South Africa makes "urgent request" to Top UN court to intervene in Israel's planned Rafah incursion
The South African government has made an “urgent request” to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to decide if Israel's military actions in Rafah require the court to “use its power to prevent further imminent breach of the rights of Palestinians in Gaza.” In a statement issued by the country’s presidency on Tuesday, the South African government called the southern Gaza city of Rafah “the last refuge for surviving people in Gaza.”
In its request to the ICJ, which was submitted on Monday, the government said it was “gravely concerned” that Israeli military action in Rafah “has already led to and will result in further large scale killing, harm and destruction.” South Africa suggested that Israel’s offensive in Rafah "would be in serious and irreparable breach both of the Genocide Convention" and the ICJ’s January court order that Israel must take “all measures” to prevent genocide in Gaza.
Some context: On Monday, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israel carried out a "wave of strikes" on Rafah to rescue two hostages held captive since the October 7 attack, "and to hit Hamas terrorists in the area". More than 100 people were killed in the strikes, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Monday.
The South African Government has made an urgent request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider whether the decision announced by Israel to extend its military operations in Rafah, which is the last refuge for surviving people in Gaza, requires that the court uses…
— The Presidency 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) February 13, 2024
UN won’t participate in any forced Rafah evacuation
The UN humanitarian office hasn’t received any communication from Israel about a plan to evacuate Gaza’s Rafah area. “We have not received any official communication from Israeli officials,” Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for OCHA. “Regardless, the UN does not participate in forced, non-voluntary evacuations. There is no plan at this time to facilitate the evacuation of civilians.”
Survivor pleads for war to stop after strike in Gaza kills at least 8, according to hospital
At least eight people were killed when an Israeli strike destroyed a building in the Nuseirat neighborhood of central Gaza Monday into Tuesday, according to the Al-Aqsa Hospital, leaving survivors imploring for a ceasefire. “We want the war to stop; it’s enough, we are peaceful people,” said Abu Hans Al Ashqar, who was staying next door. “We want peace, we are desperate for peace, we want everyone on both sides to live peacefully,” he said.
Images from the scene show survivors sifting through the rubble with their bare hands while their children watch. The victims were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital, according to doctors there. Al Ashqar said he was woken up by the explosion. “We were asleep when a heavy hit struck the building beside us. It was damaged and our building was also damaged,” he said. “There were dead and injured.”
Another survivor, Dr. Khalil A Dalu, described a similar scene. “We were asleep, it was midnight. Suddenly, we heard a huge explosion that shook the building we shelter in; it was an indescribable fear and horror," he said. “Many were killed and injured, and there are still people under rubble, many of whom are women and children.”
The Israel Defense Forces have not commented on the strike, but the IDF has repeatedly claimed it is trying to avoid civilian casualties.
State Department confirms death of another US citizen in the West Bank
An American died in the West Bank on Saturday, the US State Department confirmed Monday, the second death in less than a month of a US citizen in the occupied Palestinian territory. “We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen civilian in the West Bank on February 10, 2024,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN, adding that department officials “are working to gather more information and have pressed the Government of Israel for further information.” “We extend our deepest condolences to the family,” the spokesperson said. “Out of respect to the family, we have nothing further to share.”
The spokesperson did not provide the name of the American who died or the circumstances of their death. According to the group “Defense for Children – Palestine,” the American was 17-year-old Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour. The organization said he was shot in the head by Israeli forces on Saturday while traveling by car in the town of Biddu in the West Bank. CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
Last month, another American, 17-year-old Tawfiq Hafiz Ajjaq, was fatally shot in the head, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. Israel’s police have opened an investigation into the incident, the IDF and Israeli police told CNN last month.
Israel’s primary objective is to destroy ‘all of Palestine’: Activist
Hanan Ashrawi, veteran Palestinian activist and former member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee, says, “We are in the midst of a genocide” in Gaza. “Israel is hellbent on taking it a notch up … having treated the Palestinians like herds of cattle where they shift them from one place to the other carrying out demographic engineering … now they are destroying the last refuge that they have,” she told Al Jazeera.
“Everybody knows that there are no limits to Israeli depravity, to Israeli blood thirst, to the use of massacres and carnage to achieve we don’t know what ends, because they don’t know what ends. They cannot destroy Hamas … so in a way it is a willful infliction of pain, death and destruction without any accountability,” Ashrawi said. “The primary objective is to destroy not just the Palestinians of Gaza but all of Palestine,” she concluded.
Imagine Western media telling it as it is... But no, Palestinians are just human shields that get in the way of the moral army that is the IDF. Let's give them another 14 Billion to keep on going.
Fuck Germany, worried you might get implicated at the ICJ is about all you're worried about.
Germany’s FM worried about Israeli plans for assault on Rafah
Annalena Baerbock is “concerned” about Israel’s announcement that it is planning a large military offensive in Rafah. Israel has to guarantee “safe corridors” for civilians in Rafah before conducting any incursion, she said. “I am especially concerned about the announcement by the Israeli government of a large ground military operation in Rafah,” she said at a news conference with the Palestinian foreign minister in the German capital.
“Of course, it is completely clear that also in Rafah there is an unbelievably large net of [the] Hamas terrorist organisation,” she said, adding Israel has a right to defend itself from “terrorism”.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2024/01/02/german-weapons-exports-reached-record-high-in-2023/
https://braveneweurope.com/german-foreign-policy-germany-weapons-for-israel
The German government is about to authorise new arms exports to Israel. Reports indicate that it has already decided to green-light the export of 10,000 rounds of 120-millimetre precision guided ammunition to the Israeli military. The only aspect still under discussion is the price. These shells are apparently being fired in very large numbers in the Gaza Strip. In December, the US administration had already approved the supply of almost 14,000 rounds of the same calibre, in a procedure that bypassed Congress. Last year Berlin approved a delivery of 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons and 500,000 ammunition rounds for semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms. German munition is flowing into the war zone at the same time as Israel is having to defend itself before the International Court of Justice against the charge of genocide in Gaza. - Januari 23rd 2024
