Israeli drones attack hospital in southern Gaza as battles rage

This live blog on Day 105 of Israel's war on Gaza has concluded. Make sure to follow us for the latest news on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

American and British forces have reportedly carried out two strikes on Yemen's port city of Hodeideh, under Houthi control, the latest in  string of attacks on Yemen since last week.

Israeli air strikes "completely destroyed" at least three houses in southern Lebanon on Friday, official news agency NNA and the mayor of the affected border community said.

The NNA reported four houses were targeted "since this morning by the Israeli air force in Kfar Kila", a village near the Israel-Lebanon border, while three were "completely destroyed".

A fifth home was also targeted by artillery fire, the NNA said.

غـ ارة اسرائيلية تستهدف المنطقة بين #كفركلا و #العديسة pic.twitter.com/hqxAan8bZg

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) January 19, 2024

دمرت الاعتداءات الإسرائلية على بلدة كفركلا الحدودية اليوم، 4 منازل ومسجد «العبد الرشيد»، من دون وقوع إصابات. pic.twitter.com/dDpgrVHfgA

— جريدة الأخبار - Al-Akhbar (@AlakhbarNews) January 19, 2024

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a call on Gaza Friday, the White House said, their first conversation for nearly a month amid reports of tensions between the leaders.

Biden and Netanyahu spoke "to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza", the White House said in a statement, adding that it would release a readout of the call soon.

The European Union on Friday added six individuals to an asset freeze and visa ban blacklist for financing Hamas.

Brussels said those sanctioned included Musa Dudin, a senior member of Hamas' investment office, along with financiers based in Sudan, Lebanon and Algeria.

"We are listing six people that have been participating in financing or facilitating the finance of Hamas," a high-ranking EU official said.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday the state of Israel has financed the creation of Palestinian group Hamas in a bid to weaken the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied accusations by his opponents in Israel and some global media that his government spent years actively boosting Hamas in Gaza.

"Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah," Borrell said in a speech in the University of Valladolid, without elaborating further on such alleged financing.

The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) said that Israeli forces released a volunteer in its ranks named Hani Wadi on Friday, who was snatched a month ago from the Red Crescent ambulance centre in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

PRCS added that the Israeli army continues to hold five of its crew members in Gaza.

⭕Israeli Occupation forces released today the PRCS volunteer Hani Wadi, who was detained a month ago from inside the PRCS ambulance center in #Jabalia, central #Gaza. ✋The IOF continues to detain 5 of our teams in the #Gaza Strip until now.
📌 Mohammed Abu Rukbeh, Saeed… pic.twitter.com/71Hirz6y2I

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 19, 2024

Gaza residents have been largely without internet and telephone services for a week, an internet monitor said on Friday, the longest outage since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

The "near-total telecoms blackout" has now lasted for 168 hours, NetBlocks posted on X, formerly Twitter.

⚠ Update: Live metrics show the near-total telecoms blackout in the #Gaza Strip has now passed the one-week mark; at 168 hours, the disruption is the longest on record since the start of the Israel-Hamas war and continues to severely limit visibility into events on the ground 📉 pic.twitter.com/IVRbzmM2oa

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) January 19, 2024

The UN has warned that the blackouts are worsening the Palestinian territory's already dire humanitarian situation.

"The blackout of telecommunications prevents people in Gaza from accessing lifesaving information or calling for first responders and impedes other forms of humanitarian response," the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said on Thursday.

The United Nations said Friday that thousands of babies had been born in conditions "beyond belief" in Gaza since the war there erupted more than three months ago.

Spokeswoman Tess Ingram, back from a recent visit to the Gaza Strip, described mothers bleeding to death and one nurse who had performed emergency caesareans on six dead women.

Nearly 20,000 babies have been born into the war, according to the UN children's agency UNICEF.

Russia on Friday urged Hamas to release all its hostages during talks with the Palestinian group in Moscow, saying the humanitarian situation in Gaza had reached "catastrophic" levels.

Russian diplomat Mikhail Bogdanov "stressed the need for the speedy release of civilians captured during the attacks of October 7" in talks with Hamas politburo member Musa Abu Marzouk, the Russian foreign ministry said.

Israel says 132 hostages still remain in Gaza out of more than 250 taken by Hamas on October 7.

Disruption caused by attacks on vessels in the Red Sea could last "several months", Rodolphe Saade, chairman and CEO of shipping group CMA CGM, told the Financial Times in an article published on Friday.

Saade was cited as saying his company was still sending some vessels through the Suez Canal route when the vessels could be accompanied by a French warship but that the situation had left the company's schedule "in complete disarray".

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday said he had urged Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "drastically" reduce the level of violence against Palestinians and to immediately pause fighting to let more aid into the besieged Gaza strip.

"Israel needs to let in much more relief goods much quicker," Rutte said after a telephone call with Netanyahu.

"We have talked about concrete measures to do so."

The Israeli army said Friday that 19 of its troops had been injured in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including 13 in ground battles.

According to Israeli military data, the total number of soldiers wounded since the beginning of the war on October 7 rose to 2,649, including 1,191 who have been injured since Israel invaded the Gaza Strip.

It is not clear how many Israeli soldiers have died.

Leaders of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries on Friday denounced Israel's military campaign in Gaza and demanded an immediate ceasefire there, during the annual summit of the 120-member bloc.

Dozens of heads of state and other senior officials from the NAM, formed officially in 1961 by countries opposed to joining either of the two major Cold War-era military and political blocs, are attending a summit in Uganda.

"Since October 7 we have witnessed one of the cruellest genocidal acts ever to be recorded by history," Cuba's vice president, Salvador Valdes Mesa, said in a speech to delegates.

"How can the Western countries, who claim to be so civilised, justify the murder of women and children in Gaza, the indiscriminate bombings of hospitals and schools and deprivation of access to safe water and food?" he said.

The Dutch government on Friday summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Netherlands following the death of a Dutch baby in an attack by Iran on Erbil, Iraq.

A Dutch child of less than one year old had died in attacks by Iran on Erbil, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot said in a statement.

She added she had asked her Iranian counterpart for clarification and had summoned the Iranian ambassador.

The Israeli army carried out a dozen airstrikes in only half an hour on border villages in south Lebanon on Friday, Lebanon’s state-run NNA reported.

Between 9:30 and 10:00 am, the Israeli air force conducted at least 12 strikes on villages it has bombed continuously since the start of the Gaza war, as part of cross-border clashes with Hezbollah.

Israeli jets reportedly dropped a large number of air-to-surface missiles, causing significant environmental damage to forest areas, NNA said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has been targeted with a criminal complaint during a visit to Switzerland, Swiss prosecutors said Friday, amid allegations of crimes against humanity over the war in Gaza.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office (BA) confirmed that it had received a criminal complaint against the Israeli president, who was at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos on Thursday to discuss the Gaza war.

"The criminal complaints will now be examined in accordance with the usual procedure," BA said in a statement, adding that it was in contact with the foreign ministry "to examine the question of the immunity of the person concerned".

A total of 24,762 Palestinians have been killed and 62,108 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Some 142 Palestinians were killed and 278 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

The Israeli military and Israel’s Security Agency, Shin Bet, have admitted to killing Palestinian journalist Wael Abu Fanuna, claiming he was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, according to Alaraby TV.

Abu Fanuna, the chief of Al Quds Today TV, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Thursday.

#BREAKING: Palestinian journalist Wael Abu Fanuna, the chief of Al Quds Today TV, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/3u3hYPXCN4

— Al-Jarmaq News (@Aljarmaqnetnews) January 18, 2024

Russia called for restraint and diplomacy on Friday after Iran and Pakistan this week carried out drone and missile strikes on militant bases on each other's territory.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the escalation was cause for concern and was partly a consequence of the Gaza war.

Asked about the situation between Iran and Pakistan, he said Russia was maintaining contacts with both sides through diplomatic channels.

A U.N. human rights official on Friday called for an end to Israel's ill treatment of Palestinian detainees in Gaza, saying he had met men who had been held for weeks, beaten and blindfolded, with some released in diapers.

"These are men who were detained by the Israeli security forces in unknown locations for between 30 to 55 days," said Ajith Sunghay, a U.N. human rights representative told reporters by video link from Gaza, who met with released detainees in the enclave.

"There are reports of men who are subsequently released, but only in diapers without any adequate clothing in this cold weather."

Israeli cabinet minister and former military chief Gadi Eizenkot told Israel's Channel 12 on Thursday that he prevented Israel from preemptively attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon in the days after Hamas' October 7 attack in southern Israel.

Eizenkot, whose youngest son was killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip last month, said Israel was on the verge of striking Hezbollah, though the group had not yet fired on Israel. Eizenkot said he convinced officials in the war cabinet to hold off.

"I think our presence there prevented Israel from making a grave strategic mistake," Eizenkot said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said overnight it had counted 24 cases of hepatitis A and "thousands" of cases of jaundice likely linked to the spread of the viral liver infection.

"The inhumane living conditions - almost no drinking water, clean toilets or ability to keep the surroundings clean - will allow hepatitis A to spread further," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter, describing the health crisis as "explosive".

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported "intense" artillery fire near the Al-Amal hospital, while Gaza's health ministry said 77 people were killed and dozens injured overnight.