Israeli response to October 7 attack ‘exceeded’ self-defence: Ex-UN official

Mogens Lykketoft, a Danish politician who led the Social Democrats from 2002 to 2005 and a former UN General Assembly president, says while the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7 2023 was the “trigger” for the war in Gaza, the Israeli response “has long since exceeded anything like legitimate self-defence”.

The genocide is a “human catastrophe of historic dimensions”, he said.

“Many people in rich Western countries simply do not understand the background and the character of the tragedy that’s ongoing,” he said.

He urged Europeans to break an “impenetrable media barrier” to “enlighten” others about the “facts on the ground”.

“Palestinians are human beings with the same hopes … that most of us in the Western world already enjoy.”

Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief says journalists in the enclave ‘feel the silence’

Addressing the European Palestinian Network Conference in the Danish capital, Al Jazeera’s Wael Dahdouh has said journalists in Gaza feel a “sense of isolation, of being alone to endure and swallow this bitterness”.

Dahdouh cited the grim toll on journalists, saying more than 200 reporters have been killed since Israel’s war began.

“Some of us feel the silence at times, bias at others, and the hesitant actions at other times are themselves part of our killing, part of our tragedy, and part of the heavy price we have paid, are still paying,” he told the audience.

Dahdouh, the network’s Gaza bureau chief, evacuated from the Strip after an Israeli attack that wounded him and killed Al Jazeera journalist Samer Abudaqa.

Israeli forces killed Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson in October 2023, and in January 2024, killed his eldest son Hamza, who was also an Al Jazeera journalist.

Putin is trying to erase the Ukrainian identity as much as Netanyahu wants to erase the Palestinian identity. In that way they're both genocides. The difference is the methodology and geography involved. The intent remains the same.

As Gaza’s population struggles to survive, one man filters mud for water

Amid huge shortages of food, medicine and clean war in Gaza, a resident in the war-torn territory has demonstrated a method for extracting water from mud in a video shared by our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

The process involves collecting wet mud into a cloth, squeezing the liquid into a bowl and then filtering the liquid through a funnel made of a plastic bag and cotton.

From there, the container holding the dirty water is placed at a height on a stool or table. One end of a strip of cloth is dipped in the container, and the other is placed on the lip of a second container placed on the floor.

As the water is absorbed from the higher container, gravity draws down the liquid into the second container, where it gathers as cleaner water.

Fuel supplied to crisis-stricken Gaza hospitals: Ministry

International organisations were successful in bringing fuel to the Gaza Strip in recent days amid a shortage, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

“After exceptional and intensive efforts regarding the fuel crisis that Gaza Strip hospitals suffered from a few days ago, which almost destroyed the hospitals, we were informed by international organisations [like the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA] that they succeeded in bringing in quantities of fuel,” it said in a statement.

It also said it is working on the continuity of fuel supply “to ensure that there is no crisis in the near term”.

Bodies melted by explosives from Israeli attacks: Civil defence

A body has been recovered following Israeli bombing on the town of Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.

Earlier, medical sources told Al Jazeera that 22 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours. The civil defence added that a number of bodies had disappeared as a result of melting due to the amount of explosives fired by the Israeli army.

Gaza death toll rises

At least 32 Palestinians have been killed and 193 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 48 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The latest deaths have brought the total toll since October 7, 2023 to 46,537, the ministry said, adding that 499 previously unreported deaths were also added to the total.

Israel’s war on Gaza has also injured at least 109,571 people, the ministry said.

Three battalions to reinforce Israeli forces in occupied West Bank: Report

Three infantry battalions will be sent to reinforce Israeli forces in the north of the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reports.

The surge in troops comes after a meeting on Monday, where the head of the Israeli internal security agency, Shin Bet, urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials to greenlight a major military expansion in the occupied West Bank.

The deployment also comes amid calls for the annexation of the Palestinian territory by ultra-far-right members of the Israeli government.

Israeli settlers open fire during attack on Palestinian village in occupied West Bank: UN

According to the latest report on violence in the occupied West Bank by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were 14 incursions by Israeli settlers into the occupied West Bank that led to the injury of 18 Palestinians, mainly farmers, and included the vandalism of houses, tent shelters and vehicles.

Three settlers were also killed by armed Palestinians during the latest weeklong reporting period by OCHA, between December 31 and January 6.

In one incident, Israeli settlers, some of whom carried arms, were escorted by Israeli forces and threw stones at Palestinian farmers on the outskirts of the village of Silwad in Ramallah.

When the farmers responded, a group of settlers opened fire with live ammunition, beat Palestinians with clubs and set eight vehicles on fire.

Main events from Januari 11th

Ten Israeli soldiers killed in north Gaza in the past week

The Times of Israel is reporting that the deaths of the four Israeli soldiers in Beit Hanoon on Saturday have taken the death toll to 10 in the past week. Three other soldiers were killed in the northern Gaza town last Wednesday, while three more were killed in the previous two days, according to the daily.

The death toll from Israel’s three-month-long operation and siege of north Gaza has now risen to 48, it said.

The parents of Israeli troops fighting in Gaza have meanwhile criticised Netanyahu’s handling of the war. In an open letter addressing the Israeli PM on Thursday, the 800 parents wrote: “We cannot allow you to sacrifice our children as cannon fodder.”

The military “has no reason to stay in Gaza, besides fulfilling messianic wishes of settling there”, the letter said, adding that the fighting in the Palestinian enclave was “a war without a horizon, unlike anything in our history, solely in the interest of your own political survival”.

Eight Israeli soldiers wounded in Jabalia on Friday: Report

Israeli broadcaster Kan is reporting that the eight soldiers from the Givati Brigade were wounded after an improvised explosive device detonated in northern Jabalia on Friday. It said three of them sustained serious injuries.

Kan said the Israeli military had informed the families about the incident but did not publicise it. The report comes as the military announced that at least four soldiers were killed and several others wounded in fighting in Beit Hanoon on Saturday.

More than 150 immigrants arriving in Israel to join army: Report

More than 150 immigrants will arrive in Israel in the coming days to enlist in the army, the Maariv newspaper reports. The report said the immigrants are from the US, Russia, Canada, France, the UK, Costa Rica, Denmark, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries.

Earlier, Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers are dying in “unprecedented numbers”.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed in Beit Hanoon on Saturday, taking the death toll to 10 in the past week, The Times of Israel reported.

The NGO holding Israeli soldiers to account

Israeli officials are concerned about their soldiers being arrested for alleged war crimes in Gaza after a soldier had to flee Brazil to avoid being questioned over his conduct in the Palestinian enclave.

The Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) is the force behind this international effort for accountability.

Formed just five months ago, HRF has pulled together lawyers and activists from around the world to prepare cases, primarily based on social media content shared by Israeli soldiers themselves.

Israeli reservist Yuval Vagdani was among the first of what HRF founder and Chair Dyab Abou Jahjah says will be many soldiers accused of war crimes.

Speaking to the Israeli media on Wednesday after being “forced” to cut his “dream trip” to Brazil short, Vagdani said finding himself subject to an overseas war crimes investigation after having filmed himself blowing up people’s homes in Gaza “felt a little like a bullet in the heart”.

_{Israeli reservist Yuval Vagdani in Gaza}

According to local media, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had played a critical role in helping Vagdani evade investigation and potential prosecution for war crimes, first arranging for him to be smuggled into Argentina, and from there to the United States, before eventually leaving for Israel.

Israeli authorities and media have issued guidelines to soldiers on evading arrest overseas and camouflaging their identities while on deployment.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/10/impunity-and-accountability-the-ngo-holding-israeli-troops-to-account

Go after these newly imported soldiers as well.

Israeli forces destroyed most homes in Lebanon’s Tayr Harfa: Report

A correspondent with Lebanon’s National News Agency, who visited the southern Lebanese town of Tayr Harfa days after Israeli forces pulled out from the area, is reporting extensive destruction there.

The correspondent said Israeli forces have “bombed and burned” most of the houses in the town, and destroyed or damaged olive fields and fruit trees there, too.

The Lebanese army deployed soldiers to Tayr Harfa last week, and civil defence crews are now at work in the town to search for missing people and to remove rubble and open roads.

Earlier, the NNA reported that emergency workers had retrieved the body of one person from Tayr Harfa on Saturday.

The Israeli pullout from Tayr Harfa comes after it agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah following more than a year of war. The US-brokered 60-day truce calls for a phased Israeli military pullout and for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, about 30km (19 miles) from the Israeli border, in line with a UN Security Council resolution from 2006 that ended their last major conflict.

_{A man walks among the rubble in the town of Derdghaiya, Tyre, Lebanon, on November 29, 2024, after Israeli forces destroyed roads, houses, schools, mosques, and buildings there}

Israeli forces positioned near south Lebanon town: Report

Israeli forces operating with a Merkava tank and two Hummer vehicles have reached the northern outskirts of the town of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese National News Agency reports.

It added that the forces have positioned themselves near a house and an army patrol has moved towards the villages of Wadi Khansa and Rayhana Bari. More details are awaited.

Rights group slams ‘appalling’ conditions at Israeli underground prison in Ramla

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has denounced the conditions that Israeli authorities are subjecting Palestinian detainees to at an underground prison in the city of Ramla.

It cited video clips released by Israeli media that showed Palestinian detainees and prisoners there chained inside underground cells without mattresses or blankets, enclosed by iron gates, and not exposed to sunlight.

Euro-Med said the Israeli claim that the prison is reserved for the most “dangerous detainees — whom Israel says are members of the Hamas elite and the Hezbollah-affiliated Radwan Forces — does not excuse the violation of international law” regarding the treatment of detainees and prisoners.

It added that Israel’s establishment of the underground prison shows that Israeli prisons and detentions are “designed to torture Palestinian detainees”. It also said that Israel’s decision to display images of prisoners and detainees there in “appalling” conditions shows the Israeli “disdain for the global justice system”.

This is a logical outcome of the long history of impunity made possible by the support that Israel enjoys from the US and several European governments, it said.

Journalist detained by PA being tortured: Lawyers’ association

Journalist Jarrah Khalaf is being tortured in the prisons of the Palestinian Authority for filming the events in Jenin, the Lawyers for Justice group says.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic cited the association as saying Khalaf is being investigated for filming news conferences of the Jenin Brigade in the occupied West Bank.

Charges of possession of a weapon were brought before the court, extending his detention, they reported.

Palestinian security forces detained Khalaf, a reporter for “Quds Feed”, on Wednesday while he was heading to his hometown, Jenin, according to the Palestinian
Center for Development and Media Freedoms.

He is currently being held by the Palestinian Intelligence Service under the “governor’s authority”, it said in a statement.

Academics, lawyers voice support for pro-Palestinian professor pressured to leave Columbia

As we reported earlier, Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke says she has retired from Columbia University after coming under pressure for her support for pro-Palestinian students.

Noura Erakat, a professor at Rutgers University and human rights lawyer, said, “Columbia University’s mistreatment of Prof Katherine Franke is egregious.”

“She has resigned after 25 yrs of an illustrious academic career and commitment to her students because she decided there is nothing to return to- it is far too hostile,” Erakat added.

Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), described Columbia’s actions as “truly shameful” and said the AAUP stands with “Professor Franke and against this repression of pro-Palestinian speech”, in a post on X.

Activists back US professor ‘forced’ from Columbia over Palestine advocacy

Academics, lawyers and activists have voiced support for a US law professor who says she was pressured to leave Columbia University for her advocacy for pro-Palestinian students.

“Effective today, I have reached an agreement with Columbia University that relieves me of my obligations to teach or participate in faculty governance after serving on the Columbia law faculty for 25 years,” Katherine Franke, a tenured law professor at the Ivy League university in the United States, said in a statement last week.

“I have come to the view that the Columbia University administration has created such a toxic and hostile environment for legitimate debate around the war in Israel and Palestine that I can no longer teach or conduct research,” Franke said.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said Franke has become “another victim of the pro-Israelism that is turning universities, and other spaces of public life, into places of obscurantism, discrimination and oppression”.

Malala says ‘Israel has decimated entire education system’ in Gaza

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai says she would continue to call out Israel’s violations of international law and human rights in Gaza.

“In Gaza, Israel has decimated the entire education system,” she told a summit on girls’ education in Muslim nations, hosted by Pakistan and attended by representatives from dozens of countries.

“They have bombed all universities, destroyed more than 90 percent of schools, and indiscriminately attacked civilians sheltering in school buildings.”

Yousafzai was shot in the face by members of a Pakistani armed group when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 2012, amid her campaigning for female education rights. She made a remarkable recovery after being evacuated to the United Kingdom and went on to become the youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner at the age of 17.