Israel’s war on Gaza: Four Hezbollah members killed in Israeli attacks

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum is demanding that the Israeli government approve any deal that will lead to the release of captives ahead of a planned cabinet meeting this evening.

Egypt, Qatar and the US have been acting as mediators between Israel and Hamas in various rounds of talks and Israeli media has been reporting on an impending Qatari-Egyptian deal to exchange Israeli captives for Palestinian detainees.

“The reports about a new deal that will be presented to the cabinet this evening offer a little hope to the families who are anxious about the fate of their loved ones,” said a statement by the forum.

“The war cabinet must not concern itself with anything other than the return of the abductees. We demand that they approve any deal that will lead to their immediate release alive.”

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 South Africa’s genocide case against Israel set to be heard at the International Court of Justice this week, read more here.

To learn more about rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah and the risk of another war breaking out, watch this video.

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

• Israeli strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza and Rafah in southern Gaza left several Palestinians dead and dozens more wounded.
• The Israeli army said it killed Hezbollah’s senior drone commander for south Lebanon, a claim the group vehemently denied, saying the member killed, one of four today in Israeli strikes, was merely a fighter.
• In statements made at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the civilian death toll in Gaza is “far too high”.
• The Israeli army confirmed nine more of its soldiers were killed during fighting in Gaza, bringing to 187 the total of those who have died since the ground invasion began.
• Defence for Children International said at least 8,000 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza and 121 in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in 2023, calling it the “year of genocide”.

It was just days into Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip when a grave warning rang out.

United Nations experts had sounded the alarm that Palestinians in Gaza faced a risk of genocide. The Israeli army was battering the coastal enclave, forcing most of the population from their homes and imposing a stringent blockade barring food, water and other supplies from getting in.

More warnings have since followed alongside calls for the international community to act.

Now, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is set to hear a case alleging Israel is committing genocidal acts in Gaza, global attention is again focused on what can – or should – be done to stop the war and prevent crimes like genocide.

Read more here.

The Wafa news agency reports that all entrances to the city have been stormed by soldiers and confrontations have broken out with residents after armoured military bulldozers began destroying infrastructure.

A video verified by Al Jazeera shows a large military buildup on the outskirts of the city, confirming Wafa’s reports of bulldozers vandalising property there.

We will bring you more updates on this raid as information comes in.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has repeated calls for the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, shortly after US Secretary of State Blinken said that displaced Palestinians in Gaza must be allowed to return home as quickly as possible.

In a social media post welcoming Blinken to Israel, Smotrich said that Israel appreciates US support “but as far as our existence in our country is concerned, we will always act according to the Israeli interest”.

“We will work to enable the opening of Gaza’s gates for the voluntary immigration of refugees,” Smotrich added.

The UK maritime security firm Ambrey has said that it received reports from two merchant vessels of “suspicious activity” southwest of Mokha, Yemen.

The firm said that a bulk carrier detected three small vessels near a ship and saw two missiles fired from the direction of the boats. No damage was reported.

The report comes shortly after earlier reports of drone activity over the Red Sea.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah, says that a strike on a multistorey residential building in the Tal as-Sultan area of Gaza’s southernmost city has left several Palestinians wounded and at least one woman dead.

Tal as-Sultan is “one of the most densely populated areas in Rafah, and is only a few meters away from the mass makeshift tent shelters in the al-Mawasi area”, Abu Azzoum said, adding that the Israeli strike was adjacent to one of the main mosques in the neighbourhood.

Attacks on central Gaza have also continued, he said, with an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp, coming in the last hour, killing several Palestinians.

It’s 11:30pm (21:30 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

Here are the most recent developments:

• Hezbollah has denied that the head of the group’s drone unit was killed in an Israeli attack.
• Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter says she will propose to the government to follow South Africa’s lead after it filed a genocide case at the ICJ against Israel.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismisses South Africa’s genocide case against Israel as “meritless” during a news conference in West Jerusalem.
• King Abdullah will host a tripartite summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.
• Saudi Arabia’s information minister says the kingdom categorically rejects the displacement of the population of Gaza.

A spokesperson for the Biden administration reiterated the White House’s opposition to a ceasefire that would end the war between Israel and Hamas, despite growing international pressure and catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

The Israeli public broadcaster Kann News reports that the country’s health ministry instructed hospitals to be prepared to receive thousands of additional casualties in a short period of time.

The report by the Israeli outlet underscores the growing possibility of an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, which Israeli officials have hinted at for the last several weeks.

Israel’s deliberate escalation is pushing the situation in the occupied West Bank towards an imminent explosion, says the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a statement, it warned that Israel’s military actions coupled with settler attacks in the West Bank, including in occupied East Jerusalem, are threatening to “push the West Bank into an uncontrollable cycle of violence”.

“Israel is carrying out extrajudicial assassinations and raiding all areas in the West Bank,” said the ministry’s statement. “It is trying to replicate the destruction it has wrought on Gaza in the West Bank, especially in the refugee camps.”

The medical group Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) has published a statement condemning an attack on an MSF shelter the day before, which killed the five-year-old daughter of an MSF staff worker. The statement says the girl was injured in the strike and died on January 9.

The group says that it notified Israeli forces that the shelter was housing MSF workers and their families before the strike, and that, while it is unable to confirm the origin of the munition, the shell “appears to be similar to those used by Israeli tanks”.

“We are outraged and deeply saddened by the death of yet another family member of our MSF staff. This strike on civilians is unacceptable and, once again, goes to show that it doesn’t matter where you are in Gaza, nowhere is safe,” said Thomas Lauvin, MSF project coordinator in Gaza.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says that almost an entire population has been forcibly displaced.

Describing a dire situation in Gaza, UNRWA said on X: “Families search for safety where there is none. [The] health system [is] rapidly collapsing. Famine looms. Unprecedented levels of depravation. People driven to despair.”