what to remember from January 24, 2024

On the 110th day of war, the humanitarian situation continues to worsen in the besieged Palestinian territory as discussions take place in Cairo on a possible new truce.

The war continues in the Gaza Strip. The UN denounced, Wednesday January 24, a “blatant violation” of the laws of war after a deadly strike on a shelter housing displaced people in Khan Younes, the epicenter of the fighting between Israel and Hamas where dozens of Palestinians died. In the evening, tank fire against a building of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Khan Younes caused “nine dead and 75 injured”. Franceinfo summarizes what you need to know about the day.

The town of Khan Younes, surrounded and shelled

The Israeli army said it had “surrounded” Khan Younes, where according to her, leaders of Hamas, an organization classified as “terrorist” by Israel, the United States and the European Union, are hiding. Hospitals in this large city in the south of the Gaza Strip are also surrounded, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. According to the Hamas Health Ministry, they received at least 125 bodies of people killed in Israeli bombardments in the early hours of Wednesday in Khan Yunis and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of Unrwa, affirmed that the refuge housing displaced people in Khan Younès, targeted by the deadly strike, was “clearly” identified and his contact details had been “shared with Israeli authorities”. He lashed out “once again a blatant violation of the fundamental rules of war”estimating that the death toll would be “probably higher”, he added. According to him, the structure accommodates nearly 30,000 displaced people. The Israeli army told AFP that a “exam” operations were underway but she had “excluded (…) an air or artillery strike”also evoking “the possibility” from Hamas fire.

A decision expected Friday on the accusation of “genocide” in Gaza

The highest court of the UN announced that it would issue its decision on Friday on urgent measures demanded by South Africa, which accuses Israel of “genocide” Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, could potentially order Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza, sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7. However, the court has no power over the application of its decisions.

Palestinian children transferred to France and Italy

This is the second operation of this type. Seven Palestinian children were transferred to French hospitals, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday. They are children “whose treatments require access to specific pediatric care”, specifies the Quai d’Orsay. At the end of December, France took in two injured Palestinian children.

Furthermore, one hundred Palestinian children injured in the Israeli offensive in Gaza will be treated in Italian hospitals. Their transfer began on Wednesday, said the Ministry of Defense in Rome. The first thirty children will be transferred to the peninsula in the coming days “thanks to an air bridge between Egypt and Italy”, he added in a press release. Thirty more will arrive at the end of the month aboard an Italian navy ship, the Nave Vulcano, which is due to sail soon from the Egyptian port of El Arish. They will be admitted to hospitals in several Italian cities.

Still tensions in the region

The conflict is also exacerbating regional tensions between Israel and its American ally on the one hand, and Iran and its backers such as Lebanese Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthi rebels and Iraqi militias on the other. The Houthis fired missiles against US ships off the coast of Yemen on Wednesday, after new US strikes against their positions in Yemen. Iraq denounced him for “irresponsible escalation” after new American retaliatory strikes in Iraq against armed pro-Iran groups, which left one dead.