‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 97: Israeli bombardment continues in Gaza even as South Africa presents arguments to the ICJ

Casualties:

• 23,357+ killed* and at least 59,410 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• 385 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.
• 520 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 2,193 injured.**

*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on January 10. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 30,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

**This figure is according to a release by the Israeli military. 

Key Developments

• South Africa presents case of genocide against Israel before International Court of Justice.
• Al Jazeera: sources say meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was “quite tense, and there were a lot of arguments and disagreements.”
• WHO: Israel rejects medical aid missions to Gaza, forcing World Health Organization to cancel mission for sixth time since December 26 over security concerns. 
• PRCS: Four members of ambulance crew killed in “deliberate” and “targeted” attack at entrance of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
• UN: Aid to north Gaza blocked, more hospitals could close.
• In response to the UN resolution condemning Red Sea attacks, Yemen’s Ansar Allah accuses U.S., Israel of violating international law in Gaza. Meanwhile, Ansar Allah targets U.S. naval vessel in “preliminary” retaliatory attack.
• Despite overwhelming evidence, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby says U.S. sees “no indication” that Israel is targeting journalists in Gaza.
• Four members of PRC’s ambulance crew and journalist Ahmad Badir killed by Israeli airstrikes in an alleged “safe zone.”
• Israeli forces badly damage UK charity-funded center for disabled children in Nour Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, northern occupied West Bank.

South Africa at the ICJ: A compelling case for genocide

On Thursday, South Africa stood before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the first of the two-day-long public proceedings to hear South Africa’s case against Israel.

South Africa’s legal team presented a mountain of evidence, accusing Israel of genocide and of violating the UN Genocide Convention with its actions in the Gaza Strip since October 7.

The court hearing took place for three hours. It consisted of detailed descriptions of what South Africa says is a compelling case for recognizing that genocide is taking place, demanding an emergency suspension of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which South Africa’s legal team said was aimed at bringing about “the destruction of the population.”

The argument of South Africa’s legal team drew significant online praise because it did not begin its narrative from October 7 but from 1948. 

South Africa’s team powerfully kicked off the hearing with an acknowledgment of “the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people through Israel’s colonization since 1948,” stressing that the violence and the destruction in Palestine and Israel did not begin on October 7, 2023.

“In the Gaza Strip, at least since 2004, Israel continues to exercise control over the airspace, territorial waters, land crossings, water, electricity and civilian infrastructure, as well as key government functions.”

Professor Max du Plessis, one of the lawyers representing the case, added that what is happening in Gaza now is not correctly framed as a simple conflict between two parties but instead entails destructive acts perpetrated by an occupying power, Israel, that has subjected Palestinians to the oppressive and prolonged violation of their rights to self-determination for more than half a century.

The legal team also highlighted that “no armed attack on a state territory, no matter how serious, even an attack involving atrocity crimes, can provide justification for or defense to breaches to the convention whether it’s a matter of law or morality.”

The “first genocidal act is the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza,” South African representative Adila Hassim said while showing photos of mass graves where bodies were buried, “often unidentified.”

“Israel deployed 6,000 bombs per week. At least 200 times, it has deployed 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs in southern Gaza, which it designated safe. No one is spared. Not even newborns. UN chiefs have described it as a graveyard for children.”

Hassim went on to explain the contextual information surrounding Gaza, including Israel’s tight control over the space’s territorial waters, land crossings, water, and electricity, which has been largely excluded from the conversation in mainstream media. 

Israel’s second genocidal act was outlined as the infliction of serious bodily or mental harm to Palestinians in Gaza, which violates Article 2B of the Genocide Convention, leaving close to 60,000 Palestinians wounded and maimed.

“Israel’s political leaders, military commanders and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent,” said Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, the second lawyer representing South Africa.

Ngcukaitobi went on to say that genocidal rhetoric is commonplace within the Israeli Knesset while offering up examples, which he said are then acted upon by Israeli society. 

“Soldiers believe that this language and their actions are acceptable because the destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza is articulated state policy.”

Triestino Mariniello, a reader in law at Liverpool John Moores University and a member of the legal team representing Gaza victims at the International Criminal Court, told Al Jazeera that South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ has a strong chance of succeeding, as it shows how Israeli “conduct has been put in place with the intent to destroy” Palestinians in Gaza as a group.

“Generally, what is difficult in relation to genocide is to prove the intent to commit genocide,” said Mariniello. “But the South African authorities here have submitted a list of statements by Israeli political and military leaders showing clear genocidal intent.”

“Legally, the decision is binding. Then, of course, the enforcement of the decision will be political,” Mariniello told Al Jazeera. “Just to be clear, every state has a legal obligation, not just a political obligation, to enforce any decision coming from the International Court of Justice, and I would say it would be really a scandal if states do not implement such a decision.”

In the hours leading up to the hearing, Netanyahu released a video statement the day before the hearing “to make a few points clear.”

The Prime Minister went on to claim that “Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population” and that they are “fighting Hamas terrorists” in “full compliance with international law.

Israel will defend itself against South Africa’s genocide case on Friday in front of the ICJ.

“The legacy of a liberated South Africa lives on as a country that defeated apartheid takes the Israeli apartheid regime to The Hague for genocide,” Palestinian-American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said on X, adding that the U.S., the UK, and Israel were some of the last nations to end support for the apartheid regime in South Africa.

“Unfortunately, I must emphasize that the Palestinians in Gaza will not be watching the proceedings of the [ICJ] because they are too busy dying,” Marwan Bishara, an author on global politics and a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy, told Al Jazeera.

Four medics and a journalist killed in Gaza

As the ICJ proceedings were well underway in the Netherlands, Gaza experienced another day of death, despair, and destruction under ruthless Israeli bombardment and ongoing siege. 

On Wednesday, the Gaza government media office reported that three Israeli airstrikes targeted a house adjacent to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, killing and wounding over 40 people.

“The hospital is crowded, it was chaos. You can’t imagine the amount of blood I saw. There was a well-known falafel seller who was killed by shrapnel, his blood covering the ingredients on the floor and on the walls,” reported journalist Hind Khoudary.

The bombardment took place in an area the Israeli army labeled as “safe,” which the media office says “confirms that there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip as the Israeli occupation claims.”

“This is a continuation of the deception and fabrications by the ‘Israeli’ occupation army to mislead public opinion,” the media office continued. 

Among those killed were four members of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulance crews and journalist Ahmad Badir, who worked for the Al-Hadaf media outlet, associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Following the attack, UN relief official Martin Griffiths once again reiterated, “parties must protect civilians, including humanitarian workers.”

According to a letter to Joe Biden from several rights groups, more journalists have been killed in the first ten weeks of the hostilities than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.

“As of January 10, 79 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead, including 72 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese,” CPJ said on X, outlining a “pattern of [the Israeli military] killing journalists with impunity over 20 years.”

Following the “intentional” attack on PRCS’s team, the colleagues of the deceased were filmed breaking down after witnessing the horrifying scene. 

“We condemn in the strongest terms the ongoing massacres and crimes of the occupation against our Palestinian people, and we call on the whole world to stop the genocidal war waged against civilians,” the media office said.

A British surgeon at Al-Aqsa Hospital told Al Jazeera that conditions for medical workers in Gaza are becoming unbearable, with Israel’s assault rendering facilities unusable, and that it is likely the hospital will become “completely disabled.”

“We saw the beginnings of the dismantlement of Al-Aqsa Hospital last week. My last day operating in Al-Aqsa was Friday, and having spent all day operating on a blast trauma victim, I came out of the operating theater to hear that there had been a missile attack on the ICU,” Nick Maynard, who was working in Gaza for Medical Aid for Palestine, told Al Jazeera. 

The Israeli army has continued blocking lifesaving humanitarian aid from entering the north of Gaza, and only extremely limited aid can be distributed amid Israel’s constant attacks.

The UN Humanitarian Agency (UNOCHA) has reported only three of 21 planned aid deliveries making it to north Gaza since the beginning of January, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) has said in its latest daily update.

UNOCHA has reported Al-Aqsa, Nasser, and Gaza European hospitals are all at risk of closing.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been forced to cancel a planned medical mission into Gaza for the sixth time as Israel continues to reject their requests and refuses to ensure their safety during the humanitarian missions. 

“We have the supplies, the teams and the plans in place. What we don’t have is access,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference from Geneva.

“Intense bombardment, restrictions on movement, fuel shortage and interrupted communications make it impossible for WHO and our partners to reach those in need.” 

“We call on Israel to approve requests by WHO and other partners to deliver humanitarian aid.” the WHO chief concluded.

Blinken’s trip to occupied West Bank was ‘tense’ 

The U.S. State Department issued a statement on the meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

“Secretary Blinken discussed ongoing efforts to minimize civilian harm in Gaza and accelerate and increase the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians throughout Gaza,” the statement quoted spokesperson Matthew Miller as saying.

Blinken also “noted increased volatility” in the occupied West Bank and discussed U.S. efforts to address “extremist violence.”

“He also underscored the United States’ position that all Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel should be consistently conveyed to the Palestinian Authority in accordance with prior agreements.” 

However, according to Al Jazeera, sources have said the meeting was “quite tense, and there were a lot of arguments and disagreements.”

One of the main points of contention that Abbas brought to Blinken’s attention was the fact that the funds that are supposed to be given to the Palestinian Authority have still been frozen due to a decision by Israel’s ultra-nationalist Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich. 

Al Jazeera added that Abbas reportedly told Blinken that if he cannot even solve this basic issue about money and funding, how is he going to assist in a peace process and a pathway to a Palestinian state?

Hamas has also denounced Blinken’s visit to the region, saying the U.S. official’s “attempts to justify the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation army against Palestinian civilians … are miserable attempts to wash the hands of the criminal occupation of the blood of children, women and the elderly of Gaza.”