Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
- At least 27,478 people have been killed and 66,835 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.
- A convoy of trucks waiting to bring food into the Gaza Strip was hit by Israeli fire on Monday, according to UNRWA director Thomas White. There were no casualties but goods were damaged.
- The Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City received a “surge of injured people” after the “rapid deterioration” of al-Shifa Hospital, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Some 6,000 people are also waiting to be evacuated from the Strip for crucial medical care, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says.
- Around 8,000 people sheltering in al-Amal Hospital were able to leave after two weeks of siege, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
- OCHA says 66 percent of planned humanitarian missions to distribute food and water and to provide hospital support were denied by Israeli authorities in January. Meanwhile, Jordanian and Dutch troops jointly airdropped aid supplies into Gaza, as well as medical supplies.
Smoke rises over buildings in Khan Younis in the distance, following Israeli bombardment on February 5, 2024 [Said Khatib/AFP]
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the Middle East to push for a truce between Israel and Hamas as well as the release of captives in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
- A Barbados-flagged, UK-owned cargo ship was attacked by a drone in the Red Sea, 57km (around 35 miles) west of the Yemeni city of Hodeidah. Yemen’s Houthis have been attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea since November in protest at Israel’s war on Gaza.
- The UN has appointed an independent panel to investigate its aid agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, following accusations that its staff were involved in Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel, and the subsequent cut to funding from main donors like the United States and Germany.
- China and Russia representatives at a UN Security Council meeting said the US is escalating tensions and had impinged on other countries’ sovereignty by carrying out air strikes in Syria and Iraq over the weekend. The strikes were in response to the killing of US troops in Jordan last week but the US has admitted it did not give Iraq prior notice of strikes.
- Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, met with UN national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday and said Israel’s goal in Gaza was the “complete defeat of Hamas”. Ohana also said that “the Iranian-led axis of evil must feel the resolve of the free world in the shape of a diplomatic and military iron curtain”, referring to rising tensions in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
Occupied West Bank
- Israel has been accused of withholding the body of a 14-year-old Palestinian boy, killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Monday, from his relatives. Defence for Children International, a civil society organisation, said the action violates international law.
- Israeli forces have arrested a minor from the village of Aqqa and two young brothers from the village of Asfi, both in the hamlet of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports. Raids have been reported in five other areas of the West Bank in the past few days.
