The United Nations General Assembly voted on Thursday to ask the International Court of Justice for an opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by states and international groups including the UN.
Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel had killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water, which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.
US and Arab mediators were working round-the-clock to hammer out a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, said sources close to the talks, while in the Gaza Strip medics said Israeli strikes had killed 41 Palestinians on Thursday.
UN seeks World Court opinion on Israel’s Palestinian aid obligations
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Thursday to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by states and international groups including the UN.
The Norwegian-drafted resolution was adopted by the 193-member body with 137 votes in favour. Israel, the US and 10 other countries voted no, while 22 countries abstained.
The move came in response to Israel’s decision to ban the operation of the UN Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa in the country from late January and other obstacles faced by other UN agencies in their aid work in Gaza over the past year.
The ICJ, known as the World Court, is the United Nations’ highest court, and its advisory opinions carry legal and political weight although they are not binding. The Hague-based court has no enforcement powers if its opinions are ignored.
The resolution adopted on Thursday also expressed “grave concern about the dire humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” and “calls upon Israel to uphold and comply with its obligations not to impede the Palestinian people from exercising its right to self-determination”.
The UN views Gaza and the West Bank as Israeli-occupied territory. International humanitarian law requires an occupying power to agree to relief programmes for people in need and to facilitate them “by all the means at its disposal” and ensure food, medical care, hygiene and public health standards.
The new Israeli law does not directly ban Unrwa’s operations in the West Bank and Gaza. However, it will severely affect Unrwa’s ability to work. Top UN officials and the Security Council describe Unrwa as the backbone of Gaza’s aid response.
In a letter to the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday, Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said that “replacing Unrwa with relief schemes that will adequately provide essential assistance to Palestinian civilians is not at all impossible”.
“Israel is willing and ready to work with international partners (and already does work tirelessly) so as to allow and facilitate the continued passage of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, and to ensure the unhindered provision of these necessary basic services, in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security,” Danon wrote in the letter.
The UN has complained of aid obstacles in Gaza since the war between Palestinian militants Hamas and Israel began on 7 October 2023. The UN blames Israel and lawlessness in the enclave for impediments to getting aid into Gaza and distributing it to Palestinians throughout the war zone.
A committee of global food security experts warned last month that there was a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of northern Gaza.
Israel has said the issue in Gaza was not a lack of aid because more than a million tonnes had been delivered during the past year. It accuses Hamas of hijacking the assistance. Hamas has denied the allegations and has blamed Israel for shortages.
Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza is act of genocide - Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday that Israel had killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water, which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.
“This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an ‘act of genocide’ under the Genocide Convention of 1948,” said Human Rights Watch in its report.
Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas-led attack from Gaza on 7 October 2023 that precipitated the war.
In a statement on X, Israel’s foreign ministry wrote: “The truth is the complete opposite of HRW’s lies,” adding that Israel had enabled a continuous flow of water and aid into Gaza.
Although the report described the deprivation of water as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials would also require establishing their intent. It cited statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they “wish to destroy Palestinians” which means the deprivation of water “may amount to the crime of genocide”.
“What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a press conference.
Human Rights Watch is the second major rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe the actions of Israel in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report that concluded Israel was committing genocide.
Both reports came just weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. They deny the allegations.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
Human Rights Watch said Israel stopped water being piped into Gaza and cut off electricity and restricted fuel, meaning Gaza’s own water and sanitation facilities could not be used.
Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few litres of water a day in many areas, far below the 15-litre threshold for survival, the group said.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.
Israel keeps up Gaza bombardment as ceasefire talks intensify
US and Arab mediators were working round-the-clock to hammer out a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, said sources close to the talks, while in the Gaza Strip medics said Israeli strikes had killed 41 Palestinians on Thursday.
The mediators, at talks in Egypt and Qatar, are trying to forge a deal to pause the 14-month-old war in the Hamas-ruled enclave that would include a release of hostages seized from Israel on 7 October 2023, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel
Mediators had managed to narrow some gaps on previous sticking points but differences remained, said the sources.
In Gaza, medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed overnight in separate Israeli airstrikes, including on two houses in Gaza City and a central camp.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed nine people near Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, while another killed four others at a housing project near Beit Lahiya in the north. There was no Israeli comment.
Later on Thursday, airstrikes killed at least 15 Palestinians in two shelters housing displaced families in eastern Gaza City’s suburb of Tuffah, said medics, bringing Thursday’s death toll to 41.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants operating in command and control complexes in areas that were previously used as the Al-Karama and Sha’ban Schools in Tuffah. It said Hamas used the complexes to plan and execute attacks against its forces.
Residents of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, where the army has operated since October, said forces blew up clusters of houses overnight.
“The longer those talks last, the more destruction and death takes place in Gaza. Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya are being wiped out, Rafah too,” said Adel (60), a resident of Jabalia, who is now displaced in Gaza City.
A report published by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Thursday said there were clear signs of ethnic cleansing in Israel’s offensive as Palestinians were forcibly displaced and bombed.
“The signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation — including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment — are undeniable,” said the aid group’s head, Christopher Lockyear, in the report.
“Palestinians have been killed in their homes and in hospital beds… People cannot find even the most basic necessities like food, clean water, medicines, and soap amid a punishing siege and blockade,” said MSF.
Sources close to the mediation efforts said Hamas had pushed for a one-package deal but Israel wanted a phased one. Talks are focused on a first-phase release of hostages, dead or alive, as well as a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.
On Tuesday, the sides discussed the numbers and categories of those to be released, but things had yet to be finalised, said a source who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the talks.
The source said one issue was Israel’s demand to retain the right to act against any possible military threat from Gaza and the stationing of Israeli forces during phases of the deal.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday Israel would have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action after defeating Hamas.
Israeli airstrikes in Syria must stop, says UN chief
Israeli airstrikes on Syria were violations of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and “must stop”, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday.
Since a lightning rebel offensive ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes that it says are aimed at destroying strategic weapons and military infrastructure.
“Syria’s sovereignty, territorial unity, and integrity must be fully restored, and all acts of aggression must come to an immediate end,” Guterres told reporters.
Israeli troops also moved into a demilitarised zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights — created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war — that is patrolled by UN peacekeepers.
Israeli officials have described the move as a limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of Israel’s borders but have given no indication of when the troops might be withdrawn.
“Let me be clear: There should be no military forces in the area of separation other than UN peacekeepers — period. Israel and Syria must uphold the terms of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement, which remains fully in force,” said Guterres.
He said the UN was focused on facilitating an “inclusive, credible and peaceful” political transition in Syria and getting aid moving to combat one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.
Putin denies Russian defeat in Syria, says Israel is the main winner
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Thursday that Russia’s nine-year intervention in Syria had been a failure, but expressed concern about Israel’s military operations there since the toppling of his ally Bashar al-Assad.
Putin, addressing multiple questions on Syria at a marathon annual news conference, said Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia’s air and naval bases in the country.
In his first public comments on the subject, he said he had not yet met Assad since the former president fled to Moscow earlier this month, but that he planned to do so.
Putin played down the damage to Moscow from the fall of Assad, saying its military intervention in Syria since 2015 had helped prevent the country from becoming a “terrorist enclave”.
He said Israel was the “main beneficiary” of the current situation.
Soon after Assad’s fall, Israel moved troops into the buffer zone on the Syrian side of the dividing line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of air strikes to destroy Syrian army weapons and equipment.
“Russia condemns the seizure of any Syrian territories. This is obvious,” Putin said, saying Israel had penetrated to a depth of 25km and got as far as fortifications that were built for Syria by the former Soviet Union.
He said most people in Syria with whom Russia had been in contact about the future of its two main military bases in Syria were supportive of them staying, but that talks were ongoing.
Israel strikes port and energy targets in Yemen
Israel launched strikes against ports and energy infrastructure in Houthi-held parts of Yemen on Thursday and threatened more attacks against the Iran-aligned militant group, which has launched hundreds of missiles at Israel over the past year.
As Israeli jets were in the air, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile headed towards central Israel which destroyed a school building in Ramat Efal in the western part of Tel Aviv with what a military spokesperson described as falling shrapnel.
The Houthis — who have launched attacks on international shipping near Yemen since November 2023, in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel’s war with Hamas — said they had attacked Tel Aviv overnight, launching two ballistic missiles and hitting “precise military targets”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “After Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are nearly the last remaining arm of Iran’s axis of evil. They are learning and they will learn the hard way, that whoever harms Israel pays a very heavy price for it.”
Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah are also allies of Iran.
The Israeli attack, involving 14 fighter jets and other aircraft, came in two waves, with a first series of strikes on the ports of Salif and Ras Issa and a second series hitting the capital Sanaa, military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthis, said the airstrikes killed nine people, seven in Salif and two in the Ras Issa oil facility, both in the western province of Hodeidah.
Two sources at the port of Hodeidah told Reuters that an Israeli strike destroyed a tugboat, but the port has several others capable of towing ships to the dock.
In Sanaa, the strikes also targeted two central power stations south and north of the capital, Sanaa, which Al Masirah said had cut electricity to thousands of families.
An official from the Electricity Department in Sanaa told Reuters that airstrikes hit fuel depots at two power stations — one in Dhahban, north of the capital, and the other in Haiz, south of Sanaa. He said fires had been contained and electricity was expected to be restored within hours.
The Israeli attacks followed a strike on Monday by US aircraft against a command and control facility operated by the Houthis, which control much of Yemen.
The Houthis vowed to respond to the Israeli attacks.
“The Israeli attack will not deter Yemen from responding to this heinous aggression and supporting Gaza,” said the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, in a televised speech.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue to respond to Houthi attacks.
Non-Syrian Kurdish fighters to leave Syria if truce agreed with Turkey - military chief
Kurdish fighters who came to Syria from around the Middle East to support Syrian Kurdish forces would leave if a ceasefire was reached in the conflict with Turkey in northern Syria, the commander of Syrian Kurdish-led forces told Reuters on Thursday.
The withdrawal of non-Syrian Kurdish fighters is one of the major demands of neighbouring Turkey, which deems Syria’s dominant Kurdish groups a national security threat and is backing a new military campaign against them in the north.
Hostilities have escalated since Bashar al-Assad was toppled less than two weeks ago, with Turkey and Syrian armed groups it backs seizing the city of Manbij from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on 9 December.
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi’s comments mark the first time he has confirmed that non-Syrian Kurdish fighters, including members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), have come to Syria to support his forces during the Syrian conflict. Turkey, the US and other countries deem the PKK a terrorist group.
Ankara views the main Syrian Kurdish factions as an extension of the PKK. Abdi said that while PKK fighters had come to Syria, the SDF had no organisational ties to the group.
He credited the non-Syrian fighters with helping the US-backed SDF battle Islamic State over the last decade. He said that while some of them had returned home over the years, others had stayed to help fight Islamic State and that it would be time for them to go home if a ceasefire was reached. DM
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