Palestinians are fleeing large areas around Khan Younis in southern Gaza where the Israeli military began a new assault after ordering another mass evacuation.
Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, suffered widespread destruction during air and ground operations earlier in the year. The enclave faces a severe humanitarian crisis with Israeli restrictions on aid and ongoing fighting limiting access to food, medical supplies and clean water. The Health Ministry in Gaza says the death toll in the territory is nearing 40,000 in the 10 months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Regional tensions have soared since Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed July 31 in Iran by a presumed Israeli strike. Retaliation has been expected.
World leaders are pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza. Late Thursday, Israel confirmed it will send negotiators for indirect discussions with Hamas in response to a proposal by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to resume stalled cease-fire talks on Aug. 15.
Here’s the latest:
GENEVA — The United Nations human rights chief is adding his voice to condemnation of comments by Israel’s far-right finance minister, who alluded to allowing Gaza’s population to starve until hostages are released.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a speech Monday that the starvation of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians “might be just and moral” until hostages captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel are returned home.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk was “shocked and appalled” by the comments that “incite hatred against innocent civilians,” rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said Friday.
“The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime. The collective punishment of the Palestinian population is also a war crime. This direct and public statement risks inciting other atrocity crimes,” Laurence told a briefing in Geneva. Some of Israel’s Western allies have already condemned Smotrich comments.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dozens of countries, academics and rights groups have filed legal arguments either rejecting or supporting the International Criminal Court’s power to issue arrest warrants in its investigation into the war in Gaza and the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel.
The submissions filed this week come as a panel of judges considers a request by the court’s chief prosecutor for warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the recently promoted leaders of Hamas.
Israel strongly rejects the court’s request for warrants for its leaders and insists it adheres to international law in the devastating conflict in Gaza that was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks.
BEIRUT — Pro-government Syrians attacked a village held by United States-backed fighters in eastern Syria early Friday, killing at least 11 people, including children, the U.S.-backed force and an opposition war monitor said.
Pro-government media outlets, meanwhile, blamed a separate attack in which nine were injured in the village of Bouleil on members of the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
The SDF and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said seven people under the age of 18 were part of the 11 total killed in Dahla and Jdaidet Bakkara. The SDF said pro-government Syrian fighters fired rockets from their positions from Bouleil.
Syrian state-run media said the SDF shelled Bouleil with mortar rounds, wounding nine people. It gave no further details.
