The Hamas Health Ministry announced today that 35.647 people have died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist organization.
In the past 24 hours, 85 people were killed, the ministry stated in a press release.
It is added that a total of 79.852 people were wounded during more than seven months of war.
(BETA)
China today expressed hope that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will maintain an objective position as its prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israel's leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the country hopes to maintain an "objective and impartial position" and exercise jurisdiction in accordance with the law.
Wenbin also called for an end to what he called "the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."
(BETA)
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant today again criticized the request of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest high-ranking Israeli and Hamas officials involved in the conflict in Gaza, evaluating it as an attempt to deny Israel's right to self-defense.
"The State of Israel has been fighting since October 7 against a murderous and bloodthirsty enemy, which has committed crimes against Israeli women, children and men and is now using its own people as human shields," said Galant, one of those named by the ICC's chief prosecutor. Karim Khan, in a long post on social networks.
"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is fighting in accordance with the rules of international law, undertaking unique humanitarian efforts the likes of which have not been undertaken in any armed conflict," he added.
Galant added that the parallel between the "terrorist organization Hamas is disgusting and despicable" and that Israel is not a member of the ICC and does not recognize its jurisdiction.
He assessed that the Attorney General's attempt to deny Israel the right to defend itself and release its abductees must be rejected immediately.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Galant are accused of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, denying humanitarian aid and deliberately targeting civilians in the war in Gaza that began on October 7 last year after an attack by Palestinian extremists led by Hamas on southern Israeli territory.
Hamas leaders and officials Yahya Sinwar, Muhammad Deif and Ismail Haniyeh were named by the prosecutor as persons under reasonable suspicion of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, sexual assault and torture, the agencies reported.
Yesterday, the President of Israel, Isak Herzog, called the prosecutor's move unilateral and taken in bad faith.
In the attack on the south of Israel on October 7, about 1.200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and more than 250 hostages were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
In the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which then began, more than 35.500 Palestinians were killed, mostly women and children, according to the Ministry of Health there.
More than 27 soldiers were killed in the Israeli ground offensive on Gaza that began on October 280.
(BETA)
At least seven Palestinians were killed and nine were wounded in today's raid by Israeli forces in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced.
The Israeli army confirmed that it attacked what it called an extremist stronghold during a raid in the city.
Among the victims is Dr. Kasajed Kamal Jabarin, a surgeon at the government hospital in Jenin.
He was killed on the way to the hospital, said director Dr. Visam Abu Baker.
The raid is still ongoing and the number of victims could be higher.
Nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of the war in the other Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, as part of Israel's crackdown on extremists.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also increased.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad's military wing said its fighters were fighting Israeli forces in Jenin.
Israel has arrested more than 3.000 Palestinians since the start of the war.
(BETA)
Conflict between Israel and Hamas - 228th day.
US President Joseph Biden said that, contrary to the accusations against Israel in the International Court of Justice, what is happening in the Gaza Strip "is not genocide", and that his administration stands by that country.
"We want Hamas to be defeated and we are working with Israel to make that happen," Biden said last night at the White House during the observance of Jewish American Heritage Month.
"I will always ensure that Israel has everything it needs to defend itself against Hamas and all its enemies," the US leader added, saying his administration "stands with Israel to remove Sinwar (Hamas leader Yahya) and the remaining butchers of Hamas." .
He also said he was working to increase humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza, but stressed that the crisis was a result of what Hamas was doing, Israeli media reported.
"In America we respect and protect the basic rights of free speech, peaceful protest. That is America. But there is no place on any campus in America, in any place in America for anti-Semitism, for hate speech that threatens violence of any kind against Jews and anyone else," Biden said. He added that the parents of the Israeli hostage, who also has American citizenship, were in the audience and promised that he would continue to try to bring him home.
A Washington Post analyst announced in the meantime that Israel has decided to put aside plans for a major offensive in Rafah and that it will operate in a more limited manner in that city in the south of the Gaza Strip after an exchange of views with the US.
Analyst David Ignatius wrote that the previous plan to send two divisions into the city would not be launched and operations would be more restrained, based on discussions with unidentified officials who were briefed.
Washington believes that the new plans will result in fewer civilian casualties and therefore will not oppose them.
(BETA)
Bonus video:
