(NEW YORK) — Israeli Forces may have violated international law in the raid they conducted inside a hospital in the West Bank that resulted in the death of three Palestinian men both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed as members, several experts told ABC News.
Israeli commandos disguised themselves as doctors and patients to infiltrate the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on Monday and killed three Palestinian men whom Hamas and the Islamic Jihad both claimed as members, Dr. Wisam Sebehat, general director of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Jenin, told ABC News.
One member of the Israeli group had a wheelchair, two carried a doll in a baby carrier, several wore nurses’ clothing, another wore doctors’ clothing and several others were dressed in civilian clothing, Sebehat said. Doctors and patients are granted “protected status” in armed conflict under the Geneva Convention.
An initial statement from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) described the raid as a “joint IDF, ISA, and Israel Police counterterrorism activity.” The IDF have since clarified to ABC News that their forces were not involved in physically carrying out the operation.
The experts cautioned that ultimately the International Criminal Court is the body that can determine if international law was violated during the raid, but they pointed to elements of the Rome Statute, the governing treaty of the ICC, and the study on the rules of customary international humanitarian law the IDF may have violated in conducting the raid. The United States, along with China, India, Russia — about 40 countries total — did not sign the Rome Statute and are not party to the ICC, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The ICC is different from the International Court of Justice, which issued a preliminary ruling last week in a case brought by South Africa against Israel accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. The ICC can “exercise jurisdiction” in the form of preliminary examination, investigation and, at times, ultimately trials, over “genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes,” it says.
Israel is not a member of the ICC and rejects the court’s jurisdiction, but the ICC prosecutor has investigated Israel’s actions toward Palestinians before.
It’s a violation of international law to feign protected status, in this case, by dressing up as a doctor or patient, “in order to invite the confidence of the adversary and then proceed to kill or injure them,” Aurel Sari, associate professor of public international law at the University of Exeter, told ABC News. This violates the prohibition to kill or injure the adversary by resorting to perfidy, Sari said.
“The rule is part of customary international law in both international and non-international armed conflicts, which means Israel is bound by it,” Sari said.
“Based on what has been reported, it appears that the Israeli forces involved in the operation in the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin did resort to perfidy in violation of the law of armed conflict,” Sari added.
It’s unclear if the IDF used disguises to gain access to the hospital or to gain the confidence of the adversaries they were targeting directly.
The other possible violation of international law the IDF may have committed in this case is violating the prohibition on attacking combatants who have been incapacitated by wounds or sickness, or attacking persons “hors de combat,” associate professor of international law Tom Dannenbaum told ABC News.
One of the Palestinian men who was killed, Basel Ghazawi, was being treated in the Ibn Sina Hospital and was paralyzed, Sebehat said. The IDF denied the reports that Ghazawi was paralyzed.
Ghazawi had been in the hospital undergoing treatment for three months. He was injured after a drone attack in Jenin in October, Sebehat said. His older brother, Muhammad Ghazawi, and their friend, Muhammed Jalamneh, were in the hospital room with Basel Ghazawi when all three were killed by the Israeli forces, according to Sebehat.
“Combatants who have been incapacitated by wounds or sickness are protected from attack as persons ‘hors de combat,'” under international law, Dannenbaum said. “Clearly, someone who is paralyzed is incapacitated in that respect, so an attack on that individual would be prohibited. Violating that prohibition would be a war crime.”
The IDF accused Jalamneh of transferring weapons and ammunition “to terrorists in order to promote shooting attacks and planned a raid attack inspired by the October 7” Hamas terror attack on Israel, the IDF said in a statement about the raid.
“Along with Jalamneh, two additional terrorists who hid inside the hospital were neutralized,” the IDF said in the statement.
The IDF did not specify why the two other men were killed but said all three men were Hamas operatives.
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the IDF said.
The IDF has repeatedly claimed that Hamas uses hospitals in Gaza to mask terrorist activities. The IDF has said it is only targeting Hamas and other militants in Gaza and alleges that Hamas deliberately shelters behind civilians, which the group denies.
The ICC would ultimately be the body that could determine if a war crime was committed or if international law was violated in this raid. In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for crimes related to the invasion of Ukraine.
“To conclude that a war crime has been committed, criminal tribunals avail themselves not rarely of years of investigations and assessments,” Robert Kolb, professor of public international law and international organization at the University of Geneva, told ABC News.
More than 26,000 people have been killed in Gaza and over 65,000 others injured since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others injured since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. Israeli officials say 556 Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been killed, including 221 since the ground operations in Gaza began.
Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, speaks during a news conference while visiting the U.S.-Mexico border, Jan. 8, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Kaylee Greenlee Beal/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans voted early Wednesday to bring Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas one step closer to a historic impeachment over his handling of the country’s southern border.
After more than 10 hours of deliberation, the GOP-led House Homeland Security Committee decided in an 18-15 party-line vote to advance the impeachment articles against Mayorkas. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican, said in a statement that Mayorkas “has willfully and systemically refused to comply with the laws enacted by Congress, and he has breached the public trust.”
“His actions created this unprecedented crisis, turning every state into a border state.” Green added. “I am proud of the Committee for advancing these historic articles. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the right thing, put aside the politics, and agree that before we can fix Secretary Mayorkas’ mess, Congress must finally hold this man accountable.”
The issue will now go to the full House of Representatives for a floor vote, despite Democrats saying there’s no proof of high crimes and misdemeanors — the usual bar for impeachment. If the vote to impeach passes in the House, it forces a Senate trial.
If Mayorkas were to be impeached, it would be first of a Cabinet member in nearly 150 years. Only one Cabinet secretary has ever been impeached by the House: William Belknap, who resigned as then-President Ulysses Grant’s secretary of war shortly before the House voted against him in 1876.
Republicans say Mayorkas has failed to enforce the law at the southern border, allowing a flood of migrants into the United States from Mexico. During opening remarks of the hearing on Capital Hill on Tuesday evening, Green said the secretary “put his political preference above the law” and that his “actions have forced our hand.”
“We cannot allow this border crisis to continue,” he added. “We cannot allow fentanyl to flood our border.”
Green referenced the two articles of impeachment the conference released accusing Mayorkas of “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law” and “breach of public trust.”
Green called on the committee to push to use Congress’ power of impeachment to “remove those unworthy from office.”
“Secretary Mayorkas is the very type of public official the framers feared as someone who would cast aside the laws by a coequal branch of government, replacing those with his own preferences, hurting his fellow Americans in the process,” Green said.
Ranking Member Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said “Republicans have failed to make a constitutionally viable case to impeach Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a dedicated public servant.” He called the hearing a “terrible day” for the committee.
“The sham impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas is a baseless political stunt by extreme MAGA Republicans,” Thompson said.
Border security is a top issue in the 2024 elections with all eyes on how the Biden administration handles the surge of migrants crossing the border.
Senate negotiators are working — with Mayorkas’ help — on a bipartisan border security package with a deal in sight. However several in the GOP are threatening to derail the efforts. Former President Donald Trump is throwing cold water on the package, saying Monday that “a border bill is not necessary;” House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the bill appears “dead on arrival” in the House.
New York Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman contended that Republicans are doing Trump’s bidding by undermining a bipartisan negotiations in the Senate with impeachment in the House.
‘The irony of the fact that Secretary Mayorkas has spent the two months plus with a bipartisan group of senators working on legislation that would address the problems at the border should not be lost on anyone,” Goldman said. “You are sitting here right now trying to impeach a secretary of Homeland Security for neglecting his duties literally while he is trying to perform his duties and negotiate legislation.”
“The hypocrisy is the least of it. Your attack on the rule of law and our democracy is the worst of it. You better be careful about the bed that you make,” Goldman warned
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s most ardent supporters in the lower chamber, justified the impeachment effort by questioning Mayorkas’ honesty.
“Congress has responsibility to hold the executive branch accountable when they failed to uphold their oath of office abuse their authority, and or are dishonest with the American people,” she said.
Mayorkas called the impeachment proceedings against him “baseless” and the accusations made against him by the Homeland Security Committee “false” in a nearly seven-page letter to the committee.
Democrats have pushed back against the effort to impeach Mayorkas — with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slamming the effort.
“Republicans have clearly turned their ever-shrinking majority over to the extremists,” Jeffries said Monday. “And this sham impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas is just another sad example.”
“All they are endeavoring to do with respect to this sham impeachment is to run away from their do-nothing, extreme record, and try to distract the American people with this political stunt,” Jeffries said.
Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee put out a report Monday that contends that House Republicans are abusing their power with the move to impeach. Democrats argue that Mayorkas is upholding the law while Republicans attempt to “sabotage” the administration’s efforts to secure the border — all to help Trump, the Republican front-runner, win the presidency this fall.
(WASHINGTON) — China’s hackers are preparing to “wreak havoc” and “cause real-world harm” to Americans, FBI Director Christopher Wray will warn in Congressional testimony submitted on Wednesday.
Director Wray, along with U.S. Cyber Command Commander General Paul Nakasone, Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly and Harry Coker, the director of the National Cyber Director office, will be testifying in front of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist party.
“There has been far too little public focus on the fact that PRC hackers are targeting our critical infrastructure — our water treatment plants, our electrical grid, our oil and natural gas pipelines, our transportation systems. And the risk that poses to every American requires our attention — now,” Wray says in selected testimony released by the FBI ahead of the hearing.
He says they are “attacking our economic security, engaging in wholesale theft of our innovation, and our personal and corporate data.”
Wray has been consistently sounding the alarm on how much of a threat China is to the United States, as other members of the administration, including President Joe Biden, seek to calm tensions with China.
The Justice Department has made several cases against Chinese hackers in the past with the most recent case in 2021.
Meanwhile, the FBI director will say that China deserves Americans’ attention now.
“They target our freedoms, reaching inside our borders, across America, to silence, coerce, and threaten our citizens and residents,” he says.
(WASHINGTON) — Despite vacillating comments from key figures involved in negotiations to free the more than 100 hostages thought to still be detained in Gaza, U.S. officials remained bullish on Tuesday that months of gridlock could soon give way to an agreement that would also pause the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“There’s no reason for us to change course here,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said. “I don’t want to sound too sanguine, but we believe that the work has been productive and we’re going to stay focused on that.”
The Biden administration’s cautiously optimistic outlook comes after a round of talks in Paris attended by CIA Director Bill Burns and representatives from Israel, Qatar and Egypt that resulted in a framework calling for a cessation in the hostilities that would last at least six weeks in exchange for the phased release of all hostages held by Hamas, according to two U.S. officials.
Israel has been bombarding Gaza for months, targeting Hamas fighters, since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack sparked the current war.
At the same time, the U.S., Qatar and others have worked with some success to broker pauses in the fighting — both to free the hundreds of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 and to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza for civilians there as the death toll exceeds 26,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
The two U.S. officials said that the latest proposal stipulates that the elderly, women and any remaining children in captivity would be released first and that toward the end of the initial truce period, the parties would begin coordinating the return of captured members of the Israel Defense Forces, potentially cooling the conflict for an even longer period.
The framework also proposes the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and additional humanitarian provisions for civilians in Gaza, the U.S. officials said.
On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a distinctly rosy report on the state of negotiations, declaring there was “some real hope going forward.”
“I think the work that has been done — including just this weekend — is important and is hopeful in terms of seeing that process resume,” Blinken said, referring to the staggered release of more than 100 hostages from Gaza during a weeklong pause in fighting in November.
“I believe the proposal that is on the table — and that is shared among all of the critical actors, of course Israel but also with Qatar and Egypt playing a critical role in mediating and working between Israel and Hamas — I believe the proposal is a strong one and a compelling one,” Blinken continued.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not denied that Israel has signed onto a framework, he has conveyed more skepticism than Blinken — declaring this week that “gaps remain” and bucking at the notion that Israel would remove troops from Gaza or free “thousands of terrorists” as part of a prisoner exchange.
After initially rejecting the broad terms of the framework, a senior Hamas official said on Tuesday that the militant group was studying the proposal.
One U.S. official cautioned against taking any of the public comments related to the negotiations at face value, saying many of the statements amount to posturing and don’t reflect the conversations playing out behind closed doors.
Still, officials acknowledge obstacles remain. Intermediaries that regularly communicate with Hamas leaders believe they can get them on board — but negotiators still haven’t received a meaningful reply from the group and expect it will respond with a counteroffer.
“We hope this proposal will be accepted. We hope it will be implemented, and we hope to see a pause in fighting and hostages returned to their families,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday. “And we’ll keep working on it.”
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Opening statements will begin Wednesday in the trial of a former sheriff’s deputy charged in the 2020 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old Black man who was entering his grandmother’s home in Columbus, Ohio. The trial begins more than three years after Casey Goodson Jr.’s death.
Jason Meade, a former deputy with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO), was charged with murder and reckless homicide in December 2021 in connection with the shooting. The trial begins one day after what would have been Goodson’s 27th birthday.
Meade, who is white, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On Dec. 4, 2020, Meade was working with a U.S. Marshals task force searching for a wanted fugitive when he claims he saw Goodson waving a gun erratically from inside his car and then began tracking Meade, according to a December 2021 statement from Meade’s lawyers.
The former deputy claims he then followed Goodson home. Meade alleges that Goodson had a pistol in his right hand and a plastic bag in his left hand as he stood outside the door of his grandmother’s house, where he lived. Meade said he screamed at Goodson several times to show his hands but his commands were ignored, according to his attorneys’ statement.
When Goodson eventually turned to face the former deputy, Meade alleges Goodson pointed the barrel of the gun in Meade’s direction, so the deputy fired his weapon. Meade’s legal team declined ABC News’ request for comment Tuesday.
Police said a gun was found at the scene, but Goodson’s family said he was a legal gun owner. Goodson’s family claims he was returning from a dentist’s appointment, carrying a Subway sandwich and was wearing AirPods when Meade approached him and didn’t hear the officer’s commands.
Because Franklin County Sheriff’s task force officers are not issued body cameras, no video of the incident exists.
An autopsy report by the Franklin County Coroner’s Office said Goodson had been shot five times in the back and six times in total.
Nearly a year after the fatal shooting, on Dec. 2, 2021, a grand jury announced they had found enough evidence to charge Meade with two counts of murder and one count of reckless homicide in the shooting death of Goodson.
Following news of the indictment, Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin released a statement saying, in part, “I’ve reminded my staff that while everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, the standards for being a Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy must be even higher than that of our criminal justice system.”
Meade retired after 17 years with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in June 2021. Meade had been on administrative leave since the shooting, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
(WASHINGTON) — Washington, D.C., and Wall Street will closely watch an announcement from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday about whether to shift its benchmark interest rate.
The move marks the first such decision since the Fed said last month that it expects to cut rates in 2024.
Economists expect the Fed to leave rates unchanged, delaying rate cuts until later in the year. The next opportunity for a rate move will take place at a meeting in March.
An aggressive series of rate hikes since last year has spurred an increase in borrowing costs for everything from mortgages to credit cards to auto loans. But the Fed has signaled that it plans to ease rates in response to falling inflation.
The rate decision is set to arrive days after fresh data showed that the U.S. economy cooled in its latest quarter but performed much better than forecasters expected, boosting optimism about the nation’s prospects for averting a recession.
Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 3.3% annual rate over the final three months of last year, according to data from the U.S. Commerce Department.
The resilient economic performance could relieve some pressure on the Fed to move quickly toward rate cuts.
Interest rate cuts would lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, potentially triggering a burst of economic activity through greater household spending and company investment.
But the Fed risks a rebound of inflation if it cuts interest rates too quickly, since stronger consumer demand could lead to an acceleration of price increases.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said earlier this month that the central bank expects to cut rates this year, but it won’t be “rushed” to make the decision soon.
The GDP data, widely viewed as the prevailing measure of a nation’s economic health, comes amid a flurry of positive indicators.
A jobs report earlier this month showed hiring in December remained robust and far surpassed expectations.
Still, inflation remains elevated. Inflation has fallen significantly from its peak of 9% last year but in recent months has encountered bumps in its path toward normal levels.
The pace of price increases stands more than a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
Those remarks helped send treasury yields soaring and major stock indexes tumbling. Since then, however, the stock market has moved steadily upward.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 38,000 for the first time last week, setting a record high. Since then, the index has ticked up more than a percentage point.
The recent surge follows a stellar showing for markets in 2023, driven in large part by optimism about the prospects for a “soft landing,” in which inflation comes down to normal levels while the economy avoids a recession.
The International Monetary Fund released a forecast on Tuesday voicing its expectation of a soft landing for the U.S. The U.S. will expand at an annual rate of 2.5% this year, the IMF said, predicting a slowdown from the previous year but an improved outlook from a prior forecast.
(NEW YORK) — An investigation is underway in Middletown Township, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, after a man was found dead inside a home on Tuesday night, according to police.
Police responded to reports of a deceased male on the 100 block of Upper Orchard Drive and say that they found the victim, a man in his 60s, dead in an upstairs bathroom but did not confirm the manner of his death.
According to Middletown Township Police Chief Joe Bartorilla, the victim’s son fled in his father’s vehicle and was taken into custody a few hours later about 100 miles away from the crime scene as a suspect in the case.
The victim’s son, identified by police as 32-year-old Justin Mohn, has been charged with first degree murder, abuse of a corpse and possession of a criminal weapon. Mohn has been denied bail and a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
Bartorilla said the son lived inside the home on Upper Orchard Drive and is being considered a person of interest in the case.
“We were pretty confident that the person of interest is the person we were looking for,” he added.
Police confirm officers are looking into a social media post that may be connected to this investigation.
(NEW YORK) — Human skeletal remains have been discovered just off of a trail in Joshua Tree National Park, police say.
The grisly discovery happened last Thursday at approximately 12:08 p.m. when the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office received a call after somebody discovered human skeletal remains in Twentynine Palms, a region on the northern side of the park some 90 miles east of San Bernardino, California, according to police.
“Federal Park Rangers were alerted to the discovery by researchers and requested the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office and the Riverside County Coroner’s Bureau to respond,” according to a statement from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office detailing the incident. “The Coroner’s Bureau arrived at the scene and assumed the investigation.”
The identity and the cause of death of the deceased is currently unknown and authorities did not say how long they thought the remains could have been in the area for.
One of California’s most popular outdoor tourist destinations, Joshua Tree National Park is open 24 hours a day year round, covers more than 1,200 square miles and has over three million visitors each year.
An investigation into this case is currently ongoing and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with any additional information to contact Palm Desert Sheriff’s Station (760) 836–1600 or call anonymously at (760) 341-STOP (7867) and reference incident # O240250071.
(WASHINGTON) — Donald Trump can remain on Illinois’ presidential primary ballot, the State Board of Elections voted on Tuesday, dismissing another challenge to the former president’s eligibility under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the insurrection clause.
The eight-person, bipartisan board voted unanimously against a lawsuit brought by a group of Illinois voters represented by national group Free Speech for the People and Illinois elections lawyers.
The body said it lacked the authority to decide on the challenge, which cited Trump’s push to overturn his 2020 election loss and accused him of inciting the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol where Congress was gathered to certify Joe Biden as the next president.
Trump denies all wrongdoing and has previously attacked the 14th Amendment cases as anti-democratic.
“Trump did not engage in insurrection, as that term is used in the Constitution,” Trump’s attorney Adam Merrill said on Tuesday. “It is a complicated legal term that has been rarely interpreted and it wasn’t even articulated correctly by the hearing officer in this case and, frankly, never should have reached it because of the lack of evidence, and because of the lack of jurisdiction.”
The Illinois board considered the eligibility challenge for roughly an hour before unanimously affirming Trump’s candidacy.
Free Speech for the People said they will appeal and expect that, under review, the courts would show “why Illinois law authorizes that ruling despite Trump’s subjective belief that the Constitution doesn’t apply to him.”
In his own statement, on social media, Trump celebrated the board’s ruling and said it was “protecting the Citizens of our Country from the Radical Left Lunatics who are trying to destroy it.”
The decision comes just over a week before the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Feb. 8 on a similar 14th Amendment challenge to Trump out of Colorado, after that state’s top court ruled the former president ineligible for their primary ballot under Section 3.
Dozens of 14th Amendment challenges to Trump’s eligibility have been considered by courts, election boards or secretaries of state over the past year.
Only the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine’s secretary of state have ruled Trump ineligible to participate in their primary process.
The case in Maine is set for reconsideration by Secretary Shenna Bellows after the U.S. Supreme Court decides on the Colorado case.
The Illinois board on Tuesday upheld the recommendation of hearing officer Clark Erickson, who oversaw a two-hour administrative hearing for the case on Friday and suggested the body rule that Trump engaged in insurrection within the meaning of Section 3 but should still not have his name removed from the state’s 2024 primary ballot.
“I want it to be clear that this Republican believes that there was an insurrection on Jan. 6. There’s no doubt in my mind that he manipulated, instigated, aided and abetted an insurrection on Jan. 6,” board member Catherine S. McCrory, a Republican, said on Tuesday.
Erickson, a Republican retired state judge, wrote last week that the Illinois State Board of Elections should reject the case against Trump because their body “isn’t suited” to rule on this issue — that a decision on the challenge instead belongs to the courts.
He also noted the difficulty of considering such a “sophisticated” case ahead of the state’s fast-approaching March 19 primary.
“In the context of the events and circumstances of January 6, 2024,” Erickson recommended the board favor the Illinois voters’ argument that Trump engaged in insurrection “on the merits by a preponderance of the evidence.”
He then concluded: “The Election Code is simply not suited for issues involving constitutional analysis. Those issues belong in the Courts.”
“All in all, attempting to resolve a constitutional issue within the expedited schedule of an election board hearing is somewhat akin to scheduling a two-minute round between heavyweight boxers in a telephone booth,” he wrote.
A Palestinian elderly woman crosses a street which has been bulldozed by the Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 30, 9:08 PM
Experts say Israel may have violated international law with hospital raid
The Israel Defense Forces in the raid they conducted inside a hospital in the West Bank resulted in the death of three Palestinian men both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed as members, several experts told ABC News.
Members of the IDF disguised themselves as doctors and patients to infiltrate the Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on Monday and killed three Palestinian men whom Hamas and the Islamic Jihad both claimed as members, Dr. Wisam Sebehat, general director of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Jenin, told ABC News.
Doctors and patients are granted “protected status” in armed conflict under the Geneva Convention.
The experts cautioned that ultimately the International Criminal Court is the body that can determine if international law was violated during the raid, but they pointed to elements of the governing treaty of the ICC, and the study on the rules of the IDF may have violated in conducting the raid. The United States, along with China, India, Russia — about 40 countries total — did not sign the Rome Statute and are not party to the ICC, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Jan 30, 4:23 PM
US details money earmarked for UNRWA held up by pause
For the first time, a member of the Biden administration Tuesday offered some detail on how many U.S. dollars earmarked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East are held up under the current pause.
“We have provided in this fiscal year already $121 million to UNRWA,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “We have remaining about $300,000 — a little more than $300,000 — in funds that we were planning to provide to UNRWA. That funding has been suspended. That would not be the total of our funding in this fiscal year.”
Miller went on to say that it was “really impossible” to say what the total amount for the fiscal year would be due to operating under a continuing resolution, and he did not know what its exact budget would be, but that historically the Biden administration had provided “somewhere between” $300 million and $400 million a year.
Nine countries, including the U.S., have paused funding for the UNRWA in wake of allegations that some UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. The commissioner-general of UNRWA is investigating.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jan 30, 3:11 PM
Israel channeling water into Gaza tunnels
The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers are sending “large volumes of water” into Gaza tunnels to try to stop terrorist infrastructure.
“The pumping of water was only carried out in tunnel routes and locations that were suitable, matching the method of operation to each case,” the IDF said in a statement. “This project was developed following combat procedures, accelerated force-building efforts, and while training forces with technological expertise.”
“This tool represents a significant engineering and technological breakthrough in combating the threat of underground terror infrastructure and is the result of a collaborative effort between various bodies in Israel’s security establishment,” the IDF added.
Jan 30, 12:52 PM
Proposed hostage deal includes at least 6-week pause in hostilities: US officials
The latest proposed hostage deal includes an at least six-week pause in hostilities, during which the remaining civilian hostages in Gaza would be returned in phases, with the elderly, women and any remaining children released first, two U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News.
When the six-week truce nears the end, the framework calls for the parties to begin discussing: the return of all Israeli soldiers detained by Hamas; paving the way for all hostages in Gaza to be freed; and possibly extending the pause, the U.S. officials said.
The framework also includes the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and additional humanitarian provisions for civilians in Gaza, the officials said.
According to an Israeli source, Israel has rejected this current hostage and cease-fire deal on the table.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the group is studying a proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal that was put forward during talks this weekend in Paris. He said he would visit Egypt to discuss the plan and ways to implement it.
The White House is expressing confidence to secure the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas even after Israel rejected the current deal.
“The president’s view is we got to continue to do everything we can to get those hostages out,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday. “We are making progress on trying to get an extended pause in place so that we can get those hostages out. And the president’s not going to wait on that.”
Kirby would not say if President Joe Biden was disappointed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not release thousands of prisoners and pull troops out of Gaza as part of the deal.
“I think we’ll let the prime minister speak for himself. There’s no reason for us to change course here. We still believe that this is the right thing to do,” he said.
Kirby said national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Amir Sheikh Al Thani of Qatar Tuesday to discuss the war and efforts to get a hostage deal in place. Sullivan is also meeting Tuesday with the families of hostages being held by Hamas.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Justin Gomez
Jan 30, 12:08 PM
Israel rejects current hostage deal on the table: Israeli source
Israel has rejected the current hostage and cease-fire deal that was on the table, an Israeli source told ABC News Tuesday.
The deal included the release of women, the elderly and the injured hostages. This is likely to be the terms of the first round of a future deal, the source said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, “I hear talk about all kinds of deals. I would like to make it clear: We will not conclude this war without achieving all of its goals. This means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.”
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the group is studying a proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal that was put forward during talks this weekend in Paris. He said he would visit Egypt to discuss the plan and ways to implement it.
ABC News’ Jordana Miller, Ayat Al-Tawy and Dana Savir
Jan 30, 6:41 AM
UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives, NGOs warn
Twenty aid organizations have joined together to express deep concern and outrage that some of the largest donors suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the largest humanitarian agency in the Gaza Strip and the main provider for millions of Palestinians in the wider region.
A wave of countries, including the United States, have cut funding for UNRWA in recent days over Israel’s accusations that 13 UNRWA staff members in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the allegations.
In a joint statement released Monday, 20 non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, urged the donor states to reverse their suspensions and warned that not doing so could lead to “a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the NGOs said. “This decision comes as the International Court of Justice ordered immediate and effective action to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.”
The NGOs warned: “If the funding suspensions are not reversed we may see a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“The suspension of funding by donor states will impact life-saving assistance for over two million civilians, over half of whom are children, who rely on UNRWA aid in Gaza,” they added. “The population faces starvation, looming famine and an outbreak of disease under Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate deprivation of aid in Gaza.”
Jan 30, 5:35 AM
Israeli soldiers dressed in disguise kill 3 in raid at hospital in West Bank
The Palestinian Ministry of Health on Tuesday released security camera footage showing Israeli troops in disguise as they raideda hospital in the occupied West Bank overnight.
In the video, soldiers are seen dressed as doctors and patients while holding rifles and walking through the corridors of Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said three people were killed during the raid, which it called a “flagrant violation of all international norms and laws.”
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the overnight raid in a statement early Tuesday, saying its troops “neutralized” three “terrorists” who were “hiding” inside Ibn Sina Hospital, one of whom was a member of Hamas and was allegedly planning an attack “inspired by the October 7th massacre.”
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the IDF said. “This is another example of the cynical use of civilian areas and hospitals as shelters and human shields by terrorist organisations.”
Jan 29, 3:29 PM
Qatari prime minister: Hostage talks in ‘much better place’ now than a few weeks ago
The Qatari prime minister said Monday that the hostage talks between Israel and Hamas are in a “much better place” now than they were “a few weeks ago,” according to Reuters.
He also said he hoped the drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three American service members in Jordan won’t derail progress that’s been made on a hostage deal.
“I hope that nothing would undermine the efforts that we are doing or jeopardize that process,” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al-Thani said at a think tank event in Washington, D.C., according to Reuters. “Yet it will definitely have an impact on it and one way or another, it will have an impact on the regional security and we hope that things get contained and not to get escalated beyond control.”
Jan 29, 12:30 PM
IDF: Quarter of Hamas terrorists killed
One “quarter of Hamas’ terrorists have been killed and at least another quarter are wounded,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday while visiting troops at the Gaza border.
Gallant said fighting the remaining terrorists “will take months.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “the terrorists don’t have supplies, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements.”
ABC News’ Dana Savir
Jan 29, 11:50 AM
Dossier from Israel alleges 4 UNRWA employees involved in kidnappings
A dossier from the Israeli military has revealed new allegations against employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees who are accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The report obtained by ABC News alleges that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack, including six employees who allegedly infiltrated Israel.
Four UNRWA employees were allegedly involved in kidnappings and one employee allegedly supplied logistical support, the report said.
One UNRWA teacher is accused of kidnapping a hostage, who has returned to Israel and identified the UNRWA teacher, the report said.
Nine countries, including the U.S., have paused funding for the UNRWA in wake of the allegations. The commissioner-general of UNRWA is investigating.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman
Jan 29, 7:00 AM
IDF general answers questions about alleged war crimes in southern Gaza
ABC News embedded with Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division that currently controls the southern Gaza Strip, and questioned him about alleged war crimes, the recent killing of an unarmed Palestinian carrying a white flag and the controversial buffer zone.
On Saturday, ABC News met with Goldfus in what looked like a post-apocalyptic neighborhood in Khan Younis, where machine guns chattered, detonations thundered and the blasts of tank fire rang out. Some of the explosions were so powerful that they blew in the curtains of the commandeered Palestinian home that the general and his staff have turned into a temporary headquarters.
Outside the headquarters were a series of arena-sized basins. One was about 60 feet deep and larger than a football field. A month ago, it was a multi-acre cemetery. Flanking the destroyed cemetery was the remains of a mosque — half of a dome listing on its side like a sinking ship. Goldfus told ABC News that his troops had dug up most of the cemetery looking for tunnel shafts belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. The general pointed out where he said they found tunnel shafts, but ABC News could not visually verify due to the depth of the pit.
When asked what his troops do with the bodies if they dig up graves while hunting for tunnel shafts, Goldfus told ABC News: “We’ll put them aside.”
The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, without military necessity violates international law and could amount to war crimes. But Goldfus said he’s not concerned because Hamas had turned the cemetery and the adjacent mosque into a “military compound” that was “used to attack my forces again and again and again.”
“I’m not digging up a cemetery, I’m digging up a military compound,” he added.
When asked what he would say to the families of the people who were buried there, the general told ABC News: “I’m very sorry about it. Your relatives are being used as a human shield.”
Last week, British television network ITV captured what it said were Israeli snipers in Khan Younis gunning down an unarmed Palestinian man carrying a white flag who had moments earlier told the news team that he was trying to cross the battle lines to reach his family. At the time, Israel claimed the ITV video was edited and that there was no way of telling who fired the shots. However, while speaking to ABC News on Saturday, Goldfus appeared to take responsibility for the incident.
“Yes, it was my troops and I’m investigating that incident,” he told ABC News. “That is not the way we carry out rules of engagement. No, we don’t fire people waving white flags. We don’t fire at civilians.”
When pressed on the fact that Israeli troops have killed civilians in Gaza, the general said: “They are mistakes. It is war.”
Asked whether Israeli soldiers could face criminal charges for the fatal shooting, Goldfus told ABC News that “it depends.”
“We investigate every mistake that is done,” he added.
The general also answered questions about the buffer zone the IDF is creating inside Gaza along the coastal enclave’s border with Israel.
“This is part of the area that will become a buffer zone … to dismantle Hamas and prevent any entity that will try to carry out any terror attacks against our people,” he told ABC News while looking at a table-sized aerial map of the Gaza-Israel border.
Goldfus said the buffer zone will create an area inside Gaza that is under Israel’s control.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Sohel Uddin
Jan 28, 2:24 PM
‘Constructive meeting’ with officials but ‘gaps’ remain, Israeli PM’s office says
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a statement on Sunday’s talks between CIA Director Bill Burns, the prime minister of Qatar and intelligence officials from Israel and Egypt.
The meeting was “constructive” but “significant gaps” remain, the statement said, adding that more meetings are expected this coming week.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Jan 28, 4:40 AM
UN chief appeals for continued UNRWA funding
The secretary-general of the United Nations appealed on Sunday for continuing funding for the U.N. aid agency responsible for Gaza.
Nine countries, including the United States, paused their funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after Israel accused 12 of its employees of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Mark Regev, an Israeli spokesman, told ABC News in a phone interview Sunday that Israel gathered intelligence about the alleged connection to terrorism through videos released by Hamas and others during the Oct. 7 attack and claimed there’s “clear unrefutable evidence that U.N. paid staff were involved in crimes against humanity.”
About 2 million people in Gaza depend on the agency for daily survival, Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Sunday.
According to Guterres, “Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini; one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified.”
“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” he said in the statement.
He added, “But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Edward Szekeres and Kevin Shalvey
Jan 27, 5:13 PM
9 nations suspend contributions to UNRWA due to Oct. 7 allegations
The number of nations pausing funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has risen to 9 — an unprecedented number for a UN agency. This withdrawal of funding comes amid allegations from Israeli officials that some of the agency’s staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
On Saturday, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland joined the U.S., Australia and Canada in pausing funding to UNRWA.
“UNRWA lifesaving assistance is about to end following countries decisions to cut their funding to the Agency. Our humanitarian operation, on which 2 million people depend as a lifeline in Gaza, is collapsing. I am shocked such decisions are taken based on alleged behavior of a few individuals and as the war continues, needs are deepening & famine looms,” the commissioner general of UNRWA said in a statement.
“Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment. This stains all of us,” the statement said.
