The fate of civilians in Gaza remains, this Saturday, January 27, at the heart of serious concerns. These concerns are focused on Khan Younes, the main city in the south of the besieged territory which has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent days between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
These clashes, coupled with Israeli air raids, pushed thousands of people to leave the city and reduced the capacity of the two main local hospitals, Nasser and al-Amal, to a minimum. During the night, witnesses reported violent strikes on the spot and the Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received the dead and treated the wounded at al-Amal hospital.
Information to remember:
⇒ Many States reacted to the ICJ decision on the accusation of “genocide” against Israel
⇒ Australia and Canada suspend funding for UNWRA
⇒ Israel wants UNRWA to no longer have any role in Gaza after the war
Reactions to the ICJ’s decision on the accusation of “genocide” against Israel
International reactions poured in on Friday shortly after the historic decision of the highest court of the UN, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), calling on Israel in particular to “take all measures in its power” to avoid genocide in Gaza. The ICJ, which sits in The Hague and has no leverage to impose its decisions, also ordered Israel to take “immediate measures” to enable the provision of “humanitarian aid which the Palestinians urgently need” in the Gaza Strip, without however calling for a ceasefire.
Benyamin Netanyahu considered the accusations of “genocide” in Gaza filed by South Africa “scandalous”. “The despicable attempt to deny Israel” the “fundamental right” to defend itself is “blatant discrimination against the Jewish State, and it has been “rightly rejected,” said the Israeli Prime Minister.
The decision is “an important warning (reminding) that no state is above the law”, for his part reacted the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, Riyad al-Maliki, in a video message . “States now have a clear legal obligation to end Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people of Gaza,” he continued. South Africa, which had referred the matter to the ICJ, hailed Friday a “decisive victory for the international rule of law and an important step in the quest for justice for the Palestinian people”, according to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The United States, for its part, reaffirmed that accusations of “genocide” against Israel are “unfounded”. “We continue to believe that the accusations of genocide are baseless and note that the Court has not found genocide or called for a ceasefire,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Defense. State.
ICJ decision: UN Security Council to meet on Wednesday
The UN Security Council will meet on Wednesday to consider the decision of the ICJ which called on Israel to prevent any possible act of “genocide” in Gaza, announced the French presidency of the Council. The meeting was requested by Algeria, “with a view to giving enforceable effect to the ruling of the International Court of Justice on the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation”, the ministry had indicated earlier in the day Algerian Foreign Affairs.
Australia and Canada suspend funding for UNRWA
After the United States, Australia and Canada announced the suspension of their funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), after accusations from Israeli authorities that employees may have been involved in the Hamas attack on October 7. Washington announced on Friday “temporarily suspending” all future funding for the UN agency at the heart of the distribution of aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip and under the fire of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
This Saturday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was “deeply concerned” by the accusations against UNRWA. “We are speaking with our partners and will temporarily suspend the payment of recent funding,” she wrote on the social network staff members) as well as the announcement of an investigation into the accusations against the organization,” she continued.
Israel attacks UNRWA, Hamas denounces “threats”
Israel wants the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to no longer play any role in Gaza, its foreign minister said. The government wants to “ensure that UNRWA will not be part” of the solution in the Palestinian territory after the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, Israel Katz said in a statement, hoping to “stop” all activities of Unrwa.
Hamas immediately denounced Israel’s “threats and blackmail” against UN agencies. “We ask the United Nations and international organizations not to give in to threats and blackmail” from Israel, added the Palestinian Islamist movement in a press release, while several countries including the United States have suspended their funding for UNRWA. .
For MSF, “there is virtually no health system left in Gaza”
“There is virtually no longer a health system in Gaza,” Doctors Without Borders denounced on Friday, after most of the services at the Nasser hospital, where the NGO still worked, are “now out of order.” function” due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“The surgical capacity of Nasser Hospital”, the largest health facility in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, is now “virtually non-existent”, and the “few members of the medical staff who remained there “hospitals have to deal with very low stocks of medical equipment,” lamented MSF in a press release.
The Hamas Ministry of Health reported a “complete power cut” in this hospital center, which led “all medical equipment to stop working, including respiratory machines.” If most of the hospital staff and thousands of people who had taken refuge there have fled in recent days, between 300 and 500 seriously injured patients, who could not be evacuated “because of the danger and lack of ambulances”, are still in the structure, said Doctors Without Borders.