Witnesses reported nighttime bombings near the Nasser hospital in Khan Younes, where, according to Israel, Hamas officials are hiding, on the night of Tuesday January 16 to Wednesday January 17. Evoking “the most difficult and intense night” of Israeli bombings in Khan Younes (center) since the start of the war, Hamas announced the death of at least 81 Palestinians in the city and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, where according to the United Nations there is a “risk of starvation” and D’“deadly epidemics”.
The war, which devastated the Palestinian enclave and displaced 80% of the civilian population, was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel which left 1,140 people dead, the majority of them civilians. civilians, killed that day, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
Some 250 people were taken hostage and taken to Gaza during the attack, around 100 of whom were released during a truce at the end of November. According to Israel, 132 remain detained, of whom 27 are believed to have died. On the Palestinian side, the Hamas health ministry deplores 24,448 deaths in Gaza.
Hamas sets new conditions for delivering medicine to hostages
“Pharmaceutical trucks will enter without Israeli inspection”, said Moussa Abou Marzouka Hamas official, Wednesday January 17 on X. Cogat, an organ of the Israeli Ministry of Defense which coordinates “civil activities” of the army in the occupied territories, rejected any possibility of allowing convoys to enter without this control, to Agence France-Presse (AFP). As a reminder, all humanitarian aid convoys have been subject to such inspection since the start of the war.
The day before, Qatar had announced an agreement “concerning the entry of medicines (…) for the hostages in exchange for a shipment of humanitarian aid for civilians in the Gaza Strip ». In his tweet, Moussa Abou Marzouk sets other conditions for Hamas: “for each box of medicines” which will go to the 45 hostages, “a thousand boxes will go to the inhabitants of Gaza” ; “the medicines will be supplied via a country we trust, Qatar, and not France as Israel requested”. Once entering the Gaza Strip, the medicines, whether intended for the population or the hostages, will be “transported to four different hospitals in the band” from Gaza. Finally, Hamas demands “more help and medicine”.
Washington once again designates the Houthis as a “terrorist” entity
By opting to qualify the entity of the Yemeni rebels as “specially designated as a terrorist at the global level”, the United States intends to maintain the flow of humanitarian aid to Yemen, which depends very largely on it, an American official explained to AFP on condition of anonymity. The announcement comes as the US military has launched a series of strikes in recent days against the Houthis, who are targeting ships off the coast of Yemen, in solidarity, they say, with the Palestinians in Gaza.
However, this sanction, intended to ” pressure “ on the rebel group while preserving the delivery of crucial humanitarian aid to Yemen, will only take effect in thirty days, according to a press release from the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. “This designation aims to hold the group accountable for its terrorist activities”affirms Mr. Blinken, ensuring that “If the Houthis cease their attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the United States will reevaluate this designation”.
The United States had removed the Houthis from its list of“terrorist organizations” in February 2021. They judged at the time that this designation complicated the response to a very serious humanitarian crisis in Yemen, a country at war whose rebel group controls a large part of the territory.
Ten West Bankers killed by Israeli army
Following Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank in two refugee camps, ten Palestinians died: five in Tulkarem (Northwest), according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and five in the Balata camp, in Nablus (center), declared the armed wing of Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In Tulkarem, the Israeli army confirmed having carried out a strike “during anti-terrorist operations”assured that he had inspected buildings, questioned “dozens of suspects” and made arrests. “A number of terrorists were killed” and an Israeli soldier was seriously injured, she added. In the Balata camp, Israel announced in the morning that it had eliminated “a terrorist cell”by an airstrike on a car, which killed Ahmed Abdullah Abou Shalal, described as the leader of the cell, which was planning an attack “imminent and of great magnitude”. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, confirmed his death. According to a report established by AFP on the Palestinian Authority database, 365 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7.
“Accusing the Jewish State of genocide is crossing a moral threshold,” denounces Stéphane Séjourné
France has refused to support the accusations of genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, brought by South Africa against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “To accuse the Jewish state of genocide is to cross a moral threshold. We cannot exploit the notion of genocide for political ends”declared the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, during questions to the government in the National Assembly.
The World Application
The Morning of the World
Every morning, find our selection of 20 articles not to be missed
Download the app
A hearing has been taking place since January 11 before the highest court of the United Nations, headquartered in The Hague, which Pretoria seized last month, arguing that Israel was violating the United Nations convention on genocide, adopted in 1948 following the Shoah. South Africa wants judges to order Israel to stop ” immediately “ the military campaign launched in the Gaza Strip after the unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7.
AFP journalists demonstrated in support of their colleagues in Gaza
“The AFP editorial team wanted to express its total support for its colleagues in Gaza, who work in terrible conditions and under the permanent threat of bombs”, declared the director of Information of the AFP, Phil Chetwynd, quoted in a press release from the press agency. Israel must also “authorize them if necessary to leave the territory to seek shelter”. Journalists and employees from Paris headquarters and numerous offices across the AFP global network symbolically held up the portraits of their Gazan colleagues.
At the beginning of November, an Israeli army strike seriously damaged the AFP office in Gaza. On January 8, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it “very concerned” speak “high balance sheet” of Palestinian journalists killed in the Gaza Strip. According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, “at least 81 journalists were killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli strikes” since October 7, including 18 in the exercise of their functions. On January 9, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a request from international media for free access to the Gaza Strip.