Internet and telephone were completely cut off again on Friday January 12 in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian operator Paltel announced on the social network X. “We regret to announce that all telecommunications services in the Gaza Strip have been interrupted due to the ongoing aggression. Gaza is once again cut off from the world”the company wrote, as the Israeli army’s offensive against Hamas continues. Follow our live stream.
Accused of “acts of genocide”, Israel says it “does not seek to destroy” the Palestinian people. Representatives of the Jewish State took the floor on the second day of a historic hearing before the highest court of the UN. “What Israel seeks, by operating in Gaza, is not to destroy a people but to protect a people, its own, attacked on multiple fronts”, declared Tal Becker, one of Israel’s lawyers before the International Court of Justice. In December, South Africa urgently seized the ICJ, which sits in The Hague (Netherlands), arguing that Tel Aviv is violating the United Nations Convention on Genocide with the war it is waging in the strip. from Gaza.
The ICJ’s decision expected in the coming weeks. As this is an emergency procedure, the court could rule quickly. It will not yet rule on the merits of the case, but only on whether the fundamental rights of Gaza residents are currently under threat. ICJ decisions are final and legally binding, but the court has no power to enforce them. For example, she ordered Russia to suspend its invasion of Ukraine, without concrete effect.
The Hamas Ministry of Health announces a new death toll of 23,708. The Islamist organization in power in the Gaza Strip also reports 60,005 injured since the start of the war with the Jewish state, following the attacks it carried out in Israel on October 7. No independent source allows us to verify this assessment.
Strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. The United States and the United Kingdom carried out strikes against the Houthis on the night of Thursday to Friday, in response to the latter’s attacks on ships they consider linked to Israel. The British and American armies targeted military sites in several towns controlled by Yemeni rebels, the latter’s television channel said. The Houthis have been threatening international maritime traffic in the Red Sea for weeks, “solidarity” with the Palestinians in Gaza.