truce plan thrashed out with Israeli negotiators by Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators in Paris earlier this week had received a “positive” initial response from Hamas. “That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas side,” he said.
But a source close to Hamas told AFP: “There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet – the factions have important observations – and the Qatari statement is rushed and not true.”
A Hamas source told AFP that the group had been presented with a three-stage plan which would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting to allow more aid deliveries into Gaza.
“Women, children and sick men over 60” among the Israeli hostages would also be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
There would also be “negotiations around the withdrawal of Israeli forces”, with possible additional phases involving more prisoner exchanges.
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Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser allegedly killed in Israeli attack in Damascus, says Al Jazeera
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser in Damascus has been killed in an Israeli missile attack that targeted a southern district of the Syrian capital, according to semi-official Iranian news sites, reports Al Jazeera.
The news organisation said Iranian news sites had identified the adviser as Saeid Alidadi without sharing his rank.
As reported earlier, Syria’s state news agency Sana, citing a Syrian military source, said the country’s military had downed a number of Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights at southern Damascus.
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Rafah is a 'pressure cooker of despair' as Palestinians flee south, says UN agency
The UN humanitarian office on Friday voiced concern about the hostilities in Khan Younis that have forced more people to flee to Rafah in the south of Gaza, describing the border town as a “pressure cooker of despair”, reports Reuters.
“I want to emphasise our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, which has resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah in recent days,” said Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
“Thousands of Palestinians have continued to flee to the south, which is already hosting over half the population of about 2.3 million people … Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair, and we fear for what comes next.”
Israeli forces will continue their Gaza military campaign to Rafah, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant has said, despite the huge numbers of Palestinian civilians there.
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Here are some of the latest images from Israel and Gaza on the news wires:
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Attacks against US forces will continue, says Iraq's armed group al-Nujaba
The Iran-backed Iraqi armed group al-Nujaba said on Friday it will continue launching attacks on US forces until they withdraw from Iraq and the Gaza war ends, reports Reuters.
“Any [US] strike will result in an appropriate response,” al-Nujaba’s leader, Akram al-Kaabi, said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera.
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A US federal court has dismissed a case accusing President Joe Biden and other senior US officials of being complicit in Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza, reports Al Jazeera.
Despite the dismissal, the court’s decision urged Biden and his colleagues to examine “the results of their unflagging support” for Israel, including its human rights implications, says the Qatar-funded media organisation.
Al Jazeera said the case was filed last year by human rights groups and individual Palestinians affected by the war, with the complaint accusing Biden, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, of failing to fulfil their responsibilities under international and domestic law to prevent genocide.
The verdict came late on Wednesday, reports Al Jazeera, stating that the US district court judge Jeffrey White dismissed the case on procedural grounds, citing the division of powers under the US constitution. He said in his decision that “disputes over foreign policy are considered non-justiciable political questions” and fall outside his jurisdiction.
“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases. The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter,” he wrote.
But White added that, as the international court of justice said in a provisional ruling last week, “it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide. This court implores defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
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Seven detained in Turkey for allegedly selling information to the Mossad spy agency
Turkish police arrested seven people on Friday on suspicion of selling information to the Israeli intelligence service the Mossad, reports Associated Press (AP), citing the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The suspects, who allegedly passed details to the Mossad via private detectives, were detained in a joint operation with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, or MIT.
Acting on warrants issued by the Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office, police anti-terror and intelligence branch officers carried out raids in Istanbul and the west coast city of Izmir, Anadolu reported. Two other suspects in the investigation are thought to have been detained earlier.
After the arrests on Friday, Anadolu cited a prosecution document as saying the operation targeted “Palestinian nationals and their families … within the scope of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
Last month, 34 people were detained by Turkish police on suspicion of spying for Israel, reports AP. They were accused of planning to carry out activities that included reconnaissance and “pursuing, assaulting and kidnapping” foreign nationals living in Turkey.
At the time, the justice minister, Yilmaz Tunc, said most of the suspects were charged with committing “political or military espionage” on behalf of Israeli intelligence.
The Mossad is said to have recruited Palestinians and Syrian nationals in Turkey as part of an operation against foreigners living in Turkey.
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'We will not start a war' but will respond strongly if anyone bullies us, says Iran's president
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday that his country will not start a war, but it will “respond strongly” to anyone who bullies it, reports Reuters.
“We will not start any war, but if anyone wants to bully us they will receive a strong response,” Raisi said in a televised speech.
Raisi’s comments came after days of speculation about how Washington might
retaliate after three US soldiers were killed last Saturday in a strike on their base in Jordan by an Iranian-backed group.
CBS News, citing US officials, reported on Thursday that the US had approved plans for multi day strikes in Iraq and Syria against multiple targets, including Iranian personnel and facilities in those countries.
“Before, when they [the US] wanted to talk to us, they said the military option is on the table. Now they say they have no intention of a conflict with Iran,” Raisi said.
“The Islamic Republic’s military power in the region is not and never has been a threat to any country. Rather, it ensures security that the countries of the region can rely on and trust,” Raisi added.
The US has assessed that the drone that killed three of its soldiers and also wounded more than 40 other people, was made by Iran, four US. officials told Reuters.
Sources told the news agency that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were pulling senior officers out of Syria.
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Syrian military says Israel targeted south Damascus - report
The Syrian military says it downed a number of Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights that were targeting south Damascus on Friday, state news agency Sana reported citing a military source.
According to Reuters, reports of an explosion in the vicinity of Damascus circulated earlier overnight. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting president Bashar al-Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.
Since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed militia targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defences and some Syrian forces.
Half of US adults say Israel has 'gone too far' in war in Gaza, AP-NORC poll shows
Half of US adults believe Israel’s war in Gaza has “gone too far”, a finding driven mainly by growing disapproval among Republicans and political independents, according to a poll by the Associated Press (AP) and the NORC centre for public affairs research.
Overall, 31% of US adults approve of president Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict, including just 46% of Democrats. Notably for Biden, about seven out of 10 young people in Biden’s Democratic party disapprove of his approach to the conflict.
In all, 50% of US adults now believe Israel’s military offensive has gone beyond what it should have, the poll found. That’s up from 40% in an AP-NORC poll conducted in November.
The poll shows 33% of Republicans thought Israel’s military response had gone too far, up from 18% in November, while 52% of independents said that, up from 39%. It also found that 62% of Democrats said they feel that way, roughly the same majority as in November.
Reporting on the findings AP said:
Fracture lines are growing in his [Biden’s]Democratic base, with some key Democratic blocs that Biden will likely need if he’s going to win a second term unhappy with his handling of the conflict.
About six in 10 non-white Democrats disapprove of how Biden is approaching the conflict, while about half of white Democrats approve.
Notably, about seven in 10 Democrats under 45 disapprove. That’s the opposite of the attitude of older Democrats, among whom nearly six in 10 approve.”
The poll also asked questions about the importance of the US helping to negotiate a ceasefire, concerns about a broader conflict in the Middle East and US support for Palestinians. AP report:
About seven in 10 of the Democrats who disapprove of Biden’s handling of the conflict say it’s extremely or very important for the US to help negotiate a permanent ceasefire.
Half of US adults are extremely or very concerned that the latest war between Israel and Hamas will lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East.
35% of US adults now describe Israel as an ally that shares US interests and values. That’s back in line with the views from before the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel, after a brief increase in November to 44%.
36% of US adults say the US is not supportive enough of Palestinians, up slightly from 31% December.
About six in 10 call recovering hostages being held by Hamas an important US priority, but only about three in 10 say it’s highly important to provide aid to Israel’s military to fight Hamas. A similar share of US adults say that about negotiating the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
The poll of 1,152 adults was conducted using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, designed to represent the US population. It was conducted from 25 January-28 January 2024. That time period overlapped with the killing of three US troops in Jordan.
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'The world cannot abandon' children in Gaza, says Unicef executive director
Catherine Russell, Unicef’s executive director, has warned that “the situation for children in Gaza grows bleaker every day”. In a post on X, Russell said: “The world cannot abandon them”.
She also shared a statement from Unicef that was published earlier this week, which addresses the allegations of several UNRWA staff being involved in the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.
It reads:
The allegations of involvement of several UNRWA staff in the heinous attacks on Israel on 7 October are horrifying. As the secretary general has said, any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable.
However, we must not prevent an entire organization from delivering on its mandate to serve people in desperate need.
The harrowing events that have been snowballing in Gaza since 7 October have left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and on the brink of famine. UNRWA, as the largest humanitarian organisation in Gaza, has been providing food, shelter and protection, even as its own staff members were being displaced and killed.
Decisions by various member states to pause funds from UNRWA will have catastrophic consequences for the people of Gaza. No other entity has the capacity to deliver the scale and breadth of assistance that 2.2 million people in Gaza urgently need.
We appeal for these decisions to be reconsidered.
UNRWA has announced a full, independent review of the organization, and the UN’s Office of internal oversight services has been activated.
Withdrawing funds from UNRWA is perilous and would result in the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, with far-reaching humanitarian and human rights consequences in the occupied Palestinian territory and across the region.
The world cannot abandon the people of Gaza.”
The situation for children in Gaza grows bleaker every day.
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) February 2, 2024
The world cannot abandon them. https://t.co/UhnILfrMLK
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Saudi Arabia would be willing to accept a political commitment from Israel to create a Palestinian state, rather than anything more binding, in a bid to get a defence pact with Washington approved before the US presidential election, three sources have told Reuters. The news agency reports:
Months of US-led diplomacy to get Saudi Arabia to normalise relations with Israel and recognise the country for the first time were shelved by Riyadh in October in the face of mounting Arab anger over the war in Gaza.
But Saudi Arabia is increasingly keen to shore up its security and ward off threats from rival Iran so the kingdom can forge ahead with its ambitious plan to transform its economy and attract huge foreign investment, two regional sources said.
To create some wiggle room in talks about recognising Israel and to get the US pact back on track, Saudi officials have told their US counterparts that Riyadh would not insist Israel take concrete steps to create a Palestinian state and would instead accept a political commitment to a two-state solution, two senior regional sources told Reuters.
Such a major regional deal, widely seen as a long-shot even before the Israel-Hamas war, would still face numerous political and diplomatic obstacles, not least the uncertainty over how the Gaza conflict will unfold.
A pact giving the world’s biggest oil exporter US military protection in exchange for normalisation with Israel would reshape the Middle East by uniting two long-time foes and binding Riyadh to Washington at a time when China is making inroads in the region.
A normalisation deal would also bolster Israel’s defences against arch-rival Iran and give US President Joe Biden a diplomatic victory to vaunt ahead of the 5 November presidential election.
A far-right Israeli minister has been disinvited from a German-Israeli conference due to be opened by the German justice minister Marco Buschmann, Germany’s TAZ newspaper has reported.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Likud lawmaker and minister for diaspora affairs Amichai Chikli has “faced widespread public criticism worldwide for his far-right and homophobic statements.”
He attended a conference in Jerusalem last weekend at which government ministers called for the Israeli resettlement of Gaza and the “voluntary resettlement” of Palestinians, and on Monday met with a delegation from the far-right Sweden Democrats party, Haaretz reported.
Chiklai is no longer coming to the Joint Perspectives conference, which is set to take place in Berlin on 15 February and was organised by the newspapers Die Welt and The Jerusulem Post, a spokesperson told TAZ.
However, it was later announced that another Israeli hardliner, Gideon Sa’ar, would take his place.
Germany’s government has been one of Israel’s most vocal allies since the recent escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.
It has said the accusation of genocide against Israel at international court of justice is completely unfounded and amounted to a “political instrumentalisation” of the UN genocide convention.
Here are some of the latest images coming to us over the wires from Rafah, to where Israel has said it will extend its military onslaught and to where Palestinians continue to flee, seeking safety.
The city is already hugely overcrowded, as it is now hosting more than half of the occupied territory’s 2.3 million-strong population, according to the UN agency OCHA.
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Australia hints at reinstatement of UNRWA aid
Israel has accused the Australian government of forgetting “Hamas’s culpability” for the war in Gaza, in a sign of growing tensions as ministers consider reinstating funding to a key UN agency.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, also fired a political warning shot against resuming the funding but Australian aid groups said the dire situation in Gaza would “rapidly escalate without UNRWA’s critical support”.
The aid groups implored the government to “be judicious and discriminate between allegations against a small number of individuals and the foreseeable impact of defunding UNRWA on millions of Palestinians reliant on their services, including children”.
More than 10 donor countries – including Australia, the US and the UK – suspended funding to UNRWA after allegations from Israel that as many as 12 of its staff were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks.
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, who has frozen $6m in funds she pledged in mid-January, said the allegations made against UNRWA staff were “deeply concerning” and they needed to be “thoroughly investigated and those responsible need to be held to account”.
But the minister gave a strong hint on Thursday that the government was considering reinstating funding, depending on the progress of those investigations.
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Turkey arrests 25 suspects in connection with church shooting attack
Turkish authorities have formally arrested 25 suspects in connection with the shooting of a man during a service at a church in Istanbul last weekend, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Friday. Reuters reports:
Among the 25 remanded in custody were the two suspected gunmen, previously captured by police, who are believed to be tied to Islamic State, Tunc said on the social media platform X.
The two main suspects were foreign nationals, one from Tajikistan and the other Russian, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said previously.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Telegram, saying it was in response to a call by the group’s leaders to target Jews and Christians.
Tunc said the 25 suspects were charged with membership of an illegal organisation and aggravated intentional homicide, adding that another nine suspects were released pending trial.
The attack took place on Sunday morning at the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul’s Sariyer district. One Turkish citizen - who was targeted by the gunmen – was killed while attending the service.
Several members of the Palestinian-American community have refused to meet with secretary of state Antony Blinken in Washington, the Huffington Post has reported. It quoted a statement from a group of Palestinian leaders as saying:
After nearly four unbearable months of constant US-enabled Israeli violence against our families, friends and other innocent civilians in Gaza, and throughout Palestine, we cannot imagine what Secretary Blinken could have to say or discuss with us.
Tariq Haddad, a cardiologist based in Virginia who has lost nearly 90 family members in Gaza since the Israeli onslaught began in October, was among those who declined the invitation. He said:
Where do I start trying to meet with somebody who I feel is primarily responsible for the killing of all my family, and who has had four months to make a difference to actually prevent my family from being killed?
Last week Arab and Muslim community leaders also declined to take part in a listening session with President Joe Biden’s campaign in Detroit, the Post reported, due to anger over the US administration’s support for the brutal Israeli military campaign.
The statements came as Biden was met with protests in the battleground state of Michigan, where observers believe anger over his handling of Gaza among its sizable Arab-American community could cost him the election.
Across the Detroit area, protesters had amassed in cars and vans with blue and white “Abandon Biden” signs and Palestinian flags ahead of Biden’s Thursday visit, planning to rush to wherever he appeared.
“We’re ready to go. I have my megaphone in the car,” Farah Khan, a Pakistani-American who voted for Biden in 2020 but now supports the Abandon Biden campaign in Michigan, told Reuters.
“We have 92 Abandon Biden chapters across the country. This is bigger than just Michigan.”
Israeli forces have carried out fresh raids in the occupied West Bank overnight, Al Jazeera is reporting citing the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Homes in the cities of Jenin, Nablus and Hebron were raided and there were clashes in the Jenin refugee camp though so far no arrests, the broadcaster reported.
It said local media were also reporting raids and arrests in the town of al-Mazra’a al-Sharqiya, near Ramallah; towns of Baqat al-Hatab and Hajjah, east of Qalqilya; town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem; the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya; the village of Baqat al-Hatab, east of Qalqiliya.
Settler violence against Palestinians has been rising since Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel, while the Israeli military has launched repeated raids. As of Thursday, 372 Palestinians have been killed, including 94 children, in conflict-related violence according to the UN agency OCHA.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have also been forced from their homes due to settler violence, or had their homes demolished due to lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain, OCHA says.
Hamas gives 'initial positive confirmation' to ceasefire proposal, Qatar says
Hamas has given “initial positive confirmation” to a proposal for the cessation of fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman has said according to AFP. The news agency writes:
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators met with Israeli intelligence officials in Paris on Sunday where they proposed a six-week pause in the Gaza war and a hostage-prisoner exchange for Hamas to review.
“That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas‘ side,” Majed al-Ansari told an audience at a Washington-based graduate school.
A source close to Hamas said, however, that there was still no consensus on the proposal.
“There is no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet... and the Qatari statement is rushed and not true,” the source told AFP in Gaza.
The Qatari foreign ministry spokesman said there was “still a very tough road in front of us”.
“We are optimistic because both sides now agreed to the premise that would lead to a next pause,” said Ansari.
“We’re hopeful that in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be able to share good news about that,” he added.
The Qatar-based leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was expected in Cairo on Thursday or Friday for talks on a proposed truce.
Previously, Qatar mediated a one-week break in fighting that began in November and led to the release of scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, as well as aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israeli forces to extend campaign to Rafah, defence minister says
Israeli forces will continue their Gaza military campaign to Rafah, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant has said, despite the huge numbers of Palestinian civilians there. In a Twitter post Gallant said:
The Khan Younis Brigade of the Hamas organization is disbanded, we will complete the mission there and continue to Rafah.
The great pressure that our forces exert on Hamas targets brings us closer to the return of the abductees, more than anything else [we can do].
We will continue until the end, there is no other way.
הערכת מצב בח׳אן יונס עם סגן הרמטכ״ל ומפקד אוגדה 98
— יואב גלנט - Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) February 1, 2024
חטיבת ח׳אן יונס של ארגון החמאס מפורקת, נשלים את המשימה שם ונמשיך לרפיח.
הלחץ הכביר שהכוחות מפעילים על יעדי החמאס מקרב אותנו להשבת החטופים, יותר מכל דבר אחר.
אנחנו נמשיך עד הסוף, אין דרך אחרת. pic.twitter.com/6Lt9gLgjFV
Israeli forces have continually expanded their campaign south to areas where they have previously told Palestinians to flee for safety, killing many civilians, most of them women and children.
Rafah is the southernmost city in Gaza and there is nowhere further south for civilians to go as Israel and Egypt will not let them leave the territory.
Eighty-five per cent of Gaza’s 2.2 million strong population is already deplaced, and Rafah, already overcrowded, is now hosting more than 1 million people.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis with me, Helen Livingstone.
Israeli forces will continue their Gaza military campaign to Rafah, the Israeli defence minister has said, despite the more than 1 million Palestinian civilians who have sought shelter there.
“The Khan Younis Brigade of the Hamas organisation has been disbanded, we will complete the mission there and continue to Rafah,” Yoav Gallant said in a Twitter post.
The announcement came as Qatar said Hamas had given an “initial positive confirmation” to a proposed ceasefire deal.
More on that soonest. In other developments:
At least 27,019 Palestinians have been killed and 66,139 injured in the Israeli assault on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the Gaza health ministry on Thursday. In its statement, the ministry said in the past 24 hours, 118 Palestinians were killed and 190 injured. Images from the Gaza Strip today show that the Israeli bombardment continues.
Hamas has received a proposal for a ceasefire deal that would involve the release of Israeli hostages, after US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators met Israeli intelligence officials in Paris. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson on Thursday said Hamas has given “initial positive confirmation” to a proposed deal, but a source close to Hamas said there is “no agreement on the framework of the agreement yet”, describing the Qatari statement as “rushed and not true”.
Joe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians. The order, a rare step against the US’s closest ally in the Middle East, initially imposes financial sanctions and visa bans against four Israeli individuals. The White House said there are currently no plans to target Israeli government officials with sanctions. A statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the vast majority of West Bank settlers are “law-abiding citizens” and described Biden’s order as “drastic”.
Britain could officially recognise a Palestinian state after a ceasefire in Gaza, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said. In an interview, Cameron said no recognition could come while Hamas remained in Gaza, but that it could take place while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were continuing.
The US has ordered a series of reprisal strikes to be launched over more than one day against an Iranian-backed militia, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said. The attacks are expected to hit militia in Syria and possibly Iraq, though Austin did not specify the timing or precise location. They are in response to the drone strike on a US base on the Iran-Syrian border on Sunday that killed three US service personnel and injured more than 30.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it has lost contact with a team of paramedics dispatched to rescue a six-year-old Palestinian girl trapped inside a car in north Gaza. The organisation released audio recordings between dispatchers and Hind Rajab, the only survivor trapped inside the vehicle near a petrol station in Gaza City.
Ministers in Israel’s war cabinet are reportedly considering limiting the amount of aid reaching Gaza, as rightwing protesters disrupt the entry of trucks carrying desperately needed humanitarian supplies to the besieged Palestinian territory. Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot have suggested temporarily limiting aid to weaken the Hamas, following an unverified report from Israel’s internal security service that estimated up to 66% of aid entering Gaza was being hijacked by Hamas.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) will be forced to shut down its operations across the region “by the end of February” if funding does not resume, the agency’s head has warned. More than 10 western countries including the US, UK and Germany have said they would suspend funding to UNRWA after Israel accused some of its workers of taking part in Hamas’s 7 October attack. The UN agency provides aid to more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.
Algeria has drafted a UN security council resolution to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The draft was shared with the 15-member council on Wednesday, according to diplomats, after the UN body met to discuss a ruling by the international court of justice that ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide.
US forces have carried out strikes in Yemen against 10 attack drones and a ground control station belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, according to the US military. Early on Thursday local time, US forces targeted a “Houthi UAV ground control station and 10 Houthi one-way UAVs” that “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US navy ships in the region,” Centcom said.
The UK will not send ground troops into combat against Houthi militants in Yemen, Britain’s deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, has said. Dowden said he was confident US and UK airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen were a step in degrading the Iranian-backed group’s capability to threaten the Red Sea, and part of broader measures that include sanctions on Houthi figures.
UN rights experts have voiced alarm at soaring numbers of journalists killed in the Gaza war. In a statement on Thursday, the independent experts said they had received “disturbing” reports that appeared to indicate that the killings, injury and detention of journalists are “a deliberate strategy by Israeli forces to obstruct the media and silence critical reporting”.
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