EXPLANER
Israel rejects South Africa’s ICJ complaint and the world protests on New Year’s Eve – here are the latest updates.
Here’s how things look on Monday January 1, 2024:
Latest updates
- Israel has rejected South Africa’s recent complaint to the International Court of Justice against Israel.
- The Israeli government voted on Sunday to postpone municipal elections, initially scheduled for January 30, to February 27, according to local media. A total of 688 candidates from 144 cities and towns are currently serving in the military reserves.
- Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterated his call for “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza. “They want to leave. They have lived in a ghetto for 75 years and are in need,” Smotrich said.
- Shipping giant Maersk announced a temporary halt to its operations in the Red Sea on Sunday following a missile attack on a ship by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Human impact and combat:
- The government media office in Gaza claims to have recorded 1,825 Israeli “massacres” in the Gaza Strip over the past 85 days. Israeli attacks left 28,822 people dead or missing, including 9,100 children, the government media office added.
- Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said it fired at least 20 rockets toward Israel. This comes as Israel declares it will prolong its war on Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Laura Khan reported from East Jerusalem.
- The Turkish Health Ministry announced on X on Sunday that it had received 292 wounded and sick people from Gaza for treatment.
- Israeli attacks in Gaza continue. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society says several people were killed and injured during Israeli shelling in the Beach Street neighborhood of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
- At least 68 Palestinians were killed in new Israeli airstrikes in Gaza on Sunday.
- Former Palestinian Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs Yousef Salameh was killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home in central Gaza, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
- Israeli warplanes also targeted civilians in the Zeitoun district in eastern Gaza, Wafa reported.
- Israeli attacks also affected civilians in the Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps in Gaza, Wafa reported.
New Year’s Eve events:
- Residents of Ramallah took to the streets on New Year’s Eve to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Imran Khan reported from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
- Protest actions for Palestine on New Year’s Eve also took place in communities around the world, including Pakistan, Turkey and Iraq.
- The United Nations refugee agency UNRWA said on Sunday that 2023 had been devastating and tragic for Palestinian refugees.
- The UN World Food Program on Saturday reiterated its call for a long-term ceasefire and unhindered access of humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.
As we count down to a new year, there’s a different kind of countdown #Gaza.
We are racing against time to avoid a complete collapse of even the most basic services and starvation for millions of people.
Only a long-term ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access can end this situation. pic.twitter.com/AU7EPHTAyn
– World Food Program (@WFP) December 30, 2023
Raids in the West Bank
- Israeli forces continued to attack areas of the occupied West Bank, including the town of El-Bireh south of Qalqilya; Biet Iba west of Nablus; Beit Ummar north of Hebron and Barta’a in Jenin.
- Wafa reports that Israeli forces injured a young Palestinian with live ammunition and arrested a man in his 60s, as well as his son, during an Israeli military raid on the eastern town of Bani Naim. ‘Hebron.
- Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, Wafa reports.
- Wafa also reported that Israeli occupying forces arrested on Sunday evening two teenagers – Nasr Jihad Mansour, 17, and Mohammad Rizq Mansour, 16 – from the town of Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit, in the center of the West Bank.
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