Summary
That concludes today’s blog on the ongoing crisis in Israel and Gaza. Here’s the latest from today:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that a ‘massive operation’ is needed in Rafah as he asks security officials to present an evacuation plan for the area. Earlier Friday, Netanyahu ordered Israel’s military to prepare for evacuating Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected invasion.
The head of the Palestinian Authority said in a statement that Israel’s military escalation in Rafah aims to push Palestinians from their land, Reuters reported. The office of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that it holds the Israel and US governments responsible for any effects of the expected invasion, saying that Israel’s actions threaten peace and security in the region.
Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnes Callamard said that civilians in Gaza are at “grave risk of genocide” in response to Israel ordering people in Rafah to evacuate ahead of an expected invasion.
Undercover Israeli killings in West Bank hospital ‘may be war crimes’, a group of UN experts said Friday. The killing of three Palestinian men in a hospital in the occupied West Bank last month by Israeli commandos disguised as medical workers and Muslim women may meet the threshold for war crimes.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned of a “bloodbath” if Israeli operations expand to Rafah. “No war can be allowed in a gigantic refugee camp,” he said Aid workers said Israeli military advance into southern Gaza’s Rafah area could cause mass deaths among the more than one million Palestinians trapped there, with humanitarian aid in danger of collapse.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that Israeli forces had raided the PRCS al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis. “The occupation (Israeli) forces stormed al-Amal hospital and started searching it. We’re finding it difficult to communicate with our crews inside the hospital,” a PRCS statement said on Friday. The Israeli military did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP about soldiers entering the hospital.
At least 22 people, including children and women, were killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight into Friday in the central area of the Gaza Strip and in the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. The strikes hit a residential building in Rafah and a kindergarten-turned-shelter for the displaced in the central town of Zuwaida. The dead and wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, where the bodies were seen by journalists from AP.
Thank you for reading the Guardian’s coverage.
Updated
Several employees were fired from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees as apart of “reverse due process” after being accused of taking part in Hamas’s 7 October attacks in Israel.
Here’s more information on the latest regrding UNRWA starring and the ongoing investigation, from the Guardian’s Emine Sinmaz.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said he followed “reverse due process” in sacking nine staff members accused by Israel of being involved in Hamas’s 7 October attacks.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, said he did not probe Israel’s claims against the employees before dismissing them and launching an investigation.
At a press conference in Jerusalem, Lazzarini was asked if he had looked into whether there was any evidence against the employees and he replied: “No, the investigation is going on now.”
He described the decision as “reverse due process”, adding: “I could have suspended them, but I have fired them. And now I have an investigation, and if the investigation tells us that this was wrong, in that case at the UN we will take a decision on how to properly compensate [them].”
Read the full article here.
'Evacuation?? But where?' Amnesty chief warns Gaza civilians at 'grave risk of genocide'
Amnesty International’s secretary general said that civilians in Gaza are at “grave risk of genocide” in response to Israel ordering people in Rafah to evacuate ahead of an expected invasion.
Agnes Callamard, secretary general of the international NGO, questioned where civilians in Gaza are expected to evacuate to in response to the latest news of an upcoming, Israeli military operation.
“Evacuation?? BUT WHERE? There is nowhere to go to,” Callamard said in response to news of an evacuation in Rafah.
“[Amnesty] is reiterating that Palestinians in Gaza are at grave risk of genocide. The international community has an obligation to act to prevent genocide,” she said.
Evacuation?? BUT WHERE? There is nowhere to go to. @amnesty is reiterating that Palestinians in Gaza are at grave risk of genocide. The international community has an obligation to act to prevent genocide. https://t.co/O550OkdBNT
— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) February 9, 2024
Updated
The Biden administration will continue to pause aid for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) until it concludes an internal investigation looking into the organization, officials announced on Friday.
More from Reuters:
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power and other senior U.S. officials visited the 2024 election battleground state of Michigan on Thursday amid widespread criticism there of President Joe Biden’s policy on Israel, his failure to call for a ceasefire on attacks on Gaza and continued military aid.
During the meeting, the officials said the U.S. remained committed to providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, but would wait for the investigation into UNWRA to be complete, said Ali Dagher, a Lebanese-American attorney who took part in one of four discussions with U.S. officials in Dearborn, a majority Arab-American city near Detroit.
Abbas Alawieh, a former senior congressional staffer who also participated in one of the discussions, told Reuters that Power spoke at length about UNWRA but indicated Biden was not planning to reverse his decision to halt aid to the agency.
Sixteen countries suspended their funding to UNRWA after Israel accused 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in the Gaza Strip of taking part in the Hamas-led assault on Israel last autumn.
UNRWA officials say they expect the U.N. oversight office’s preliminary investigation report to take several weeks.
A UN spokesperson Friday said that civilians in Rafah should be protected from any military operation, but added that the United Nation doesn’t support any forced displacement, Reuters reported.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric made the remarks after Israel ordered its military to prepare an evacuation plan for Rafah, ahead of an expected invasion of the city.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas added that Israel’s expected invasion of Rafah would “push the region into endless wars”, Al Jazeera reported.
As apart of a statement on Friday, Abbas called for Israel and the US to be held responsible for creating another “Nakba”, referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Abbas also called on the UN Security Council to take urgent action.
“It is now time for everyone to take responsibility in confronting the creation of another Nakba, which will push the whole region into endless wars,” the statement said.
Palestinian president accuses Israel of trying to drive Palestinians from their land
The head of the Palestinian Authority said in a statement that Israel’s military escalation in Rafah aims to push Palestinians from their land, Reuters reported.
The office of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that it holds the Israel and US governments responsible for any effects of the expected invasion.
Abbas’ office also said that the expected military operation would threaten “peace and security in the region”.
The Palestinian presidency warned the UN Security Council about the impact’s of Israel’s actions as “[Israel] taking this step threatens security and peace in the region and the world. It crosses all red lines,” Abbas’ office said in a statement.
Updated
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini also told reporters on Friday that police in southern Gaza are less willing to provide escorts for humanitarian aid trucks after several officers were killed in separate Israeli air strikes, France 24 reported.
Lazzarini said that police are increasingly unwilling to escort aid trucks that have been surrounded by civilians seeking food, as several officers reportedly died in Israeli air strikes.
Eight officers were reportedly killed by three Israeli airstrikes in the past four days, Lazzarini said.
“They’re saying enough is enough,” he told reporters.
Updated
The chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday that any military operations by Israel in Rafah would bring “endless tragedy” to the already devastated city, France 24 reported.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini updated reporters on Friday about the impact that the expected invasion of Rafah would have on civilians: “Any large-scale military operation among this population can only lead to an additional layer of endless tragedy that’s unfolding,” he said.
Lazzarini added that there is a “growing anxiety and growing panic” in Rafah. “People have absolutely no idea where to go after Rafah,” Lazzarini said.
Dozens of demonstrators gathered at the Israel-Egypt border to block aid from getting into Gaza, NBC reported.
A small crowd with the Tzav 9 group gathered at the Nitzana Crossing on Friday in an attempt to block humanitarian aid from crossing into Gaza, where food, medical supplies, and other essentials remain in short supply.
The group previously demonstrated at the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. In a statement translated by NBC, the group said that aid should not enter the territory until hostages taken by Hamas are released.
“For about weeks now, thousands of Israelis have been marching to the crossings from all over the country saying in a clear voice ‘No aid will pass until the last abductee returns,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday.
Updated
Meta has removed Instagram and Facebook accounts run on behalf of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following criticism over his support for Hamas after the group’s 7 October attack on Israel that sparked the months-long war still raging in the Gaza Strip, the company confirmed on Friday.
Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, offered no specifics about its reasoning. However, it said it removed the accounts “for repeatedly violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy”.
“We do not allow organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on our platforms,” the policy states. That includes those designated as terrorists by the US government.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Undercover Israeli killings in West Bank hospital 'may be war crimes'
The killing of three Palestinian men in a hospital in the occupied West Bank last month by Israeli commandos disguised as medical workers and Muslim women may amount to war crimes, a group of UN experts said.
The three militants were killed on 29 January in a joint undercover operation by the army, Shin Bet security service and border police in the Ibn Sina hospital in Jenin, one of the most volatile cities in the West Bank, Israel’s military said.
“Under international humanitarian law, killing a defenceless injured patient who is being treated in a hospital amounts to a war crime,” the UN experts said in a statement, referring to Basel Al-Ghazzawi, a patient being treated for injuries it said were caused by an Israeli air strike, Reuters reported.
“By disguising themselves as seemingly harmless, protected medical personnel and civilians, the Israeli forces also prima facie committed the war crime of perfidy, which is prohibited in all circumstances,” they added, calling for Israel to conduct an investigation.
The experts concerned are special rapporteurs engaged by the United Nations to examine a specific human rights issue.
Israel moved closer on Friday to a full-scale ground offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah, as the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netayahu, ordered military leaders to present a plan to evacuate civilians from the area.
Despite warnings from the US and senior UN officials, that an assault on Rafah – where some 1.3 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in miserable conditions – would lead to a “bloodbath,” Israel appeared determined to push ahead with an assault.
“It is impossible to achieve the war goal of eliminating Hamas and leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Netanyahu said in a statement, on Friday rejecting a warning from the Biden administration that it could not support an offensive against Rafah.
“On the other hand, it is clear that a massive operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zones.”
Norway is giving $26 million this year to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and could increase that sum if needed, it said on Friday, days after the agency warned it could cease all activity by the end of the month.
A string of countries including the United States, Germany and Britain paused their funding to the aid agency after accusations by Israel last month that some UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel.
Norway, a top donor to UNRWA, is maintaining its funding, Reuters reported.
UNRWA said on 1 February that it could be forced to shut down its operations in the Middle East, not only in Gaza, by the end of February if its funding remains suspended.
Netanyahu says a 'massive operation' is needed in Rafah as he asks security officials to present an evacuation plan for the area
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the military to prepare a plan to evacuate the population of Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza town, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Netanyahu made the announcement Friday after international criticism of Israel’s plan to invade the crowded town on Egypt’s border.
Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against the Islamic militant group. But an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have crammed into the town after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
Netanyahu said a “massive operation” is needed in Rafah. He said he asked security officials to present a “double plan” that would include the evacuation of civilians and a military operation to “collapse” remaining Hamas militant units.
Earlier Friday, Israel bombed targets in Rafah. The attack took place hours after Biden administration officials and aid agencies warned Israel against expanding its Gaza ground offensive to the town where more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge.
Airstrikes overnight and into Friday hit two residential buildings in Rafah, while two other sites were bombed in central Gaza, including one that damaged a kindergarten-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians. Twenty-two people were killed, according to AP journalists who saw the bodies arriving at hospitals.
Israel’s stated intentions to expand its ground offensive to Rafah also prompted an unusual public backlash in Washington.
“We have yet to see any evidence of serious planning for such an operation,” Vedant Patel, a state department spokesperson, said on Thursday. Going ahead with such an offensive now, “with no planning and little thought in an area where there is sheltering of a million people would be a disaster.”
John Kirby, the national security council spokesperson, said an Israel ground offensive in Rafah is “not something we would support.”
The comments signaled intensifying US friction with Netanyahu, who pushed a message of “total victory” in the war this week, at a time when US secretary of state Antony Blinken was in Israel to press for a ceasefire deal in exchange for the release of dozens of Hamas-held hostages.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv, and 6pm in Damascus. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Israel’s military to prepare for evacuating Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected invasion on Friday.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned of a “bloodbath” if Israeli operations expand to Rafah. “No war can be allowed in a gigantic refugee camp,” he said Aid workers said Israeli military advance into southern Gaza’s Rafah area could cause mass deaths among the more than one million Palestinians trapped there, with humanitarian aid in danger of collapse.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that Israeli forces had raided the PRCS al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis. “The occupation (Israeli) forces stormed al-Amal hospital and started searching it. We’re finding it difficult to communicate with our crews inside the hospital,” a PRCS statement said on Friday. The Israeli military did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP about soldiers entering the hospital.
At least 22 people, including children and women, were killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight into Friday in the central area of the Gaza Strip and in the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. The strikes hit a residential building in Rafah and a kindergarten-turned-shelter for the displaced in the central town of Zuwaida. The dead and wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, where the bodies were seen by journalists from AP.
Israeli ground forces are still focusing on the city of Khan Younis, just north of Rafah, but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly warned this week that Rafah would be next, creating panic among hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Netanyahu’s words have also alarmed Egypt which has said that any ground operation in the Rafah area or mass displacement across the border would undermine its 40-year-old peace treaty with Israel. The mostly sealed Gaza-Egypt border is also the main entry point for humanitarian aid.
In a speech on Thursday, US president Joe Biden said Israel’s offensive on Gaza has been “over the top”. It is his sharpest criticism yet of Tel Aviv’s conduct during the war. As Joe Biden took questions on the special counsel’s report investigating his possession of classified documents, he said: “There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying.” During the press conference, Biden also mistakenly referred to the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, as the president of Mexico.
John Kirby, the US national security spokesperson warned Israel against conducting an offensive against Rafah, the last refuge of Palestinians fleeing the Israeli army’s assault on Gaza. Kirby said the US would not support an attack on the southern town. He added that the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had expressed his concern to Israeli officials during his recent visit.
An international charity said that food is becoming so scarce in Gaza that people are resorting to eating grass. “Every single person in Gaza is now hungry, and people have just 1.5 to 2 litres of unsafe water per day to meet all their needs,” said ActionAid in a statement published on Friday that warned intensifying attacks in Rafah would have “disastrous consequences”.
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights said on Thursday that widespread destruction by the IDF of civilian infrastructure in Gaza “amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Genevea Convention, and a war crime”.
The UN children’s agency (Unicef) called on all parties to refrain from military escalation in Rafah, at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, warning that there are more than 600,000 children in the area, some of whom have been displaced more than once since the war began four months ago
A doctor who left Gaza last week described Rafah as a “closed jail” with faecal matter running through streets so crowded that there is barely space for medics’ vehicles to pass. “If the same bombs used in Khan Younis were used in Rafah, it would be at least a doubling or tripling of the toll because it’s so densely populated,” said Dr Santosh Kumar.
“All our shelters are overflowing and cannot take any more people,” said Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Humanitarian agencies say they cannot move people to safer areas because Israeli troops are positioned to the north, and that the aid that is allowed into the enclave is not nearly enough to go around.
11 Palestinians were arrested in Israeli army raids in the occupied West Bank overnight, reports Al Jazeera.
Israeli protesters gathered in front of the Nitzana crossing with the Egyptian border, blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza on Friday. There have been protests at multiple border crossings with Gaza in recent weeks, including at the Kerem Shalom crossing where Israeli protesters prevented trucks carrying humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 107 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 142 were injured in the past 24 hours. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says the war in Gaza has put more than half a million children out of school.“Every day of war deepens the scars, risking a lost generation vulnerable to exploitation,” Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on social media platform X. “Children are being robbed of childhood.”
Israeli forces have killed 340 health personnel, and arrested 99 since 7 October, said Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. At least 123 ambulances have been destroyed in the same period
Syrian air defences shot down two drones in the west of Damascus on Friday, state media reported, citing a military source as saying the drones came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the west of the capital. The Israeli military has said it does not comment on reports in foreign media.
For the first time since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, congregational Friday prayers were held in Jabalia refugee camp, reported Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif.
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian will travel to Lebanon and Syria to discuss various regional issues. According to the Syrian daily Al-Watan, when in Damascus Amirabdollahian would discuss current developments, including Israeli attacks on Syria and the ongoing war in Gaza. It added that he would then travel onwards to Qatar.
Several Arab foreign ministers discussed the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza at talks in Riyadh, Saudi state media reported on Friday, following a Middle East tour by US secretary of state Antony Blinken that stirred hopes for a long-awaited Gaza truce deal.
The United Arab Emirates foreign minister called for an intensification of efforts to prevent the expansion of conflict in the region during a meeting of Arab states in Riyadh. The meeting on Gaza included the foreign ministers of the host country, Saudi Arabia, along with Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and the secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Hussein al-Sheikh.
The US and Qatar are reportedly working on a joint plan to expel Hamas leaders from Doha, writes the Times of Israel citing the Saudi-funded news outlet Al-Arabiya. In its brief report on the news, the Times of Israel said Al-Arabiya had not provided further details and the claim had not been corroborated by any other sources.
Australian foreign minister Penny Wong reiterated concerns about UNRWA, noting that while it does critical work, there remain serious allegations against its staff.
The Ireland women’s basketball team chose not to shake hands with the Israel players at their EuroBasket 2025 qualifier in Riga on Thursday in response to an allegation by an Israeli player about antisemitism. Basketball Ireland called Dor Saar’s comments “inflammatory and wholly inaccurate”.
Netanyahu orders Israeli military to prepare Rafah evacuation ahead of expected invasion
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israel’s military to prepare for evacuating Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected invasion, reports the Press Association.
More details to follow …
#Breaking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israel’s military to prepare for evacuating Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected invasion pic.twitter.com/Oa8XOOTnQ0
— PA Media (@PA) February 9, 2024
News agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) have more detail on reports that Israeli forces raided al-Amal hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Friday.
“The occupation (Israeli) forces stormed al-Amal hospital and started searching it. We’re finding it difficult to communicate with our crews inside the hospital,” a Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) statement said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP about soldiers entering the hospital.
The al-Amal hospital, which is run by the PRCS, has been caught in fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants, with the Red Crescent reporting “intense artillery shelling and heavy gunfire” continuing around the hospital on Thursday.
We are concerned about the safety of our teams inside Al-Amal Hospital, as well as the wounded and patients, due to the continuous occupation raid on the hospital. #NotATarget ❌#Gaza #IHL #AlAmalHospital
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 9, 2024
The medical organisation has in recent days made repeated pleas for supplies and protection, reporting severe shortages of oxygen, medicines and fuel to power the hospital.
Earlier this week, the PRCS said about 8,000 people who had sought shelter at al-Amal hospital and its nearby Khan Younis headquarters were evacuated. A video published by the organisation showed a medic wheeling an elderly woman through a damaged street on a hospital bed.
About 40 displaced people, 80 patients and 100 staff remained after the evacuation, the PRCS said Monday.
Hospitals are granted special protection under the laws of war, but they have been repeatedly hit in Gaza over the past four months.
There are no fully functioning hospitals left in the Palestinian territory, the UN said on Wednesday, while just over a third of them are working at limited capacity. Health facilities have been overwhelmed by the scale of casualties, with more than 67,000 people injured during the war in Gaza.
Updated
340 health personnel killed in Gaza since 7 October, says health ministry
Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said that Israeli forces have killed 340 health personnel and arrested 99 since 7 October.
At least 123 ambulances have been destroyed in the same period, Al Jazeera reports.
Aid groups warn of Rafah 'bloodbath' if Israel advances
Any Israeli military advance into southern Gaza’s Rafah area could cause mass deaths among the more than one million Palestinians trapped there, with humanitarian aid in danger of collapse, aid workers said on Friday reports Reuters.
Israel has threatened to advance from Khan Younis, Gaza’s main southern city, to Rafah, where the population has increased five-fold as people have fled bombardment, often under evacuation orders, since Israel began its assault on Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement.
“No war can be allowed in a gigantic refugee camp,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warning of a “bloodbath” if Israeli operations expand there.
“Expanded hostilities in Rafah could collapse the humanitarian response,” NRC added in a statement.
About 1.5 million people are now jammed into overcrowded shelters or on the street in a patch of land hemmed in by Egyptian and Israeli border fences and the Mediterranean Sea as well as Israeli forces.
According to Reuters, a doctor who left Gaza last week described Rafah as a “closed jail” with faecal matter running through streets so crowded that there is barely space for medics’ vehicles to pass. “If the same bombs used in Khan Younis were used in Rafah, it would be at least a doubling or tripling of the toll because it’s so densely populated,” said Dr Santosh Kumar.
Humanitarian agencies say they cannot move people to safer areas because Israeli troops are positioned to the north, and that the aid that is allowed into the enclave is not nearly enough to go around.
“All our shelters are overflowing and cannot take any more people,” said Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Updated
PRCS say Israeli forces are raiding al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) posted on X within the last hour saying that occupation forces were raiding the PRCS al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis.
The national humanitarian organisation did not provide any further details. We will post an update as soon as more information comes in.
🚨Urgent: Occupation forces raid PRCS Al-Amal Hospital in #KhanYunis. #Gaza #NotATarget ❌
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 9, 2024
Syrian air defences respond to 'hostile targets' in vicinity of Damascus, say state media
Syrian air defences shot down two drones in the west of Damascus on Friday, state media reported, citing a military source as saying the drones came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the west of the capital.
The Israeli military has said it does not comment on reports in foreign media, reports Reuters.
Syrian state media reported earlier that the air defences were responding to “hostile targets” in the vicinity of Damascus.
Since December, Israeli strikes have killed more than half a dozen Revolutionary Guards, including a top intelligence general. Informed sources told Reuters that the Guards had pulled out some of their senior officers as a result. Iran’s ambassador to Syria said on Thursday that Iran remained “present” in Syria.
Iran’s foreign minister is due in Lebanon on Friday and then Damascus early next week for meetings with top officials.
Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reports that for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, congregational Friday prayers were held in Jabalia refugee camp.
Many heritage sites, including mosques and churches in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war.
لأول مرة منذ بدء العدوان على غزة
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) February 9, 2024
يُرفع الآذان لإقامة صلاة الجمعة وسط مخيم جباليا شمال غزة pic.twitter.com/4G531tEtPK
Updated
Several Arab foreign ministers discussed the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza at talks in Riyadh, Saudi state media reported on Friday, following a Middle East tour by US secretary of state Antony Blinken that stirred hopes for a long-awaited Gaza truce deal.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Hamas’ latest terms for a ceasefire and return of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, but Blinken said there was still room for negotiation toward an agreement, Reuters reported.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan called Thursday’s meeting in Riyadh, which included the foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates along with the secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Hussein al-Sheikh, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.
The Arab ministers emphasised the necessity of reaching an immediate and complete ceasefire in Gaza and “the importance of taking irreversible steps to implement the two-state solution,” SPA added, referring to Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
UAE foreign minister calls for efforts to prevent expansion of Gaza conflict
The United Arab Emirates foreign minister called for an intensification of efforts to prevent the expansion of conflict in the region during a meeting of Arab states in Riyadh, the UAE state news agency said on Thursday.
The meeting on Gaza included the foreign ministers of the host country, Saudi Arabia, along with Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and the secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Hussein al-Sheikh.
Updated
Iran's foreign minister to travel to Lebanon and Syria to discuss regional issues - reports
Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian will travel to Lebanon and Syria to discuss various regional issues, the Saudi-funded news outlet Al-Arabiya reports.
Citing Iranian media reports, Al-Arabiya said Amirabdollahian will be in Lebanon on Friday. It also referred to a report by the Syrian daily Al-Watan, which is close to the government, that said Amirabdollahian will be in Damascus “early next week” for a visit with senior officials.
According to Al-Watan, when in Damascus Amirabdollahian will discuss current developments, including Israeli attacks on Syria and the ongoing war in Gaza. It added that he would then travel onwards to Qatar.
Updated
'Extensive destruction' by IDF of civilian infrastructure in Gaza amounts to a 'war crime', says UN high commissioner
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights said on Thursday that widespread destruction by the IDF of civilian infrastructure in Gaza “amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Genevea Convention, and a war crime”.
Türk criticised the “extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly”.
.@volker_turk on widespread destruction by IDF of civilian infrastructure in #Gaza:
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) February 8, 2024
"Extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly, amounts to a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime." pic.twitter.com/7GZjFYYrSE
The US and Qatar are reportedly working on a joint plan to expel Hamas leaders from Doha, writes the Times of Israel citing the Saudi-funded news outlet Al-Arabiya.
In its brief report on the news, the Times of Israel said Al-Arabiya had not provided further details and the claim had not been corroborated by any other sources.
The article noted that Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh resides in Qatar, as do senior officials Moussa Abu Marzuk and Khaled Mashal.
Unicef say escalation in Rafah would put thousands more children at risk
The UN children’s agency (Unicef) called on all parties to refrain from military escalation in Rafah, at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, warning that there are more than 600,000 children in the area, some of whom have been displaced more than once since the war began four months ago, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement late on Thursday that military escalation in Rafah would mark “another devastating turn in a war” that has killed over 27,000 people according to health officials in Gaza.
“UNICEF is urgently calling on the parties to refrain from military escalation in Rafah Governorate in Gaza where over 600,000 children and their families have been displaced – many of them more than once.”
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) February 9, 2024
Read full statement by @unicefchief: https://t.co/hXPrj4sbxN
She said it could leave thousands more dead through violence or lack of essential services, and further disrupt humanitarian assistance.
“We need Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems to stay functional,” Russell said. “Without them, hunger and disease will skyrocket, taking more child lives.”
More than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people have fled to Rafah, heeding Israeli evacuation orders as the military’s ground offensive expands. Evacuation orders now cover two-thirds of the Gaza Strip.
Russell appealed to all parties to the conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law, which includes taking the utmost care to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure.
11 Palestinians arrested in Israeli army raids in the occupied West Bank overnight, reports Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera have been receiving updates on the Israeli army’s raids in the occupied West Bank overnight and in the morning. The news organisation says that at 11 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces there, according to local sources speaking to the Wafa news agency.
In Ramallah, seven Palestinians were arrested as Israeli troops stormed various villages, says Al Jazeera. It says, according to information from the Wafa news agency, that in one of the raids in Sinjil, the Israeli army confiscated three private vehicles and cash in shekels worth nearly $2,800.
According to Al Jazeera’s report another four Palestinians, including a journalist identified as Hamza Safi, were reportedly arrested in a separate Israeli military raid in Tulkarem in the northern West Bank by Israeli soldiers who raided and searched their homes.
Food in Gaza is becoming 'so scarce that people are resorting to eating grass', says ActionAid
An international charity said that food is becoming so scarce in Gaza that people are resorting to eating grass. “Every single person in Gaza is now hungry, and people have just 1.5 to 2 litres of unsafe water per day to meet all their needs,” said ActionAid in a statement published on Friday that warned intensifying attacks in Rafah would have “disastrous consequences”.
Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine said the charity was “deeply concerned” by reports of a potential ground invasion in Rafah and increased airstrikes on the area. “Let us be absolutely clear: any intensification of hostilities in Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people are sheltering, would be absolutely disastrous,” he said.
Jafari asked “if the final remaining supposedly safe place in the strip came under attack … where on earth is Gaza’s exhausted and starving population supposed to go?”.
He added:
People are now so desperate that they’re eating grass in a last attempt to stave off hunger. Meanwhile infections and diseases are running rampant amid such overcrowded conditions. The only thing that will stop this situation spinning even further out of control is an immediate and permanent ceasefire – it’s the only way to stop more lives being lost and to allow enough lifesaving aid to enter the territory.”
The charity said any attacks would “undoubtedly cause a high number of casualties and make the distribution of aid even more challenging”, given that the area now hosts more than 1.4 million people, or more than five times its usual population.
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The Ireland women’s basketball team chose not to shake hands with the Israel players at their EuroBasket 2025 qualifier in Riga on Thursday in response to an allegation by an Israeli player about antisemitism, reports Reuters.
The Israeli Basketball Association published an interview with player Dor Saar on Tuesday, during which she said: “It’s known that they are quite antisemitic, and it’s no secret; maybe that’s why a strong game is expected.”
According to the BBC, Ireland players also lined up for their anthem beside the team’s bench rather than the centre of the court before the game, which Israel won 87-57.
The public broadcaster said Basketball Ireland called Saar’s comments “inflammatory and wholly inaccurate”. Basketball Ireland has reported Saar’s comments to European basketball’s governing body Fiba Europe.
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Israeli protesters blocking Nitzana crossing, says Al Jazeera
Israeli protesters have gathered in front of the Nitzana crossing with the Egyptian border, blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, reports Al Jazeera citing social media posts by Israeli activists.
It also posted the below X update by Almog Booker, a reporter for Channel 13 who shared footage that he says shows protesters blocking the Nitzana crossing and stopping the passage of trucks into the Gaza Strip.
גם הבוקר: מפגינים חוסמים את מעבר ניצנה ולא מאפשרים מעבר של משאיות לרצועת עזה pic.twitter.com/m03qstTwbS
— almog boker (@bokeralmog) February 9, 2024
According to Al Jazeera, the protesters also demanded that UNRWA have its humanitarian funding frozen.
There have been protests at multiple border crossings with Gaza in recent weeks, including at the Kerem Shalom crossing where Israeli protesters prevented trucks carrying humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.
107 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 107 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 142 were injured in the past 24 hours.
According to the statement, at least 27,947 Palestinians have been killed and 67,459 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
More than half a million children out of school in Gaza, says UNRWA commissioner general
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says the war in Gaza has put more than half a million boys and girls out of school.
“Every day of war deepens the scars, risking a lost generation vulnerable to exploitation,” Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on social media platform X. “Children are being robbed of childhood.”
4 months of a brutal war in #Gaza, the toll on children is tragic, their future at stake.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) February 9, 2024
More than half a million girls & boys are out of primary & secondary school in Gaza. Every day of war deepens the scars, risking a lost generation vulnerable to exploitation.
Children are… pic.twitter.com/qG23HAwenJ
Lazzarinin said the toll of four months of a “brutal” war in Gaza was “tragic” and warned their future is at stake. He said: “Every day of war deepens the scars, risking a lost generation vulnerable to exploitation. Children are being robbed of childhood.”
This situation “needs to be reversed starting with a humanitarian ceasefire”, he added.
Here is a video of the US president Joe Biden’s speech in which he said Israel’s offensive on Gaza has been “over the top”. It is his sharpest criticism yet of Tel Aviv’s conduct during the war.
As Joe Biden took questions on the special counsel’s report investigating his possession of classified documents, he said: “There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying.”
During the press conference, Biden also mistakenly referred to the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, as the president of Mexico. You can watch the video here:
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Australian foreign minister Penny Wong has reiterated concerns about a key UN agency delivering aid to Gaza, noting that while it does critical work, there remain serious allegations against its staff.
Wong, speaking at a press conference in Perth, again spoke of “two irrefutable truths” about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the group that Australia, the US and the UK and other donor countries suspended funding after allegations that as many as 12 staff members were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks against Israelis.
Wong said:
There are two irrefutable facts. It’s critical. The only organisation that has the infrastructure and personnel to provide assistance into a region which is experiencing a devastating humanitarian crisis in the midst of this conflict.
The second is that serious allegations have been made. I note that UNWRA itself, when these allegations were made public, described them as serious allegations against UNWRA staff, itself said that they would be terminating contracts and launching an investigation.
Now we obviously have previously increased our funding for UNWRA. We are keen to work with both the organisation and with Japan and other like-minded [nations] who have paused funding, to work out how we can gain the confidence to restore funding. We will continue to do that work.
US tells Israel it will not support Rafah offensive as it would be a ‘disaster’
John Kirby, the US national security spokesperson warned Israel against conducting an offensive against Rafah, the last refuge of Palestinians fleeing the Israeli army’s assault on Gaza.
Kirby said the US would not support an attack on the southern town. He added that the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had expressed his concern to Israeli officials during his recent visit.
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US President Joe Biden has suggested that Israel’s military response in Gaza has been “over the top” and said he is seeking a “sustained pause in the fighting” to help ailing Palestinian civilians.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
He added that he had been pushing for a deal to normalise Saudi Arabia-Israel relations, increased humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians and a temporary pause in fighting to allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas.
“I’m pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage ceasefire,” Biden said. “There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s gotta stop.”
Updated
The Associated Press (AP) have a bit more detail on the strikes that killed at least nine people overnight on Friday.
AP say the strikes hit a residential building in Rafah and a kindergarten-turned-shelter for the displaced in the central town of Zuwaida. The dead and wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, where the bodies were seen by journalists from AP.
Evacuation orders now cover two-thirds of the Gaza Strip. Even in areas of refuge, such as Rafah, Israel routinely launches ai strikes against what it says are Hamas targets. It holds the militant group responsible for civilian casualties because it operates from civilian areas.
Israeli ground forces are still focusing on the city of Khan Younis, just north of Rafah, but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly warned this week that Rafah would be next, creating panic among hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Netanyahu’s words have also alarmed Egypt which has said that any ground operation in the Rafah area or mass displacement across the border would undermine its 40-year-old peace treaty with Israel. The mostly sealed Gaza-Egypt border is also the main entry point for humanitarian aid.
Opening summary
It has just gone 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv.
At least nine people, including children and women, were killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight into Friday in the central area of the Gaza Strip and in the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, witnesses and hospital officials told The Associated Press (AP).
The overnight airstrikes came hours after US president Joe Biden said on Thursday that he considers Israel’s conduct of the war to be “over the top.” The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, left Israel on Thursday as the divide grows between the two close allies on the way forward.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been driven by Israel’s military offensive towards the border with Egypt. Unable to leave the Palestinian territory, many are living in makeshift tent camps or overflowing UN-run shelters and it is reported that a quarter of the population are starving.
The Palestinian death toll from the war has surpassed 27,840 people, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said.
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip to the 7 October attacks by Hamas has in his view been “over the top,” US president Joe Biden said late on Thursday, adding that he is working to get a sustained pause in fighting in place. American support for Israel’s war on the Palestinian militant group has sparked a flurry of attacks on US troops in the region, as well as criticism of the Biden administration at home and abroad. “I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” Biden told reporters at the White House. But the US president said he had pushed to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza, claiming Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi initially “did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in”. “I talked to him, I convinced him to open the gate. I talked to Bibi [Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu] to open the gate on the Israeli side,” Biden said. “I’ve been pushing really hard, really hard to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
Israeli forces intensified strikes on Rafah in southern Gaza, as the UN said such action would only “increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare”. More than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering in the southern border city of Rafah, with many of them in makeshift tents and lacking food and medicine. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) added that fighting in Rafah would risk “further hampering a humanitarian operation already limited by insecurity, damaged infrastructure and access restrictions.” Israeli planes bombed areas in Rafah on Thursday morning, witnesses told Reuters, killing at least 11 people in strikes on two houses. Tanks also shelled some areas in eastern Rafah, intensifying fears of an imminent ground assault.
US Central Command said it conducted seven “self-defence” strikes against four Houthi unmanned surface vessels and seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that were prepared to be launched against ships in the Red Sea. US forces said they had determined they presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.
Five Israeli hostages who were freed in November pleaded with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for a deal, after he publicly rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas.
Israeli forces detained two American brothers and their Canadian father in an overnight raid on their home in Gaza, relatives of the men said. National security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday the administration will be talking to Israeli authorities about the report, as well as the Israeli military’s arrest of a US woman in the occupied West Bank earlier in the week. “We want to know more about the reasons here,” Kirby told reporters at the White House.
The US senate on Thursday advanced a wartime aid package for Ukraine and Israel, reviving an effort that had stalled amid Republican opposition to a border security bill they demanded and later abandoned. Senators voted 67 to 32 to begin consideration of the $95bn emergency aid bill but numerous hurdles remain before it can pass.
A German navy frigate has departed for the Red Sea, where Berlin plans to have it take part in an EU mission to help defend cargo ships from attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. EU foreign ministers are expected to sign off on the Red Sea mission on 19 February. Officials have said that seven countries in the bloc are ready to provide ships or planes.
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for more ceasefire talks on Thursday, a day after the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the group’s demands made as part of their response to a proposed ceasefire deal. Senior Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan confirmed the trip at a news conference in Beirut while an Egyptian official has also told Agence France-Presse that “a new round of negotiations” is set to start on Thursday in Cairo aimed at achieving “calm in the Gaza Strip”.
US President Joe Biden will host Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington on Monday for talks on resolving the Israel-Hamas conflict, the White House said.
More reports emerged from Khan Younis of people in the vicinity of Nasser hospital being targeted by Israeli snipers, said Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud in Rafah. He said: “Paramedics are unable to get out of the hospital to help the injured and remove the dead from the streets.” Al Jazeera also quoted Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, saying the situation at the hospital complex is a “humanitarian disaster” adding that there are “300 medical staff, 450 wounded, and 10,000 displaced people in the Nasser medical complex being killed and starved.”
US secretary of state Antony Blinken left the Middle East on Thursday with public divisions between the US and Israel at perhaps their worst level since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began in October, reports the Associated Press. Blinken was returning to Washington after the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue until Israel is completely victorious and appeared to reject outright a response from Hamas to a proposed ceasefire plan.
Repeated US strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq are pushing the government to end the mission of the US-led coalition in the country, the prime minister’s military spokesperson Yahya Rasool said on Thursday.
A journalist and his son have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the central Gaza Strip, reports Al Jazeera. Nafez Abdel Jawad, who worked for Palestine TV, was killed in a bombing of a residential building in the al-Salam neighbourhood in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip last night. The news organisation said that his only son also died in the airstrike and other injuries had also been reported.
Leading Palestinian human rights groups have accused the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide of failing to fulfil her mandate after she issued only one statement on the war in Gaza – largely supportive of Israel – that has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians.
The Canadian government did not see any evidence backing up Israel’s claim that staff employed by UNRWA colluded with Hamas before suspending funding to the agency, CBC News reports. Canadian officials told CBC News that Canada’s own decision to defund was a reaction to UNRWA’s decision to dismiss the staffers, which created the impression that the agency saw Israel’s allegation as credible.
