Israel bombarded the southern Gaza Strip on January 11 as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Egypt on the final leg of regional talks aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas war from spreading.
His arrival coincided with the start of a hearing at the UN's top court over accusations Israel has committed "genocidal acts" in Gaza.
"The situation is such that the experts are now predicting that more people in Gaza may die from starvation and disease" than from military action, said Adila Hassim, a top lawyer for South Africa, which has brought the case against Israel.
In Cairo, Mr. Blinken was to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country is a mediator in the Gaza war now in its fourth month.
Mr. Blinken's nine-country West Asia trip is concluding after Wednesday's UN Security Council resolution that demanded Iran-backed Yemeni rebels "immediately cease" attacks which have disrupted shipping in the Red Sea.
South Africa accused Israel before the International Court of Justice of breaching the United Nations Genocide convention in its response to Hamas's October 7 attack, which triggered the war.
"No armed attack on a state territory no matter how serious... can provide justification for or defend breaches of the convention," said Pretoria's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, setting out his country's case at the court.
South Africa, a longtime backer of the Palestinian cause, has lodged an urgent ICJ appeal to force Israel to "immediately suspend" its military operations in Gaza.
In Gaza's southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt and overrun with displaced people fleeing fighting further north, Palestinians expressed hope the ICJ could render justice on their behalf.
"Israel considers itself above the law. We ask from the international judges to judge Israel," and its government," said Hisham al-Kullah.
Another Rafah resident, Mohammad al-Arjan, expressed hope that "the court stops the war".
A Israeli solider looks at an installation at the site of the Nova festival, where people were killed and kidnapped during the October 7 attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, in Reim, in southern Israel, January 11, 2024. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Mr. Blinken has dismissed the case as "meritless" and Israel's president called it "atrocious and preposterous".
The war began when Hamas launched its unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.
Israel has responded with a relentless military campaign that has killed at least 23,357 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Hamas's press office said early on Thursday that 62 people had been killed in strikes overnight, including around Gaza's main southern city of Khan Yunis.
Israel's military said in a statement on Thursday that "underground combat" led to the discovery of more than 300 tunnel shafts under Khan Yunis, and that "Israeli hostages had been inside" one vast tunnel.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said an Israeli strike on an ambulance in central Gaza killed four medics and two other passengers on Wednesday.
A picture taken from Rafah shows a rainbow over the southern Gaza Strip on January 11, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. | Photo Credit: AFP
Israel's military did not immediately comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.
During a visit with troops in central Gaza, Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said the militants had prepared their defences "over a very long period of time in a very organised way" adding it is "a very, very complex battlefield."
Makeshift clinic
The war has triggered an acute humanitarian crisis, with an Israeli siege sparking acute shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday said there are "nearly insurmountable challenges" to aid delivery in Gaza.
"Intense bombardment, restrictions on movement, fuel shortages, and interrupted communications make it impossible for WHO and our partners to reach those in need," he told reporters.
The WHO says only a few Gaza hospitals are even partly functioning.
In Rafah, former Gaza health ministry staffer Zaki Shaheen converted his shop into a makeshift clinic.
"We decided to open a medical department, and we got help from the health ministry," aiming to ease pressure on overburdened hospitals, Mr. Shaheen told AFP.
"We receive no less than 30 or 40 cases per day, morning to night. I'll be sleeping, then someone comes in with an injury or a burn, so we treat them," he said, a stethoscope around his neck, a jumble of medical supplies to his right, and an empty Coca-Cola fridge on his left.
The United Nations estimates 1.9 million Gazans have been uprooted by the war.
Before his final stop in Egypt, Blinken sketched out a possible post-war future for Gaza after meeting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa on Wednesday.
Mr. Blinken told Mr. Abbas that Washington supported "tangible steps" towards the creation of a Palestinian state - a long-term goal that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government has opposed.
In Bahrain, Blinken said Mr. Abbas was "committed" to reforming the Palestinian Authority "so that it can effectively take responsibility for Gaza, so that Gaza and the West Bank can be reunited under a Palestinian leadership".
Israeli soldiers take part in military rescue exercise in Upper Galilee near the Lebanon border on January 11, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. | Photo Credit: AFP
Mr. Abbas, 88, is widely unpopular in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has partial administrative control and the Israel-Hamas war has led to increased popular support for Hamas.
Spike in regional unrest
Violence involving Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen has spiked during the war, leading to heightened fears of a wider conflict.
Yemen's Huthi rebels, who say they are acting in support of the Palestinians, have carried out numerous attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, a vital artery for international trade.
Washington has set up a multinational naval task force to protect shipping from the attacks, which Mr. Blinken on Wednesday said were "aided and abetted" by Iran and would bring "consequences" if they continue.
On Thursday armed men in "military-style" uniforms boarded an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, a maritime risk management company said.
