Israel’s war on Gaza: Four Hezbollah members killed in Israeli attacks

A spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry has denied recent media reports that the country is speaking with African countries about “transferring” Palestinians to various nations in Africa.

“In response to publications regarding this issue, it should be noted that Israel is not engaged in examining the feasibility of transferring Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to countries in Africa,” spokesperson Lior Haiat said in a social media post.

The denial comes as a number of high-level Israeli ministers have called for the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, drawing accusations of promoting ethnic cleansing as Israel prepares to defend itself from charges of genocide at the ICJ.

An Israeli media outlet reported last week that the Israeli government was in discussions over the transfer of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to Congo. “Congo will be willing to take in migrants, and we’re in talks with others,” a senior source in the security cabinet was quoted by the Times of Israel as saying.

Tensions continue to simmer along the border between Israel and Lebanon, with thousands displaced from border communities on each side amid concerns over further escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.

“I was along the border in northern Israel today in a small town called Shlomi and it was incredibly tense. We had sirens going off throughout the day, all along the 120 kilometre border with Lebanon, literally happening for hours,” Al Jazeera correspondent Laura Khan reported from the port city of Haifa in northern Israel.

“From Shlomi where we were, there’s usually around 9,000 people living there. There were about 150,” she added. “These places are ghost towns and they are pockmarked with some of the munitions that have been sent over.”

The delegation is to assess the state of infrastructure in northern Gaza, which has been devastated by Israeli attacks. It is to also study the needs on the ground for the return of Palestinians displaced from the area, according to the Israeli Walla web outlet.

Israel agreed to allow the delegation in after a request from the US with Blinken pushing for Palestinians to be allowed back into northern Gaza amid fears that Israel is trying to keep Palestinians who have been displaced out.

The Israeli government is trying to use the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza as leverage in negotiations on the return of Israeli captives in the enclave.

The projected emissions from the first 60 days of the Israeli war on Gaza were greater than the annual emissions of 20 individual countries and territories, says a study published in Social Science Research Network.

“The carbon costs of reconstructing Gaza are enormous. Rebuilding Gaza will entail total annual emissions figure higher than over 130 countries, putting on them par with that of New Zealand,” the study by researchers in the UK and US found.

“These numbers also demonstrate the asymmetry of offensive weaponry in Israel’s assault on Gaza,” it added.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps says the HMS Richmond is “on its way to the Red Sea to ensure the UK maintains a formidable presence in the face of attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis”.

The United Kingdom is part of a coalition announced by the United States last month to combat attacks on shipping on the internationally vital route by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Houthis said the attacks are on ships linked to Israel as they seek to support the Palestinians.

“With the US, we’ll continue to lead the global response to the crisis & do what is necessary to protect lives and the global economy,” Shapps added in a social media post.

HMS Richmond is on its way to the Red Sea to ensure the UK maintains a formidable presence in the face of attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis.

With the US, we’ll continue to lead the global response to the crisis & do what is necessary to protect lives and the global economy. pic.twitter.com/56N5PZTXyL

— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) January 9, 2024

The Israeli government published its approval of the Givat Shaked settlement plan for 695 housing units on lands in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Beit Safafa, says Ir Amim, an Israeli non-profit that focuses on Jerusalem.

“This joins a spate of settlement advancements in East Jerusalem since October 7, including several plan approvals and publication of tenders,” it said in a statement.

2/3 While settlement advancements were on the rise in 2023, the state has exploited the war to further rev up its activities to establish new facts on the ground. In 2023, over 18,300 HU were advanced for EJ settlements.

— Ir Amim English (@IrAmimAlerts) January 9, 2024

Republican senators want to make non-violent civil disobedience a federal crime because it is being used to call for an end to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Senators Thom Tillis and Marsha Blackburn from North Carolina and Tennessee respectively introduced the Safe and Open Streets Act, legislation that would make it a federal crime “to purposely obstruct, delay, or affect commerce by blocking a public road or highway”, they said in a joint statement.

The senators said this comes in “direct response to radical tactics of pro-Palestine protestors who have intentionally blocked roads and highways across the country”.

In November, protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza blocked the Durham Freeway in North Carolina during rush hour. Late last month, demonstrators blocked airport access roads in New York City and Los Angeles.

A tripartite summit will be held in the Jordanian city of Aqaba, bringing Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Jordanian King Abdullah II.

The summit will discuss ways to stop the war in the Gaza Strip, provide relief to the residents, and the political horizon required for the post-war period.

Abbas is scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Ramallah, before heading to Aqaba to participate in the meeting.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told Antony Blinken that exerting pressure on Iran is “critical” to efforts to prevent further regional escalation, after a series of provocative Israeli attacks in neighbouring Lebanon.

“An increase in the pressure placed on Iran is critical and may prevent regional escalation in additional arenas,” Gallant was quoted as saying in a government statement.

As the United Nations is warning that Israel’s bombardment of central Gaza is severely hampering the distribution of much-needed humanitarian aid, the UN General Assembly is currently in session to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip and the US use of its veto power in the Security Council.

Last month, the US vetoed a resolution on Gaza calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. As Al Jazeera’s diplomatic correspondent James Bays explains, a general assembly meeting has to take place every time a veto is used in the Security Council in order to explain why it was used in the first place.

The US representative, deputy ambassador Robert Wood, explained the use of the veto, blaming Hamas for starting the war.

“We hear very few demands of the initiator of this conflict, Hamas, to stop hiding behind civilians, lay down its arms, and surrender,” Wood said. “This would have been over if Hamas’s leaders had done that.”

The Israeli ambassador spoke after him, and also talked about “the crimes of Hamas”, Bays said, speaking from the UN headquarters in New York.

“The Palestinian ambassador made it clear that everyone should be holding a ceasefire now poster and he held one up in the general assembly,” he added.

There has been overwhelming support for the Palestinian position at the UN, leaving the US in the often lonely position of backing Israel.

It’s 6pm (16:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.

Here are the most recent developments:

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a trip to the region, told Netanyahu to avoid “further civilian harm” in Gaza.
• The Israeli army said dozens more soldiers were recently injured in Gaza fighting.
• Najib Mikati, prime minister of Lebanon, said his country is ready for talks on long-term border stability with Israel.
• Defence for Children International said at least 8,000 Palestinian children were killed in the Gaza Strip and 121 in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in 2023, calling it the “year of genocide” committed by Israeli forces.

The Jewish religious leaders represent Rabbis for Ceasefire, a group of rabbis and rabbinical students from Israel, North America and Europe.

“At this moment of great moral reckoning, we are speaking out with one voice to fulfill the most sacred obligation in Jewish tradition – ‘pikuach nefesh’, saving a life,” they say on their website.

HAPPENING NOW: Rabbis in prayerful protest take action at the @UN to remind Biden that the whole world says CEASEFIRE. Stop vetoing peace. Follow our Livestream at https://t.co/1lxfyG01RB pic.twitter.com/NJaZtJktf6

— Rabbis for Ceasefire (@rodfeishalom) January 9, 2024

United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said that Israel’s war on Gaza may have included breaches of international law.

“Am I worried that Israel has taken action that might be in breach of international law in Gaza, because this particular premises has been bombed, or whatever? Yes, of course,” Cameron, a former prime minister, said on Tuesday.

He added that legal advice received so far points to Israeli compliance with international law but that “lots of occasions” are under question.

A quantitative analysis by The Intercept shows leading US publications skewed their coverage towards Israeli narratives in the first six weeks of the assault on Gaza.

The Intercept said it had collected more than 1,000 articles from The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times about the war and tallied up the usages of certain key terms and the context in which they were used.

“The tallies reveal a gross imbalance in the way Israelis and pro-Israel figures are covered versus Palestinians and pro-Palestinian voices — with usages that favor Israeli narratives over Palestinian ones,” The Intercept said.

The newspapers in question used the term “slaughter” to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 60 to 1. “Massacre” was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 125 to 2, while “horrific” was used 36 to 4.

Despite Israel’s war on Gaza being perhaps the deadliest war for children – almost entirely Palestinian – in modern history, “Only two headlines out of over 1,100 news articles in the study mention the word ‘children’ related to Gazan children”, The Intercept found.

Another 27 Israeli soldiers have been wounded during battles in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the military said.

Figures released by the army showed that 519 soldiers had been killed and 2,465 others injured since the outbreak of the war on Gaza.

Earlier on Tuesday, the army had announced the killing of nine soldiers in Gaza.

The army and the ministry have said in a joint statement that they’ve also begun giving out equipment containers to the local militias in northern communities.

Each community will receive weapons, ceramic vests and helmets. In addition, medical and logistical equipment will also be distributed, the statement said.

This is similar to the initiative by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who in October distributed assault rifles to civilian militias.

That distribution was focused on areas near the besieged Gaza Strip, settlements in the occupied West Bank and “mixed cities” in Israel inhabited by Palestinians and Jews.

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has told a senior UN official that his country is ready for discussions on long-term stability on its southern border with Israel.

In a statement, Mikati’s office said he met UN Undersecretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix in Beirut to reiterate “Lebanon’s readiness to enter negotiations to achieve a long-term process of stability in southern Lebanon”.

“We seek permanent stability and call for a lasting peaceful solution – but in return we receive warnings through international envoys about a war on Lebanon,” Mikati said.

“The position I repeat to these delegates is: Do you support the idea of destruction? Is what is happening in Gaza acceptable?”

Mikati’s statement did not specify the type of negotiations to which Lebanon would be open, including whether they would be direct or mediated.