live blog
Israel says it has killed a commander of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia. According to the US, around 570 tons of aid were delivered via the makeshift pier on Gaza’s coast. All developments in the live blog.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has described the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants against him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “disgraceful” attempt to interfere in the Gaza war. Israel is being deprived of the right to self-defense, Gallant wrote on the online platform X. Unlike Germany, Israel is not one of the ICC contracting states.
To France Belgium has also expressed its support for the International Criminal Court in The Hague following the request for arrest warrants against representatives of Israel and Hamas. Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib wrote on Network X: “The crimes committed in Gaza must be prosecuted at the highest level, regardless of the perpetrators.”
According to the Palestinian Health Authority, seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The hospital run by the authority said a surgeon was among the dead. The doctor died in the area around the clinic. According to reports, nine other Palestinians were injured. The Israeli army spoke of an operation against militant Palestinians, several of whom were shot.
After applying for an international arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the French government is demonstratively supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC). “France supports the International Criminal Court, its independence and the fight against impunity in all situations,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The chief prosecutor at the ICC on Monday requested an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as against three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army says it has killed the commander of the rocket unit of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in a targeted airstrike. The military said the air force had “hit and eliminated the terrorist” near the Lebanese coastal city of Tire the day before. He was behind the planning and execution of numerous rocket attacks on the Israeli border area. Hezbollah said a total of six of its fighters were killed in Lebanon and six in Syria on Monday.
On Monday evening, several rockets fired by Hezbollah towards Israel hit uninhabited areas again, the Israeli army said. Overall, the rocket attacks from Lebanon have recently become significantly worse. Experts believe this is a response to the Israeli advance in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The US Central Command (Centcom) has said that more than 569 tons of humanitarian aid supplies have been delivered to the Gaza Strip so far through the temporary pier built by the US. The USA, Great Britain, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and many other partners have donated to this humanitarian aid, it is said. The aid supplies come from Cyprus via a sea corridor. The cost of building the pier is estimated at $320 million. Around 1,000 US soldiers are involved. According to US figures, the pier will initially be able to handle around 90 trucks per day, but the number can be increased to 150 trucks. According to the UN, at least 500 trucks per day are necessary to supply the Gaza Strip.
The bodies of four hostages recovered in the Gaza Strip last week were found in tunnels under Jabaliya in the north of the Palestinian territory, according to the Israeli army. The Israeli army announced this on Monday evening and further explained that Israeli soldiers had searched a suspicious building in which a tunnel shaft was located during a military operation. Soldiers then went into the tunnel during a nighttime operation and fought in it. During the fighting, the soldiers found the bodies of the hostages and rescued them from the tunnels.
The Israeli army announced last week that it had recovered the bodies of the German-Israeli Shani Louk as well as Ron Benjamin, Yitzhak Gelerenter and Amit Buskila. They were all killed in the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th.
US President Joe Biden’s security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has again insisted on access to humanitarian aid throughout the Gaza Strip in talks with the Israeli leadership. It is important that Israel and Egypt complete their discussions about the early reopening of the Rafah border crossing in the south of the sealed-off coastal area, Sullivan emphasized in discussions with Israel’s Defense Minister Gallant and Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi, the White House said on Monday. Humanitarian aid workers must be able to safely provide aid to those in need throughout the Gaza Strip and use all available border crossings to do so.
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the request for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Joaw Gallant could jeopardize ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza. Hamas is being encouraged and that is the main obstacle to an agreement, said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Efforts to release the hostages and reach a ceasefire made no progress last week, US National Security Council communications director John Kirby said. Since Israel and Hamas do not negotiate directly with each other, Egypt, Qatar and the United States act as mediators in the negotiations.
US President Joe Biden has sided with Israel following the international arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s military action against Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip does not constitute genocide, Biden said. “What is happening in Gaza is not genocide,” the US president said at a White House event marking Jewish American Heritage Month.
Biden underscored his belief that Israel was the victim of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage. The US support for the security of Israelis is unwavering. “We stand with Israel to eliminate (Hamas leader Yahya) Sinwar and the other butchers of Hamas. We want Hamas to be defeated. We are working with Israel to achieve that.”
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney said she was one of the legal experts who recommended the request for arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Defense Minister Yoaw Gallant and Hamas leaders. The 46-year-old informed about her involvement on Monday in a letter that she posted on the website of the Clooney Foundation for Justice – a foundation that she and her husband, Hollywood star George Clooney, set up. She and other legal experts unanimously decided to recommend that the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, apply for the arrest warrants, Clooney wrote.
Khan complied with this on Monday and justified this with the accusation that Netanyahu, Gallant and the Hamas top – leader Jihia al-Sinwar, his deputy Mohammed Deif and Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya – in connection with the attack, which has been going on for more than seven months War is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and Israel.
According to the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pizzaballa, the city of Gaza has been destroyed beyond recognition in parts. There have been arrests in Israel during protests against the Netanyahu government. Read about Monday’s developments.