Source: Mondoweiss.net
Several patients evacuated Nasser Hospital while dozens remain trapped under the Israeli siege of Khan Younis. Meanwhile, Palestine called on the ICJ to end the Israeli occupation, and Brazil’s Lula likened Israel’s Gaza genocide to Nazi Germany.
Casualties
- 29,195+ killed* and at least 69,170 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 380+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
- 575 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 35,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
Key Developments
- Palestine’s Foreign Minister presents case at ICJ, accuses Israel of apartheid in Gaza, West Bank, and Jerusalem.
- ICJ expected to render a non-binding legal opinion on Israel’s occupation.
- Israel avoids sending representative to ICJ, files five-page written statement saying ICJ case “aimed at harming” Israel.
- U.S. circulates Security Council resolution supporting temporary ceasefire in exchange for release of Israeli captives held by Hamas.
- Israeli forces commit nine massacres overnight in various areas of Gaza, according to Ministry of Health, killing at least 103 Palestinians and injuring 124 others.
- Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra says 18 patients evacuated from Nasser medical complex to field hospitals, 118 patients remain inside it.
- Israeli forces build fortified east-to-west corridor south of Gaza City, cutting Gaza Strip in two halves and blocking Palestinians from traveling north on Salah al-Din Street.
- Israel demolishes buildings to make way for 1-kilometer buffer zone around Netzarim Corridor, including the Turkish Hospital, Al-Aqsa University’s campus, and the entire villages of Mughraqa and Juhor al-Dik.
- UN experts conclude Israeli forces carried out violations and sexual abuse against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and occupied West Bank.
- Brazil recalls ambassador from Tel Aviv after Brazilian president’s comparison of Israel’s actions in Gaza to Nazi Germany.
Palestine presents case at ICJ to end Israeli occupation
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) held a hearing for the second day on Tuesday to look into Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
More than 50 nations will address the UN’s highest court, including South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, and Belgium.
However, Israel has shunned sending a representative to the Hague, instead filing a five-page written statement, saying that the ICJ’s case “aimed at harming Israel’s rights to defend itself from existential threats.”
The unprecedented hearings at the ICJ will continue untill February 26, expected to result in a non-binding legal opinion by the judges on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands captured in June 1967.
Israeli media also avoided covering the ICJ hearings. Gideon Levy, an analyst, told Al-Jazeera, “Whatever is inconvenient or unpleasant to Israel, you can always trust the Israeli media to hide it from its viewers and readership.”…