While the Gaza Strip does not see any respite from bombs at the start of 2024, the United States, Israel’s main ally, has decided to withdraw its nuclear aircraft carrier the USS Gerald Ford, from the Mediterranean Sea. A slightly worrying signal for Israel. At the same time, the key provision of the much criticized reform of the judicial system desired by Netanyahu was invalidated by the Supreme Court.
Information to remember:
⇒ One of the two aircraft carriers placed by the United States in the Middle East will be redeployed on other missions
⇒ Israeli Prime Minister’s highly controversial judicial reform rejected by Israeli Supreme Court
⇒ A young Palestinian died in Israeli prisons
American nuclear aircraft carrier leaves the Mediterranean
The information was confirmed by the American army late Monday, January 1, after being revealed by the ABC news media. The nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford will slowly move out of the Middle East zone “in the coming days.” This new generation nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, equipped with new technologies, 4,000 crew members and eight squadrons of fighters was deployed by the United States after the express attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7 to mark American support for Israel and deter Iran and Hezbollah from expanding the conflict regionally.
While its positioning has already been extended three times – the last just before the holidays – by the Secretary of State for Defense, it should now be deployed on other missions. But the American ministry nevertheless clarified that it “will maintain significant capacity both in the Mediterranean and across the Middle East”. A second nuclear aircraft carrier still remains near Yemen to prevent attacks by Houthi rebels who are increasing against commercial ships, in support of Hamas.
23-year-old Palestinian dies in Israeli prison
The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) announced Monday the death of a 23-year-old Palestinian prisoner affiliated with Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, adding that it was “examining” the circumstances of his death. He died in Meggido prison (in the North), after being arrested in June 2022 and sentenced for “security offenses” according to an IPS press release. At the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7, Israeli prison authorities announced a tightening of the conditions of detention of Palestinian prisoners, who number around 78,000 according to figures from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an association which defends their rights. rights.
Already in November, another 38-year-old prisoner from the northern occupied West Bank died in November after being beaten by his guards. On December 21, Israeli police also announced that around twenty prison guards were questioned as part of an investigation into the death of a Palestinian inmate following alleged violence. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) said the case raised “serious suspicions about the transformation of the Israeli Prison Service from a professional incarceration agency into a vindictive and punitive force.”
Judicial reform: Netanyahu’s key provision invalidated by the Supreme Court
The Israeli Supreme Court on Monday inflicted a snub on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by invalidating a key provision of the very controversial judicial reform promoted by his government: it planned to remove from the judiciary the right to rule on “reasonableness “decisions of the Israeli government or Parliament.
The project had triggered one of the largest protest movements in the history of Israel since January 2023, bringing together tens of thousands of people to demonstrate almost every Saturday, mainly in Tel Aviv, before being eclipsed by the war in October 7. Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid welcomed the decision, saying the court had “faithfully fulfilled its role in protecting the citizens of Israel.” “The government and the ministers who wanted to do without judicial power have learned that there are judges in Jerusalem and a democracy with a separation of powers,” also affirmed the Movement for the Probity of Power, which had filed the appeal against this clause, and now welcomes a “historic” decision.
The Gaza Strip begins the year under bombs
The Gaza Strip began the year under bombardment, with the Israeli army asserting that the war against Palestinian Hamas would continue “throughout” 2024. On the ground, artillery fire and airstrikes targeted in particular the towns of Rafah and Khan Younès (south) on New Year’s Eve, according to an AFP correspondent. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, they caused at least 24 deaths.
In this context, the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, said he was in favor of a “solution encouraging the emigration of Gaza residents”, calling for the return of Jewish settlers to the Palestinian territory after the war. In Gaza, Israeli military operations of retaliation have left 21,978 dead since October, the majority of them women, adolescents and children, according to a new report announced Monday by the Hamas Ministry of Health.