Wednesday, January 31, 2024
16:10 GMT – Gaza death toll nears 27,000
The death toll from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has jumped to 26,900 since October 7, the Health Ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave said on Wednesday.
The Health Ministry issued a statement as the deadly Israeli onslaught entered its 117th day.
It also said that 65,949 other people have also been injured in the attacks.
11:00 GMT — Israel has repeated new evacuation orders for neighbourhoods in western Gaza City where 88,000 Palestinians live in shelters, the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) has said.
The area, which included the Ash Shati Refugee camp, was home to almost 300,000 Palestinians before October 7, OCHA stressed in its daily update for Monday.
"The new order covered an area of 12.43 sq km, which amounts to 3.4 percent of the total area of the Gaza Strip," OCHA added.
Some "1 per cent of the Gaza Strip have been placed under such orders‚" since Israel began issuing evacuation deadlines on December 1, OCHA added.
The residents of Gaza City in the west were told to flee south, despite large numbers of Palestinians leaving Khan Younis in recent days and dangerously overcrowded conditions in Rafah.
09:45 GMT — UAE confirms support for UN Palestine agency after Israel's accusations
UAE's foreign minister voiced support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the wake of the agency's funding crisis, which was sparked by allegations that some of its employees in Gaza took part in the October 7 cross-border attack on Israel.
In a phone call with UNRWA's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan re-affirmed the UAE's "unwavering support" for UNRWA and the importance of the role it plays in delivering humanitarian aid and supporting Palestinian refugees, according to the local media.
Al Nahyan called on the countries that have suspended their funding to UNRWA to "urgently reconsider this decision" and continue to provide support to the agency to enable it to carry out its humanitarian tasks.
09:10 GMT — US claims to have downed Houthi anti-ship cruise missile
The US has claimed to have shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired by Yemen's Houthi group toward the Red Sea.
"On January 30, at approximately 11:30 pm [Sanaa time], Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired one anti-ship cruise missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen toward the Red Sea. The missile was shot down by the USS Gravely (DDG 107)," US Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote on X.
It added there were no injuries or damage reported.
05:40 GMT — Cutting funds to UNRWA 'catastrophic' for Palestine's Gaza
Cutting off funding to the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will have "catastrophic consequences" for besieged Gaza, the heads of multiple UN bodies have said in a joint statement.
"Withdrawing funds from UNRWA is perilous and would result in the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, with far-reaching humanitarian and human rights consequences in the occupied Palestinian territory and across the region," said the statement from heads of organisations that form the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee.
The UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, France and Finland recently joined the US, Australia and Canada in blocking the crucial funds to UNRWA.
"No other entity has the capacity to deliver the scale and breadth of assistance that 2.2 million people in Gaza urgently need," the UN bodies said. "The world cannot abandon the people of Gaza. We appeal for these decisions to be reconsidered."
05:10 GMT — Houthis say received US warning threatening escalation
Yemen's Houthi group has said that it received a message from the US conveyed via Amman threatening to open fronts against it in response to its actions against Israel.
''The American threatening message is in response to the Yemeni people's rejection of the killing of people in Gaza,'' Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi, a member of the group's Supreme Political Council, said in a statement on X.
"We say to the US that any folly in carrying out the American threat will fail and will not stop the Yemeni people from their mission to support Gaza,'' he added.
There has been no comment so far from the US on the Houthis' statement.
For our live updates from Tuesday, January 29, click here.
