A Palestinian boy walks inside a makeshift cemetery where people killed in Israeli bombing are buried in shallow tombs, in Gaza City's Al-Sahaba Street, on Jan. 9, 2024. (Credit: AFP)
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Catch up on yesterday’s LIVE coverage of Day 115 of the Israel-Hamas war here.
Israel’s Defense Minister said troops stationed near Gaza would soon be moved to reinforce security at the Lebanese border, while Hezbollah announced the deaths of two fighters yesterday, raising the number of party members killed since Oct. 8 to 176, by our count. Hezbollah and Israel engaged in intensified cross-border attacks yesterday with a flurry of attacks on both sides, resulting in the injury of at least two Israeli soldiers. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told AFP troops were being reinforced near the border with Lebanon with the transfer of soldiers currently stationed near Gaza. US envoy Amos Hochstein, who mediated indirect maritime border negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, expressed the need for a lasting diplomatic solution to hostilities beyond a cease-fire. Hochstein said negotiations would stress the Lebanese Army’s presence in southern Lebanon followed by the demarcation of a land border. Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said there was a “historic chance” to delineate a land border with Israel and end border clashes while echoing Hezbollah’s repeated claim that border hostilities would cease with the end of Israel’s aggression on Gaza. `
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee (UNRWA) reopened three schools in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp which had been forced shut by deadly clashes since July. Classes were held this morning for some 1,700 pupils in three of the eight schools managed by the agency, all located in the same complex in the camp. Another school in the camp is set to reopen Thursday. In its announcement of the re-opening, UNRWA said that it could not do the same for other schools due to their continued occupation by fighters. The assassination of a Fatah security official in July sparked days of clashes which renewed in September reportedly over the Islamist factions’ refusal to hand over the alleged killers. The fighting killed at least 18 people and injured dozens of others until a cease-fire brokered in mid-September. Homes, businesses and camp infrastructure were damaged, displacing hundreds of people.
At least 26,637 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The Amal Hospital in southern Gaza’s oxygen reserves have been depleted after eight days of Israeli siege, shutting down its surgical department.
Israel continued an unrelenting bombardment of southern Gaza that left at least 140 people dead from overnight attacks on Khan Younis, according to the enclave’s health ministry. The ministry said 20 members of the same family had been killed in the attack.
Austria, Japan and Romania joined several countries in cutting funding to the UNRWA after reports of now-dismissed members having been involved in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. AFP reported Palestinians’ testimonies that UNRWA aid serves as a vital lifeline in the enclave.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “The million-dollar question: Can Lebanon fully dollarize?”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz