Israel’s war on Gaza — now in its 98th day — has so far killed at least 23,469 Palestinians and wounded 59,604, officials say, as Tel Aviv’s aerial bombardment and land invasion fuels a humanitarian catastrophe in the tiny coastal enclave.
Israel has killed at least nine civilians and wounded several others in an air strike targeting a residential home in the Shawka neighbourhood, east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza, Palestinian news agency reported.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported its teams transported nine casualties following the Israeli attack on the Abu Seneima family home in the neighbourhood.
The Israeli raid reduced the house to rubble upon the heads of its civilian occupants.
Israel will respond to strong accusations brought by South Africa at the UN’s top court that its brutal war in besieged Gaza is a state-led genocide campaign aimed at wiping out the Palestinian population.
Israel has rejected the accusations of genocide as baseless and said South Africa was acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas resistance group.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
The court is expected to rule on possible emergency measures later this month, but will not rule at that time on the genocide allegations — those proceedings could take years.
The ICJ’s decisions are final and without appeal — but the court has no way to enforce them.
US, UK start striking Yemen’s Houthis
The US and UK started carrying out strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
This is the first time strikes have been launched against the Iran-backed group since it started targeting international shipping in the Red Sea late last year in solidarity with Palestine.
South African president says proud of country’s legal team
South Africa’s president has said that he was pleased with how his country’s legal team argued its case at the International Court of Justice [ICJ] against Israel for committing genocide in besieged Gaza.
“I have never felt as proud as I felt today when our legal team was arguing our case in The Hague,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, addressing the Women’s League of his ruling African National Congress party.
Ramaphosa said his country had put together a strong team of lawyers to represent South Africa’s case at the top UN court in The Hague, the Netherlands.
ICJ genocide hearings offer hope for Palestinians: Amnesty International
Amnesty International has said that ongoing proceedings at the International Court of Justice [ICJ] related to South Africa’s genocide case against Israel have the potential to safeguard Palestinian civilians, bring an “end to the man-made humanitarian catastrophe” in besieged Gaza, and provide a glimmer of hope for international justice.
“As the US continues to use its veto power to block the UN Security Council from calling for a ceasefire, war crimes and crimes against humanity are rife, and the risk of genocide is real. States have a positive obligation to prevent and punish genocide and other atrocity crimes,” said Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, in a statement.
“The ICJ’s examination of Israel’s conduct is a vital step for the protection of Palestinian lives, to restore trust and credibility in the universal application of international law, and to pave the way for justice and reparation for victims,” she added.
She further said that many Palestinians and human rights experts perceive this as a deliberate Israeli tactic to make Gaza “unlivable.”
She added that troubling statements from specific Israeli authorities endorsing the illegal expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, along with the reprehensible use of dehumanising language, exacerbate the situation.
