Women mourn after the death of relatives in an Israeli air strike that hit the Baraka family home in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on February 18, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Doha, Qatar: The State of Palestine will address the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague as hearings on Israel’s occupation of Palestine start today, February 19, 2024.
The State of Palestine will be the first of 52 countries to speak at the weeklong proceedings which are separate from the genocide case brought by South Africa recently.
“We want to hear new words from the court,” said Omar Awadallah, the head of the UN organizations department in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, ahead of the case.
“They’ve had to consider the word genocide in the South Africa case,” he said, referring to the separate case before the court. “Now we want them to consider apartheid.”
Watch this page for more live updates:
[3:15pm Doha Time] Qatar rejects 'empty accusations' by Israeli Prime Minister
The Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari has issued a statement regarding the accusations made by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Qatar's mediation efforts in Gaza.
In a statement on X, the Official Spokesperson for MoFA said "The Israeli prime minister's recent statements calling on Qatar to pressure Hamas to release the hostages are nothing but a new attempt to stall and prolong the war for reasons that have become obvious to everyone." Read more
[2pm Doha Time] Nasser Hospital without electricity, water, food and oxygen: Ministry
Gaza’s Health Ministry of Gaza says 25 medical staff and 136 patients in Nasser Medical Complex are struggling without electricity, water, food, oxygen and treatment capabilities for difficult cases.
The World Health Organization’s efforts to evacuate the remaining patients in the hospital in Khan Younis to other facilities continues, a statement by the ministry on Telegram said.
The Israeli occupation stubbornly rejects allowing medical and humanitarian aid into the complex, it added.
Israeli forces have for weeks raided the hospital and shelled in its vicinity, which led the hospital to become defunct, according to the WHO.
[1:34pm Doha Time] More than 29,000 Palestinians killed: Gaza ministry
At least 107 have been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the past 24 hours, taking the toll to 29,092 since October 7, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ministry on its Telegram channel said a total of 69,028 others have been wounded since Israel launched its devastating campaign in the strip.
The Israeli forces are preventing ambulance and civil defence crews from reaching some of the wounded and people under the rubble, it said, adding that “nine massacres” were committed against families in Gaza in the last 24 hours.
[9:30am Doha Time] Displaced, bombed by Israel, Rafah’s kids seek warmth in hospital coveralls
An Al Jazeera correspondent in Rafah stated that parents in Gaza have resorted to putting their children in the white medical coveralls that were part of COVID-19 PPE kits, in a desperate bid to keep them warm and dry.
A man wearing a hazmat suit to keep warm, rides a donkey-pulled cart at a market in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 18, 2024. (Photo by Said Khatib / AFP)
"Gaza’s displaced – many of them having been forced to move multiple times – are suffering in the severe winter cold with little to protect them from the elements other than thin tents at best," reported Ruwaida Amer from Rafah.
“I’m warm and the water doesn’t get into my clothes,” says Nour al-Bayouk, 11. “I have no alternative clothes at all. If my clothes get wet, I won’t find anything else to wear.
“At first I looked funny and scary. I felt like I looked like a person undergoing an operation, or an astronaut.
“I laugh every time I see myself in the car windows.”
Displaced Palestinian children carry rations of red lentil soup, distributed by volunteers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 18, 2024. (Photo by Said Khatib / AFP)
[9am Doha Time] Israeli gunboats fired on Palestinian fishing boats
Israeli gunboats fired at Palestinian fishermen off the Gaza coast, threatening a vital source of food.
The men were using small boats to catch fish off the coast near Rafah.
Under the Israeli blockade, they used to be able to fish up to 37km (23 miles) out to the sea but not any more.
[8:30am Doha Time] Palestinian youth killed by Israeli occupation forces' fire in West Bank
A young Palestinian man was fatally shot tonight by Israeli occupation forces' fire in Nablus, north of the occupied West Bank.
Local sources reported by Palestinian WAFA news agency as saying that Israeli occupation forces opened fire at a young man near the Beit Furik checkpoint, causing him critical injuries. The youth succumbed to his serious injuries shortly after.
Meanwhile, two Palestinians were killed and four others injured today during an Israeli military raid into the city and refugee camp of Tulkarm in the northern occupied West Bank.
The confrontations broke out as Israeli occupation forces, supported by special units and armored military vehicles, stormed the Tulkarm refugee camp, triggering violent confrontations with local residents.
