Gaza: War enters day 100 as airstrike on Rafah killed 14, famine looms

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Australia's foreign minister called on Monday for a "sustainable ceasefire" in Gaza as she left for a Middle East tour that includes a visit to the occupied West Bank and meetings with the families of Israeli hostages.

Penny Wong said she would use the visits to Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and the United Arab Emirates to advocate for a pathway out of the current conflict and a lasting peace in the form of a two-state solution.

Australia would also use its voice to push for more humanitarian assistance, greater protection of civilians and a de-escalation of regional tensions, she added.

"Our position is that we want to see a sustainable ceasefire and that we see an international humanitarian, immediate humanitarian ceasefire as a step towards that," Wong said at a news conference ahead of her departure.

"No ceasefire can be one sided and no ceasefire can be unconditional."

US fighter aircraft shot down an anti-ship cruise missile which was fired from Iranian-backed Houthi militant areas of Yemen toward the USS Laboon, which was operating in the Southern Red Sea, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday.

There were no injuries or damage reported, according to CENTCOM.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has joined calls for the release of the remaining captives held in Gaza on the 100th day since they were taken by Hamas.

"100 days of captivity in Gaza is far too long. The United States will not rest until all remaining hostages, including six Americans, are reunited with their loved ones," he said.

Armed Israeli settlers on Sunday broke into the village of Burin, south of Nablus, and attacked Palestinian residents’ houses and properties, according to local sources, as cited by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The settlers also set fire to a vehicle belonging to one of the village residents. No injuries were reported.

WHO chief Tedros has decried the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza in an appeal marking 100 days of war in the enclave.

He also condemned the "over 300 attacks on health", as well as the horrors patients are subject to amid the lack of access to critical aid.

Tedros noted that only 15 hospitals remain operational but are only able to provide limited services.

"People in Gaza are living in hell. Nowhere is safe. 100 days, and counting, of incessant insecurity and fear is beyond words," he wrote on X. "Everything must be done to end the violence to prevent more needless death and injury."

Israel’s Channel 12 said that general Gadi Eisenkot told the rest of the war cabinet it was time for Israel to "change tack in its efforts" to secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

"We have to stop lying to ourselves, to show courage, and to lead to a large deal that will bring home the hostages," Eisenkot, whose son and nephew died fighting in Gaza, said. "Your time is running out and each day that passes endangers their lives."

Netanyahu and Defence Minister Gallant disagreed, however, saying that only "military pressure" would bring back the captives.

Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation against Israeli football player Sagiv Jehezkel on charges of "inciting people to hatred and hostility" over a gesture, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Sunday.

"A judicial investigation has been initiated by Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against Israeli football player Sagiv Jehezkel for 'inciting people to hatred and hostility' due to his ugly gesture supporting Israel's massacre in Gaza after scoring a goal in the Antalyaspor-Trabzonspor Super Lig match," Tunc said on social media platform X.

Israeli player Jehezkel, 28, showed his bandaged hand after scoring a goal against Trabzonspor on Sunday. "100 days, 7.10" was written on his bandage, referring to the start of of Israel's war on Gaza in retaliation for Hamas' unprecedented attack on the country.

Hamas aired video on Sunday showing three Israeli hostages it is holding in Gaza appealing on their government to stop the offensive in the war-torn territory and bring about their release, as both sides marked the 100th day of the war.

The 37-second video ended with the chyron: "Tomorrow we will inform you of their fate." Hamas said earlier on Sunday it had lost contact with some hostages amid Israeli shelling of Gaza which, it said, may have killed them.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi condemned the US air strikes on Yemen, saying the attacks revealed what he called the true aggressive nature of the United States, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

Supporting defenceless Palestinians is the principled stance of Iran, Raisi added in a phone call with the head of Yemen's Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, it reported.

Referring to the US strikes, Raisi said such actions "are rejected and condemned by the freedom-seeking nations of the world".

Mashat said that Yemen stands firm in confronting Israel and supporting the people of Gaza.

Israeli soldiers detained two sisters of Saleh al-Arouri, a top leader of Hamas who was assassinated in Lebanon this month, Palestinian sources and the Israeli army said on Sunday.

The killing of Arouri, the deputy chief of Hamas, in a suburb of Beirut on January 2 was widely attributed to an Israeli drone strike, fuelling fears that Israel's war in Gaza could widen into a regional conflict.

The Israeli army said on Sunday it had detained the two women in the occupied West Bank "after they incited to terrorism against the state of Israel", without elaborating.

The slain leader's brother-in-law, Awad al-Aruri, said the two women and several other family members had been put into "administrative detention".

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club, a campaign group, said Dalal al-Arouri, 52, and Fatima al-Arouri, 47, were arrested in separate locations near the city of Ramallah.

Fatima's son Muhammad Saqr said his mother was arrested before dawn when troops stormed into their residential area.

"They checked her identity card, photographed it and sent it to the officer who was with them. When it was confirmed that it was the person they wanted, they took her and left," Saqr told AFP.

"The occupation (Israel) believes that by arresting women and young people and assassinating children in Gaza it will kill this massive revolution, (but) it will end with the liberation (of Palestine)."

The head of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said on Sunday that Israel had failed to achieve its objectives in Gaza and this will force it to negotiate.

"What has the enemy achieved in 100 days, other than killing?" Hassan Nasrallah asked in a televised speech.

"It has not achieved any real victory or semblance of victory. It has failed in achieving its declared, half-declared and implicit objectives," he added, on the 100th day of the Israel-Hamas war.

Nasrallah's speech commemorated the death of a senior Hezbollah commander, Wissam Tawil, killed by Israel in southern Lebanon on January 8.

Two Palestinian teenagers were shot and killed by Israeli forces on Sundayin the city of al-Bireh, near Ramallah, according to the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry reported that  17-year-old Suleiman Muhammad Kanaan arrived dead at Istishari Arab Hospital in Ramallah as a result of a direct gunshot wound that penetrated the heart.

Meanwhile, the second teenager was identified as 16-year-old Khaled Hmeidat.

Yemen's Houthis said US aircraft were observed flying close to Yemeni airspace and coastal areas on Sunday.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam described the activity by "enemy" aircraft as a blatant violation of national sovereignty.

Many of the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are likely to have been killed, a spokesman for the group's armed wing said Sunday, blaming the Israeli leadership for their fate.

"The fate of many of the enemy's hostages and detainees has become unknown in recent weeks and the rest are all in the tunnel of the unknown due to the Zionist aggression," Abu Obeida said in a televised statement.

"Most likely, many of them were killed recently, the rest are in great danger every hour and the enemy's leadership and army bear full responsibility."

Hamas' armed wing has been told by "several parties in the resistance fronts that they will expand their strikes on the Israeli enemy in the coming days," a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist group's armed wing, Abu Ubaida, said.

An Israeli woman was killed on Sunday after a missile fired earlier in the day from Lebanon struck a house at a border community, the local municipality said.

The Mevoot Hermon regional council said Mira Ayalon succumbed to her wounds suffered from the incident at the Kfar Yuval border community in which her son, an Israeli soldier, had been killed. His death had been announced earlier on Sunday by medics and the army.

Houthi media outlet Al-Masirah TV is reporting that further airstrikes are ongoing in Hodeidah province, with Jabal al-Jada in Al-Lahiya district reportedly being struck.

The claims were denied by the US.

The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees has stated that "the massive destruction, displacement, hunger & loss of [the] last 100 days are staining our shared humanity".

In a post on X, the agency claimed that "the humanitarian operation has become one of the most complex & challenging in the world."

The agency also said that "due to [the] tight siege on [the] Gaza Strip, aid delivered is not nearly enough to meet the needs".

The massive destruction, displacement, hunger & loss of last 100 days are staining our shared humanity

The humanitarian operation has become one of the most complex & challenging in the world

Due to tight siege on #GazaStrip, aid delivered is not nearly enough to meet the needs pic.twitter.com/5MQn3yNe9I

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) January 14, 2024

Yazan Zweidi, a cameraman for Egyptian broadcaster Al-Ghad TV has been killed by Israel in northern Gaza, the network announced on Sunday. 

Israel's military operations in Gaza are estimated at costing the Israeli government $54bn (210 billion Israeli Shekels) between 2023 and 2025 according to reports by Israel's Channel 12 citing the Bank of Israel.

Israel has so far spent $6.6bn (24.7 billion Israeli Shekels) on the war, which has been ongoing since 7 October, with the money being spend on reinforcing Israel's borders and funding for over 100,000 Israeli's displaced from the north and south of the country.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah described US and British strikes on Yemen as an act of stupidity, saying that the Houthis would continue targeting ships belonging to Israel and going to its ports.

"The more dangerous thing is what the Americans did in the Red Sea will harm all maritime navigation, even the ships that are not going to Palestine, even the ships which are not Israeli, even the ships that have nothing to do with the matter, because the sea has become a theatre of fighting, missiles, drones and war ships," he said.

"Security has been disrupted."

(Reuters and The New Arab Staff)

A man was killed and a woman badly wounded by an anti-tank missile that hit in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on Sunday, Israel's ambulance service said.

Israel's military said that a missile hit a house, causing casualties and that its forces were striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

(Reuters)

Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has stated that the WHO has visited the Al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Medical Complex.

According to Ghebreyesus at Al-Aqsa Hospital, "WHO learned that patients have been fleeing out of fear, and that the number of medical staff is a fraction of what it once was."

"At Nasser, WHO witnessed a shortage of hospital beds, with 700 patients on the premises along with around 7000 internally displaced people" he said.

He also stressed that "it's critical that these and other hospitals are protected from hostilities so they can continue functioning and repair their damaged operations," but that "violence in their vicinity in recent days makes it all the more difficult".

Yesterday, @WHO and partners visited Al-Aqsa Hospital in the middle area, and Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, vital lifelines for patients and thousands of displaced people in #Gaza.

These facilities require sustained support and protection to remain operational. The… pic.twitter.com/ZQlkSj3OYZ

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 14, 2024

Five Israeli soldiers were wounded during a clash with four fighters who attempted to infiltrate into Israel though the Lebanese border, according to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo on Sunday that "it is necessary to insist on the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign state of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital."

A joint statement from the two ministers urged an immediate end "to all acts of violence, killing and targeting of civilians and civilian establishments".

Shoukry and Wang called for "an international summit for peace to find a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause by ending the [Israeli] occupation and establishing an independent, contiguous Palestinian state."

Health authorities in Gaza announced that 23,968 Palestinians have been killed by Israel and a further 60,582 have been wounded as Israel's war on Gaza enters its 100th day.

Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement on Sunday, marking 100 days since Israel's brutal onslaught on Gaza began.

It said that the international community had failed to stop the genocide against Palestinians, leaving entire families to suffer pain, oppression and injustices committed by Israel.

It also highlighted that the international community had failed to end Israel's occupation of Palestine for the past 75 years.

"Years have passed since the Great Nakba against the Palestinian people, and the international community's failure to implement international resolutions related to the Palestinian issue keeps repeating itself," the statement said.

"100 days have passed since the Israeli occupation army turned the Gaza Strip into a place unfit for human beings and committed horrific crimes in which approximately tens of thousands have been killed, including children sleeping in their homes, and approximately two million people have been displaced," the statement added.

It also addressed Israel's increased violence and wave of arrest in the occupied West Bank and abuse against Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates // 100 days of continuous #genocide against our people and 75 years of international failure to end the #occupation#Gaza_under_attack⁩
⁦#CeasefireNow⁩
⁦#Palestine⁩
⁦#Israeliwarcrimes pic.twitter.com/aWfI0NNhwT

— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) January 14, 2024

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer has stated the labour party "fully supports" US and UK airstrikes against Yemen's Houthis in a bid to deter the group from carrying out operations against shipping in the Red Sea. 

Israeli troops on Sunday killed four fighters who crossed in from Lebanon at a disputed border area.

The Israeli military said that troops patrolling a contested border area "identified a terrorist cell who crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory and fired at the forces".

"The soldiers engaged and responded with live fire, four terrorists were killed," the army said in a statement.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has called for a "just" ruling in the UN's International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel.

Speaking to religious figures in a conference in Tehran, Raisi stated "I say to the legal experts of this court they must answer firstly to God, secondly to global conscience, and thirdly to history and future generations".

He added "people around the globe will appreciate a just verdict. But if the lawyers allow their hands to shake and be influenced by the strength of the Americans and by wealth and power, they must answer for it."