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UN expert suggests Israeli bombing of Khan Younis is ‘punishable’ war crime
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestine, goes beyond the UN relief chief Martin Griffiths, who had described as “callous” bombing people in southern Gaza without giving them enough time to flee.
“Ordering trapped people to evacuate and bombing them before they can even do so is callous, yes, and it is also a serious international crime, punishable under the Rome Statute of the [International Criminal Court],” Albanese wrote in a social media post.
Ordering trapped people to evacuate and bombing them before they can even do so is callous, yes, and it is also a serious international crime, punishable under the Rome Statute of the @IntlCrimCourt. https://t.co/6UeCyzWTOe
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) January 24, 2024
UNRWA facility under Israeli attack in Khan Younis
A vocational training centre belonging to the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees in Khan Younis has been hit by Israeli tank shells, killing at least nine and injuring at least 75. A spokesperson for UNRWA told Al Jazeera that the number of dead will likely climb higher.
Israel's military says it's currently ruled out any role in deadly strikes on UN facility in Khan Younis
From CNN’s Amir Tal and Abel Alvarado
The Israeli military has ruled out that an Israeli aerial or artillery strike hit a UN facility that was housing hundreds of displaced people in Gaza's Khan Younis, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces. “After an examination of our operational systems, the IDF has currently ruled out that this incident is a result of an aerial or artillery strike by the IDF,” the statement says.
The IDF said a “thorough review of the operations of the forces in the vicinity is underway,” adding that it is "examining the possibility that the strike was a result of Hamas fire.”
Urgent action is needed to prevent complete medical shutdown in Gaza, International Red Cross says
The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a stark warning Thursday, saying that Gaza faces a complete medical shutdown unless immediate actions are taken to safeguard essential services. ICRC said that the Nasser medical complex and the European Gaza Hospital, both in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, are the only referral hospitals “that provide advanced surgical and medical emergency services with large bed capacities, which is not sufficient for the current wounded and sick across Gaza.”
Over 1.5 million people living in dire conditions in the south of Gaza, according to the ICRC. “Every functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip is over-crowded and short on medical supplies, fuel, food and water. Many are housing thousands of displaced families. And now two more facilities risk being lost due to the fighting,” said William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC’s office in Gaza. “The cumulative impact on the health system is devastating and urgent action must be taken.”
UN relief agency in Gaza says Israeli military operation in Khan Younis will force main hospital to close
The Israeli military operation in Khan Younis will shut down the largest operating hospital in southern Gaza, the director of affairs for the UN's relief agency for the enclave told CNN. Thomas White of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said the Nasser Hospital is “under threat” because it is located in an area that is being forced to evacuate.
For several days, UNRWA has been trying to get access to western Khan Younis, where the hospital is located, but White said the agency has been denied by the Israeli military because "fighting is too heavy." “The Israeli army intend to undertake a major operation in the west of Khan Younis, despite all of the assurances that we receive that people would be safe there,” White said.
“Now, tens of thousands of people are on the road again, many of them displaced multiple times,” White said, adding that many are making their way to the southern city of Rafah, where “there is no more open ground for people.” “Nobody imagined the level of death, destruction and displacement that we've seen in the last three months,” White added.
Rights group says 24,000 children in Gaza have lost parents
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed over 25,000 Palestinians since it began on October 7. Almost the same number of children have lost their parents to Israeli attacks.
One orphaned boy, Anas, told Al Jazeera that he is protecting his little brother from the news that their parents had been killed. “I don’t know how to tell him,” Anas said.
Researcher says spread of hunger in Gaza is ‘unprecedented’
Alex De Waal, an expert on humanitarian crises and director of the World Peace Foundation has told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story that the conditions in Gaza have few parallels in modern history.
“I’ve been studying this topic for almost 40 years, and during that 40 years, I have not seen or studied a situation in which a population was reduced with this speed, this rigour, this comprehensiveness, to a state of starvation. It is unprecedented since World War II,” said De Waal.
