The deadly violence also spread to the West Bank where the Israeli army said it was carrying out a new operation in the city of Jenin, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups fighting against the Israeli occupation. In the Gaza Strip besieged by Israel, more than seven months of a deadly war have also caused a humanitarian catastrophe with the majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants threatened with famine and three quarters displaced, according to the UN.
The main information:
- ICC prosecutor Karim Khan says he has requested arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders
- The UN human rights office on Tuesday called for “respect for the legal process”
- In the center of the Palestinian territory, airstrikes targeted the Al-Bureij camp on Tuesday, according to witnesses
“A nightmare, hell on earth”
“Frankly, we lack words to describe what is happening in Gaza. We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, hell on earth. It is all of that, and worse,” Edem Wosornu summed up Monday, Director of Operations for the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), before the UN Security Council.
The war was sparked by a Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which resulted in the death of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data. Of the 252 people then taken as hostages, 124 are still held in Gaza, including 37 dead according to the army.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip in retaliation, resulting in the deaths of at least 35,647 people, mostly civilians, including at least 85 in the past 24 hours, data shows. Tuesday from the Ministry of Health of the government of the Palestinian territory led by the Palestinian movement.
Hospital under siege
In the center of the Palestinian territory, airstrikes targeted the Al-Bureij camp on Tuesday, according to witnesses. And in the south, Israeli warships fired on Khan Yunis, while doctors at the European hospital reported several injured by an airstrike that hit a house.
Israeli aircraft have struck around 70 targets in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, with the army saying it has “eliminated several” fighters in the south, center and Jabalia. In Jabalia, the World Health Organization said Al-Awda Hospital had been “under siege” for two days, with 170 patients and staff stranded there, reporting sniper fire and a rocket impact.
Israel launched ground operations in certain sectors of Rafah on May 7 despite opposition from the international community, notably that of its great American ally, which is concerned about more than a million civilians trapped in this city. on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army has ordered massive evacuations from Rafah where it says it wants to destroy the last battalions of Hamas – which Israel considers a terrorist organization, as do the United States and the European Union – and its network of tunnels, and save the hostages.
“Since October 2023, 75% of Gaza’s population – or 1.7 million people – have been forcibly displaced within Gaza, many up to four or five times, in part due to repeated calls to evacuate issued by the Israeli army,” said the director of operations for Ocha.
“Respect for the legal process”
Since Israel took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt two weeks ago on the Palestinian side, the delivery of humanitarian aid has virtually come to a standstill, particularly fuel, essential to hospitals and to humanitarian logistics. According to Wosornu, 1.1 million people in the Gaza Strip face “catastrophic levels of hunger.”
In this context, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday that he had requested arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes such as “the deliberately starving civilians”, “intentional homicide” and “extermination and/or murder”.
Hamas leaders are also targeted by this request for arrest warrants, notably its leader in Gaza Yahya Sinouar, for “extermination”, “rape and other forms of sexual violence” and “hostage-taking as a war crime “.
The Israeli Prime Minister “rejected with disgust the Hague prosecutor’s comparison between Israel”, his Defense Minister denouncing a “despicable and despicable” decision. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for its part denounced “the attempts of the prosecutor (…) to assimilate the victim to the executioner”.
On Monday, American President Joe Biden castigated a “scandalous” approach by the ICC towards Israeli leaders, while French diplomacy announced that it “supports the International Criminal Court”. A spokesperson for the UN human rights office called on Tuesday for “respect for the legal process, the case is now before the Pre-Trial Chamber, which must be able to carry out its work without external pressure or interference”, and that “all those responsible for committing violations are held accountable”.