Israel-Palestine live: Israel bombs Unrwa building in Gaza

The UK Labour Party has called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" in Gaza as it seeks to prevent a split among its MPs on the issue.

On Wednesday, parliament is set to vote on an opposition Scottish National Party motion calling for an immediate ceasefire.

In an apparent bid to avoid another split on the issue among its MPs, the party drafted its own amendment that calls for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire."

"Our amendment calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, in line with our allies," a spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

"We need the hostages released and returned. We need the fighting to stop now. We need a massive humanitarian aid programme for Gaza. And any military action in Rafah cannot go ahead."

The move marks a shift from earlier policy, in which the party leadership called for a "lasting ceasefire."

The UN has announced the suspension of food aid in northern Gaza, after warning that the region is plagued by "chaos and violence".

The World Food Programme (WFP) resumed deliveries on Sunday after a three-week halt but said its convoy "faced complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order."

“The decision to suspend deliveries to the northern Gaza Strip was not taken lightly, as we know that this means that the situation there will deteriorate further and more people will be at risk of end to die," said the agency.

The WFP warned on Monday that an alarming lack of food, rampant malnutrition and rapid spread of disease could lead to an "explosion" in the number of child deaths in the strip.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague has been hearing submissions from Belgium on Tuesday on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. 

• Belgium condemns the use of violence against the Palestinian population and wishes to highlight Israel’s obligations to put an end to violence and bring to justice the perpetrators
• Israel’s settlement policy aims to bring about a permanent alteration of the demographic composition of the Palestinian territory and the status of the Palestinian territory itself
• This policy is in violation of fundamental rules of international law: the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force; the principle of self-determination.
• The establishment of settlements is also linked to the establishment of two different systems: one for the settlers and one for the Palestinian population
• Israel must end all settlement activity and restore all property expropriated. Third states must not recognise the situation as legal, must not render aid, and must cooperate to end violations

The Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi said his forces "not on a killing spree, revenge or genocide" according to a report by the Israeli daily Haaretz. 

"We must be careful not to use force where it is not required, to distinguish between terrorist and non-terrorist, not to take anything that is not ours – a souvenir or military item – and not to film revenge videos," said Halevi. 

Israeli forces according the UN and other human rights organisations has waged a unprecedented war on Gaza resulting in more than 100,000 Palestinians mostly women and children being killed and wounded in the spree. 

While Israeli forces have been documented in torturing Palestinian men and made videos looting Palestinian homes. 

On Monday UN experts  decried reports of rape and sexual assault of Palestinian women and girls held in Israeli detention.

The independent experts, part of the UN’s fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, confirmed in a statement receiving reports of Palestinian female detainees being subjected to “multiple forms of sexual assault,” with at least two detainees reportedly raped, while others were allegedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it has completed a second evacuation mission from Gaza's Nasser hospital, transferring a total of 32 critical patients including children.

The hospital has faced a near total siege at the hands of the Israeli army and effectively stopped functioning following Israeli raids.

Efforts to transfer the remaining patients are ongoing, the global health agency said.

"WHO fears for the safety and well-being of the patients and health workers remaining in the hospital and warns that further disruption to lifesaving care for the sick and injured would lead to more deaths," the WHO said on social media site X.

More than 29,195 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, said Gaza’s Health Ministry on Tuesday.

At least 103 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the past 24 hours and 142 were wounded.

The ministry said that more than 69,170 others have been wounded since Israel launched its brutual campaign in the beseiged Strip.

Ziad al-Atiyah, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the Netherlands, says Israel must be held accountable for flouting international law calling its actions indefensible:

• The Kingdom expresses its profound revulsion for the killing of civilians in Gaza and Israel’s protracted impunity
• Israel’s argument that it has a right to self-defence distorts reality. Depriving the Palestinian population of all means of survival is not justified under any circumstances
• Israel is dehumanising Palestinians and treating them as disposable objects. It is committing genocide against the Palestinian population.
• Israel continues to ignore the calls for a ceasefire as well as the court’s provisional measures. More generally, it is in continuous breach of numerous UN resolutions and it is making it impossible to establish a Palestinian state by expanding illegal settlements and expelling Palestinians from their homes, despite the repeated condemnation of this practice by the UN Security Council

Canada has pulled out at the last minute from giving arguments to ICJ but the motivations are unclear. 

Vusimuzi Madonsela, ambassador of South Africa to the Netherlands, kicks off proceedings  challenging Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories:

• South Africa cannot overstate the importance of this advisory opinion for the Palestinian people.
• The occupation alone has lasted for more than 50 years. It has been conducted in defiance of international law without pushback from the international community.
• Therefore, we must ask, when will Israel’s decades-long impunity for widespread and systematic rights violations and norms of international law end – if not now?
• Over the past 106 days, the world has watched in horror the relentless attacks on Gaza. The ferocity of violence in Israel’s latest military campaign against Gaza and it’s flouting of international law – including an order from this court on January 26 – is the clearest indication that Israel considers itself unrestrained in its actions against Palestinians.
• Its actions occur with even more depravity and bloodshed.

Proceedings start at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, with a delegation from South Africa to present arguments against Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

UN experts on Monday decried reports of rape and sexual assault of Palestinian women and girls held in Israeli detention.

The independent experts, part of the UN’s fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, confirmed in a statement receiving reports of Palestinian female detainees being subjected to “multiple forms of sexual assault,” with at least two detainees reportedly raped, while others were allegedly threatened with rape and sexual violence. 

They also described women being strip-searched by male Israeli officers and noted the circulation of degrading images of detainees online by Israeli soldiers.

The statement also cited at least one report of a woman allegedly being held in a cage in the wind and rain.

Read more: Palestinian women and girls in Israeli detention raped and sexually assaulted, UN experts say

There has been a sharp escalation in the drivers of malnutrition, food insecurity; lack of diet diversity; deteriorating infant and young child feeding practices; lack of access to safe water and sanitation; widespread disease; and a collapsed health system in Gaza according to a report by Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC).

Over 90 per cent of children aged 6–23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women facing severe food poverty said GNC. 

"Results from the analysis suggest that the nutrition situation of women and children in Gaza is worsening, everywhere, but especially in Northern Gaza and Rafah. In Northern Gaza, 1 in 6 children are acutely malnourished, with an estimated 3 percent facing the most severe form of wasting and requiring immediate treatment," the report said.

GNC writes that in Gaza:

• At least 90 percent of children under 5 are affected by one or more infectious disease and 70 percent have had diarrhoea in the past two weeks

• 81 percent of households lack safe and clean water, with average household access at less than one litre per person per day

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague began hearing submissions on Monday on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. 

Separate to the more well-publicised genocide case brought by South Africa on Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, the UN's highest court will hear from 52 countries and three international organisations on the legal consequences of Israel’s decades-long occupation. The hearings will contribute to an advisory opinion, an ICJ instrument that has no binding force but carries significant legal and moral authority.  

The number of states participating in the oral proceedings is the highest in any case since the ICJ's establishment in 1945.

Israel has been occupying what is recognised under international law as Palestinian land since the 1967 war. East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza all fall under this category, and the separate legal systems, construction of settlements and acts of violence meted out against Palestinian residents are all key factors that will be considered in the hearings.

Read more: Explained: ICJ begins historic hearings on Israel's occupation of Palestine

The ICJ will hold its second day of hearings today. It's all part of a week-long process in which representatives from 52 countries will provide oral arguments on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

A Palestinian legal team kickstarted hearings in The Hague on Monday, while Israel has refused to participate in proceedings beyond a written argument. Today, the court will hear oral arguments from the following 11 countries:

• South Africa
• Algeria
• Saudi Arabia
• Netherlands
• Bangladesh
• Belgium
• Belize
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Canada
• Chile

Ireland and Norway have agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire and the release of captives held in Gaza. 

The Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin met his Norwegian counterpart Espen Barth Eide on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference and also agreed that the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) should be supported.