X A V I Posted January 18, 2024 Posted January 18, 2024 At least 24,448 Palestinians have been killed and 61,504 have been wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since the war began on 7 October, according to the latest figures by the territory’s health ministry on Wednesday. A shipment of medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians has entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson has confirmed, under a deal mediated by Qatar and France. The agreement marks the first significant progress in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas since December, when a short-lived ceasefire collapsed. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have targeted a US-owned cargo ship with a kamikaze drone just hours after Washington put the group back on its list of global terrorists. The drone smashed into the Genco Picardy bulk carrier late on Wednesday, 70 miles (110km) southeast of Aden, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations organisation. The Iranian-backed group said they targeted the US-owned vessel with missiles which resulted in a “direct hit”. The likelihood of a war in Lebanon is “higher than before”, the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said. Speaking to troops in northern Israel on Wednesday, IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said Israel’s military is “increasing readiness for fighting in Lebanon”. A telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip entered its sixth day on Wednesday, the longest continuous outage since the war began, according to the internet monitoring group NetBlocks. Internet and telephone services collapsed across Gaza on Friday, marking the ninth blackout the territory has endured since 7 October. Israel has killed several people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including, it claimed, the “head of terrorist infrastructure” in the Balata camp in the Israeli-occupied city of Nablus. Five people were killed inside the Tulkarm refugee camp, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its ambulances were prevented from assisting at the scene of a strike near Nablus by Israeli forces. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported 85 Palestinians were detained overnight. Israel has detained about 6,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 7 October. Doctors have been instructed by Israel’s health ministry not to speak with UN representatives investigating the Hamas attacks on 7 October. Members of the UN independent international commission of inquiry, in areas including East Jerusalem and Israel, had been contacting senior physicians and hospital staff who treated the 7 October victims, requesting information and interviews for its investigation into potential war crimes committed since 7 October. The Jordanian army has said its military field hospital in the city of Khan Younis in Gaza was badly damaged as a result of Israeli shelling in the vicinity. In a statement on Wednesday, the army said it held Israel responsible for a “flagrant breach of international law”. In a statement, AFP’s global news director, Phil Chetwynd, said the newsroom wanted to express its “whole-hearted support” for their Gaza colleagues “who are working in dire conditions and under constant fear of bombardment”, adding: Not only are they trying to report on the story around them, they are also having to seek food and shelter for their families as the humanitarian situation becomes more desperate every day. He called on Israel to ensure their safety and let them leave the territory. “Too many colleagues have been killed and injured,” he said. At least 81 journalists have been killed in Israeli strikes in the territory since the war began on 7 October, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jan/17/middle-east-crisis-live-news-updates-israel-gaza-palestine-hamas-war-iran-strike-pakistan-sunni-us-red-sea-crisis-houthi-missile-attack?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-65a856348f08a3ffd9294661#block-65a856348f08a3ffd9294661
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