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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israel’s military ordered two neighborhoods of Gaza City to evacuate yesterday amid signs of hunger and mounting desperation. The evacuations came as the World Food Program (W.F.P.) halted deliveries in the north, describing scenes of chaos as its teams faced hungry crowds, looting, and gunfire in recent days. The W.F.P. said it did not take the decision to suspend deliveries in Gaza’s north lightly, citing the “unprecedented levels of desperation” witnessed by its teams. Cassandra Vinograd and Matthew Mpoke Bigg report for the New York Times.
The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) said yesterday that the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis had no electricity or running water after an Israeli raid last week, calling the destruction surrounding the hospital “indescribable.” Israel pushed back on the W.H.O.’s description of the conditions, saying the hospital had sufficient medical supplies and that it had delivered a generator for the intensive care unit and food for the remaining patients. Adam Sella reports for the New York Times.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said yesterday that Israel would not pay any price for the return of the 134 hostages still held in Gaza. Smotrich said that while the hostages return was “very important,” they could not be released “at any cost,” saying that the way to free them was by increasing military pressure on Gaza and defeating Hamas. Reuters reports.
Netanyahu acknowledged that “there is a lot of pressure on Israel” to end the Gaza offensive but said “no pressure will stop us.” “We really want to achieve more releases and we are also willing to go a long way, but we are not ready to pay any price, certainly not to pay the prices, the illusions that Hamas demands from us, which mean defeat for the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said. Doha Madani reports for NBC News.
United Nations experts are calling for an investigation into what they described as “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations” against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank by Israeli forces. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have denied the accusations and said it adheres to international law. Israel’s mission to the U.N. also said it “forcefully rejects” the allegations, calling them “despicable and unfounded.” Richard Roth, Kareem El Damanhoury and Richard Allen Greene report for CNN.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
The United States defended Israel at the ICJ today and argued that calls for Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories fail to take into consideration its “very real security needs.” Richard C. Visek, the acting legal adviser at the U.S. State Department, asked the 15-judge panel instead to uphold the “established framework” for a two-state solution that he said U.N. bodies have agreed to – one contingent upon a “broader end to belligerence” against Israel – rather than follow calls by other states for Israel’s “unilateral and unconditional withdrawal” from occupied territories. Visek added that only a two-state solution could bring about lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Marlise Simons and Cassandra Vinograd report for the New York Times.
The United States yesterday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution proposed by Algeria that would have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, marking the third time Washington has blocked a resolution that would have demanded an immediate end to the fighting. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution would jeopardize Washington’s negotiation efforts with Qatar and Egypt to broker a deal for hostage releases in exchange for a temporary humanitarian ceasefire. “Demanding an immediate unconditional cease-fire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages will not bring endurable peace,” Thomas-Greenfield said. The United States has drafted a resolution, still in the early stages of negotiations, that calls for a temporary ceasefire as soon as practical and the release of hostages, and also states that Israel must not carry out an offensive in Rafah under the current conditions there. Farnaz Fassihi reports for the New York Times.
Israel has not presented a plan to protect more than a million civilians in Rafah ahead of its looming offensive in the city, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. Abigail Williams reports for NBC News.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Israel’s policies towards Palestinians have been an “extreme form of apartheid” and its occupation of territory sought for an eventual Palestinian state was “fundamentally illegal,” South Africa argued at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday. Palestinians “continue to be subjected to discriminating land zoning and planning policies, to punitive house demolitions and violent incursions into their villages, towns and cities,” South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusi Madonsela, said in an address to the court on Tuesday.
China has sharply criticized the United States for vetoing a U.N. Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. China’s ambassador to the U.N., Zhang Jun, said the move sent the “wrong message,” adding that, “Given the situation on the ground, the continued passive avoidance of an immediate ceasefire is nothing different from giving a green light to the continued slaughter.” Adam Durbin reports for BBC News.
Prince William has called for an “end to the fighting as soon as possible” in a strongly worded statement on the war in Gaza. “Too many have been killed,” said the prince, speaking of the “terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack.” The statement followed a visit to the British Red Cross in London. Sean Coughlan reports for BBC News.
The London High Court rejected a petition to suspend British arms exports to Israel brought by a coalition of legal advocacy groups, lawyers for the plaintiffs said yesterday. Agence France-Presse reports.
IRAN-BACKED MILITANTS
An Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in the Kafr Sousa district in Damascus on Wednesday, killing two people, Syrian state media and a security source said. The neighborhood hosts residential buildings, schools, and Iranian cultural centers and is located near a complex used by security agencies. Iran’s semi-official Student News Network said no Iranian citizens were killed in the strike. Reuters reports.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
President Biden said yesterday that his administration will announce major sanctions this Friday to hold Russia accountable for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexai Navalny. “It will be a substantial package covering a range of different elements of the Russian defense industrial base, and sources of revenue for the Russian economy that power Russia’s war machine, that power Russia’s aggression and that power Russia’s repression,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said yesterday. Rebecca Shabad and Ghael Fobes report for NBC News.
Lawyers for Julian Assange yesterday accused the United States of “state retaliation” over its bid to prosecute and extradite the imprisoned Wikileaks founder. At a two-day High Court hearing in London, which began on Tuesday, his legal team argued it would be against U.K. law to hand him over. Assange’s lawyers are seeking permission to challenge the extradition order signed in 2022 by then U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel. If an appeal is turned down, Assange could be extradited within weeks. Dominic Casciani and Sam Hancock report for BBC News.
The Kremlin yesterday rejected international calls for an independent postmortem examination of the remains of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Council of the European Union had called on Monday for an independent review, saying Russia “must allow an independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his sudden death.” A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin said “Moscow does not accept such demands” from the European Union. Kevin Shalvey reports for ABC News.
The political rivals of Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan announced details of a power-sharing agreement yesterday, naming Shehbaz Sharif as their joint candidate for prime minister. Munir Ahmed reports for AP News.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE DEVELOPMENTS
The Swedish government yesterday announced a $683 million package of military aid to Ukraine. “This support package meets some of Ukraine’s most pressing needs and is in line with the military capability coalitions that are taking shape within the Ukraine Defence Contact Group,” Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson said.
E.U. members today approved a 13th package of Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia, banning nearly 200 entities and individuals accused of helping Moscow procure weapons or of involvement in kidnapping Ukrainian children. Julia Payne, Andrew Gray, and Gabriela Baczynska report for Reuters.
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS.
The former FBI informant charged with lying about the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine told investigators after his arrest that Russian intelligence officials were involved in transmitting information to him about Hunter Biden, prosecutors said yesterday in a new court filing, noting that the information was false. Prosecutors also said Alexander Smirnov had been “actively peddling new lies that could impact US elections” after meeting with Russian spies late last year and that the fallout from his previous bribery accusations about the Bidens “continue[s] to be felt to this day.” Hannah Rabinowitz and Cheri Mossburg report for CNN.
Two men have been charged with murder in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting that killed one woman and injured more than 20 people last week. Prosecutors named the defendants as Dominic M. Miller of Kansas City and Lyndell Mays of Raytown, who each face charges of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and unlawful use of a weapon, according to a statement from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office. Mirna Alsharif and Dennis Romero report for NBC News.