Civilians trapped by fighting in Gaza, Palestinian death toll crosses 26,000
\nGAZA
\nThe UN Security Council will meet next week over the decision by the global body\u2019s top court calling for Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, announced the council\u2019s presidency.
\nThe health ministry in Gaza says the Israeli invasion has killed at least 26,083 people, about 70 percent of them women and children.
\nThe Wednesday meeting was called for by Algeria, whose ministry of foreign affairs said it would give \u201cbinding effect to the pronouncement of the International Court of Justice on the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation.\u201d
\nThe ICJ on Friday said Israel must prevent genocidal acts in its war with Gaza and allow aid into the besieged enclave, but stopped short of calling for an end to the fighting.
\nThe decision \u201cgives the clear message that in order to do all the things that they are asking for, you need a ceasefire for it to happen,\u201d Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said.
\n\u201cSo fasten your seat belts,\u201d he said, hinting that the Arab Group, represented on the council by Algeria, would push for one.
\nThe Security Council, long divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, has only agreed to two resolutions since the October 7 attacks sparked the brutal Israeli bombardment and invasion of Gaza.
\nIn December, it demanded aid deliveries \u201cat scale\u201d to Gaza\u2019s besieged population, while Israel\u2019s ally the United States has kept out calls for a ceasefire despite international pressure.
\nThe European Union called for the \u201cimmediate\u201d application of the ICJ\u2019s decision.
\nThe ruling in The Hague was based on an urgent application brought by South Africa, long a supporter of the Palestinian cause, but a broader judgment on whether genocide has been committed could take years.
\nThe ICJ, based in The Hague, while refraining from ordering an immediate halt to the almost four-month-old war, said Israel must do everything to \u201cprevent the commission of all acts within the scope\u201d of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
\nCivilians trapped by fighting in Gaza
\nThousands of civilians were trapped in southern Gaza by bombardment and fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters on Saturday.
\nGrowing alarm has focused on Khan Yunis, the biggest city in Gaza\u2019s south, where the two main hospitals were barely functioning under the weight of the relentless bombardment and the press of thousands in need.
\nWitnesses reported more overnight strikes on Khan Yunis, the current epicentre of Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza, and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said some of the dead and wounded had been taken to the city\u2019s barely functioning Al-Amal hospital.
\nA person looks on as displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, shelter at a tent camp. PHOTO: Reuters
\nThe strikes came after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in its war against Hamas.
\n\u201cThis is the first time the world has told Israel that it is out of line,\u201d said Maha Yasin, a 42-year-old displaced Palestinian woman in Gaza. \u201cWhat Israel did to us in Gaza for four months has never happened in history.\u201d
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the case as \u201coutrageous\u201d.
\nFierce fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters has raged for days around Khan Yunis, forcing tens of thousands to flee further south to Rafah on the border with Egypt.
\nWith a humanitarian crisis growing in Khan Yunis and northern areas of Gaza, UN agencies say most of the estimated 1.7 million Palestinians displaced by the war are crowded into Rafah.
\nAt Khan Yunis\u2019s Nasser Hospital, the largest in the besieged city, Doctors Without Borders said surgical capacity was \u201cvirtually non-existent\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Civilians trapped by fighting in Gaza, Palestinian death toll crosses 26,000 GAZA The UN Security Council will meet next week over the decision by the global body\u2019s top court calling for Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, announced the council\u2019s presidency. The health ministry in Gaza says the Israeli invasion has killed at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-383493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n