ICJ votes 15-1 against imposing provisional measures in Germany-Nicaragua case: Day 207 of the Gaza war

That's it for today's live coverage of the Gaza war and its repercussions on the region, notably in southern Lebanon. Thanks for following along. We'll be back tomorrow morning, with reduced hours for Labour Day! Goodnight.

UNRWA Chief Philippe Lazzarini has been denied entry into Gaza by way of Israel for a second time since the war began, Haaretz reports.

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel ordered to prevent Lazzarini from entering the country, citing “accumulating evidence” of UNRWA employee’s involvement in the Oct. 7 attack. A recent independent investigation led by France’s former foreign minister found that Israel had not provided any evidence to back up its accusations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he will be bringing a list of measures Israel still needs to implement in order to prove to the US that it is taking necessary steps to mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe caused by its war on Gaza, which he will present to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during meetings scheduled for tomorrow.

"I'm now able to go to Israel tomorrow and go over with the Israeli government the things that still need to be done if the test is going to be met of making sure that people have what they need," Blinken said, cited in a Reuters report. "And I'll be doing that tomorrow directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government," he said.

Blinken spoke to reporters at a warehouse of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization where aid shipments from US-based charities are gathered. He said while there were some improvements in the humanitarian aid situation in the densely populated enclave, much more needed to be done to ensure assistance reaches people in a sustained manner.

Prosecutors from the International Criminal Court have interviewed staff from Gaza's two biggest hospitals, two sources told Reuters, the first confirmation that ICC investigators were speaking to medics about possible crimes in the Gaza Strip.

The sources, wishing to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the subject, said ICC investigators took testimony from staff who had worked in the main hospital in Gaza's north, al-Shifa, and the main hospital in Khan Younis in the south, Nasser.

One of the sources said that events surrounding the hospitals could become part of the investigation by the ICC, which hears criminal cases against individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression.

The ICC's office of the prosecutor declined to comment on operational matters in ongoing investigations citing the need to ensure the safety of victims and witnesses. The ICC has said it is investigating both sides in the conflict, including both the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Keffiyehs, Palestinian flags, calls for boycotts, and pro-Hamas slogans. At the American University of Beirut (AUB), in Beirut's Hamra neighborhood, around 300 students demonstrated today in solidarity with the people of Gaza in their seventh month under the bombs, calling in particular on the campuses to put an end to their collaboration with companies associated with Israel.

This demonstration, like those at other universities in Lebanon, was organized as students across the world, particularly in the United States, have spent the last several weeks mobilizing large-scale protests and encampments against Israel's war on Gaza and America's support for it.

👉 Read our coverage of the student protests here.

⚡ Israeli media is reporting that during an address given to two organizations of hostages’ families this afternoon, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced the army had begun evacuating Palestinians from Rafah, the southern city where almost 2 million people are sheltering in one of the few areas left in Gaza where Israeli troops have not entered.

"We have begun the evacuation of the population in Rafah. We will be there soon," Netanyahu reportedly said. He later claimed that around 200,000 civilians had already left Rafah amid Israel’s increasing threats of an invasion, a number which has been reported in Israeli media but not verified.

Germany is also facing a domestic lawsuit, in which four human rights groups representing five named Palestinians in Gaza who testify they are suffering under collective punishment from Israel, have taken legal action against the German Ministry of Economic Affairs, responsible for issuing export licenses.

In early April, DW reported that Berlin-based lawyers had filed an “urgent appeal” against the German government to cease sending weapons to Israel as they are “being used to commit grave violations of international law, such as the crime of genocide and war crimes."

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s arms transfer database, 68 percent of Israel’s weapons imports from 2013 to 2022 came from the US and 28 percent came from Germany.

On Nov. 8, 2023, AFP reported that Germany had approved 10 times more in military gear exports to Israel in 2023 than it had the previous year. Data up until Nov. 2, 2023 showed that Germany had approved €303 million ($324 million) worth of military equipment sales to Israel, compared to €32 million from the year previous.

👉 Read more about who is selling arms to Israel here.

Judge Salam referenced the various rulings previously handed down by the ICJ in the related South Africa case accusing Israel of genocide, reiterating that the court notes “the military operation conducted by Israel following Oct. 7 has resulted in ‘a large number of deaths and injuries as well as the mass destruction of homes and … extensive damage to civilian infrastructure.’”

The court remains “concerned about the catastrophic living conditions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in particular, in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and necessities to which they are being subjected,” Salam told the session, attended by Germany and Nicaragua’s legal teams.

Its ruling today pertains specifically to Nicaragua’s request for emergency measures to be ordered against Germany, that it should halt its arms sales to Israel and renew funding to UNRWA while the case, which could take months or even years, proceeds. Germany requested for the case to be thrown out entirely, which the ICJ did not do.

🔴 The International Court of Justice has ruled 15-1 against taking provisional measures in Nicaragua's case against Germany accusing it of providing weapons to Israel under the risk of its military aid being used to commit genocide.

"The circumstances as they now present themselves to the court are not such as to require the exercise of [the court's] power under Article 41 of the statute to indicate provisional measures," the ICJ's presiding Judge Nawaf Salam told the session.

Updates from southern Lebanon:

• Israeli fighter jets bombed the village of Aita al-Shaab, in Bint Jbeil district, according to security sources cited by our correspondent in the South.

• The villages of Naqoura and Tayr Harfa, Sour district, and the outskirts of Rashaya al-Fawqar, in Hasbaya district, were also targeted by the Israeli army.

The caretaker Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, chaired a ministerial meeting at the Grand Serail devoted to monitoring the situation in South Lebanon, attended by the social affairs minister, Hector Hajjar, and Environment minister, Nasser Yassine, as well as the Secretary General of the High Defense Council, General Mohammad Moustapha.

Hajjar said that the subject of state aid to displaced southerners, "however minimal," was discussed during the meeting.

"We also discussed actions to be taken in the event of a truce, including damage surveys," he continued. He added that the scenario of a deterioration in the situation was also considered, with its implications in terms of supplying southern Lebanon with medical supplies, fuel, water and oxygen.

Almost 90,000 people have left their homes on the southern border since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began on Oct. 8, 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told representatives for the hostages' families that the Israeli military would go into Rafah "with or without" a temporary cease-fire agreement, AFP reported.

"The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal, in order to achieve total victory," Netanyahu stated.

A protester holds up a sketch of Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, of who few photographs exist, during a protest by AUB. (Credit: Ghadir Hamadi/L'Orient Today)

Some of the students praised Hamas leaders Mohammad Deif, head of al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza.

Protesters in front of the shuttered McDonald's across the street from AUB. (Credit: Ghadir Hamadi/L'Orient Today)

According to L'Orient Today's correspondent on the ground, the McDonald’s across the street from AUB on Bliss Street appeared to have covered its doors and windows using large wooden boards prior to the start of the protest. McDonald’s, the American fast food chain, has seen its sales dented by boycotts across the Middle East.

McDonald's is one of several Western corporations including Starbucks and Coca Cola that have seen global boycotts and protests against them by anti-Israeli campaigners.

The fast food chain faced backlash when its franchise in Israel announced it had provided numerous complimentary meals to Israeli military personnel.

Near the start of the war, several of these Western companies saw their stores damaged by angry protesters.

Protesters at AUB call for the university to boycott and divest from companies that have contracts with Israel. (Credit: Ghadir Hamadi/L'Orient Today)

When you're a university student, "you should also learn what genocide is," chant the protesters at AUB. "Only one solution, end the occupation," they add. "If you're not with Palestine, you're not with humanity," an activist told L'Orient Today.

Caretaker Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makari expressed concern on Tuesday that "Resolution 1701 will be implemented by only one party," insinuating that this party would be Lebanon. "The United States is concerned by the application of 1701, I hope that priority will not be given to Israel's interests," he added, during an interview with local broadcaster LBCI.

Resolution 1701, passed by the UN Security Council to end the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, stipulates among other things that Hezbollah fighters withdraw north of the Litani River.

Students’ demands were centered around boycotting “companies and institutions that are complicit with the Israeli occupation.”

AUB students’ demanded the university to “boycott HP, a company that provides technology to the occupation to target the Palestinian people and commit massacres against them.”

Another demand was to “terminate contracts, agreements, or sponsorships with any companies included in the list of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions [movement].” 

In a statement, students also said they were staging the sit-ins in solidarity with the global student movement that is happening across American universities to support Palestine.

Students at the public university, the Lebanese University, demanded the institution to end its contracts with Technology companies Cisco, Huawei and Oracle, all of which the BDS movement calls for boycotting.

Protesters kept flooding the area around AUB’s campus.

"It's a struggle between the humanitarians and the enemies of humanity," Tarek Abu Hazem, Palestinian activist, protesting at AUB, told L'Orient Today.

Protesters outside the entrance to AUB on Bliss Street. (Credit: Joao Souza/L'Orient Today)

“This sit-in did not need our approval,” an AUB university official told local broadcaster al-Jadeed. “Our university has always stood in solidarity with Palestine.”

Hundreds of students have been detained at universities throughout the US as protests calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and the divestment from companies linked to Israel spread across US campuses.

AUB security was strictly allowing only students to enter the campus to join the sit-in and denying those who are not students at the university from entering the campus.

Media outlets were allowed to enter only if they had received a "previous authorization" from the university.

Despite AUB’s approval of the protest, some students were anxious about showing their faces at the sit-in.

One student, who wished to remain anonymous due to fears of losing her scholarship, told L'Orient Today, “Many students who are on a scholarship are worried about attending the protest in fear of losing the scholarship and many won't be able to continue their education without it."

Despite rainfall, scores of university students staged a sit-in on Tuesday in front of their universities in Beirut in solidarity with Palestine, L’Orient Today’s journalist on the ground reported.

In front of the American University of Beirut in Hamra, students carrying the Palestinian flag and donning the Kuffiyah gathered in front of the university’s main gate on Bliss Street.

Students also staged a pro-Palestinian sit-in in front of the Lebanese American University in Qoreitem, Beirut.

Around 20 members of Internal Security Forces were present on the scene, our reporter who was on the ground reported. 

According to the state-run National News Agency, Pro-Palestinian student sit-ins are expected in other regions in Lebanon on Tuesday. Student bodies had previously called for gatherings sit-ins at the AUB, LAU, the Beirut Arab University – with all its branches, the Lebanese International University—Beirut and Bekaa branches, the Lebanese University in Hadath, Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Haigazian University, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Jounieh branch.

The US Military Command for the Middle East (CENTCOM) overnight published photos of the construction of a floating jetty off the coast of Gaza. "Construction of a floating jetty is underway in the Mediterranean," wrote CENTCOM, adding that the infrastructure "will help USAID and its humanitarian partners receive and deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza".

Reuters reported yesterday that the cost estimated by the US military for the construction of this infrastructure has risen to $320 million, according to a US defense official and a source familiar with the matter. According to a person familiar with the matter, this represents roughly double the estimates made at the beginning of the year. According to the Pentagon, the project involves some 1,000 US military personnel.

Antony Blinken is visiting Jordan today to discuss ways of increasing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and to quietly thank the kingdom for its help during the unprecedented Iranian attack on Israel in mid-April. Blinken flew to Amman in the morning after talks with Gulf Arab leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In Jordan, the US diplomat is due to meet King Abdullah II and his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, as well as Sigrid Kaag, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Gaza Strip. Blinken will then travel to Israel where he will discuss the ongoing negotiations.

Since the morning, there has been Israeli artillery fire targeting the outskirts of Alma al-Shaab, Yarine and Dhaira, villages in the Sour district, residents report.

Gaza's health ministry reported that 34,535 people have been killed in Israel's offensive on the enclave since Oct. 7, 47 of whom were killed in the last 24 hours.

The ministry added that an additional 77,704 people have been injured.

Several members of the US Congress have warned the International Criminal Court (ICC) against issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials, according to the US media outlet Axios. According to information obtained by Axios, legislation is being prepared to take action against the ICC in the event of such a decision.

The ICC is investigating alleged war crimes by the Israeli army and Palestinian groups, some of which date back to 2014. The announcement of arrest warrants for Israeli officials has not yet been confirmed, but it has caused a stir in recent days.

It is in this context that several members of the US Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, have warned of "sanctions" targeting ICC officials involved in the investigations. Some of their colleagues, more critical of Israel, insisted on the "independence" of the ICC.

In the Red Sea, Houthi rebels claimed responsibility overnight for a series of attacks, including a projectile that crashed near a Greek commercial vessel off the coast of Yemen without causing any damage, according to a British shipping agency and the US military.

These Yemeni rebels regularly attack ships they consider "linked to Israel," in support of Gaza and the "resistance" in Palestine. 

In southern Lebanon, the night was marked by exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

- At around 9:30 p.m., Israeli fighter jets bombed twice a house in Kfar Kila (Marjayoun). Ambulances were dispatched to the scene, but no casualties were reported. The building, however, was completely destroyed.

- Between 11 p.m. and midnight, the Israeli army launched an airstrike on a house in the Wadi al-Assafir area of Khiam (Marjayoun). The house was completely destroyed and several nearby buildings were damaged, but the strike does not appear to have caused any casualties. 

At around midnight, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for two attacks "in retaliation for Israeli attacks on southern Lebanese villages and civilian gomes."

The first was against "a building housing Israeli soldiers in Dovev," opposite the Lebanese village of Rmaish (Marjayoun), and the second against a building housing Israeli soldiers in Avivim, opposite Maroun al-Ras (Bint Jbeil).

Following these strikes, the Israeli army said it had "identified two anti-tank missiles fired towards Dovev, which fell in deserted areas," assuring that they caused neither casualties nor damage. The army also announced, via a tweet from its Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee, that it had "struck Hezbollah terrorist targets in Khiam and Kfar Kila." 

Egypt said yesterday that it was "hopeful" for a truce. However, Zaher Jabareen, one of Hamas's negotiators, told AFP that it was "too early to speak of a positive atmosphere in the negotiations." Above all, Hamas is demanding "a permanent cease-fire" in Gaza, which Israel has always refused, "a withdrawal" from Gaza and a clear timetable for the start of reconstruction, he said.

According to media reports, the Israeli war cabinet had initially called for the release of 40 hostages held in Gaza, before authorizing negotiators to lower this number. The US news site Axios reported that Israel was demanding at least the release of women, both civilians and soldiers, and men over 50 or in poor health. 

After Riyadh, Antony Blinken is expected in Israel later today as part of a new Middle East tour designed to promote a new truce in the besieged Palestinian territory plunged into a major humanitarian crisis.

US President Joe Biden, confronted with a pro-Palestinian movement on numerous campuses in his country, asked the leaders of Qatar and Egypt to "do everything possible" to obtain the release of hostages from Hamas "as this is the only obstacle to an immediate cease-fire." On a trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he "hoped" for a favorable response from Hamas to an "extraordinarily generous" proposal from Israel.

It includes a "40-day cease-fire" and the "release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of these hostages," said British diplomat David Cameron, also in the Saudi capital.

Hamas is preparing its response to a cease-fire proposal lasting several weeks in the Gaza Strip, coupled with the release of Israeli hostages, at the end of talks that offer a glimmer of hope after almost seven months of war.

After a meeting yesterday in Cairo with representatives of Egypt and Qatar, the countries mediating with the United States, a Hamas delegation left the Egyptian capital for Doha to study a new truce offer, a source close to the Islamist movement told AFP. A response will come "as soon as possible," added this source, while the al-Qahera News site, close to Egyptian intelligence, stressed that the Hamas delegation "will return with a written response to the truce proposal."

Make sure to read the Morning Brief so that you are caught up with what has been happening.

Morning Brief

Hamas attacks from southern Lebanon, tightening restrictions on Syrians, cease-fire deal on the table: Everything you need to know to start your Tuesday

Good morning!

Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of the ongoing war in Gaza and its regional and global impacts.