Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 474

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, currently in Budapest, has thanked his Hungarian counterpart for the country’s refusal to honour the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Netanyahu, Al Jazeera reports.

Meeting with Hungary’s Peter Szijjarto, Saar repeated Israel’s claims that the ICC is a “political and corrupt” institution, according to comments carried by The Times of Israel newspaper.

“It is unprecedented for the ICC to turn against a democratic country that is fighting terrorism, that is acting in accordance with international law and the rule of law,” said Saar.

At least two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli tank fire in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, west of Rafah in southern Gaza, the enclave’s civil defence agency told Al Jazeera.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says Israel won’t compromise on its objectives of dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and that there are no guarantees for the success of the three-phase ceasefire in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

Saar said Hamas leaders have declared their intent to carry out more attacks on Israel similar to the deadly raids on October 7, 2023, and could, therefore, not be allowed to retain any military capabilities.

“They are committed to the idea of eliminating the Jewish state,” Saar said. “Israel will not accept Hamas’s rule in Gaza. As long as Hamas remains in power, there will be no peace, security or stability in the Middle East.

“We hope the framework for the hostage release will continue until its end, but of course, I cannot guarantee that. We will not abandon our objectives.”

Israeli troops raiding Jenin in the occupied West Bank have set homes in the area ablaze, the Wafa news agency reports.

The arson attacks include several houses in the Jenin refugee camp and one near al-Asir Mosque.

Israel’s Walla news site reports that US and Egyptian security firms will be employed to prevent arms smuggling into the northern Gaza Strip until the end of the first phase of the ceasefire deal, Al Jazeera reports.

Two US companies — Safe Search Solutions and UG Solutions — will employ armed security guards for inspections at the Netzarim Corridor, just south of Gaza City.

The firms will manage a key vehicle checkpoint along Salah al-Din Street in Gaza and facilitate the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza, the news report said.

The third company is an Egyptian security firm whose owners are associated with Egyptian intelligence, it added.

The Israeli military has said it killed two Palestinian fighters overnight near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where a large-scale raid is underway, accusing them of murdering three Israelis, AFP reports.

In a statement, the military said that Israeli forces found the two fighters barricaded in a house in the village of Burqin.

“After an exchange of fire, they were eliminated by the forces”, it said, adding one soldier was injured in the exchange.

The military identified those killed as Mohammed Nazzal and Qutaiba Shalabi, accusing them of being “affiliated with Islamic Jihad” and responsible for a deadly shooting on an Israeli bus in early January.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said Israeli authorities had informed it of the deaths of Nazzal, 25, and Shalabi, 30.

“The bodies are being withheld” by the army, it added in a statement.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says its medics are rushing to help sick and wounded people in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces are continuing the third day of a violent raid, Al Jazeera reports.

PRCS staff are also working to help evacuate trapped families and elderly residents of the city, following Israel’s mass displacement orders for some neighbourhoods.

Israeli forces rounded up six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank’s Hebron governorate, and three more in the governorate of Tulkarem, according to the Wafa news agency.

One of those arrested in Tulkarem is a woman, said Wafa.

Israeli forces also tightened movement restrictions in and around the city of Hebron, closing checkpoints leading to nearby towns, which forced many people to spend the night waiting at the checkpoints, according to Wafa.

“We understand that more than 3,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza during the first four days of the ceasefire. The arrival of aid has brought partial relief to the population,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.

Humanitarian organisations have started to distribute the aid from centres throughout Gaza. Civilians are lined up at the gates of these aid centres waiting desperately to access these supplies, he said.

“Their suffering is exacerbated by rainfall and a search for alternative shelter, especially for families who have returned to the remnants of their destroyed houses.”

In a call with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly says she has “stressed the importance of implementing the ceasefire agreement” in Gaza.

“Reiterated Canada’s commitment to support humanitarian efforts in Gaza,” she said on X.

Gaza’s Civil Defence says 162 bodies have been recovered in the enclave since the implementation of the ceasefire, Al Jazeera reports.

Civil defence crews and residents continue their search for the bodies of Palestinians still buried under the rubble, hampered by the lack of heavy equipment and machinery.

Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan has said, “We urge international community to develop a concrete plan for the reconstruction of Gaza in line with UNSC resolutions.”

Speaking at the weekly press briefing in Islamabad, he called for the accountability of Israeli crimes committed in this “brutal war”, calling it an essential element in restoring international legitimacy.

Welcoming the ceasefire deal, he reiterated Pakistan’s support for a two-state solution.

The FO spokesperson also condemned the recent Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp of West Bank which resulted in the killing of 10 Palestinians. He said, “Such actions potentially undermine the precarious ceasefire in Gaza and the international community should take note of it.”

Two Palestinian students have been arrested in an Israeli raid on the towns of Rammun and Silwad in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah governorate, according to the Wafa news agency.

Both are studying at Birzeit University, Wafa added.

Moreover, the Palestinian news agency said another man was arrested after his home was raided in the village of Kobar, northwest of the city of Ramallah, the report said.

Israeli forces are applying methods learned during the offensive on Gaza to their ongoing “Iron Wall” military operation in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s defence minister said, where troops have killed at least 10 people in Jenin and ordered residents to flee the area’s refugee camp, according to Al Jazeera.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that the Jenin operation, which is entering its third day, marks a shift in Israel’s military plan in the occupied West Bank and was “the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza”.

An Israeli military spokesperson declined to give details of the Jenin operation, which began on Tuesday and is the third major incursion by the Israeli army in less than two years into Jenin, a longtime stronghold of resistance to Israel’s decades-old military occupation of Palestinian territory.

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The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, says that one of the challenges for Gaza’s recovery will be clearing land mines and other unexploded ordnance left behind by 15 months of conflict, Al Jazeera reports.

OCHA cited a recent report from the Global Protection Cluster, a group of UN and other humanitarian organisations, which estimated the explosives buried in the rubble in Gaza would take “$500 million over 10 years to clear” from some 42 million tonnes of rubble which also contains asbestos, other hazardous contaminants and human remains.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has confirmed that 17 Filipinos were among 25 Galaxy Leader crew members released by Yemen’s Houthis, Al Jazeera reports.

“It is with utmost joy that, after more than a year of captivity in Yemen, I announce the safe release of all seventeen Filipino seafarers, together with the rest of the crew members of M/V Galaxy Leader,” Marcos was quoted as saying in a statement.

“Our Filipino seafarers are now in the care of our Philippine Embassy in Muscat, Oman and will be reunited with their loved ones in the Philippines very soon,” he said.

US civil rights groups are warning that an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday lays the groundwork for the reinstatement of a ban on travellers from predominantly Muslim or Arab countries, Reuters reports.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said the new order relied on the same statutory authority used to justify Trump’s 2017 travel ban and offered even “wider latitude to use ideological exclusion to deny visa requests and remove individuals” who had already entered the country.

The new order goes beyond Trump’s 2017 ban on travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, adding language that deny people visas or entry to the US if they “bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles,” and sets up a process that could lead to removal of those granted visas since January 2021.

The White House did not reply to repeated queries about the order.

During the presidential campaign, Trump said he would re-impose travel bans on people from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and “anywhere else that threatens our security.”

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to reiterate Washington’s support for its ally, and the two also discussed Iran and Israeli hostages in Gaza, Reuters quotes the State Department as saying.

The call was Rubio’s first with Israel since the administration of Republican President Donald Trump took office on Monday. Rubio underscored that “maintaining the United States’ steadfast support for Israel is a top priority for Trump”, the State Department said in a statement.

Rubio also held calls yesterday with Saudi Arabia crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the State Department said, adding the topics discussed included Gaza, Syria and Lebanon, among others.

Rubio told Netanyahu that Washington will continue to work “tirelessly” to help free the remaining hostages in Gaza, the State Department added.

“The Secretary also conveyed (to Netanyahu) that he looks forward to addressing the threats posed by Iran and pursuing opportunities for peace,” the State Department said.

US President Donald Trump has re-designated Yemen’s Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a “foreign terrorist organization”, Reuters quotes the White House as saying.

The move will impose harsher economic penalties than the Biden administration had applied to the group in response to its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and against US warships defending the critical maritime chokepoint.

Proponents of the move say it is overdue, though some experts say it could have implications for anyone seen as aiding the Houthis, including some aid organisations.

“The Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade,” the White House said in a statement.

Under the Biden administration, the US military sought to intercept Houthi attacks to safeguard commercial traffic and waged periodic strikes to degrade Houthi military capabilities. But it did not target the group’s leadership.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said 808 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip yesterday, the fourth day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reports.

OCHA cited information received from Israeli authorities and the guarantors for the ceasefire agreement — the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

Israel’s defence minister has said forces are applying lessons learned in Gaza as a major operation continues in Jenin which the military says is aimed at countering Iranian-backed militant groups in the volatile West Bank city, Reuters reports.

A military spokesperson declined to give details but said the operation was “relatively similar” to but in a smaller area than one last August, in which hundreds of Israeli troops backed by drones and helicopters raided Jenin and other flashpoint cities in the occupied West Bank.

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France has seen nearly 1,600 anti-Semitic acts in 2024, a slight dip on the year before but still at levels unseen in recent years as the Israel-Hamas fighting raged in Gaza, AFP reports.

The figure of 1,570 incidents marked a six-percent fall from the 1,676 recorded in 2023 but well above the numbers in the past decade or so.

By comparison, 436 anti-Semitic acts were recorded in 2022 and since 2012 they have fluctuated between 311 and 851 per year.

“For the second consecutive year, we are facing a historic number of anti-Semitic acts,” said the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), an umbrella body of French Jewish groups, in a report based on figures from the Jewish community and the ministry of the interior.

The CRIF has emphasised that anti-Semitic incidents surged in France in 2023 following October 7, 2023.

The figures only cover acts that have been the subject of a complaint, and therefore “this does not cover the entire phenomenon of anti-Semitism in France”, CRIF president Yonathan Arfi told AFP.