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The Israeli military on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of parts of Gaza City as it steps up its renewed offensive against Hamas after breaking the ceasefire last week. Israel’s bombardments and ground operations have caused vast destruction and at their height displaced some 90% of Gaza’s population.
Thousands of Palestinians marched in heavily destroyed northern Gaza on Wednesday in the second day of anti-war protests. It’s a rare display of public anger against Hamas, although the protests appeared generally aimed against the war in Gaza and their insufferable living conditions.
Israel has cut off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to war-torn Gaza's roughly 2 million people since the beginning of the month — a strategy that rights groups say is a war crime.
Israel has vowed to increase military pressure until Hamas returns the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel also demands Hamas disarm and send its leaders into exile. Hamas says it won't release the remaining hostages without a lasting ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Here's the latest:
Mass protests outside the Israeli parliament ahead of a key vote on judicial overhaul
Tens of thousands of Israelis flocked to Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest a bill that would change the way judges are selected. It's the latest in a series of anti-government demonstrations that have rocked the country in recent weeks.
The proposed bill is up for a final vote overnight and is expected to pass. Critics say the changes would dangerously politicize the process of judicial appointments.
An earlier version of the bill was a cornerstone of the sweeping overhaul of the judiciary launched by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government in early 2023. That process touched off months of mass protests that only ground to a halt after the Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza.
Israelis have taken to the streets for several days to protest the government’s failure to secure a deal to free hostages held in Gaza and its recent moves to fire top legal and security officials, which many view as further steps that threaten the balance of powers in Israel.
Israel says it intercepted a rocket from Gaza
The rocket crossed from the northern Gaza Strip into southern Israel, according to the military. It said the interception is under review.
Although Palestinian militants were once firing volleys of rockets each day out of Gaza, that dwindled to nearly zero over the course of the 17-month war.
Since Israel broke the ceasefire last week, a handful of rockets have been fired from Gaza as well as long-range missiles from Yemen. No one in Israel has been hurt.
Israel strikes a charity kitchen and a tent in Gaza, killing at least 9
At least nine Palestinians were killed Wednesday in two separate Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza, medics said.
One strike hit a group of Palestinians gathered outside a charity providing hot meals in the Nuseirat refugee camp. At least five people, including a woman and her adult daughter, were killed in the strike, according to the Awda hospital, which received the casualties.
A separate strike on a tent killed a father, mother and their daughter in the town of Zwaeida, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. The hospital said the explosion tore the man's body in half.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Thousands of Palestinians protest the war for a second day in northern Gaza
In the town of Beit Lahiya, where a similar protest took place Tuesday, about 3,000 people demonstrated Wednesday, with many chanting “the people want the fall of Hamas.” In the hard-hit Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City, dozens of men chanted “Out, out out! Hamas get out!”
“Our children have been killed. Our houses have been destroyed,” said Abed Radwan, who said he joined the protest in Beit Lahiya “against the war, against Hamas, and the (Palestinian political) factions, against Israel and against the world’s silence.”
Israeli defense minister urges Palestinians to join protests against Hamas
“You too should demand the removal of Hamas from Gaza and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages. That is the only way to stop the war,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday.
One Palestinian who protested on Tuesday told The Associated Press they regretted participating because of Israeli media coverage, which emphasized the opposition to Hamas.
The protester, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said they joined the demonstration in the heavily destroyed northern town of Jabaliya because “everyone failed us.”
They said they chanted against Israel, Hamas, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and Arab mediators. They said there were no Hamas security forces at the protest but scuffles broke out between supporters and opponents of the group.
Hamas official says protesters in Gaza should focus on Israel
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim, in a post on Facebook, wrote that people had the right to protest but that their focus should be on the “criminal aggressor,” Israel.
“The exploitation of these tragic human conditions is rejected and denounced, either to pass on dubious political agendas or to drop responsibility for the criminal aggressor, which is the occupation and its army,” he wrote.
The militant group has violently cracked down on previous protests. This time no outright intervention was apparent, perhaps because Hamas is keeping a lower profile since Israel resumed the war.
UN says Israel's blockade of Gaza causes shortage of maternal health supplies
The United Nations Population Fund said Israel’s ongoing aid blockade into Gaza is creating a critical shortage of maternal health supplies. They include much needed drugs for pregnancy and to prevent deaths and complications during childbirth.
Since the beginning of the month, Israel has cut off the entry of all food and other goods into Gaza, and last week resumed bombardment as it tries to pressure Hamas to accept its demands to extend the January ceasefire.
UNFPA said its supplies are languishing at the border, including more than 50 ultrasounds to monitor fetal health, nine incubators and 350 midwifery kits to help during deliveries, impacting more than 15,000 women.
The group said pregnant women and newborns in Gaza are facing higher than normal rates of complications, driven by widespread malnutrition, which is being compounded by the aid blockade. Since the blockade around 520 babies — one in five —have required advanced medical care that is increasingly scarce, it said.
Gaza hospital director ordered held another 6 months
Lawyers representing a Gaza hospital director detained in an Israeli raid late last year say an Israeli court has extended his detention for another six months.
Israeli troops detained Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya when they raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in December. He was held without access to a lawyer for 47 days and has not been charged, according to Al Mezan, a human rights group representing him in court.
Al Mezan said the Beersheba District Court issued the order extending his detention on Tuesday. It said prosecutors submitted secret evidence alleging he is a threat to Israeli security, allegations he denies. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel has raided hospitals in Gaza on several occasions during the 17-month war with Hamas, accusing the militant group of using them for military purposes. Hospital staff deny the allegations and accuse Israel of recklessly endangering civilians.
Israeli co-director of ‘No Other Land’ says film academy refused to condemn the settler attack
An Israeli co-director of an Oscar-winning film about settler violence said the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences refused to publicly condemn the beating and detention of the Palestinian co-director by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Writing on X, Yuval Abraham, co-director of “No Other Land,” wrote that several members of the academy, which awards the Oscars, advocated in vain for the group to make a statement denouncing the attack on Hamdan Ballal. He said he was told that the academy would not denounce the attack because it involved other Palestinians.
“In other words, while Hamdan was clearly targeted for making No Other Land … he was also targeted for being Palestinian — like countless others every day who are disregarded. This, it seems, gave the Academy an excuse to remain silent when a filmmaker they honored, living under Israeli occupation, needed them the most,” wrote Abraham.
He noted that the European Academy had voiced solidarity with Ballal following the attack and said it was not too late for the American Academy to do the same. The military has denied that Ballal was beaten.
Palestinians protest Hamas in rare public show of dissent in Gaza
Palestinians chanted against Hamas during an anti-war protest in the Gaza Strip, according to videos circulating online. It was a rare show of public anger against the militant group, which has long repressed dissent and still rules the territory 17 months into the war with Israel.
The videos, which appeared to be authentic, showed hundreds of people taking part in an anti-war protest in the heavily destroyed northern town of Beit Lahiya on Tuesday. People held signs saying “Stop the war,” “We refuse to die,” and “The blood of our children is not cheap.”
Some could be heard chanting: “Hamas out!” Other videos appeared to show Hamas supporters dispersing the crowds.
A similar protest occurred in the heavily destroyed area of Jabaliya on Tuesday, according to witnesses.
Israel orders evacuation of parts of Gaza City
The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of parts of Gaza City as it steps up its renewed offensive against Hamas.
The latest orders issued Wednesday apply to Zeitoun, Tel al-Hawa and other neighborhoods where Israeli forces have carried out previous operations during the 17-month war. The military said it will soon respond to rocket fire from the area and ordered residents to move south.
Israel broke its ceasefire with Hamas last week when it launched a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of Palestinians.
It has vowed to increase military pressure until Hamas returns the remaining 59 hostages it holds – 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel has also demanded that Hamas disarm and send its leaders into exile.
Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without a lasting ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Israel’s retaliatory war has killed over 50,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up over half the dead.
