South Africa today launched proceedings at the United Nations' highest court, accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order the country to stop attacks on Palestinian territory.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced this evening that they located and destroyed an apartment-hideout, which belonged to the leader of Hamas in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, in the north of the Palestinian territory and under it a large network of tunnels.
The apartment, located on the outskirts of Gaza's capital, Gaza City, was found by the 14th Armored Reserve Brigade and later searched by the elite combat engineering unit Jahalom, which found the entrance to the tunnel.
The IDF stated that there were items in the apartment that indicated that Sinvar used it as a hideout.
The entrance to the 218-meter-long tunnel was at a depth of twenty meters and had several side passages, Israeli media reported.
The tunnel contained electricity and water supply, an air filtration system, a prayer room and other equipment that allowed members of the Islamic extremist group Hamas to remain hidden there for long periods of time.
The tunnel was then destroyed, the army announced and published a video on platform Iks (X).
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The United Nations (UN) Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced today that the Israeli army shot at one of its aid convoys in the Gaza Strip and condemned that humanitarian workers were targeted.
UNRWA director in Gaza Thomas White wrote on the X social network that Israeli soldiers "fired on an aid convoy as it was returning from the north of the Gaza Strip, using a route designated by the Israeli army."
"Our international convoy leader and his team members were not injured, but one vehicle was damaged. Aid workers should never be targeted," White said.
A source from UNRWA told France Press that the convoy was fired upon yesterday afternoon, while the Israeli army said it was verifying the information.
UNRWA Commissioner General Filip Lazarini said that "the amount of aid delivered is still limited" and that the UN agency is facing "numerous logistical obstacles".
"International law is very clear. The State of Israel as an occupying power must ensure that the population has access to basic necessities. All parties to the conflict must provide access to humanitarian aid to those in need. Food, water, fuel and humanitarian aid must never be used as a weapon in war," said Lazarini.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog accused the UN on December 19 of not making enough efforts to bring more humanitarian aid trucks to the Gaza Strip. Six days later, the Cogat division of Israel's defense ministry, in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, made similar accusations, notably against Lazarini.
UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths also strongly criticized the conditions for the delivery of aid to Gaza and stated that convoys are being shot at and are waiting at border crossings.
Griffiths said aid workers are being displaced and dying, and Israeli forces are pushing the traumatized and exhausted Gazan population into an ever-shrinking part of the territory.
"There are three levels of inspection before the trucks can go back. There is confusion and long lines, there is an ever-longer list of rejected products," Griffiths said.
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About 100 Palestinians have arrived in Rafah, in the extreme south of Gaza, in the last few days, fleeing the bombing of the central part of that territory, according to the United Nations.
About 85 percent of the population of Gaza has been displaced by the Israeli bombing and ground offensive.
Because of this, a large number of people are seeking shelter in zones that Israel has designated as safe, but which have also been bombed.
People arrived in Rafa by trucks, cars and on foot. Those who could not find a place in the already overcrowded shelters, erected tents by the roads.
"People are using every empty space to build shelters. Some are sleeping in their cars and some are sleeping in the open," said Juliet Tuma, director of public affairs for the UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
The Israeli offensive is now focused on the Bureij, Nuseirat and Magazi refugee camps in central Gaza, where Israeli warplanes and artillery have destroyed a number of buildings.
Fighting continues in the north, and Khan Younis in the south, where Israel believes Hamas leaders are hiding, is also under attack. Hamas continued to fire rockets, mostly at southern Israel.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza, 21.300 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war, although it is unclear how many are fighters of the militant organization and how many are civilians.
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The Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday that 21.507 Palestinians have been killed and 55.915 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, Reuters reports.
In the past 24 hours, 187 Palestinians were killed, the ministry added.
At least 41 people were killed during two days of Israeli bombardment of the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Among the victims are "displaced persons seeking shelter" in the premises of the Red Crescent, the AFP agency reported today.
The Israeli army announced on the social platform X that it is "expanding the operation in the area of Khan Yunis" in southern Gaza in its offensive against Hamas.
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Iran has executed four "saboteurs" linked to Israel's Mossad intelligence service, the judiciary-linked Mizan news agency said on Friday.
"Four members of a sabotage team linked to the Zionist regime, who committed extensive actions against the country's security under the leadership of Mossad officers, were executed this morning following legal procedures," the statement said, as reported by Reuters.
Egypt presented a tentative proposal for ending the war in Gaza, through a plan that includes three phases, said the head of the information service of the Egyptian president, Dia Rashwan.
He said Egypt had yet to receive responses to the proposal from the parties involved and would provide details of the plan when it received responses, Reuters reports.
Rashvan said that the proposal is an attempt, as he stated, "to bring together the viewpoints of all interested parties, in an effort to stop Palestinian bloodshed and aggression on the Gaza Strip and restore peace and stability in the region."
Egyptian security sources previously said the first phase of Egypt's plan would be a two-week ceasefire, which could be extended to three or four weeks, in exchange for the release of 40 hostages, primarily women, minors and elderly men, especially the sick.
The next phase would involve Egyptian mediation between the Palestinian parties, which would entail talks between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
According to the plan, the Palestinian agreements would lead to the formation of a technocratic government in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and parliamentary and presidential elections in the Palestinian territories.
The final phase would entail a complete ceasefire and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, as well as the release of Palestinians from prisons in Israel and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
According to these allegations, Hamas and Islamic Jihad rejected the proposal.
The United States said it shot down a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile in the southern Red Sea, fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
This is the 22nd attempted attack by the Hutus on international ships since October 19.
There was no damage or reported victims in the attack, stated the US Central Command on the social platform X.
The Houthis, who control much of Yemen, have been disrupting world trade for weeks by attacking ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, because of Israel's war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Conflict between Israel and Hamas - 84th day.
Yesterday, Israel targeted the surroundings of Damascus, the capital of Syria, Syrian state media reported.
"Our air defense intercepted enemy missiles in the vicinity of Damascus," reported the Syrian official news agency Sana, and state television stated that the Israeli attack targeted the vicinity of the country's capital.
Israel rarely comments on attacks on Syria, but has repeatedly announced that it will not allow its enemy Iran (which supports the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) to expand its presence in that country.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on its northern neighbor's territory since Syria's civil war began in 2011, targeting mainly Iranian-backed forces, particularly Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, as well as Syrian army positions.
However, Israel has stepped up attacks since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, at a time when tensions are rising in the Middle East.
Damascus International Airport had to shut down after Israeli strikes in late November, just hours after it reopened after similar strikes the previous month.
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