Israeli strike kills, wounds Palestinians in Gaza City queueing for humanitarian aid

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The volume of commercial traffic passing through the Suez Canal has fallen more than 40 percent in the last two months after attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels, according to the United Nations, raising concerns for global trade.

The Iran-backed Houthis say they are targeting what they consider Israeli-linked commercial and military shipping in the region in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, pushing some cargo carriers to take longer and more expensive routes to avoid attack.

"We are very concerned that the attacks on Red Sea shipping are adding tensions to global trade, exacerbating (existing) trade disruptions due to geopolitics and climate change," UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) head Jan Hoffman told reporters Thursday.

According to the UNCTAD, ships diverting from the Red Sea -- sailing instead around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope -- has led to a 42 percent drop in transit through the Suez Canal in the last two months.

Hamas group official Izzat al-Risheq has condemned the Biden administration for their position on South Africa’s ICJ claim that accused Israel for genocide- by regarding the petition "meritless".

“The American administration still rejects ending the aggression against Gaza by stopping the UN Security Council from passing a resolution to end the aggression and by continuing to supply the occupation forces with weapons and ammo to bomb women and children,” al-Risheq said in a statement.

“This makes the US a biased side and a partner in the crimes of murder. It does not have a right to talk about values and morals and international laws, which it violates in broad daylight.”

The US city of Minneapolis has passed a resolution that has called for a ceasefire in Gaza, releasing Israeli captives in Gaza and freeing Palestinians from Israeli prisons and the end of US military aid to Israel in a 9-to-3 vote on Thursday.

The vote has Minneapolis joining the likes of other cities in the US such as Detroit, Oakland, Seattle and Atlanta, that have also approved ceasefire measures.

“Local government has the ability to amplify these voices, has the ability to be on the right side of history, has the ability to put on the record that there were citizens against this,” Deema Totah, who was responsible for helping push a ceasefire measure in Iowa City, told news publication Al Jazeera earlier this month.

“We want future history books to say that this was a unilateral decision by a government whose people did not agree with them.”

We extend heartfelt gratitude to the Minneapolis City Council for passing the veto-proof resolution calling for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Your commitment to peace and justice is commendable and greatly appreciated.

More: https://t.co/zCMPkxWGrz#Ceasefire pic.twitter.com/DWtKP9mgdZ

— CAIR MN (@CAIRMN) January 25, 2024

 An explosive drone struck Khor Mor gas field in the Sulaimaniya region of northern Iraq on Thursday, two sources told Reuters, adding the explosion had caused limited damage but no one had been injured.

Pearl Petroleum, a consortium of United Arab Emirates-based energy firm Dana Gas and its affiliate Crescent Petroleum, have the rights to exploit the Khor Mor and Chemchemal fields, two of the biggest gas fields in Iraq.

Pearl Petroleum could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a separate incident earlier in the day, an explosive-laden drone targeting US forces at a base near Erbil airport in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region was shot down by air defences, the region's counter-terrorism service said.

Iraq has witnessed near-daily drone and rocket attacks by hardline militias since Israel's war in Gaza began in October, mostly on bases housing troops belonging to a US-led military coalition.

The United States has created a channel with Israel to discuss concerns over incidents in Gaza in which civilians have been killed or injured by the Israeli military and civilian facilities have been targeted, two US officials with knowledge told news agency Reuters.

The channel was set up after a meeting earlier this month between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel's war cabinet during which Blinken expressed concern about the "constant" reports of Israeli strikes that either hit humanitarian sites or resulted in large numbers of civilian deaths.

In the meeting, Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and minister Benny Gantz that Washington needed to know "what the answers are" when it comes to reports of strikes, and sought a "reliable channel" through which the United States can raise such issues with the Israelis regularly, one of the US officials said.

The existence of this initiative has not been previously reported and the US officials remained anonymity to discuss the sensitive details around it.

The channel comes as a response to the mounting pressure on the Biden administration over the steep toll on Palestinian civilians of Israel's military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 25,000 people, according to Palestinian health ministry, and displaced millions.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society issued a series of photos on its X social media page, stating that its medical team in al-Amal Hospital successfully removed a shrapnel piece, weighing one kilogram, from the shoulder of a 60-year-old patient during a surgical procedure.

"The success of the operation is notable, given the limited resources and challenging conditions imposed by the Israeli siege on the hospital," the organisation said.

🔴The medical team at PRCS Al-Amal Hospital in #KhanYunis successfully conducted a surgical operation on a sixty-year-old wounded, extracting approximately 1 kilogram of shrapnel from his shoulder. 👏The success of the operation is notable given the limited resources and… pic.twitter.com/El2PyFnTZZ

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 25, 2024

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that three Palestinians, included a child, have been killed by an Israeli attack, after central Gaza's az-Zawayda was targeted.

Citing local sources, Wafa also reported Israeli air attacks that hit a residential home in the neighbourhood of al-Hassayna- located in the west of the Nuseirat refugee camp.

#عاجل | 3 شهداء و عدد من الجرحى بقصف الاحتلال شقة سكنية في منطقة الزوايدة وسط قطاع غزة.

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) January 25, 2024

The Iran-affiliated coalition of Iraqi groups has claimed responsibility for an attack on a US base near the Erbil airport with drones.

The groups said that their targeting of the base was due to its offensive against the “occupying US forces in Iraq and the region” and they said they were retaliating against the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza.

Gaza's health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra reported that tanks have been shelling near the Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and said that drones were firing towards the medical centre’s yards and buildings, that has made everyone in danger.

Israeli media outlets have reported that several protesters, including the families of Israeli captives, have blocked a highway in Tel Aviv to add pressure on the Israeli government to work about the release of the hostages. 

According to Israeli broadcaster, Channel 12, said that the Metzger, Monder, Or, Calderon-Dan and Horn families also attended the protest

Families of Israeli captives block road in Tel Aviv

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reports that a group of protesters containing family members of those held captive in Gaza is blocking a highway in Israel’s capital, demanding the Israeli government work harder to secure their… pic.twitter.com/XZ6Z7A3o8O

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) January 25, 2024

An Israeli actor in the Netflix television series Fauda vowed Thursday to return to the screen after he was wounded in fighting amid Israel's war on Gaza.

Idan Amedi was among a group of soldiers who were wounded in a blast in the besieged Palestinian territory where he was deployed after the war broke out on October 7.

"It's not a scene from Fauda, it's real life," Amedi, dressed in military fatigues, said in a video posted on social media on October 12.

"I will return to create, I will return to singing, I will return to acting," Amedi told reporters on Thursday after he was released from hospital near Tel Aviv.

Hamas has issued a statement via its official Telegram channel to announce that it will abide by calls for a ceasefire if the ICJ ruling is also in favour.

They added that as long as Israel reciprocates, the group will release all of the captives remaining in Gaza if Israel releases the Palestinian prisoners currently held by it.

“The Zionist enemy must end its 18-year siege of Gaza and enter all necessary aid for population relief and reconstruction,” the statement read.

US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to launch an investigation into the killing of 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaq, who was shot by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to his family.

“Tawfiq deserved to grow old. The collective punishment of an entire people must end,” Tlaib wrote in a post on X.

Tawfiq deserved to grow old. The collective punishment of an entire people must end. @SecBlinken must launch an investigation into the murder of another American by the Israeli government.https://t.co/sNQdypPeSl

— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) January 25, 2024

Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokeperson of the Palestinian health ministry, has decried limited aid entering Gaza, as he said there is insufficient amount required for the health sector in the territory “during this severe emergency”.

“We call on all the international parties to revise the medical aid and ensure that it fits our declared needs for the emergency divisions, intensive care, operation rooms … chronic diseases and other basic necessities,” al-Qudra said.

He also urged that 7,000 patients would be allowed to leave Gaza and receive the care needed to save their lives.

 Al-Qudra also said Israeli forces had on Thursday killed 20 people waiting for humanitarian aid to be distributed on the outskirts of Gaza City.

"The Israeli occupation committed a new massacre against thousands of hungry mouths who were waiting for humanitarian aid at the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza, claiming 20 martyrs and 150 wounded," he said.

 Yemen's Houthi delegation met in Moscow on Thursday with the Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov where they discussed the situation in the region.

They also spoke of the importance of intensifying efforts to pressure the United States and Israel to stop war in the Gaza strip, the Houthi top negotiator said on messaging platform X.

A total of 25,900 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and 64,110 wounded by Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since October 7, the health ministry confirmed in a statement on Thursday.

US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns will meet with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials in Europe in the coming days for talks on a potential Gaza hostage deal, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing officials familiar with the matter.

Illegal Israeli settlers dug graves marked with flowers in the land of the Mleihat community in the Muarrajat, between the eastern hills of Ramallah and Jericho, as threats and harassment against Palestinian Bedouins continue.

Read more from The New Arab's West Bank correspondent Qassam Muaddi here.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday renewed calls for Israel to protect civilians after a deadly strike on a UN shelter in Gaza that brought rare US condemnation.

Two tank shells struck the UN shelter Wednesday in Gaza's main southern city of Khan Younis, killing 12 people, according to the United Nations.

On a visit to Angola, Blinken told reporters that the UN shelter "is essential and it has to be protected".

"We have reaffirmed this with the government of Israel and it is my understanding that they are, as is necessary and appropriate, looking into this incident," Blinken said, without saying at what level discussions took place.

The targeting of ships linked to Israel will continue until aid reaches the Palestinian people in Gaza, Yemen's Houthis leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said on Thursday in a televised speech.

"Our country will continue its operations until food and medicine reach the people of Gaza," he said.

The group's leader added that the results of the latest US and British escalation would be counterproductive and would not affect "our will and determination".

The United Nations told AFP on Thursday that the Israeli military ordered people taking refuge in their shelter hit with deadly tank fire in southern Khan Yunis to leave by the following afternoon.

A spokeswoman for UNRWA, the agency for Palestinian refugees, confirmed testimony from displaced people in the shelter who said the army gave them until 5:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Friday to flee.

"The army called the UNRWA official through the loudspeaker, she went over to them next to the tanks, and they told her to notify us to vacate the premises by 5 pm tomorrow," said Amal Lubbad, a displaced Gazan at the facility.

"We don't know where we'll go."

The Israeli military did not immediately comment when asked by AFP about the forced displacement.

Israel on Thursday accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of "collusion with Hamas" by ignoring Israeli evidence of the "terrorist use" of hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar told a meeting of the WHO's executive board that there could not be health in the Palestinian territory when Hamas "embeds itself in hospitals and uses human shields".

In "every single hospital that the IDF searched in Gaza, it found evidence of Hamas' military use," she said.

"These are undeniable facts that WHO chooses to ignore time and time again. This is not incompetence; it is collusion."

WHO has not responsed to the allegations.

66 percent of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are currently suffering from the spread of water-borne diseases, the Environmental Quality Authority said on Thursday.

Such diseases include cholera, chronic diarrhea, and intestinal diseases, which are caused by the lack of drinkable water as well as the closure of all water desalination plants, in the wake of Israel's deadly war in Gaza.

The UK will impose new sanctions on leaders of the Houthi group, which will include at least four senior figures being subject to asset freezes and travel bans, according to a new report on Thursday.

Senior ministers in the Houthi administration in Yemen would also be sanctioned, with an announcement expected as early as Thursday, reports Reuters citing the news article.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that Israeli forces have targeted its headquarters at al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis for a fourth day in a row, as shelling continues to rain heavily in the southern Gaza city.

"The occupation forces also impose a complete curfew around the hospital since yesterday afternoon, restricting the movement of ambulance crews to and from the hospital," the NGO said in a post on X.

Israel on Thursday voiced confidently that the International Court of Justice would throw out South Africa's case that the Gaza war amounts to genocide against Palestinians, which an Israeli government spokesperson described as without basis.

"We expect the ICJ to throw out these spurious and specious charges," the spokesperson, Eylon Levy, said in a briefing ahead of the court's scheduled convening on Friday to announce whether it will grant emergency measures against Israel.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Thursday that a spate of attacks targeting US-led troops in Iraq assisting the campaign against Islamic State group jihadists "need to stop".

"We are extremely worried by the constant attacks against international military bases," Albares said on a visit to Iraq, where his government has troops deployed. "Attacks against foreign troops need to stop."

US-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria have been targeted in more than 150 attacks since mid-October, many of them claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.

Washington has responded with air strikes targeting the groups it holds mainly responsible but the cycle of violence has prompted Baghdad to call for talks on a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops.

"We are here at the request of the government of Iraq and we will leave when the government of Iraq considers," Albares said.

Spain has been one of the loudest voices in the European Union calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and Albares said the risks of an escalation of violence across the Middle East made a halt to the fighting even more important.

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed and 150 others wounded after Israeli forces targeted people as they waited for humanitarian relief in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reported.

The attack in northern Gaza was carried out at Kuwait Rounadbout, east of the Zeitoun neighbourhood, the Qatari broadcaster said.

"The situation is very critical," said reporter Ismail al-Ghoul.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday accused Qatar, a key mediator in efforts to free its hostages, of being responsible for the October 7 Hamas attack.

His comments came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught on tape allegedly telling hostages' families this week that Qatar's mediation was "problematic" when it came to resolving the hostage crisis.

Qatar is the "patron of Hamas and is largely responsible for the massacre committed by Hamas of Israeli citizens", Smotrich said on X, formerly Twitter.

"Qatar is a country that supports terrorism and finances terrorism."

Smotrich has a history of war-mongering and espousing anti-Palestinian rhetoric, and is a settler activist.

קטר היא מדינה תומכת טרור ומממנת טרור. היא הפטרונית של חמאס והיא אחראית במידה רבה לטבח שביצע חמאס באזרחי ישראל. היחס של המערב כלפיה צבוע ומבוסס על אינטרסים כלכליים פסולים. המערב יכול וצריך להפעיל עליה מנופים חזקים בהרבה ולהביא לשחרור החטופים באופן מידי.>> https://t.co/ziQpGs6ROX

— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) January 24, 2024

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian man on Thursday in the village of Bir Al-Basha, south of Jenin, according to the ministry of health.  

The victim was identified as Wissam Khashan, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa said. Israeli forces stormed his house and besieged it for hours, during which they opened heavy gunfire and fatally shot Khashan from point-blank.

A new poll on Wednesday has shown that more than one in three Americans believe that Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in the war-hit Gaza Strip.

The poll showed that 35 percent of US nationals confirming this, with 36 percent opposing such a statement, while 29 percent remain undecided.

Nearly half of those queried in the 18-29 age group, 49 percent, say Israel is engaged in genocide, while 24 percent disagree, and 27 percent saying they're uncertain.

Kuwait Oil Tanker Company on Thursday said it is monitoring and assessing the situation in the Red Sea on a daily basis, state news agency KUNA reported.

The company is taking precautionary measures to protect the safety of its fleet, it added without providing further details.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it carried a number of injured Palestinians in Rafah following an Israeli strike on an apartment building in the city.

The strike targeted the Al-Ghoul family in the city's Tel Al-Sultan neighbourhood, PRCS said.

🚑 The PRCS’s teams transported many injuries early this morning as the IOF targeted the apartment of the Al-Ghoul family in Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood in #Rafah
📷 Photos by: Volunteer Misbah Mkheimar pic.twitter.com/p2yBlEGQ0V

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 25, 2024

China's defence ministry has in a statement denied providing Gaza with weapons or equipment amid Israel's war on the territory, following a press briefing in Beijing.

Australian mining giant BHP Group is diverting almost all of its shipments from Asia to Europe away from the Red Sea, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

At least three civilians, including two children, were killed on Thursday as a result of intense Israeli airstrikes targeting the Al-Satar Al-Gharbi area of Khan Younis, according to local and security sources cited by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Ongoing Israeli heavy gunfire and artillery shelling has specifically targeted Khan Younis and surrounding hospitals this week. At least 50 were killed in overnight strikes, Gaza's health ministry said.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that more aid trucks must be able to enter Gaza and an immediate humanitarian pause is needed to help those trapped in a "desperate situation".

Cameron, who is on a visit to the Middle East and met separately with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, announced Britain and Qatar are working together to get more aid into Gaza, with a first joint consignment containing tents being flown into Egypt on Thursday before travelling by road to Gaza.

"The scale of suffering in Gaza is unimaginable. More must be done, faster, to help people trapped in this desperate situation," Cameron said. "We have trebled our assistance for Gaza. But our efforts will only make a difference if aid gets to those who need it most."

"As I said to PM Netanyahu, far more trucks need to be able to enter Gaza and more crossings need to open. We need an immediate humanitarian pause to get aid in and hostages out, followed by a sustainable ceasefire."

Cameron pushed Israeli leaders for the port of Ashdod to be used for the delivery of aid into Gaza, his office said.