Karim Khan said in a statement published on X, formerly Twitter, that his office’s investigation into events in Gaza is “being taken forward as a matter of the utmost urgency”.
“I am deeply concerned by the reported bombardment and potential ground incursion by Israeli forces in Rafah,” he said.The United Nations has said the prospect of a full Israeli incursion into the crammed Gaza town of Rafah is “terrifying” and risks an “extremely high” number of casualties.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk urged world powers to “restrain rather than enable” as fears of a looming ground incursion grew among more than one million Palestinians trapped in the territory’s far south.
“A potential full-fledged military incursion into Rafah — where some 1.5 million Palestinians are packed against the Egyptian border with nowhere further to flee — is terrifying, given the prospect that an extremely high number of civilians, again mostly children and women, will likely be killed and injured,” Turk said in a statement.
“Sadly, given the carnage wrought so far in Gaza it is wholly imaginable what would lie ahead in Rafah.
“Beyond the pain and suffering of the bombs and bullets, this incursion into Rafah may also mean the end of the meagre humanitarian aid that has been entering and distributed with huge implications for all of Gaza, including the hundreds of thousands at grave risk of starvation and famine in the north.”
China urges Israel to stop military operation in Gaza’s Rafah ‘as soon as possible’
China has urged Israel to stop its military operation in the Gazan city of Rafah “as soon as possible”, warning of a “serious humanitarian disaster” there if fighting did not stop, AFP reports.
“China […] opposes and condemns actions that harm civilians and violate international law,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement, adding it urged Israel to “stop its military operation as soon as possible, make every effort to avoid innocent civilian casualties […] to prevent a more serious humanitarian disaster in the Rafah area”
Kremlin says it is ready to support actions leading to ceasefire in Gaza
The Kremlin said that it was ready to support any action leading to the release of Israeli hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza, Reuters reports.
“We are ready to support any action that will lead to the release of the hostages and a ceasefire. But we believe that the actions should be constructive, aimed at a comprehensive solution of the problem within the framework of international law and previously-adopted Security Council resolutions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Israel faces growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it prepared for an incursion in the southern Gaza city of Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.
After rejecting Hamas’ terms for a truce last week, Israel conducted a predawn raid in Rafah on Monday that freed two hostages and killed around 100 people.
Pakistan condemned Israel’s “military aggression against Rafah city in Gaza and the resulting destruction and massacre of the Palestinian people”.
Saudi Arabia cautioned against the “very serious repercussions” of Israel “storming and targeting” Rafah.
Malaysia condemned in the “strongest terms the large-scale offensive in Rafah”, terming it an “irresponsible, illegal and inhumane assault”
Israeli forces kill dozens of fighters in south and central Gaza, military says
Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinian fighters in fighting in the southern and central Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, the military said, Reuters.
It said more than 30 fighters were killed in Khan Younis, a southern city close to Rafah on Gaza’s Egyptian border, where Israeli leaders have said they plan to operate next in a bid to destroy remaining Hamas battalions. 28,473 Palestinians have been killed and 68,146 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October, the health ministry has said in a statement according to Reuter
Israel’s spy chief was headed to Cairo for talks with his Egyptian and US counterparts on a Gaza truce proposal, Israeli officials told AFP, as discord mounts over the war.
Mossad director David Barnea will meet CIA chief William Burns, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
They will be joined in the Egyptian capital by Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who also serves as the country’s top diplomat and has brokered previous Gaza ceasefires.
At least five people have been killed in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while four more were killed by an Israeli bomb in the Brazil neighbourhood of Rafah in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports, citing Wafa news agency.
Wafa also reports that seven Palestinians were killed, and 14 medical staff and displaced people were injured, by Israeli sniper fire in the courtyard of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Monday night.
The Israeli bombardment has also cut the electricity supply to the Nasser Hospital.
Israeli settlers shoot two Palestinians, burn car and throw Molotov cocktails
Israeli settlers have shot two Palestinians during an attack on Monday night in the village of Asira al-Qabliya, located south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports, citing Wafa news agency reports.
The attackers, who came from the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, also set a car on fire and attacked a home with a Molotov cocktail. No further injuries were reported.
In the town of Huwara near Nablus, Israeli settlers also set fire to a vehicle, Wafa reports, while in the Masafer Yatta region, south of Hebron, Israeli settlers also demolished two structures and a sheep pen, uprooted trees and harassed farmers.
International outcry at settler violence is growing, with the United Kingdom announcing on Monday sanctions against four people accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
France proposes Hezbollah withdrawal, border talks for Israel-Lebanon truce
France has delivered a written proposal to Beirut aimed at ending hostilities with Israel and settling the disputed Lebanon-Israel frontier, according to a document seen by Reuters that calls for fighters including Hezbollah’s elite unit to withdraw 10 km from the border.
The plan aims to end fighting between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel at the border. The hostilities have run in parallel to the Gaza conflict and are fueling concern of a ruinous, all-out confrontation.
The document, the first written proposal brought to Beirut during weeks of Western mediation, was delivered to top Lebanese state officials including Prime Minister Najib Mikati by French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne last week, four senior Lebanese and three French officials said.
It declares the aim of preventing a conflict “that risks spiraling out of control” and enforcing “a potential ceasefire, when the conditions are right” and ultimately envisions negotiations on delineation of the contentious land border between Lebanon and Israel.
Hezbollah rejects formally negotiating a de-escalation until the conflict in Gaza ends, a position reiterated by a Hezbollah politician in response to questions for this story.
The three-step plan envisages a 10-day process of de-escalation ending with the border negotiations.US says Gaza hostage deal ‘possible,’ with ‘tremendous’ benefits
The United States has said it still seeks a deal to free Gaza hostages after a deadly Israeli strike in crowded Rafah freed two captives, as it renewed warnings over a wider Israeli operation, AFP reports.
“There were a number of really untenable items in the proposal that came back from Hamas, but we do believe that a deal is possible and we’re going to continue to pursue it,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
“We think the benefits of a pause and a deal for hostages are tremendous, not just obviously for the hostages who would be released but also for the humanitarian effort in Gaza and for our ability to begin to pursue a real and lasting, sustainable resolution of this conflict,” he said.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has urged allies of Israel — primarily the United States — to stop sending it weapons as “too many people” are being killed in Gaza, AFP reports.
Pointing to US President Joe Biden’s comment last week that Israel’s military action was “over the top”, Borrell said: “Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people have been killed.”
“Is [it] not logical?” he asked, in a Brussels news conference alongside Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA whom Israel is pressuring to resign.
“How many times have you heard the most prominent leaders and foreign ministers around the world saying too many people are being killed?” Borrell asked.
The chief EU diplomat also slammed an order by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the more than one million Palestinians sheltering in the Gaza city of Rafah need to be “evacuated” ahead of a planned Israeli military operation there.
“They are going to evacuate — where? To the moon? Where are they going to evacuate these people?” Borrell asked. Pakistani Foreign Office condemns Israel’s military aggression in Gaza’s Rafah
UAE defends Israel ties as Gaza fighting concerns grow
A top Emirati diplomat has defended her country’s decision to maintain ties with Israel despite its mounting concern over the military campaign in Gaza.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit, an annual gathering of business and political leaders in Dubai, Lana Nusseibeh applauded cooperation between the UAE and Israel.
“Because of that cooperation … we have a field hospital in Gaza and we have a maritime hospital docking in the Al-Arish port,” in Egypt, said Nusseibeh, the UAE’s ambassador to the UN.For the “residents of Gaza, it’s not enough. What we need … is a humanitarian ceasefire and a two-state solution”, she added.
“Will we get that by talking to the people who agree with us? No. We will get that by talking to the people who disagree with us and the UAE will always be proud of doing that.”
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency UNRWA, has said he has “no intention to resign” following allegations that some staff members participated in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, *Reuters reports.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has urged allies of Israel — primarily the United States — to stop sending it weapons as “too many people” are being killed in Gaza, AFP reports.
Pointing to US President Joe Biden’s comment last week that Israel’s military action was “over the top”, Borrell said: “Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people have been killed.”
“Is (it) not logical?” he asked, in a Brussels news conference alongside Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA whom Israel is pressuring to resign.
“How many times have you heard the most prominent leaders and foreign ministers around the world saying too many people are being killed?” Borrell asked.
The chief EU diplomat also slammed an order by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the more than one million Palestinians sheltering in the Gaza city of Rafah need to be “evacuated” ahead of a planned Israeli military operation there.
Israel has announced a visa ban on the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories over recent comments denying Hamas’s October 7 attack was “anti-Semitic”.
The UN-appointed independent expert, Francesca Albanese, last week said she disagreed with French President Emmanuel Macron’s description of the attack, which triggered full-blown fighting, as “the biggest anti-Semitic massacre of our century”.
“No,” Albanese wrote in French on social media platform X. “The victims of 7/10 were not killed because of their Jewishness but in response to Israeli oppression.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel called her online remark “outrageous” and said in a statement she was now “denied entry to the State of Israel”.
The immigration authorities were instructed not to issue Albanese a visa, they added, also calling for her dismissal.
The ministers said in their statement that “if the UN wants to return to being a relevant body, its leaders must publicly disavow the anti-Semitic words of the ‘special envoy’ — and fire her immediately.”
Contacted by AFP, Albanese did not comment on the Israeli decision, which would effectively also bar her entry into the occupied West Bank.
But on her X account, she said: “I refuse to be intimidated by those complicit in the perpetuation of the Nakba”, the mass displacement of Palestinians around the time of Israel’s creation in 1948
The population of the Gaza Strip is suffering “unprecedented” levels of “near famine-like conditions” as the Israel-Hamas fighting drags on, according to the UN’s agriculture agency.
Some 550,000 people are now likely facing catastrophic food insecurity levels, while the whole population is in crisis mode, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
“There are unprecedented levels of acute food insecurity, hunger, and near famine-like conditions in Gaza,” FAO Deputy Director General Beth Bechdol said in an interview published by the Rome-based agency.
“We are seeing more and more people essentially on the brink of and moving into famine-like conditions every day,” she said.
Belgium has no clarification yet from Israel on Gaza building bombing
Belgium’s minister of development cooperation has said the country has not received clarification yet from Israel on the destruction of its government buildings in Gaza two weeks ago, Reuters reports.
UAE diplomat says ‘irreversible’ progress to Palestinian state needed for Gaza reconstruction
The United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the United Nations has said that there must be an “irreversible progression” towards a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for a regional commitment to the reconstruction of Gaza.
Lana Nusseibeh said there was “a very strong” Arab consensus that such progress was needed for any contributions towards reconstruction in Gaza once the devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas is over.
“We cannot keep refunding and then see everything that we have built destroyed,” she said at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
“There must be an irreversible progression to the two-state solution for regional partners to be on board with the reconstruction part… and that has to be something that has international guardrails and benchmarks and it has to have the support of the United States amongst other key actors,” she said.
Panic, frustration as 1.4m people try to survive in Gaza: UN aid agency
An Israeli government spokesperson said that Hamas had been reduced to half its fighting force in the Gaza conflict, with more than 12,000 gunmen who have been killed and large numbers wounded or captured, Reuters reports.
“We’re talking about three-quarters of Hamas’ battalions that have been shattered … with over 12,000 terrorists who have been killed,” Eylon Levy said in a briefing.
“When you take into account the number of terrorists who have been wounded or apprehended, that is more than half of Hamas’ fighting force knocked out of action.”
UK urges Israel ‘to stop and think seriously’ before further military action in Gaza
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has urged Israel to “stop” its latest military action in Gaza’s Rafah, after a deadly overnight bombing and fears of a looming ground incursion, AFP reports.
“We are very concerned about the situation and we want Israel to stop and think seriously before it takes any further action,” Cameron told reporters during a visit to Scotland.
Israel has called on UN relief agencies to help with its efforts to evacuate civilians from Gaza conflict zones ahead of its planned ground sweep of Rafah, a town on the enclave’s border with Egypt which is crowded with displaced Palestinians, Reuters reports.
“We urge UN agencies to cooperate,” government spokesperson Eylon Levy said in a briefing. “Don’t say it can’t be done. Work with us to find a way.”Relatives of rescued hostages appeal for Gaza deal to free others
Relatives of two hostages rescued overnight from Gaza have appealed for a broader deal between Israel and Hamas to secure the release of other captives still held in the Palestinian territory.
An Israeli special forces raid in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah freed Louis Har, 70, and Fernando Simon Marman, 60, while around 100 Palestinians were killed in accompanying air strikes, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Speaking from an Israeli hospital where the two were undergoing medical tests, Har’s son-in-law described “a lot of tears, hugs, not many words” when the family was reunited.
“Luckily for us, as a family, they were saved tonight. But I must say that the job is not done,” Idan Bejerano told journalists at Sheba hospital near Tel Aviv.
“We are happy today, but we didn’t win. It’s just another step towards bringing all the other” hostages home, he continued.
Marman’s niece, Gefen Sigal Ilan, said she was still “shaking” from the news of her uncle’s rescue.“When I saw him I couldn’t believe he was real,” she told AFP.
She said the families of hostages will keep fighting for the release of other captives.
Court orders Netherlands to stop F-35 parts delivery to Israel
The Netherlands must stop delivering parts for F-35 fighter jets used by Israel in the Gaza Strip after a Dutch court has ruled there is a “clear risk” the planes would be involved in breaking international humanitarian law, AFP reports.
The Appeals Court in The Hague sided with a group of human rights organisations that argued the parts contributed to violations of law by Israel in its war with Hamas.
“The court therefore orders the state to put an end to the further export of F-35 parts to Israel within seven days,” said the ruling.
“There is a clear risk that serious violations of humanitarian law of war are committed in the Gaza Strip with Israel’s F-35 fighter planes,” added the judge.Netanyahu responsible for ‘unprecedented humanitarian disaster’: Bernie Sanders
US Senator Bernie Sanders has said “no one in Congress” should support the Biden administration sending military aid to Israel, in a post on X.
He added that Netanyahu’s “war machine” is responsible for an “unprecedented humanitarian disaster”.
Despite Western complicity in actions the world’s top court is recognising as genocidal, the West still assigns itself all manner of superiority in civilised societal behaviour. Western countries still honour themselves as “the good guys”, Professor Donald Earl Collins writes for Al Jazeera.
It takes a special kind of narcissism for a world leader to declare himself a 50-year-long adherent to a white supremacist ideology that excuses apartheid, settler-colonialism, and genocide and then to turn to the greatness of the US and all its “possibilities”, as if the US has only been sprinkling pixie dust around the world and not intervening with brutal military and economic power over the past 130 years.
But the US president is not alone in his self-delusion. At the Conservative Friends of Israel gathering in London last month, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak showed unwavering support for Israeli attacks on Gaza and the West Bank. “There is a horrific irony in Israel, of all countries being accused of genocide,” Sunak said, labelling South Africa’s case against Israel “completely unjustified”
United States President Joe Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023. — Reuters
WATCH: Scholar inflicted with mental harm after writing about Palestine
Gaza death toll jumps to 28,340: health ministry
28,340 Palestinians have been killed and 67,984 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October, the healthy ministry has said in a statement, Reuters reports.
The latest toll includes 164 fatalities over the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
