Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Deadly Israeli raids on Deir el-Balah, Rafah

This live page is now closed. Follow along with our coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza on our new page, here.

To learn more about the accusations of genocide against Israel ahead of the hearings at the International Court of Justice today and Friday, watch this video.

To learn more about Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in international shipping lanes in the Red Sea, watch this video.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main developments:

• An Israeli strike on agricultural land near Rafah in southern Gaza has killed at least four children, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, where they discussed efforts made to stop Israel’s war on Gaza and the importance of accelerating humanitarian aid.
• At least 40 Palestinians were killed and wounded after an Israeli attack targeted a residential home with three missiles near the entrance of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.
• Egypt has reached out to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to propose a new deal to free Israeli captives in Gaza.

Lama Khater sits quietly, ready to talk but seemingly exhausted. The mother of five’s face is pale and her lips dry, but an air of relief hangs around her.

The 47-year-old had just been released from prison at the end of November, part of the sixth batch of Palestinian prisoners Israel released in exchange for Israeli captives released from Gaza by Hamas.

Khater had been in prison for about a month, an exceptionally painful one, it seemed. She was one of hundreds of Palestinians who had been arrested after the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians there to date.

After Israeli forces stormed her home in Hebron and arrested her, she was shuttled from one detention centre to another, unsure of what she was charged with or what would happen to her next.

Read more here.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed support for South Africa’s submission to the ICJ during a meeting with the Palestinian ambassador on Wednesday, according to a statement from the country’s Foreign Ministry.

The statement also says that the mass displacement of Palestinians and the lack of access to food, water, energy and health services inside Gaza constitute acts of collective punishment.

“In light of the flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, the president expressed his support for South Africa’s initiative to call on the International Court of Justice to order Israel to immediately cease all acts and measures that may constitute genocide or related crimes under the terms of Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

A British surgeon says that conditions for medical workers in Gaza are becoming unbearable, with Israel’s assault rendering facilities unusable.

“We saw the beginnings of the dismantlement of Al-Aqsa Hospital last week. My last day operating in Al-Aqsa was Friday, and having spent all day operating on a blast trauma victim, I came out of the operating theatre to hear that there had been a missile attack on the ICU,” Nick Maynard, who was working in Gaza for Medical Aid for Palestine, told Al Jazeera. “So, we were already seeing staff leaving, and progressively more staff left after that.” 

“I think it’s looking extremely likely that Al-Aqsa will become completely disabled as a healthcare facility,” he added.

Triestino Mariniello, a reader in law at Liverpool John Moores University, and a member of the legal team representing Gaza victims at the International Criminal Court, says that South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice has a strong chance of succeeding, as it shows how Israeli “conduct has been put in place with the intent to destroy” Palestinians in Gaza as a group.

“Generally, what is difficult in relation to genocide is to prove the intent to commit genocide,” said Mariniello. “But the South African authorities here have submitted a list of statements by Israeli political and military leaders showing clear genocidal intent.”

The legal expert added that it would be difficult for supporters of Israel, including the United States, to ignore any ICJ ruling that does find Israel guilty of committing genocide.

“Legally, the decision is binding. Then, of course, the enforcement of the decision will be political,” Mariniello told Al Jazeera. “Just to be clear, every state has a legal obligation, not just a political obligation, to enforce any decision coming from the International Court of Justice, and I would say it would be really a scandal if states do not implement such a decision.”

Linda Thomas-Greenfield says amendments would have “emboldened the Houthis”, rejecting any attempts to justify Houthi actions because of Israel’s war in Gaza.

“This council should never legitimise brazen violations of international law, period,” says the US ambassador to the UN.

The bodies of the four young children were taken to Abu Youssef Al Najjar Hospital in Rafah, where they were laid next to each other.

According to a local journalist, Adly Abu Taha, the children are from the al-Arjani family.

The problem for the United States behind the scenes is, yes there’s this resolution, but in the last couple of hours, Russia has tabled three different amendments to this resolution.

Russia has similar concerns that we heard from the spokesperson for the secretary-general, that this could destabilise the overall peace process, the very uneasy, fragile peace that exists in Yemen. But, also, I think the Russians are concerned that some of this language in this resolution, which takes note of countries’ right to defend against the Houthis, might be seen as a green light for Western military action against the Houthis.

We are in touch with several people in this closed session by WhatsApp. We’re estimating that in the next hour or so we will get a vote on this resolution from the United States, but first, individually on these three different amendments that have been put forward by Russia.

When the Russian ambassador walked [into] the meeting, I asked him, “If you don’t get your amendments through, are you going to veto this resolution?”

I’m afraid to say he just said, “You’ll have to wait and see.”

“I want to make a few points absolutely clear: Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population,” the Israeli prime minister says in a post on X.

This statement contradicts calls from high-ranking ministers of Israel’s government, notably from far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich.

World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that he is “appalled” by reports from the Palestine Red Crescent Society that an Israeli strike targeting one of its ambulances killed four medical workers and two patients.

“Violence and attacks on health and civilians must end,” the WHO leader said in a social media post on Wednesday, although the statement does not name Israel as the attacker.

We know that on the table are two main agenda items. The first is the issue of the captives and their release, and the second is a conversation about what the Israelis are hoping to do after the war.

There hasn’t been any sort of consensus among the Israeli government, although there was a preliminary framework released by Israel’s defence minister last week. But this is something that’s going to be up for discussion.

The issue of the captives is something that is of the utmost importance within Israeli society. The government has had a lot of pressure on it from the public, from the families of the captives who say that enough time has gone by and that they’re simply not a priority to the Israeli government.

Just today you had cabinet member Benny Gantz come out and say the issue of the captives is the most important goal in the war. But you also have rhetoric from the prime minister himself that all goals of the war are equally important.

Rauma Kedem, who had six of her family members killed during Hamas’s October 7 attacks, said that Israel’s Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant, as well as others within the security and defence establishments, “did not do their job” of warning people about the attack.

“One phone call the night before, and Tamar [Kedem’s daughter] would have left,” Kedem was quoted as saying by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, as Gallant visited Kibbutz Nir Oz, where her family members were killed.

“Come with me to the cemetery, see what a mass grave is,” she said. “Tarred government, what are you doing? They will pay for this. All the leaders will pay for this. The day will come for every minister.”

Palestinians carrying flags and banners have gathered at Nelson Mandela Square in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to demonstrate in support of the genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.