The latest data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza shows more than 10,0001 of Gaza’s 1.1 million children—or 1% of the total child population—have been killed since the attack on Israel on October 7 and the assault on Gaza that has followed.
Children in Gaza surviving the violence are enduring unspeakable horrors, including life-changing injuries, burns, disease, inadequate medical care, and losing their parents and other loved ones. They have been forced to flee violence, often repeatedly, with no safe place to go, and face the terror of an uncertain future.
[1] In the Ministry of Health in Gaza report for January 9, 2024, they report ‘more than 10,000’ children have been killed since October 7.
Oxfam International reports: Israel’s military is killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day which massively exceeds the daily death toll of any other major conflict of recent years, Oxfam said today, as the escalation of hostilities nears its 100th day.
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East Director, said: “The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine.
“It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire.”
The international aid organization provided a list of the average daily death tolls in various conflicts since the turn of the century: 96.5 in Syria, 51.6 in Sudan, 50.8 in Iraq, 43.9 in Ukraine, 23.8 in Afghanistan, and 15.8 in Yemen.
It said the lives of Palestinians in Gaza are at risk due to hunger, diseases and cold, as well as Israeli bombardments, and reiterated that only 10 percent of the needed food can enter the enclave.
(Read the full report here.)
South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is a “pivotal moment” for the international system to provide hope to humanity, a Palestinian official said on Thursday.
Anadolu Agency reports: Addressing a joint press conference with South Africa’s delegation following the hearing in The Hague, Ammar Hijazi, the assistant minister for multilateral affairs of the State of Palestine, said South Africa presented “damning evidence” confirming the “irreparable harm” that Palestinian people are going through due to “Israel’s violation of the Genocide Convention.”
Describing the day as “historic not only for Palestine but for humanity and for the whole international rules-based system,” Hijazi said Palestine values and appreciates the “historic” action taken by South Africa by requesting the ICJ to intervene to suspend the “genocidal war launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
“This is a pivotal moment for the international system. South Africa took a bold and proactive step on behalf of humanity to protect the Palestinian people and ensure that the Genocide Convention and international law do not become completely irrelevant, which is a prospect that must terrify all of us,” he maintained.
He warned that humanity is at a crossroads and added: “The case before the ICJ is a test to the international system. It is a moment of naked truth and an opportunity to provide hope to humanity at a time when it’s sorely needed.”
“Leaders have a historic responsibility and their actions will be judged by history,” he stated. (Read the full article here.)
RECOMMENDED READING: South Africa honored the Palestinian plight, and the world was forced to listen
Despite rejecting South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel as “meritless” and “unfounded,” US has not assessed Israel’s war conduct. Last week, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that Washington has not probed the Israeli operations in Gaza for possible rights abuses despite being the chief provider of weapons to Israel.
“I am not aware of any kind of formal assessment being done by the United States government to analyze the compliance with international law by our partner Israel,” Kirby said on January 4. Without such an assessment, it’s unclear how US officials came to the conclusion that the ICJ case against Israel is meritless.
MSNBC: The Israeli government’s gruesome bombardment of Gaza has killed dozens of journalists reporting on the conflict — and it’s arguably killing Israel’s credibility on the global stage, too.
Reporters Without Borders, an international organization focused on press freedoms, received confirmation this week that the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes individuals, is looking into attacks on journalists as it investigates potential war crimes that have occurred amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. (Neither Israel nor the United States recognize the court’s jurisdiction.)
Calls for investigations into the deaths of journalists and their associates in Gaza have grown since last weekend, when the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael al-Dahdouh, was killed by an airstrike. Dahdouh’s wife, two of his other children and one of his grandchildren were killed in an earlier bombing in October. The recent attack has led some observers, like the Committee to Protect Journalists and Al Jazeera, to call for probes into whether the attack — as well as other attacks on journalists and their associates — might have been targeted.
On Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders also called on the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on Israel’s potential violations of a rule known as Resolution 2222, which was adopted in 2015 to protect journalists from harm as they report in combat zones.
The Israel Defense Forces allege that Wael Dahdouh’s son, Hamza, was a member of Islamic Jihad “involved with the organization’s terrorist activities” — a claim that has not been verified by NBC News. Al Jazeera’s managing editor disputed the IDF’s claim in a statement released Thursday, saying, “Al Jazeera rejects all accusations made against our journalists and calls on the international community to ensure that the IDF is held fully accountable for its crimes.”
The Cradle reports: according to Israeli media, Israeli army ordered mass Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct. The Israeli military implemented the “Hannibal Directive” during Hamas’ attack on 7 October, killing some of its own civilians and soldiers to prevent Hamas from taking them as captives back to Gaza, according to an investigation by Israel’s leading newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, which will be published in full on 12 January.
The Hebrew edition of the paper wrote on 11 January that “one of the revelations revealed in the investigation is that at midnight on October 7, the IDF [Israeli army] ordered all of its combat units in practice to use the ‘Hannibal Procedure’ although without clearly mentioning this explicitly by name.”
The order was to stop “at all costs any attempt by Hamas terrorists to return to Gaza, that is, despite the fear that some of them have abductees,” the paper wrote. (Read the full article here.)
Alternative media – including If Americans Knew – have been reporting on this for several months. This piece from the Cradle contains perhaps the most detailed coverage to date.
Reuters reports: The United States and Britain launched strikes from the air and sea against Houthi military targets in Yemen in response to the movement’s attacks on ships in the Red Sea, a dramatic regional widening of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. As witnesses in Yemen confirmed explosions throughout the country to Reuters, President Joe Biden cautioned in a statement late on Thursday he would not hesitate to take further action if needed.
“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation,” Biden said.
Britain’s ministry of defense said in a statement that “early indications are that the Houthis’ ability to threaten merchant shipping has taken a blow.”
“Any American attack will not remain without a response,” said Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the group, adding that his fighters are “determined to target ships linked to Israel, and we will not back down from that.”
The reason for the Houthi threat, which Western powers appear not to be addressing, is Israel’s brutal war against Gaza.
The Gaza media office announced that Israeli attacks have destroyed 380 mosques, some of which date back more than 1,000 years.
“The crime of bombing and destroying mosques led to the disappearance of the call to prayer from dozens of neighborhoods spread throughout the governorates of the Gaza Strip, as well as the stopping of the ringing of church bells,” the statement said, adding that three churches were destroyed by Israeli army attacks, as well.
The media office called on religious bodies across the world to condemn this destruction of places of worship.
A Palestinian former prisoner, 37-year-old Majdy Fashafsha, was shot dead by Israeli occupation forces today south of Jenin, according to local sources. Undercover Israeli forces, protected and heavily guarded by large Israeli army units, surrounded the house where the young man was present, while snipers took over the rooftops of several houses nearby.
RECOMMENDED READING: ‘Threatened with rape’: Lama Khater recalls horrors while in Israeli jails
Reuters reports: The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has barred Israel from competing in its world championship events citing security concerns. The IIHF “has decided to restrict the Israeli National Team from participating in IIHF Championships until the safety and well-being of all participants [including Israeli participants] can be assured”.
“The IIHF Council took this decision after careful consideration and based on a risk assessment, discussions with the participating countries, and discussions with the hosts,” it said in a statement.
The IIHF previously used similar language around “safety and security” to support its decision last year to suspend Russia and Belarus from competition following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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