EXPLANER
As it continues its offensive, Israel is expected to submit a report to the ICJ regarding its actions in Gaza.
Here’s how things look on Monday February 26, 2024:
Fighting and humanitarian crisis
- The Israeli army shelled and fired on crowds of Palestinians waiting for food aid trucks to arrive in Gaza City, killing 10 people, the Wafa news agency reported.
- At least 15 people were injured in the attack which took place on Sunday evening on the coastal road north of Gaza City. They were transferred to the nearby al-Shifa hospital.
- “Reports that a two-month-old baby died of starvation in Gaza are horrific,” UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said in a social media post.
- Photos and testimonies show that the Israeli army targeted two Palestinian sisters, killing one of them, as they searched for food on farmland in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Strip. Gaza.
- Israel’s war cabinet has approved a military plan to “provide humanitarian assistance” in the Gaza Strip.
- Meanwhile, an Israeli military offensive in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, could be “delayed somewhat” if a deal is reached for a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- On January 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave Israel one month to “submit a report to the Court on all measures taken to give effect” to its order in the genocide case brought by South Africa. South. Israel is expected to submit this report today, Monday February 26.
- Meanwhile, the final day of public hearings began in a separate ICJ case over Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories since 1967.
- In the United States, a serving member of the US military set himself on fire, apparently in an act of protest against the war in Gaza, in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, authorities said. According to US media, Aaron Bushnell, 25, streamed himself live on Twitch, wearing fatigues and declaring that he “would not be complicit in genocide” before dousing himself with liquid. He then set himself on fire, shouting “Free Palestine!” » until he fell to the ground.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- Israeli forces erected a tower and placed surveillance cameras on the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, Wafa news agency reports.
- The report comes as the Israeli government is expected to impose restrictions on worshipers attempting to pray at Islam’s third holiest site during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is likely to begin on March 10.
- Israel plans to build more than 3,300 new homes in Israeli-occupied West Bank settlements in response to a deadly Palestinian shooting, a senior cabinet minister said. The move sparked an angry response from the United States at a time of growing tensions during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.