Hezbollah denies Israel"s claim that it killed senior Hezbollah leader Hezbollah has denied a claim by the Israeli military that it killed the southern Lebanon commander of Hezbollah’s aerial unit, Ali Hussein Barji, in an airstrike on Tuesday. In a statement, Hezbollah said “the commander was never subjected to any assassination attempt as the enemy claimed.” Jeremy Corbyn to join South Africa’s delegation accusing Israel of genocide The former UK Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, will join a South African delegation for this week’s hearings at the international court of justice (ICJ), where the country has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. South Africa’s justice ministry said Corbyn was one of a number of “senior political figures from progressive political parties and movements across the globe” who will join the South African delegation at The Hague for two days of preliminary hearings which begin on Thursday. South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, saying among other things that it has the “specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”. In its 84-page filing, it also says Israel has failed to prevent genocide and failed to prosecute officials who have publicly incited genocide. Corbyn expressed support for South Africa’s case against Israel on Monday and criticised the British government in a social media message. “Every day, another unspeakable atrocity is committed in Gaza,” he wrote. Millions of people around the world support South Africa’s efforts to hold Israel to account. Why can’t our government? Médecins Sans Frontières says strike on Gaza shelter killed staff member"s five-year-old daughter Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has condemned “in the strongest possible terms” a strike on an MSF shelter in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip on Monday. A five-year-old daughter of an MSF staff worker was critically injured by the strike and underwent surgery at a hospital, the medical charity said. She later died of her injuries on Tuesday, it said. In a statement, MSF said that more than 100 staff and their family members had been sheltering in the building on Monday morning when a shell broke through the wall. Thomas Lauvin, MSF project coordinator in Gaza, said: We are outraged and deeply saddened by the death of yet another family member of our MSF staff. This strike on civilians is unacceptable and, once again, goes to show that it doesn’t matter where you are in Gaza, nowhere is safe. The shell did not detonate on impact, otherwise many more of our staff and their families would have most likely been killed. The charity said it had notified Israeli forces that the shelter was housing MSF staff and their families, and that no evacuation orders were issued before the strike. It added: While MSF is not able to confirm the origin of the shell, it appears to be similar to those used by Israeli tanks. Four of MSF’s staff have been killed since the beginning of the war in addition to numerous family members, it said. A meeting between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv earlier today was “tense”, according to a report. The Times of Israel reported, citing a Channel 12 story, that Washington is losing its patience over Tel Aviv’s outlook on its war with Hamas in Gaza. The outlet noted that the Israeli prime minister’s office did not release a readout of the meeting, as it usually does. Matthew Miller, a US state department spokesperson, said after the meeting that Blinken had reaffirmed to Netanyahu the US’s support for Israel’s attempts to stop any repeat of the Hamas attack of 7 October but “stressed the importance of avoiding further civilian harm and protecting civilian infrastructure in Gaza”. Hezbollah denies Israel"s claim that it killed senior Hezbollah leader Hezbollah has denied a claim by the Israeli military that it killed the southern Lebanon commander of Hezbollah’s aerial unit, Ali Hussein Barji, in an airstrike on Tuesday. In a statement, Hezbollah said “the commander was never subjected to any assassination attempt as the enemy claimed.” Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from the Gaza Strip and Israel. Belgium"s deputy prime minister voices support for genocide case against Israel Belgium’s deputy prime minister, Petra De Sutter, has expressed support for South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Posting to social media, De Sutter said she wants Belgium to take action at the international court of justice (ICJ), following the lead of South Africa. She wrote: Belgium cannot stand by and watch the immense human suffering in Gaza. We must act against the threat of genocide. South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel has responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it. A Palestinian journalist has said he was subjected to beatings and torture during more than a month of detention by Israeli forces. Diaa al-Kahlout, the Gaza bureau chief of the London-based media outlet The New Arab, was arrested by the Israeli army in Beit Lahia city in north Gaza on 7 December and detained without charge for several weeks, the outlet said. He was among dozens of Palestinians shown detained by Israeli troops and stripped to their underwear last month, the Qatari-owned outlet said. In an interview, Kahlout described the Israeli army’s treatment of himself and other detained Palestinians as “indescribably tough and difficult”. He said: The moment I was detained, Israeli soldiers crowded round me and I heard the word “journalist” said more than once, before they gagged me with tape so I couldn’t speak. They were mocking journalists and their work. He said he was subjected to beatings and torture several times by agents of Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet. He said he spent 25 out of the 33 days of his detention forced to remain in a kneeling position, which caused him severe pain. Houthis claim it targeted vessel in Red Sea We reported earlier that the UK maritime trade operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of an incident in the Red Sea near Yemen. A Yemeni military source has told Al Jazeera that the Houthis had targeted a ship linked to Israel in the Red Sea. Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza. Leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Palestinian Authority to meet at summit on Gaza The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, will meet tomorrow to discuss the war in Gaza and surging violence in the West Bank. Jordan’s King Abdullah II will host a summit with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Wednesday in the southern Red Sea city of Aqaba, according to a statement issued by Jordan’s royal court. The leaders will discuss the “serious developments” in the Gaza Strip as well as “the situation in the West Bank”, it said. The meeting will be held as part of “Jordan’s efforts to coordinate Arab positions to push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and ensure the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid”, it said. The UK maritime trade operations (UKMTO) said it received a report of an incident in the Red Sea near Yemen. In a social media post, it said it received a report of an incident in the Red Sea approximately 50 nautical miles west of Al Hodeidah. Authorities were investigating, it added. IDF says it killed senior Hezbollah commander The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it has killed the southern Lebanon commander of Hezbollah’s aerial unit, Ali Hussein Barji, in an airstrike on Tuesday. IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the Hezbollah commander had led dozens of drone attacks on Israel. The IDF statement came after reports that an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon had killed a top Hezbollah commander. Summary of the day so far It’s just past 10pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments: A total of 23,210 Palestinians have been killed and 59,167 have been wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures by the Gaza health ministry on Tuesday. About 126 Palestinians were killed and 241 were wounded in the previous 24 hours, it said. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has dismissed South Africa’s genocide charge against Israel as “meritless”, but said the daily toll of war on civilians in Gaza is “far too high”. At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Blinken urged Israeli leaders to work with moderate Palestinian leaders, saying regional countries would only invest in the reconstruction of Gaza if there is a “pathway to a Palestinian state”. He added that he was “crystal clear” that Palestinians must be able to return to their homes “as soon as conditions allow”. Intense fighting, shelling and aerial bombardment has continued across the south and centre of Gaza as Blinken met top officials in Israel on a regional tour aimed at reaching a consensus on the Palestinian territory’s future and stopping an escalation of the war across the Middle East. US officials said Blinken told Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, that his forces must avoid inflicting further harm on civilians in Gaza. However, there was no sign of any letup in the violence in Gaza as the two men met. Israel’s military has said it has expanded its ground operation in the city of Khan Younis inside the Gaza Strip. The IDF claimed on Tuesday that “dozens of terrorists were killed” and “large quantities of weapons and underground terror tunnel shafts were located”. The claims have not been independently verified. Israel has said that 182 of its soldiers have so far been killed during fighting inside the Gaza Strip. Israel and Hezbollah edged closer towards full scale war on Tuesday, as the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group launched explosive drones at a key Israeli command base, declaring the attack part of its response to recent high-level Israeli assassinations in Lebanon. Hezbollah announced it had launched “a number of explosive attack drones” at the Israeli northern military command base in Safed, the first time it has targeted the site. An Israeli army spokesperson said there had been no damage or casualties. Israeli aircraft, drones and artillery struck multiple targets inside southern Lebanon, including a strike on a car during the funeral of a senior commander in the group’s elite Radwan force who had been killed the day before. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said that while his country was open to negotiations, it was being threatened with war. The Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has called on Muslim states to provide Palestinian militants with weapons, adding that the group’s war with Israel is “not the battle of the Palestinian people alone”. At a conference in Doha, Haniyeh said Israel had “failed to achieve any of its goals” after nearly 100 days of its war in Gaza, and argued that the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October “came after an attempt to marginalise the Palestinian cause”. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said “there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous” than the lawsuit filed in the international court of justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocidal actions against Palestinians in the Gaza war. Herzog censured South Africa for bringing the case, which is due to begin hearings on Thursday. Herzog added Israel must win “because it is a war that affects international values and the values of the free world”. The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has admitted he is “worried” that Israel might have taken action in Gaza that might be in breach of international law. Cameron also confirmed to parliament’s foreign affairs committee that two British nationals are still being held hostage in Gaza. Israel needs to “act carefully” and avoid risking further escalation in its war with Hamas, Downing Street has said. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said the international community has an obligation to organise security in Gaza after the war and a reformed Palestinian Authority must play a crucial role in its future. Egypt and Germany both “agree that Gaza and the West Bank belong to Palestinians”, she told reporters in Cairo on Tuesday. Baerbock also visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt as part of her Middle East trip. The international criminal court (ICC) has confirmed it is investigating potential crimes against journalists since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. At least 79 journalists and media workers, the vast majority of them Palestinian, have been killed since the war began three months ago, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Israel Defense Forces said they shot dead a Palestinian man on Tuesday following an alleged stabbing attack near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed more than 330 Palestinians in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Hamas began three months ago, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has accused Israel of a “brutal crime” after footage circulating on social media appeared to show a military vehicle running over a dead militant in the occupied West Bank. UN international law experts have criticised the killing of Hamas deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri, and other fighters in drone strikes in Lebanon. In a statement, UN special rapporteurs Ben Saul and Morris Tidball-Binz said killings in foreign territory are arbitrary when they are not authorised under international law. The planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, new research reveals. The commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, is posting on social media a fresh message that Gaza “is simply becoming uninhabitable” under Israeli bombardment in response to the murderous attacks by Hamas on southern Israel on 7 October. The relief agency has used its latest post on X, formerly known as Twitter, to call for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, saying such action “is a matter of life and death”. UNRWA points out list the latest stage of the crisis in Gaza thus: “Almost an entire population forcibly displaced; Families search for safety where there is none; Health system rapidly collapsing; Famine looms; Unprecedented levels of depravation; People driven to despair.” Here’s a picture of Philippe Lazzarini.