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AS IT HAPPENED
Israel claims to have dismantled the Hamas brigade in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis
Israeli forces have dismantled the Hamas brigade in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis as part of an almost four-month-old war in which 10,000 Palestinian fighters have been killed and the same number wounded, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday. The news came as Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was expected in Cairo for talks on a proposed truce in Gaza, as Israel kept up its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory. Read our blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.
Issued on: 01/02/2024 – 04:26
Modified: 01/02/2024 – 11:54
2 min
Photo prise à Rafah montrant de la fumée s’élevant à Khan Younes lors d’un bombardement israélien, le 1er février 2024.
A photo taken in Rafah shows smoke rising from Khan Younis during an Israeli bombardment on February 1, 2024. © Mahmud Hams, AFP
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Summary:
Hamas says it is studying a new ceasefire proposal aimed at securing the release of hostages, a pause in fighting and increasing aid to Gaza. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Cairo Thursday to meet with the Qatari and Egyptian mediators to discuss the proposal.
Israel’s war against Hamas has damaged around half of all buildings in Gaza and rendered the Palestinian territory uninhabitable, with tens of billions of dollars needed to rebuild it, the UN said.
The US imposed sanctions on four Jewish settlers over violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded by saying there was “no need” for such measures.
Israel said it had killed 10,000 Hamas fighters, and wounded as many in the four-month war. Israel also claimed to have dismantled the Hamas brigade in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis.
American broadcaster CBS reported that the US has approved plans to strike Iranian targets in Iraq and Syria.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 27,019 people have been killed and 66,139 wounded in Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7. Israeli officials say about 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Militant fighters took some 250 hostages during the attack and 132 are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
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01/02/2024 18:38
1st Feb
18:38
Some Palestinian Americans decline invite to meet Blinken
Some members of the Palestinian American community who received an invite to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday declined the invitation over their frustration with Washington’s policy toward the conflict and crisis in Gaza.
“A meeting of this nature at this moment in time is insulting and performative,” a group of Palestinian American community members said in a statement, adding they represented a majority of those invited.
Members from the Arab, Palestinian and Muslim communities in the United States, as well as anti-war activists across the country, have protested American policy in the conflict in Gaza, where about 27,000 people, more than 1% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, have died in Israel’s assault, according to the Gazan health ministry.
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1st Feb
16:15
Turkish police free hostages at P&G plant, arrest pro-Palestinian gunman
Turkish police on Thursday released the group of hostages that had been taken by a pro-Palestinian gunman at a plant near Istanbul owned by US consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, a local official said.
“When he went out for a bathroom break, our security forces carried out an operation without harming the hostages,” local governor Seddar Yavuz told reporters, adding that the assailant had been detained.
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1st Feb
15:10
‘We haven’t given response to Gaza truce proposal,’ Hamas official tells Reuters
Hamas received the Paris truce proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza but did not give a response to any of the parties, the media adviser to the head of political bureau of the Islamist movement, told Reuters on Thursday.
“We say that the current stage of negotiation is zero and at the same time we cannot say that we have reached an agreement,” Taher al-Nono said.
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1st Feb
14:40
US says two ballistic missiles launched from Houthi-controlled areas, Houthis say they targeted vessel
Two anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, likely towards the M/V KOI ship in the Red Sea, the US Central Command said in a statement on Thursday.
“The missiles impacted in the water without hitting the ship,” it said, adding there were no injuries and no damage reported to the Liberian flagged, Bermuda-owned cargo M/V KOI, or the coalition ships in the area.
The Houthis said they had targeted a “British merchant vessel” as part of the group’s campaign to disrupt vital shipping lanes.
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1st Feb
14:29
US had ‘very frank’ talks with Israel over West Bank settler violence
US officials have had “very frank” conversations with Israeli counterparts about extremist settler violence in the occupied West Bank, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday after Washington imposed sanctions on four men it said were involved in the violence.
Miller told a regular press briefing the US side had raised specific cases and asked Israel to take action against individuals.
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1st Feb
14:10
Israeli forces have killed 10,000 Gaza fighters, minister says
Israeli forces have dismantled the Hamas brigade in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis as part of an almost four-month-old war in which 10,000 Palestinian fighters have been killed and the same number wounded, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday.
“We are achieving our missions in Khan Younis, and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate terror elements that threaten us,” he said in a statement, referring to a city on Gaza’s border with Egypt that has been packed with displaced civilians.
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1st Feb
13:27
Mediator Qatar says ‘initial positive confirmation’ from Hamas on truce plan
Hamas has given “initial positive confirmation” to a proposal for the cessation of fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.
“The meeting in Paris succeeded in consolidating the proposals… That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas side,” Majed al-Ansari said referring to meetings between Qatari, US, Israeli and Egyptian officials in the French capital on Sunday.
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1st Feb
13:25
Israel says ‘no need’ for US sanctions against Jewish settlers
Israel described the vast majority of West Bank settlers as “law-abiding” on Thursday and said it tackles those who are not, signalling dissatisfaction as Washington stepped up sanctions against settlers accused of having attacked Palestinians.
“Israel takes action against all law-breakers everywhere, and therefore there is no need for unusual measures on the issue,” a statement from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said.
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1st Feb
12:17
Ireland seeks review of EU-Israel agreement over rights concerns
Ireland is in talks with other EU members who want a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis that Israel may be breaching the agreement’s human rights clause, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told reporters in Brussels on Thursday.
“EU-Israeli relations are founded on an agreement which has a human rights clause, and a lot of us believe that Israel may be in breach of it,” Varadkar told reporters following an EU summit. “That’s something we’re talking about.”
“There isn’t full agreement, but it’s something I called for today, and I called for last December.”
Ireland has long been a champion of Palestinian rights, and ministers have repeatedly said the government is considering recognising a Palestinian state. Speaking at the end of the EU summit, Varadkar said there were a lot of “very like-minded countries” around the EU table.
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1st Feb
12:14
US imposes sanctions on Jewish settlers over attacks on Palestinians
The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a handful of Jewish settlers over violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, officials said, in a rare step against Israelis as war rages with Hamas.
President Joe Biden was also issuing an executive order laying out the groundwork for actions over attacks and “acts of terrorism” in the West Bank, where extremist settlers have rampaged against Palestinians amid the separate military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
The United States will announce initial sanctions against four people. Any assets they hold in the United States will be blocked, with Americans forbidden from financial transactions with them.
The action marks the first financial sanctions against settlers although the Biden administration earlier announced that it would refuse visas for extremists involved in violence.
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1st Feb
12:00
Injured Gazans say they were abused in Israeli detention
Gazans released from Israeli detention on Thursday displayed injuries at a hospital in Rafah and told AFP they had been abused by their jailers.
Israeli soldiers have rounded up scores of Gazans during their months-long ground offensive in the territory, holding them without charge before releasing some in groups.
Palestinians were “tortured relentlessly”, Khaled al-Nabrisse, who was released with a neckbrace, said. “During the first 72 hours, drinking, eating or going to the toilets was banned, and we were handcuffed and blindfolded for those seven days” in detention, he said, adding the Israelis used dogs to them.
The Gaza crossings authority said 114 detainees, including four women, were sent through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing on Thursday.
Abu Khamis, another freed detainee, showed his wounds and recounted “torture, hits and insults”. “These (wounds) happened in prison. My hands were hurt and are going to be treated.”
AFP described how a man lying on a trolley bed struggled to lift his head, and had a black zip tie around one of his wrists.
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1st Feb
11:16
‘Famine is around the corner,’ says UNRWA
“There are pockets of starvation & pockets of hunger – especially in the north of Gaza,” UNRWA said in a post on X.
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1st Feb
11:07
‘Dangerous moment’ in the Middle East, Pentagon chief says
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday that this was a dangerous moment in the Middle East but the United States would work to avoid a wider conflict.
Austin reiterated that the United States would have a multi-tiered response to the deadly attack in Jordan that killed US troops.
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1st Feb
10:15
Biden to issue executive order targeting Israel settlers who attack Palestinians in West Bank
President Joe Biden is expected to issue an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians in the occupied territory, according to four people familiar with the matter.
A senior administration official, who like the others was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, said the White House was expected to announce the order later Thursday.
Biden has spoken out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7. The president has pledged that those those responsible for the violence will be held accountable. The executive order is expected to set the ground for imposing sanctions on individuals who have engaged in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Attacks by Israeli settlers have intensified since the war started, and some Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian authorities. Rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing evacuations to other areas.
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1st Feb
10:11
Armed attacker takes hostages in Turkey factory over US support of Israel
An armed assailant on Thursday raided a plant owned by the US consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble near Istanbul and took an undisclosed number of people hostage, Turkish media reported.
The assailant appeared to be acting in protest at US support for Israel’s military assault in Gaza, the private DHA news agency reported.
Turkish officials and police issued no immediate comment.
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1st Feb
10:04
US approves strikes against Iranian targets in Iraq and Syria, CBS reports
US plans have been approved for multi-day strikes in Iraq and Syria against multiple targets, including Iranian personnel and facilities, CBS News reported on Thursday, citing American officials.
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1st Feb
09:04
New blast reported off Yemen after US strikes
A new explosion was reported off Yemen on Thursday after overnight US strikes targeted 10 attack drones and a ground control station belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The explosion, reported by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency, happened near a vessel west of the port city of Hodeida.
No damage to the ship or injuries to the crew was reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which followed a flurry of missile strikes by the Houthis who have harassed Red Sea shipping for months, triggering reprisal attacks by the United States and Britain.
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1st Feb
08:49
Norway ‘reasonably optimistic’ UNRWA funding can get back on track
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Reuters on Thursday he was “reasonably optimistic” some countries that had paused funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) would resume payments.
UNRWA on Thursday said its entire operations in the Middle East, not only in Gaza, will most likely be forced to shut down by the end of February if its funding remains suspended.
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1st Feb
08:44
Hamas unlikely to reject ceasefire but will demand Israeli withdrawal, source tells Reuters
Hamas is unlikely to reject a Gaza ceasefire proposal it received from mediators this week, but will not sign it without assurances that Israel has committed to ending the war, a Palestinian official close to the talks said on Thursday.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators presented Hamas this week with the first concrete proposal for an extended halt to fighting in Gaza, agreed with Israel and the United States at talks in Paris last week. Hamas has said it is studying the text and preparing a response.
“I expect that Hamas will not reject the paper, but it might not give a decisive agreement either,” the Palestinian official said speaking on condition of anonymity. “Instead, I expect them to send a positive response, and reaffirm their demands: for the agreement to be signed, it must ensure Israel will commit to ending the war in Gaza and pull out from the enclave completely.”
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1st Feb
08:40
UK’s Cameron urges calm on Lebanon-Israel border while in Beirut
British Foreign Minister David Cameron has appealed for a return to calm on the Lebanon-Israel border in Beirut talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
Cameron and Mikati discussed “ways to restore calm in southern Lebanon, as well as the political and diplomatic solutions that are needed”, the premier’s office said.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a group of ambassadors to the United Nations from primarily European countries that Hamas has “infiltrated” the main aid provider to Palestinians in Gaza and that it must be shut down.
An American warship shot down three Iranian drones and a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi rebels on Wednesday, the US military said.
The EU said it aims to launch a Red Sea naval mission within 3 weeks to protect ships from Houthi rebel attacks in Yemen.
Washington has attributed the drone attack that killed three US service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias that includes the militant group Kataib Hezbollah.
South Africa’s foreign minister accused Israel of ignoring the ruling by the United Nations’ top court last week, which ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, by killing hundreds more civilians in a matter of days in Gaza.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
