EXPLAINER
Medical aid enters Gaza while deadly Israeli strikes continue on the south of the enclave.
Here’s how things stand on Thursday, January 18, 2024:
Latest updates
- Five trucks carrying medical aid for hospitals and 45 Israeli captives entered Gaza on Wednesday, announced Qatar, which mediated a deal between Hamas and Israel.
- The United States has redesignated Yemen’s Houthis as a “global terrorist” group in response to their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the White House’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement on Wednesday.
- Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called for Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and said that Palestinians should be “encouraged” to leave the territory in an interview with Israel’s Channel 13 news on Wednesday night.
Human impact and fighting
- At least 16 Palestinians, including children, were killed in an Israeli shelling of a house east of Rafah in the Gaza Strip overnight, according to local sources and video footage verified by Al Jazeera.
- An estimated $15bn will be required to rebuild just the homes in Gaza, the head of the Palestine Investment Fund, Mohammad Mustafa said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.
- The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that it targeted 14 missiles “that were loaded to be fired” in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Wednesday.
Diplomacy
- Australian foreign Minister Penny Wong said the country is “deeply concerned by ongoing settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank”, in a post on X after visiting the territory on Wednesday.
- The United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron met Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on the sidelines of the Davos Summit on Wednesday. In a post on X, Cameron said he made “clear” to Amirabdollahian that “Iran must cease supplying the Houthis with weapons and intelligence”.
- On Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, urged Iran and Pakistan to “avoid actions that would lead to an escalation of tension”.
Israeli raids in the West Bank
- Israel arrested 46 people from one family in Tuqu village near Bethlehem overnight, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
- A military raid on the occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem continued into a second day on Thursday. Six Palestinians have been killed in Tulkarem, according to Al Jazeera correspondent, Hamdah Salhut.
- On Wednesday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an independent investigation into the Israeli military amid deadly Israeli air strikes on Nablus and raids in Tulkarem refugee camp.
