explainer
Gaza's population of 2.3 million faces severe hunger and a humanitarian crisis as attacks continue on the besieged enclave.
Here's what happened on Friday, February 23, 2024:
Combat and humanitarian crisis
- A series of Israeli military attacks on central Gaza on Thursday left 40 people dead and more than 100 injured, authorities in the besieged enclave announced.
- Meanwhile, as Israeli attacks on Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis continue, aid agencies hope to evacuate an estimated 140 patients stranded there. Palestinian authorities reported that Israeli forces withdrew from the complex and then struck again.
- Gaza's Ministry of Health announced that 110 patients were awaiting evacuation. The report said eight patients had died in Nasser four days ago due to lack of electricity and oxygen, and their bodies had begun to decompose, posing a danger to other patients.
- Gaza's population of 2.3 million faces severe hunger and widespread disease in a humanitarian crisis that aid workers describe as unprecedented.
- Separately, an independent commission investigating Israel's claims about its relationship with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the U.N. agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, has found that the agency is not doing enough to abide by U.N. standards of neutrality. The focus will be on whether action was taken.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters at the Group of 20 foreign ministers' summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that Israel cannot unilaterally block a Palestinian state.
- In New York City, thousands of protesters marched to the offices of the pro-Israel lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war in Gaza.
- At the International Court of Justice (ICJ), China said justice for Palestinians “must not be denied” during a hearing on Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.
- “Justice is long overdue, but it must not be denied,” Ma Xinmin, legal adviser to China's Foreign Ministry, told a court in The Hague.
- Finally, as tensions continue to rise in the region, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced that it had attacked several bases in Israel and targeted two buildings where its troops were concentrating in the towns of Metura and Manara. did.
- The group said attacks on Israel would stop once the war in Gaza ended.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- In the occupied West Bank, an Israeli airstrike hits a vehicle in the Jenin refugee camp, killing at least one person.
- Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the country's Defense Ministry will authorize the construction of 3,344 new homes in illegal Israeli settlements.
- Israeli forces also destroyed two homes, a well and an electricity grid in the Haret al-Fala area south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.
- Three Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a car driver near an Israeli checkpoint near occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing at least one and wounding eight others.