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SvennoJ on 29 February 2024
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Aid to Gaza decreased by half since ICJ order: UNRWA

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel last month to ensure that adequate humanitarian aid reaches Gaza as part of a ruling on preventing genocide in the territory. But UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says assistance to Palestinians in the besieged territory has drastically decreased since the top UN court issued its orders.

“In fact, in February, the average assistance has been halved compared to January,” Lazzarini told CNN, adding that the main Kerem Shalom border crossing has been regularly closed. “The flow of [humanitarian] convoys into the Gaza Strip has been absolutely uneven.”



US Pentagon chief says more than 25,000 women, children killed in Gaza

During a United States congressional hearing, Lloyd Austin was asked how many Palestinian women and children had been killed by Israeli forces since October 7. In his reply, Austin said: “It is over 25,000.”

US officials rarely reference civilian death toll numbers that have resulted from Israel’s war on Gaza. Austin’s boss, President Joe Biden, has previously cast doubt on the figures provided by the Gaza Health Ministry, saying that he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using” – a number that now puts the death toll at more than 30,000.

Moreover, Austin added that about 21,000 precision-guided munitions had been provided to Israel since the start of its war.


At least 13,230 children killed in Gaza

Gaza’s government media office says 13,230 children have been killed in the besieged coastal enclave, including seven who died of starvation. The death toll also includes 8,860 women, 340 medical staff, 132 journalists, and 47 civil defence staff.

While 30,139 bodies have been registered at hospitals, the official death toll does not include the about 7,000 reported missing, the office said in its latest update.

 

Israeli protesters continue to block Gaza aid, demand settlement of the strip

As Palestinians count the dead after a reported Israeli attack on a crowd of people waiting for humanitarian assistance in northern Gaza, Israeli protesters are again trying to block aid from entering the strip, where humanitarian groups say the threat of famine continues to spread amid widespread Israeli restrictions on vital humanitarian assistance.

“Israeli protesters again blocked aid trucks en route to Gaza via [the Karem Abu Salem] Kerem Shalom crossing,” the Israeli rights group Gisha said in a social media post. Israeli soldiers have done little to dissuade the protesters, who have blocked the crossing during similar demonstrations over the past several weeks.

Israeli media: settlers breached Erez crossing, entered Gaza

Israeli journalists for the outlets Haaretz and Times of Israel have reported that Israeli protestors broke through the Erez crossing and entered Gaza, where some have demanded a restoration of Israeli settlements.

Haaretz reported that a crowd of protestors “broke through” a military checkpoint and entered Gaza, with the Israeli military stating that it is working with the Israeli police to arrest them. Crowds of right-wing Israelis have gathered at crossings to block aid into Gaza for weeks. Israeli soldiers have mostly taken few steps to disperse them.

“Some of the activists managed to reach some 500 meters deep into Gaza, according to a military source,” Emanuel Fabian, a reporter with TOI, said in a social media post.

Rights group says 17-year-old Palestinian boy killed near Nablus was shot in the back

The Palestine branch of the rights group Defense for Children International has said that a 17-year-old was killed by Israeli forces near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank this morning, noting that he was shot in the back.

“Bashar Nihad Abdulatif Hanani, 17, was shot in the back by Israeli forces around 1am this morning during a military incursion into the Palestinian town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank,” the group said in a report on the incident.

“Bashar was standing on a wall near the Friendship Medical Center, allegedly throwing stones towards Israeli soldiers located about 25 to 35 meters [82 to 115 feet] away. Israeli forces fired live ammunition toward Bashar, causing him to fall from the wall, which was about 1.5 meters [5 feet] tall. Palestinian paramedics carried Bashar into the medical center, then transferred him in an ambulance to Rafidia Governmental Hospital in Nablus. Doctors pronounced Bashar dead around 1:30am.”

Peace Now says Israeli government planning expansion of ‘state land’ in occupied West Bank

The Israeli anti-occupation group Peace Now has said that the Israeli government has declared a large swathe of land in the occupied West Bank as “state land”, a common pretext for taking Palestinian land that often precedes Israeli settlement expansion. The group says that three Palestinian communities are threatened by the declaration.

“The Government Declares 2,640 Dunams in Abu Dis and el-Azariya as State Land, Located in the Southern area of the E1 Plan, Threatening 3 Palestinian Communities,” Peace Now said in a social media post.

“The Israeli government continues to further the occupation and dispossession of Palestinians in the WB. These lands are located in the southern area of the E1 plan, designated for the construction of at least 1,500 housing units. The significance of this declaration is that these lands will be now under Israeli control, with Palestinians having no rights to them.”

The group states that 99.76 percent of all state land allocated in the occupied West Bank went to Israeli settlements, with only .24 percent for Palestinians.



Smotrich calls for settlement expansion following shooting

Israel’s finance minister has called for the expansion of checkpoints and road closures, along with a “massive” expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, following reports in Israeli media of an attack by a Palestinian gunman that killed two Israelis near the Eli settlement earlier today in the occupied West Bank.

“This requires the [Israeli army] to expand the countermeasures effort and not reduce it, closing roads, returning the checkpoints and massive development of the settlement as an appropriate Zionist answer,” Smotrich said in a social media post, offering his condolences to the families of those killed along with “all settlers”.

Houthis threaten to escalate attacks in Red Sea

Yemen’s Houthis have said that they will bring military “surprises” to the Red Sea, where the group has carried out attacks on commercial vessels and skirmished with US forces over the last several months.

“Our military operations will continue and advance and we have surprises that our enemies will not expect at all,” the group’s leader Malik al-Houthi said in televised remarks today.

While the US has accused the group of disrupting global shipping with its attacks, the Houthis have said that they are acting to exert pressure to end the war in Gaza. Raids on Yemeni territory by the US and the UK have thus far failed to halt the attacks.



Miracles still happen

Child in Gaza City pulled alive from rubble after nine days

Footage authenticated by Al Jazeera’s verification unit Sanad shows a child being pulled from under the rubble of a collapsed building targeted by an Israeli bombardment in Gaza City. The visibly emaciated child was rescued by a civil defence unit after surviving nine days amid the ruins of his collapsed home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, where fighting has been raging for the last few weeks.