Gaza war: UN calls Rafah 'pressure cooker of despair' as Israeli assault on southern 'safe-zone' looms

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The United States announced new sanctions Friday aimed at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, as Washington prepares retaliation after a strike killing three Americans in Jordan that was blamed on Iran-backed militias.

The US Treasury Department said it was imposing sanctions on six officials in the cyber-electronic command of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), over activities targeting critical infrastructure.

In a separate notice, the Treasury added that it was also hitting a network of suppliers providing "materials and sensitive technology for Iran's ballistic missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programs."

The moves come shortly after President Joe Biden blamed "radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq" for the Sunday drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three American troops.

He has pledged to hold "all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing."

Israeli  forces have arrested at least 25 people in the occupied West Bank over the last 24 hours, including a woman, a wounded person, and several children, according to the Palestinian Detainees Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS).

The statement reported that the arrest raids were concentrated in the town of Baqa al-Hatab, located east of Qalqilya. Other arrests were carried out in various governorates, including Jenin, Hebron, Tubas, the Northern Jordan Valley, Tulkarm, and Jerusalem.

Satellite imagery analysed by the United Nations Satellite Centre shows that 30 percent of Gaza Strip's buildings have been destroyed or damaged in the Israel offensive in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

Air strikes, shelling and demolitions have razed entire city districts, including much civilian infrastructure.

"In total, a staggering 69,147 structures, equivalent to approximately 30 percent of the Gaza Strip's total structures, are affected," the United Nations Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, said.

It said 22,131 structures in the enclave have been identified as destroyed, with an additional 14,066 deemed severely damaged and 32,950 having sustained moderate damage.

UNOSAT used satellite imagery from January 6-7, which it compared with six other sets of images, including some dating from before the Israeli offensive.

UNOSAT said that the regions of Gaza City and Khan Younis had experienced the most significant increase in damage since the previous analysis.

The two areas have seen 10,280 and 11,894 newly damaged structures respectively, compared with UNOSAT's previous analysis based on images from November 26.

UNOSAT's analysis also showed that an estimated 93,800 housing units have been damaged in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said its "Arrow" aerial defence system successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface missile fired at Israeli territory on Friday in the area of the Red Sea.

The military statement did not provide details on the origin of the launch.

The Iran-aligned Houthi militants, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have launched wave after wave of exploding drones and missiles at commercial vessels in the Red Sea since Nov. 19, in what they say is a response to Israel's military operations in Gaza.

800 European and American officials have signed a letter to their governments denouncing Israel’s war on Gaza as "one of the worst human catastrophes of this century".

The statement – titled It Is Our Duty To Speak Out When Our Governments’ Policies Are Wrong – denounced policies that "weaken" their countries’ "moral standing" on the global stage.

"Israel has shown no boundaries in its military operations in Gaza which has resulted in tens of thousands of preventable civilian deaths and that the deliberate blocking of aid by Israel has led to a humanitarian catastrophe, putting thousands of civilians at risk of starvation and slow death," the statement read.

"Israel's military operations have not contributed to its goal of releasing all hostages and is putting their well-being, lives and release at risk."

The officials went on to urge government to hold Israel "accountable to international humanitarian and human rights standards" applied elsewhere, including the demand of immediate and full implementation oft he recent order of the International Court of Justice.

People in the war-torn Gaza Strip "are enduring unimaginable circumstances", the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, as Israel's war continues to rage.

"They are exhausted, hungry, and traumatized. Families have lost everything and faced displacement repeatedly. Thousands lack adequate shelters against the cold and rain, while diseases tighten their grip."

A displaced mother interviewed by the UN agency spoke of the "nightmare" she is subject to, as she struggles to survive with no protection from the weather, access to healthcare or food and water.

118 days of war in #Gaza.

People are enduring unimaginable circumstances; they are exhausted, hungry, and traumatized.

Families have lost everything and faced displacement repeatedly.

Thousands lack adequate shelters against the cold and rain, while diseases tighten their… pic.twitter.com/xn19mfYytv

— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) February 2, 2024

Israeli warplanes carried out an air strike on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun in the Bint Jbeil district, the Lebanese NNA agency reported on Friday.

The strike coincided with artillery shelling that targeted residential neighborhoods in Aitaroun, the Lebanese agency said.

The United Nations said on Friday it estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been left unaccompanied or separated nearly four months into the war.

"Each one has a heartbreaking story of loss and grief," said Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for the UN children's agency UNICEF in the Palestinian territories.

"This figure corresponds to one percent of the overall displaced population -- 1.7 million people," he told a media briefing in Geneva, via video-link from Jerusalem.

Each one "is a child who is coming to terms with a horrible new reality".

Crickx said that tracing who the children were was proving "extremely difficult", as sometimes they were brought to a hospital where they may be wounded or in shock, and "they simply can't even say their names".

He said that during conflicts, it was common for extended families to take care of children who lost their parents.

A female Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) employee was killed on Friday, the NGO said, by Israeli gunfire targeting the PRCS building in Khan Younis.

13,000 Palestinian worshipers were allowed to perform Friday prayer in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as Israeli police banned the entry of hundreds of people into the holy site.

The Islamic Endowments Department affirmed that only 13,000 worshipers were allowed in as Israeli police banned the entry of hundreds of people into the holy site for the 17th consecutive Friday prayer.

Usually, Friday prayers at the holy site draw in more than 50,000 worshippers.

Eyewitnesses said that the mosque seemed almost empty of Muslim faithful due to Israeli restrictions.

The fate of  six-year-old Hind Hamadeh is yet to be unknown, after 89 hours have passed since she was trapped in a car on Monday which was targeted by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The fates of Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al Madhoun, who are ambulance men with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), are also unknown.

PRCS has urgently appealed to the international community to intervene and exert immediate pressure on Israeli occupation authorities to disclose the fate of both Little Hind and the ambulance crew deployed to rescue her.

At least 27,131 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since October 7, while another 66,287 have been wounded, according to the health ministry.

It added that 112 Palestinians have been killed over the past 24 hours.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday that his country would not start a war but that it would "respond strongly" to anyone who tried to bully it.

Raisi's comments came after days of speculation about how Washington might retaliate after three US soldiers were killed last Saturday in a strike on their base in Jordan by an Iranian-backed group.

"We will not start any war, but if anyone wants to bully us they will receive a strong response," Raisi said in a televised speech.

"Before, when they (the Americans) wanted to talk to us, they said the military option is on the table. Now they say they have no intention of a conflict with Iran," Raisi said.

Belgium has summoned the Israeli ambassador after the office building housing the Belgian Agency for Development Cooperation (Enabel) in Gaza was bombed and destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib has announced.

The office was in a six-storey building in Gaza City. The foreign ministry says it believes none of the agency’s staff was present when the building was bombed.

"Attacks on civilian infrastructure breach the principles of international humanitarian law," she said in a post on X.

"All parties must adhere to it."

I have just summoned the Israeli ambassador to express our strong condemnation of the destruction of #Enabel offices in #Gaza.

Attacks on civilian infrastructure breach the principles of international humanitarian law.

All parties must adhere to it.

— Hadja Lahbib (@hadjalahbib) February 2, 2024

The United Nations humanitarian office on Friday voiced concern about the hostilities in Khan Younis that have forced more people to flee to Rafah in the far south of Gaza, describing the border town as a "pressure cooker of despair".

The comments come as Israel prepares to advance its war on Gaza farther south, close to the Egyptian border, where most Gazans have sought refuge from the Israeli offensive.

"I want to emphasize our deep concern about the escalation of hostilities in Khan Younis, which has resulted in an increase in the number of internally displaced people seeking refuge in Rafah in recent days," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are sheltering in the area, mainly cold and hungry in makeshift tents and public buildings.

"Rafah is a pressure cooker of despair, and we fear for what comes next," Laerke said.

Three pro-Iran fighters were killed in Israeli strikes south of Damascus Friday, a war monitor said, with Iranian media reporting an adviser from the Revolutionary Guards was among the dead.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "three members of pro-Iran groups, including an Iranian and an Iraqi" were killed in "Israeli air strikes".

The targets included a site operated by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on a road leading to the Sayyida Zeinab district and a site on the road to Damascus airport that had recently been vacated by pro-Iran groups, the Britain-based war monitor said.

Syrian state media reported damage from "Israeli" air strikes south of Damascus but did not mention casualties.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

Algeria has drafted a UN Security Council resolution to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in , a move that the United States - a council veto power - opposes because it says it would only benefit the Palestinian militants.

The draft, seen by Reuters on Thursday, also "rejects the forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population" and again demands all parties comply with international law and calls for full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip.

Algeria shared the draft with the 15-member council on Wednesday, diplomats said, after the body met to discuss a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week that ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide, but it stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.

It was not immediately known when or if Algeria's draft resolution could be put to a vote. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, China or Russia to be adopted.

Jordanian border guards briefly arrested four Israelis on Thursday who had mistakenly crossed the border, Jordanian state TV reported on Friday citing a military source.

Investigations showed they crossed by mistake and were later returned to the Israeli authorities via official channels, the TV said.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said that "the situation for children in Gaza grows bleaker every day", and called on the international community not to let down the children of the war-torn enclave, who have been witnessing death and destruction for almost four months.

"The world cannot abandon them," she wrote on X, sharing a UNICEF statement from earlier in the week.

The situation for children in Gaza grows bleaker every day.

The world cannot abandon them. https://t.co/UhnILfrMLK

— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) February 2, 2024

The Syrian regime military says it downed a number of Israeli missiles launched from the occupied Golan Heights that were targeting south Damascus on Friday, state news agency Sana reported citing a military source.

Turkish authorities detained seven people suspected of selling information to Israel's Mossad intelligence service in connection with tracking and monitoring local targets, a Turkish security official said on Friday.

Turkey has previously warned Israel of "serious consequences" if it tries to hunt down members of the Hamas group living outside Palestinian territories, including in Turkey. Turkish and Israeli leaders have traded public barbs since Israel's war with Hamas began last October.

The security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkish police and the country's MIT intelligence agency had conducted joint operations in Istanbul and Izmir as part of an investigation by the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office.

The latest operations come a month after a round of suspected Mossad-related arrests in Turkey.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on four Israeli settlers as President Joe Biden said violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank had reached intolerable levels.

"The situation in the West Bank - in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction - has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security and stability," Biden said in an executive order laying the groundwork for US actions.

The State Department later announced sanctions against four settlers. Any assets they hold in the United States will be blocked, with Americans forbidden from financial transactions with them.

The four include David Chai Chasdai who is accused of leading a riot in the flashpoint town of Huwara in which Palestinian homes were torched and a Palestinian civilian killed following an attack that killed two Israelis.

Other targets included Yinon Levi, who is accused of leading a group of settlers from the unauthorized outpost of Meitarim Farm who have assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, burned their fields and destroyed their property.