Israel’s war on Gaza updates: At least 24 dead in strike on Deir el-Balah
Doctor at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza says still receiving wounded, death toll expected to rise.
- This live page is now closed. Following along with our continuing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.
- Israeli strike on home housing displaced Palestinians kills at least 24. Doctor at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital says still receiving wounded, death toll expected to rise.
- This live page is now closed. Following along with our continuing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.
- Israeli strike on home housing displaced Palestinians kills at least 24. Doctor at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital says still receiving wounded, death toll expected to rise.
- The UN’s top court has completed its fifth day of hearings following a request by the UN General Assembly to issue a non-binding opinion on the legal consequences of the Israeli occupation.
- With Western donors freezing funds, UN agency UNRWA says it has reached “breaking point” during a time of “unprecedented humanitarian needs in Gaza”.
- At least 29,514 Palestinians have been killed and 69,616 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the October 7 attacks stands at 1,139.
Thank you for joining us
This live page is now closed. Follow along with our ongoing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.
To read more about the case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the legality of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, you can access our explainer here.
You can also read our story about Israel’s post-war plan here.
And you can always read all our stories on the war here.
Here’s what happened today
We will be closing the live blog soon. Here’s a review of the day’s main events.
- An Israeli strike on a home sheltering dozens of displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah has killed at least 24 people, mostly women and children, with the figure expected to rise further. Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed more than 100 people over the last 24 hours.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are “inconsistent with international law”, reversing a policy from the Trump administration whereby the US refused to call Israeli settlements illegal, despite widespread international consensus. The US has not, however, said what consequences, if any, Israel will face if it moves forward with further settlement expansion.
- A team of United Nations experts have said the transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel for use in Gaza could violate international humanitarian law, raising the prospect that countries such as the US – that have enabled Israel’s campaign in Gaza through large weapons transfers – could be complicit in possible rights violations.
- The US said it shot down three Houthi drones over the Red Sea, where tensions have remained high as the Yemen-based group continues to carry out strikes against vessels in the area despite weeks of US strikes meant to degrade their abilities.
Israeli settlers assault two Palestinian men, steal car
According to local sources who spoke to Wafa news agency, a group of armed settlers intercepted the vehicle with the two men inside near the village of Susya, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
The Palestinian men were then physically attacked by the settlers, including with pepper spray, and their car was stolen, Wafa added.
Israeli writer: Settlements could be brought before UN Security Council
While Israel has faced few consequences for the expansion of its illegal settlements in the occupied territories, Israeli writer Akiva Eldar believes that current circumstances could bring them under heightened scrutiny, possibly in a forum such as the UN Security Council.
“I believe that, still, there is a kind of impunity when it comes to the Israeli settlements. There is a lot of lip service. Let’s see what they will do about it,” Eldar, a writer for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, told Al Jazeera.
“I’m sure that the Palestinian Authority, or maybe one of the Arab countries, will try again to take this issue of settlements to the Security Council, and to try to put sanctions on Israel.”
When words fail, we must turn to the law
As a Palestinian, I can assure you if there’s one thing Palestinians aren’t short of, it’s words.
You may even recall that in the first weeks of this war, children in Gaza held their own press conference imploring the world “to protect them” so they could “live as other children live”.
But the scale of the violence in Gaza since the attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,139 people, is unlike anything we’ve experienced before. Israeli forces have killed an average of 250 Palestinians a day, exceeding the daily death toll of all other conflicts in recent decades.
And so, words have begun to fail us. Many now say there simply are no words that justly capture the torment we’re facing. I disagree.
There are still some words we can and must fall back on, words that anchor us to our collective humanity. The language of human rights, international law and accountability. Words like obligations, violations, atrocity crimes. The laws of occupation. And the laws of war.
I emphasise these words because they are the right words to use, but also because they counter other words that have come to the fore, such as the language of dehumanisation, which paves the way for atrocity crimes to be committed.
You can read more of this opinion piece here.
Israeli attacks ongoing in Gaza
There has been no let up in fighting as Israeli bombardment continues across the Gaza Strip.
In the past few hours in eastern Rafah, Israeli forces have hit an agricultural land.
Bombing in the Zeitoun neighbourhood (in Gaza City) has continued amid confrontations between Hamas fighters and the Israeli army.
The sound of Israeli surveillance drones in the air has become much louder as they try to get more information from the ground.
Report: Hamas did not make concessions in negotiations
News outlet Al-Monitor reports, citing a source close to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, that the group was inflexible, and that reports to the contrary saying that they have softened their position are untrue.
The report also said that Israel sent a negotiation team to the Paris talks, which were ongoing today, because of US pressure.
Negotiations on a deal to achieve a truce in the Gaza war have been stalled for some time.
WATCH: Is the Red Sea becoming fully militarised?
Several major world powers are increasing their military presence in the region amid Houthi attacks and Israel’s war on Gaza.
Houthi fighters in Yemen have been targeting vessels that they say are linked to Israel since the war on Gaza began. They have also recently banned ships from the United States and the United Kingdom from their surrounding waters.
What’s the impact of the region’s growing militarisation? Our panel of experts analyse the issue to help make sense of it all.
Watch the video below:
US civil liberties group says university must reinstate banned pro-Palestinian groups
The New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said that Columbia University must reinstate two student groups who were suspended by the university for pro-Palestinian activism, or face a court challenge.
“We’ve notified @Columbia that they must reverse the unlawful suspensions of two student groups [@ColumbiaSJP & @JVPColumbia] for engaging in peaceful protest and to reinstate both chapters by March 1. If the university fails to respond by then, we’re prepared to sue,” the group said in a social media post.
“Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning – not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don’t approve of.”
BREAKING: We've notified @Columbia that they must reverse the unlawful suspensions of two student groups (@ColumbiaSJP & @JVPColumbia) for engaging in peaceful protest and to reinstate both chapters by March 1.
If the university fails to respond by then, we're prepared to sue.
— NYCLU (@NYCLU) February 23, 2024
Injuries reported near Ramallah after Israeli raid
Two Palestinians have sustained injuries from live ammunition amid confrontations with Israeli forces in the Jalazone refugee camp north of Ramallah, Wafa news agency is reporting.
Israeli raids have intensified in the occupied West Bank since the war on Gaza began on October 7.
More than 7,100 Palestinians have been arrested.
Hezbollah announces death of fighter, Israeli media claims he was a commander
The Lebanese group says in a statement that Muhammad Abd al-Rasoul Alawiyah, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Ali, was killed. As usual, the statement made no mention of where and how he died. He was, however, born in 1967, Hezbollah said making him a senior member of the group’s fighters.
Israeli broadcaster Kann says on X that Alwiyah was a “senior Hezbollah operative” who was “considered the commander of the Maroun Ras area” in Lebanon. The media outlet said he died of wounds sustained in an attempt on his life by the Israeli army.
Several detained Nasser Hospital staff released: Ministry
Three medical personnel of the besieged Khan Younis hospital have been released from Israeli custody, the Gaza Health Ministry has said in a statement.
“Dozens of medical personnel from Nasser Medical Complex are still in detention,” it added.
The hospital, in Gaza’s Khan Younis city, stopped functioning last week after a weeks-long Israeli siege followed by a raid.
US senator applauds restoration of settlement policy
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen has welcomed the Biden administration’s decision to reverse a Trump-era policy that refused to say that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal under international law.
“I applaud @SecBlinken for taking this important step to reassert U.S. policy against illegal settlements and to advance a viable two-state future where Israelis and Palestinians can live with equal measures of dignity, rights and security,” the senator said in a social media post.
I applaud @SecBlinken for taking this important step to reassert U.S. policy against illegal settlements and to advance a viable two-state future where Israelis and Palestinians can live with equal measures of dignity, rights and security. https://t.co/tfOlmOGXKS
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) February 23, 2024
Former US ambassador to Israel hits out at Blinken over settlement policy
David Friedman, who served as ambassador to Israel under the Trump administration and earned a reputation for controversial acts underscoring his firm support for Israel, has slammed current Secretary of State Blinken’s remarks earlier today that Israeli settlements violate international law, a position the Trump administration did not take.
“Blinken is 100% wrong. I researched this for over a year with many State Department lawyers,” Friedman said in a social media post. “There is nothing illegal about Jews living in their biblical homeland.”
There is an overwhelming consensus that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories violate international law, and are often built on lands expropriated from Palestinians.
Blinken is 100% wrong. I researched this for over a year with many State Department lawyers. There is nothing illegal about Jews living in their biblical homeland. Indeed, Undersecretary of State Eugene Rostow, also the Dean of the Yale Law School (who negotiated UNSCR 242),… https://t.co/7azWQGncsX
— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) February 23, 2024
‘Will be here as long as it takes’
Former Labour leader and British legislator Jeremy Corbyn has once again called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, and an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
“Palestinians are human beings who deserve to live in freedom and joy. That is why hundreds of thousands of us have exercised our right to protest,” he said in a post on X.
Palestinians are human beings who deserve to live in freedom and joy.
That is why hundreds of thousands of us have exercised our right to protest.
We will be here as long as it takes until there is an immediate ceasefire, an end to the occupation, and a just & lasting peace.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) February 23, 2024
UNRWA no longer functioning in northern Gaza
A spokesperson for the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA has said that the organisation is no longer able to provide assistance in northern Gaza, where it only has “a few staff”, and that civil order has collapsed amid Israel’s ongoing assault and severe restrictions on food access.
UNRWA says it is struggling to offer assistance to millions of Palestinians in Gaza and throughout the region after several key donor countries froze funding for the humanitarian group following unsubstantiated Israeli allegations that around a dozen of its employees took part in the October 7 attacks. Israel has not provided evidence for those claims nearly one month after first putting them forward.
“I believe we have some weeks, five or six, less than that. After that, we will not be able to continue providing services, not only in Gaza, but also in places like Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank and East Jerusalem,” UNRWA spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna told Al Jazeera.
More victims expected from Deir el-Balah attack
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has received many dead and injured people, most of whom are women, children and the elderly, a doctor at the facility has said.
“We expect to receive many more victims as reported by the ambulance service, which is still at the attack site,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We are not equipped to receive such large numbers of victims.”
The doctor added that Al-Aqsa was the only functional hospital left in the central region of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas representative gives news conference
Here are some of the key points Osama Hamdan, an official for the group in Beirut, Lebanon made:
- This is a declared war of starvation against 700,000 Palestinians.
- The whole world is watching every day as our children and our women are screaming and suffering in the north [of the Gaza Strip].
- Our people are waiting for the International community and the United Nations, with all its agencies, to take concrete steps immediately to bring aid into the Strip.
- The explosion is coming in response to any restrictions on Muslims entering Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan. We call on the people of our Palestinian people in the occupied territories, Jerusalem and the West Bank, to reject this criminal decision, and to escalate the confrontation of the occupation everywhere, and to mobilize and march and band together in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
- The occupation’s positions and responses to the mediators are negative and pose many obstacles to reaching an agreement. Netanyahu is procrastinating and evading and aims to disrupt reaching an agreement. He does not care about the release of prisoners held by the resistance, but rather it is a card he uses to achieve his goals.
Turkey says will work halt Israel’s assaults in Gaza, occupied Jerusalem
“Anyone who claims that this issue has nothing to do with us is either unaware of the world or is working on behalf of others,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, according to Anadolu Agency.
“Therefore, for the oppression in Gaza to stop, for the harassment in Jerusalem to cease, without making any exceptions, I say we will use all the means at our disposal,” he added.
At least 24 dead in Israeli strike on home in Deir el-Balah
We’ve been reporting on the bombardment of the home of the Abu Zuaiter family in the central Gaza Strip.
We can now report that, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, at least 24 civilians were killed, mostly women and children.
Many others were injured, Wafa said, as the house was full of displaced Palestinians who have fled violence in other areas of the Strip.
We will bring you more updates on this strike as information comes in.
Blinken says territory of Gaza should not be reduced
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated the Biden administration’s opposition to an Israeli “reoccupation” of Gaza and that the strip should not see its territory reduced after the war. The UN considered Gaza occupied by Israel before the war, due to Israel’s yearslong siege of the territory.
The Israeli government has said that it will maintain military control of the strip after the war and has already destroyed large swaths of the territory near the boundary with Israel for an apparent “buffer zone”, demolishing many buildings and reducing the territory of Gaza.
The US has not announced any steps to pressure Israel over such actions, despite the fact that they run counter to US calls and that experts have said they could constitute war crimes.
“Gaza … cannot be a platform for terrorism. There should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. The size of Gaza territory should not be reduced,” Blinken said in Buenos Aires, where he is attending a G20 meeting of foreign ministers.
PRCS carries out another round of evacuations from Nasser Hospital
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said that it carried out a fourth round of evacuations from Nasser Hospital, where conditions are dire amid continuing Israeli attacks and a siege that has deprived the facility of essential supplies.
“For the fourth time, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams carried out an evacuation mission from Nasser Hospital after it went out of service, in coordination with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),” the group said in a social media post.
“Four ambulance vehicles evacuated 18 wounded individuals, including two newborns who lost their mothers. The cases were transferred to the International Medical Corps and the Indonesian Field hospitals in Rafah Governorate, as well as the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis, in addition to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip.”
🚨For the fourth time, the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams carried out an evacuation mission from Nasser Hospital after it went out of service, in coordination with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 🚑Four ambulance vehicles… pic.twitter.com/NiVISeV6y6
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 23, 2024
House in Deir el-Balah targeted without warning
It’s been another bloody night for the majority of areas in the Gaza Strip, specifically in the central region of the coastal enclave, with the Deir el-Balah area being the main focus.
A residential building belonging to the Zuaiter family (in Deir el-Balah) was targeted without any prior warning, leading to the destruction of the home and several deaths and injuries.
The injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
What is the ‘Pompeo Doctrine’ the Biden administration just scrapped?
The Biden administration has reversed the “Pompeo Doctrine”, a Trump-era policy that declined to say that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law.
While the US has historically done little to pressure Israel to halt or roll back settlement expansion, the move by the Trump administration, named for firmly pro-Israel Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, symbolically reversed several decades of US policy, which acknowledged the illegality of such settlements.
In remarks today, current Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israeli settlements are a hindrance to peace and “inconsistent with international law”. The US official made no mention of tangible consequences Israel could face for new settlement construction, as it announced in plans earlier today.
The current administration also took more than three years to scrap the doctrine, voicing opposition to a proposed UN resolution declaring Israeli settlements illegal last year.
While the Biden administration has sought to distinguish itself from the Trump administration, it has kept the policies of the previous White House largely in place, keeping the US embassy in Jerusalem and placing normalisation deals between Israel and Arab states at the centre of its Middle East policy.
The administration recently announced an executive order applying sanctions to Israeli settlers who take part in violent attacks against Palestinians, but the scope of those efforts remains to be seen and have thus far been limited to a small handful of people.
Israeli soldiers raid Hebron
Israeli forces stormed the occupied West Bank city according to videos shared by a local news outlet, verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad.
The videos captured Israeli soldiers conducting searches in the neighbourhoods of Jaber, al-Salaymeh and Wadi al-Husayn in Hebron.
More than 7,000 Palestinians have been arrested or detained in the occupied West Bank since October 7.