UAE won’t support post-war efforts without establishment of Palestinian state: Day 344 of the Gaza war

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New protests demanding the return of hostages from Gaza are set to take place in several Israeli cities and communities on tonight, Haaretz reported.

The main demonstration in Tel Aviv will bring together the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, families who regularly protest outside the Israeli Defense Ministry, and pro-democracy organizations.

Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/ AFP

A building heavily damaged in an overnight Israeli strike stands in Kfar Roummane near the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh on Sept. 14, 2024.

Updates from South Lebanon:

- Hezbollah launched its eighth and ninth operations of the day at 5:10 p.m., according to two statements from the group.

- The first operation targeted the Israeli position at Roueissat al-Alam in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills with artillery shells. The second operation struck the Zebdine barracks in the contested Shebaa Farms, also with artillery shells.

⚡"The United Arab Emirates is not willing to support the post-war Gaza efforts without the establishment of a Palestinian state," wrote Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, on his X account.

"We have many experiences with the occupation, including the martyr operation by Ahmad Kassir in Sour, which was recognized 40 years after its execution," Sheikh Naim Qassem said in his speech.

Ahmad Kassir carried out a suicide attack on Nov. 11, 1982, five months after the Israeli invasion. This date has since become a day of martyrdom for the Islamic Resistance. At the time, he was 18 years old. He drove a bomb-laden Peugeot into the residence of the Israeli military governor, the Azmi building in Sour.

The building housed the military headquarters and was located near an Israeli military camp in the Jal Al Baher region. Several Israeli soldiers and a senior intelligence official were killed. This operation is considered the beginning of resistance operations.

In southern Lebanon:

- Hezbollah announced that at 3 p.m., it targeted Israeli espionage equipment at the "Hadab Yarine" site, across from Yaroun in the Bint Jbeil district, and completely destroyed it.

- The group also stated that it targeted the same site at 3:45 p.m. and "hit it directly."

- According to local residents, Israeli artillery targeted the Kfar Shuba hills in the Hasbaya district. Some of these hills are occupied by Israel.

In his speech, Sheikh Naim Qassem asked, "Why hasn't Israel sent its media or government officials to the two targeted bases to refute what the resistance has announced?"

He was referring to the damage caused by the operations launched by Hezbollah on Aug. 25 in retaliation for the assassination of one of its senior commanders, Fouad Shukur, by an Israeli strike in southern Beirut on July 30.

Two days ago, Al Mayadeen, citing European sources, reported that the attack resulted in 22 deaths and 74 injuries among members of Israel's Unit 8200 intelligence service.

"The Al Mayadeen report on the successful targeting of the "Galilut" and "Ain Shimer" bases is accurate and reliable," he said.

Sheikh Naim Qassem also argued in his speech that Israel was mistaken in thinking that expanding the war against Lebanon would ensure the return of residents who fled northern Israel since the start of the exchanges of fire, which began at the Lebanon-South border on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the Gaza war broke out.

“If they think the war will bring the settlers back, they should prepare to accommodate hundreds of thousands of [displaced] settlers,” he said.

He also questioned the timing of the resignation of the head of the Israeli military intelligence unit, Unit 8200, announced on Thursday: “Why did the head of Unit 8200 announce his resignation now and not earlier, since it is related to the events of Oct. 7?” he explained.

⚡“We have no intention of starting a war, but the intensity of our retaliation will increase if Israel extends its aggression,” said Hezbollah's number two, Sheikh Naim Qassem, during his speech in Hadath. 

Update on Hezbollah’s attacks against Israeli positions from last night:

After 9 p.m.: Hezbollah said that in response to the Israeli attack against the town of Ahmadieh in the West Bekaa, it targeted the Israeli "Hadab Yaron" site, facing the southern town of Yaroun in the Bint Jbeil district, “with volcano rockets, directly hitting and partially destroying it, causing a fire.” Additionally, Hezbollah reported targeting the Israeli Ramtha site in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills.

Around 1:30 a.m.: Hezbollah said it launched further attacks in response to the Ahmadieh attack, targeting the Israeli “reserve headquarters of the Northern Corps and the deployment base of the Galilee Brigade and its logistical warehouses with dozens of Katyusha rockets,” and also “targeting a Merkava tank on the Rwaisat al-Alam-Zebdine road [in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills] with a guided missile.”

This photo taken by the Republican People's Party (CHP) press service on Sept. 13, 2024, shows police officers carrying a portrait and the coffin of American-Turkish activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygii. (Credit: Dogusan Ozer/ Press Office)

The funeral of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, an American-Turkish activist killed on Sept. 6 in the West Bank, is taking place in Turkey today. Her funeral is intended to honor her commitment to the Palestinian cause.

Following the announcement of her death, Ankara, which has launched an investigation, condemned the incident as an “arbitrary assassination” attributed to the Israeli army. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that Turkey would ensure “the death of our daughter, Aysenur Ezgi, does not go unpunished.”

The 26-year-old, who moved to the United States with her family at ten months old, is set to be buried in the early afternoon in Didim, a town on the Aegean coast where her relatives live. Her parents and partner, who reside in the United States, have arrived for the service.

Credit: Bashar Taleb/ AFP

Displaced Palestinians line up to fill their containers with water in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Sep.14, 2024, amid the ongoing war. 

The Gaza Health Ministry announced today a new death toll of 41,182 in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Israel, now in its twelfth month.

At least 64 people have been killed in the last 48 hours, it said in a statement, adding that 95,280 people had been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on Oct. 7.

South Lebanon:

- Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli artillery positions at Al-Zaoura in the occupied "Syrian Golan" at 2:05 p.m., hitting them directly. This was its fifth operation of the day.

- According to Haaretz, the Israeli army announced that its air force had bombed two Hezbollah buildings in the village of Blida, in the Marjayoun district, a strike our correspondent reported earlier in the afternoon. The Israeli army also stated that its artillery had targeted Aita al-Shaab, in the Bint Jbeil district, which we reported in the morning.

⚡Hezbollah's number two, Sheikh Naim Qassem, is scheduled to speak at 4 p.m. during a ceremony in memory of a party member killed this week by Israel, Hani Hussein Ezzeddine, at the Imam al-Moujtaba Mosque in Hadath, Baabda district.

New update on the situation in South Lebanon:

- An Israeli airstrike targeted Blida in the Marjayoun district, local residents reported.

- Hezbollah said about an hour ago that it had launched "an aerial drone attack targeting the headquarters of Brigade 810 in the Ma'aleh Golani barracks [in the occupied Syrian Golan heights]," in retaliation to the Israeli attack against Kfar Roummane in the Nabatieh district. "The attack struck the positions of its officers and soldiers, hitting the target accurately."

- According to Haaretz, sirens sounded in northern Israel about 20 minutes ago.

Update on the Security Situation in Southern Lebanon according to security sources and residents contacted by our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah:

After 10:30 p.m.: Israeli warplanes bombed a three-story building in Kfar Roummane, located in the Nabatieh district, completely destroying it. Residents reported that the building was empty. Two Syrian nationals from a nearby building were injured by shrapnel and transported by ambulance. An ambulance belonging to the Risala Scout Association, affiliated with the Amal Movement, was damaged as it was parked next to the targeted building. The Public Health Emergency Operations Center of the Ministry of Public Health reported thirteen injuries, with one person hospitalized, eight suffering severe panic, and the rest with minor injuries. Emergency teams from the Risala Association, the Islamic Health Authority (affiliated with Hezbollah), Lebanese Civil Defense, Red Cross and the Nabatieh municipality responded to the incident.

Israeli artillery shelling targeted the area of Khallet Warda in Aita al-Shaab town, Bint Jbeil district, with several mortar shells.

After 2:30 a.m.: Israeli warplanes conducted a raid on a forested area in the town of Kounin, also in the Bint Jbeil district.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani has condemned Israeli forces for committing “the most heinous killings, destruction, and violations against civilians, all in full view of the world.”

He stated, according to the Iraqi News Agency, “The oppressed and defenseless Palestinian people have been subjected for more than 10 months to a war of extermination waged by the criminal Zionist occupation forces.”

Al-Sudani added, “What is required of us today is that we all, Muslims and Arabs, take an honorable stand to support Palestine.”

Rescue services in Gaza reported today that 11 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a residential building in the Tuffah neighborhood, located in eastern Gaza, according to Haaretz.

According to the Russian news agency Sputnik and several other media outlets, including al-Markazia, the Houthis are reportedly bolstering their presence in Syria in anticipation of an escalation with Israel.

The armed Yemeni group, which has established a “support front” with Gaza since the onset of the war with Israel in October 2023 and regularly targets vessels in the Red Sea, is said to have dispatched “several thousand fighters” who have “arrived in small groups via Jordan,” according to the agency.

These fighters are reportedly “well trained to attack targets such as Israeli cities or military barracks.”

This information has not yet been picked up by major agencies such as AFP and Reuters.

⚡ According to the Israeli news site Ynet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to present a proposal to the security cabinet tomorrow that would make the return of residents from northern areas to their homes an official war objective.

Until now, this goal had not been officially recognized, despite Netanyahu's earlier statements following the assassination of Hezbollah military chief Fouad Shukur in Beirut on July 30.

Israeli forces have arrested at least 10 Palestinians between Friday and today, including several former prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club says.

“The arrests were distributed across the governorates of Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarem and Hebron,” it said in a statement.

The group said that more than 10,700 people have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since the war on Gaza began about a year ago.

⚡ The Health Ministry in Gaza has confirmed the death of Palestinian paramedic Hamdan Abu Anaba, who it said was arrested with his colleagues in early December from Nasser Medical Complex, in southern Gaza.

“The Ministry of Health calls on all international and human rights institutions to reveal the fate of dozens of health workers who were kidnapped from hospitals while performing their humanitarian duty,” the ministry said in a statement.

Most recent updates from this morning:

- Hezbollah announced the death of its member Abbas Hamadeh from the town of Qmatiyeh, in the Aley district, who was killed on "the path to Jerusalem." According to our correspondent, Hamadeh, born in 1990, was killed in the Israeli strike on Ahmadieh in West Bekaa. This raises the total number of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon and Syria since Oct.8 to 441.

- An Israeli drone strike targeted the western neighborhood of the town of Mais al-Jabal, Marjayoun district.

- In retaliation to the Israeli strike on Kfar Roummane, Nabatieh district, last night, Hezbollah, "shelled the base and headquarters of the 282nd Artillery and Precision Missile Brigade, as well as its armament and emergency depots in Yiftah Eliflet, northwest of the Sea of Galilee, with dozens of Katyusha rockets."

Last January, the ICJ urged Israel to prevent any potential acts of genocide and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. In March, at Pretoria's request, the ICJ demanded further measures from Israel to address the “growing famine” in the Palestinian territory.

In May, it ordered Israel to “immediately” cease its offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza.

On Oct. 7, Hamas commandos from Gaza launched an attack in southern Israel, resulting in 1,205 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

The Israeli retaliation left at least 41,118 dead, according to a report by the Health Ministry in Gaza. The majority of the dead are women and children, according to the UN.

Israel criticized the procedure launched by South Africa, denouncing it as a “despicable attempt to deny [the country]” the “fundamental right to defend itself”.

“We are stubborn,” said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, when asked about the matter at a press conference. “We continue to plead that the genocide must stop, that there must be a ceasefire and that there must be a return [...] of the hostages”, taken on Oct. 7 by the Palestinian movement in Gaza.

Several countries, including Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Spain and Turkey, have joined the South African proceedings. While the ICJ's orders are legally binding, it has no means of enforcing them.

With the war in Gaza still ongoing, South Africa reaffirmed yesterday its commitment to pursue its case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country plans to file a brief in October.

South Africa initiated this procedure in December 2023, arguing that Israel's response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on its territory violates the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, established after World War II and the Holocaust.

Good morning!

Thank you for being with us as we continue our coverage of the ongoing war in Gaza and its far-reaching regional and global impacts.