Acting legal adviser for the US State Department, Richard Visek, addressed the ICJ on Wednesday, taking a different approach to many of the other countries to address the first three days of hearings.
Twelve more countries are expected to address the world court in the Hague as hearings continue on Thursday.A total of 29,410 Palestinians have been killed and 69,465 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct 7, the Gaza health ministry has said in a statement, Reuters reports.
97 people have died while another 69,465 have been wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry added
Arab, Muslim Americans in Michigan protest Joe Biden’s Palestine policy, labelling him “war criminal” in Gaza and expressing their intention not to vote for him in the 2024 US election as they face dilemma of potential rule of Donald Trump
Arab, Muslim Americans see Biden as Gaza 'war criminal' in key US state
US president's policy on Gaza war might lead to decreased support, potentially jeopardising a key swing state he won in 2020 that is home to around 240,000 Muslims, according to surveys.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reports that 702 children were among the 4,528 Palestinian people injured across the occupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem, and in Israel, since October.
The latest data, which was accurate up to Tuesday, also reveals that Israeli settlers carried out 573 recorded attacks against Palestinian people and their property during the same period.
In the most recent killing, undercover Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man on Tuesday after besieging a house in the Jenin refugee camp.
The Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian-owned homes in the occupied territories has also led to the displacement of 830 people, including 337 children, with 131 homes demolished since October 7, according to UNOCHA.
Some 95 percent of the demolitions were reported in the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.
Dozens of Palestinian children in Gaza City in the northern part of Gaza have rallied to protest the scarcity of food and water under the Israeli total siege.
The children marched on Tuesday in the streets of Gaza City holding banners with some written on them "bread becomes my dream" and "we want food," among others.
Holding empty pots during the rally as an expression of lack of food, they chanted to demand a decent life.
"We die from hunger, we have nothing to eat, we are forced to eat animal food," 10-year-old Ayat Ashour told Anadolu.
"Food has become unaffordable, we want to live, we want (food) aid. ... The people in northern Gaza find nothing to eat, there is no milk for children," she added.
Another child, Omar al Shenbari, 14, said: "We are marching to raise our voice to the world that we want flour to eat, there is no food or water (in Gaza)."
"We eat one insufficient meal a day, mainly consists of water and (tomato) paste," Omar also said.
He concluded by sending a message to the world, saying: "We are experiencing difficult situations. The Arab countries and the entire world must stand with us."
On Tuesday, the UN’s World Food Program announced that it halted food distribution in northern Gaza until safety conditions improve.
According to several UN agencies, acute malnutrition has reached unprecedented levels among Palestinian children aged 4-6.
Overall, acute malnutrition in Gaza reached 16.2%, a rate that exceeds the critical threshold set by the World Health Organization at 15%.
Despite the provisional ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza where over 29,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 69,000 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel has pounded Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the ICJ. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Israeli military expresses concern over reports of theft of high-explosive hand grenades and anti-tank missiles from besieged Gaza by its troops, raising fears of illicit arms transfer to illegal Jewish settlers in occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army has revealed multiple cases of weapons and ammunition theft perpetrated by soldiers within military bases / Photo: AP Archive
Israeli soldiers are stealing weapons during their invasion of besieged Gaza and there has been an uptick in the number of troops engaging in the theft of arms including high-explosive hand grenades and anti-tank missiles, according to Israeli broadcaster KAN, raising fears some of the stolen weapons may have ended up in the hands of illegal Jewish settlers.
The KAN channel, operated by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, said there has been "a troubling increase in the phenomenon of weapons and ammunition theft in the Israeli army under the guise of war amid fears that they may also reach armed groups in the West Bank."
KAN quoted Roi Sharon, the military correspondent for the news channel, as saying, "there is actually concern in the Israeli army about soldiers or even civilians stealing high-explosive hand grenades and anti-tank missiles from inside the Gaza Strip or areas where forces are stationed outside it and transferring them to criminal organisations, and from there to terrorist organisations."
Sharon said that although each grenade and anti-tank missile has a serial number, in war, there is a lot of chaos, and continuous supply operations of weapons where the grenades and missiles are used are not counted.
"This facilitates the process of soldiers stealing grenades and anti-tank missiles and taking them home either as souvenirs or for sale to criminal organisations," he said.
Also, last month, 15 hand grenades were used by criminals within 10 days, which are not old grenades but modern versions used by the army," he added.
In light of fears of these weapons reaching from inside the Green Line (1948 territories) to the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army intends to tighten inspection operations at crossings and checkpoints.
On Tuesday, Israeli media outlets revealed that the Israeli Border Police found three high-explosive hand grenades stolen from the army in the possession of Israeli criminals in the city of Or Akiva near Haifa.
In recent years, the Israeli army has disclosed several incidents of weapons and ammunition theft carried out by its soldiers from within military bases.
