UN top court orders Israel to take action to address Gaza famine
Judges at the International Court of Justice on Thursday unanimously ordered Israel to take all the necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay for the Palestinian population in Gaza, where the court said "famine is setting in". The move came amid reports of close combat around Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, where the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they attacked Israeli soldiers and tanks with rockets and mortar fire. Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
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This blog is no longer being updated. For more coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, please click here.
Summary:
- The top United Nations court on Thursday ordered Israel to take measures including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza to tackle crippling shortages in the war-ravaged enclave.
- Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammad Mustafa formed a new cabinet on Thursday in which he will also serve as foreign minister, making an immediate ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza a top priority.
- France will provide over €30 million ($32.41 million) to UNRWA, the embattled United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, this year to support its operations in Gaza, the foreign ministry said.
- Air strikes and intense fighting continued on Thursday around three of the Palestinian territory's hospitals, raising fears for patients, medical staff and displaced people inside them.
- The southern Gaza Strip came under intense Israeli bombardment overnight Wednesday into Thursday despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire.
- At least 32,552 Palestinians have been killed and 74,980 wounded since Israel began its offensive on Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. Around 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
Yesterday's key developments:
- Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Wednesday, killing a civilian.
- An official belonging to Lebanese group Jamaa Islamiya says an Israeli strike on an emergency centre killed seven "rescuers" overnight. The strike happened in Habariyeh, in southern Lebanon.
- A witness said Israeli forces are surrounding the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge from the fighting.
- The United Nations reported late Wednesday that famine "is ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza", and said the Palestinian territory's health system is collapsing "due to ongoing hostilities and access constraints".
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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