Live
By Nils Adler, Linah Alsaafin, Tamila Varshalomidze, Brian Osgood and Mersiha Gadzo
Published On 30 Jan 2024
  • Israeli troops have stormed al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis and are demanding doctors and displaced Palestinians evacuate, the Palestine Red Crescent says.
  • At least 16 people, including women and children, have been killed in an Israeli strike on a home in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, says the Red Crescent.
31 Jan 2024 - 00:00
 (00:00 GMT)

Thanks for joining us

This live page is now closed. Follow along with our ongoing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

To learn more about the Israeli undercover raid at a hospital in the occupied West Bank in which three Palestinians were shot dead, watch this.

And you can always read more about the conflict here.

30 Jan 2024 - 23:45
 (23:45 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

We will be closing the live blog soon. Here is a recap of the day’s main developments.

  • Israeli forces, disguised as civilians and medical workers, killed three Palestinians in a hospital in Jenin, stating they were members of an armed group planning an attack. Palestinian authorities denounced the raid as an assassination, while others have raised questions regarding the legality of the operation.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he will not agree to a deal that includes the large-scale release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons or an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
  • A report by the BBC news service has found that more than half of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged since Israel first launched its assault on the Palestinian territory.
  • The director of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that efforts to deliver food to Nasser Hospital failed, after crowds of hungry people took the food. The WHO chief said the incident underscores the “hellish conditions” and “severe hunger” faced by civilians in Gaza.
30 Jan 2024 - 23:20
 (23:20 GMT)

WATCH: Israeli forces humiliate Palestinian detainees in Khan Younis

A video has surfaced of Israeli soldiers standing over several Palestinian men after blindfolding them and tying their hands behind their backs.

All this while the men were obeying orders from the Israeli army to evacuate Khan Younis.

The date of this video is unknown but the UN says this treatment of prisoners is part of a pattern for Israel.

Watch our video to learn more:

30 Jan 2024 - 23:05
 (23:05 GMT)

Israeli reporter shows water being pumped into Hamas tunnels

Journalist Italy Blumenthal has shared video on his X account showing the equipment used by the Israeli army to flood the tunnels.

In his post, he calls the operation the “Atlantis project”.

Earlier today, the Israeli army issued a statement saying it had flooded some Hamas tunnels with water in an effort to render them unusable.

Translation: This is what it looks like: the “Atlantis” project to inject seawater into the Hamas tunnels in Gaza. The photo is from one of my visits to Gaza.

30 Jan 2024 - 22:50
 (22:50 GMT)

Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia resumed defence talks with US

The news outlet has reported that Saudi Arabia resumed defence talks with the US, after a pause due to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that talks regarding closer defence ties had resumed, citing people familiar with the talks.

The Biden administration recently said it will continue to pursue normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which could come at the price of security guarantees for Saudi Arabia from the US.

30 Jan 2024 - 22:40
 (22:40 GMT)

MSF Gaza director gives update on dire situation at al-Shifa Hospital

Aurélie Godard, the director of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF)’s medical activities in Gaza, visited the territory on a UN-organised trip last week.

Here are some highlights from her report:

  • “The main objective of this convoy was to deliver 19,000 litres [5,000 gallons] of fuel to Al-Shifa. This fuel is essential, because it is used to run the generators that supply the hospital with electricity.
  • “Our two cars and the fuel truck were surrounded by a crowd of quite young people who demanded water and food. They were really disappointed that we were only transporting fuel. We had a lot of difficulty getting through this very dense crowd of hungry people.
  • “Al-Shifa Hospital is still standing but it is badly damaged and barely functional.
  • “The medical teams on site managed to get the emergency room up and running, but it is largely occupied by patients who have been admitted. The rest of the hospital is filled with displaced people seeking safety.
  • “The team told us that they had recently lost a patient because they were unable to give him a blood transfusion. Their blood bank was empty. They work in terrible conditions.”

Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was the subject of an intense days-long siege and eventual occupation by Israeli forces in November.

30 Jan 2024 - 22:20
 (22:20 GMT)

Washington will respond to Jordan’s attack with retaliatory strikes over several days: Report

Citing an unnamed US official, ABC News has reported that the US will respond “over the course of several days” to the drone attack that killed three US service members in Jordan on Sunday.

“These are going to be very deliberate targets – deliberate strikes on facilities that enabled these attacks” on US forces, the official said.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed armed groups, claimed attacks targeting three bases, including one on the Jordan-Syria border.

Officials did not say whether any of the targets would be in or outside Iran.

30 Jan 2024 - 22:05
 (22:05 GMT)

Israeli forces storm Qaffin in West Bank

Video verified by Al Jazeera shows soldiers entering the town, north of Tulkarem.

Earlier today, in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israeli commandos dressed as medics shot and killed three men in a hospital, during what it said was an operation meant to neutralise people planning attacks on Israel.

30 Jan 2024 - 21:45
 (21:45 GMT)

BBC finds more than 50 percent of Gaza buildings damaged, destroyed

An analysis by the BBC has found that at least half of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged as Israel continues its assault on the strip, one of the most destructive in modern history.

“Satellite data analysis obtained by the BBC shows the true extent of the destruction,” the story reads. “The analysis suggests between 144,000 and 175,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed. That’s between 50 percent and 61 percent of Gaza’s buildings.”

The analysis also shows widespread destruction of farmland and a proliferation of tent cities near the border with Egypt.

“We’ve done work over Ukraine, we’ve also looked at Aleppo and other cities, but the extent and the pace of damage is remarkable,” said Corey Scher of City University of New York, who helped put together the analysis.

“I’ve never seen this much damage appear so quickly.”

Smoke billows over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on January 29, 2024 [AFP] 
30 Jan 2024 - 21:30
 (21:30 GMT)

Palestinians suffocating to death during clamour for food: Mercy Corps member

Waleed*, a team member of the NGO in Gaza, says the situation in the north is “very difficult” and some people haven’t had a piece of bread for more than a month. Here’s his update regarding the scarcity of food:

  • “Many are limited to just one meal a day, typically consisting of rice. There are no vegetables available; I haven’t seen tomatoes, cucumbers, or potatoes for about 90 days.
  • “If something is available, you cannot afford to buy it. A bag of flour, previously priced at 35 shekels ($9.56) is now 600 shekels ($164). The cost of rice, once 6 shekels ($1.64) per kilo, is now 17 shekels ($4.64). This is the same for all items.
  • “Instead, you must wait for aid trucks in a place near the tanks to find something to eat. Every day people go hoping to get some assistance and tanks shoot at them, resulting in casualties. Personally, from the beginning of the war until today, my family hasn’t received any kind of assistance. We now eat only once a day and say it’s enough.
  • “The aid trucks reaching the north are very few and because there is no one responsible for the distribution process, it’s extremely chaotic. People often intercept these trucks and directly take items from them because they know they won’t get anything otherwise.
  • “Recently, I went to observe the aid distribution and it was very distressing. Thousands of people were waiting by the seaside in the hope that aid trucks would enter and after waiting for hours, only two trucks entered – for thousands of hungry people. People crowded around them so intensely that I witnessed two people suffocating to death from the overcrowding.
  • “Most people are not getting any assistance either because they are not willing to risk going to places where there’s a high chance of being targeted or because they cannot compete with so many people trying to get aid.”

Waleed is a pseudonym being used to protect the safety of the individual and his family. He is located in Gaza City.

Palestinians carry bags of flour they grabbed from an aid truck near an Israeli checkpoint in Gaza City, January 27, 2024 [Hossam Azam/Reuters]
30 Jan 2024 - 21:15
 (21:15 GMT)

WATCH: Remains of dozens of Palestinians released for burial by Israel

After being released by Israel, the bodies of dozens of Palestinians are being buried in Rafah.

Largely decomposed and unidentifiable, the bodies were held by Israel for weeks.

Omar Abu Taha, a Palestinian doctor, told Al Jazeera that Israel sometimes receives only body parts.

“We don’t know where they were injured or even their names,” he said.

Watch our report to learn more: 

30 Jan 2024 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)

Hezbollah announces latest rocket attack on Israel

The Lebanese group says in a statement that it struck the “Al-Dhahira site” and achieved a direct hit. It said it carried out the strike at 8:50pm local time (18:50 GMT).‏

Israeli officials have stepped up their threats against Hezbollah in recent weeks, saying that they will escalate military action against it if the strikes on Israeli territory do not cease.

Hezbollah, for its part, has said that it will continue its bombings until a ceasefire is achieved in Gaza.

30 Jan 2024 - 20:50
 (20:50 GMT)

Israeli officials split after Netanyahu says Israel will not entertain prisoner swap

Israeli politicians have continued to send mixed signals on the prospects of a potential exchange deal with Hamas. Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he would not allow a deal that exchanged Palestinians held in Israeli prisons or lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Itamar Ben-Gvir, the country’s national security minister and a known ultra-nationalists, had posted on X [before Netanyahu’s comments] that if Israel entered a deal that was “bad”, it would mean the dissolution of the coalition, essentially threatening to tear the government apart over a deal that he’s not in favour of,” Al Jazeera correspondent Hamdah Salhut reported from occupied East Jerusalem.

“But shortly after that, you had the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a fierce critic of the prime minister, saying he would support the government in any deal that brings back the captives from Gaza. So there’s a lot of pressure on Netanyahu, and a lot of disagreement within his own coalition, within the war cabinet, and even the opposition.”

30 Jan 2024 - 20:40
 (20:40 GMT)

Food unable to reach Nasser Hospital due to starving crowds: WHO director

Director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the WHO and its partners had planned to deliver food to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, as there is a “serious shortage” there.

However, “due to delays around the checkpoint, the crowds took food being delivered, and once again it did not reach Nasser”, he said.

“This underscores the utter desperation of people in Gaza, who live in hellish conditions, including severe hunger,” Tedros noted on X. “We continue to seek permission to deliver the fuel to the hospital.”

30 Jan 2024 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)
Analysis

Israel is not serious about reaching deal on captives

By Ayman Nobani

Reporting from Nablus, occupied West Bank

Ismat Mansour, a Palestinian researcher on Israeli affairs, has said that many signs lead to this conclusion:

  • National security minister Ben-Gvir and far-right Finance Minister Smotrich’s opposition to the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the captives.
  • Ben-Gvir’s threats to leave the government.
  • Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements in which he said that he would not release thousands of prisoners, stop the war or withdraw the army from Gaza.

“All these actions and statements dim hopes for successful talks and prove there is no Israeli seriousness,” he told Al Jazeera. “It is clear that Netanyahu is trying to win over the rightists in the coalition.

“Netanyahu does not want to clash with the right, because he realises that his government depends on them.”

30 Jan 2024 - 20:20
 (20:20 GMT)

Israel’s Dermer to meet Sullivan at White House

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet on Wednesday top Israeli official Ron Dermer to speak about Gaza, a White House official has said.

Dermer, who is Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, is a well-known figure in Washington, having served as Israel’s ambassador.

Washington has also been pressuring Netanyahu’s government to plan for when Israel’s military operation in Gaza is over.

30 Jan 2024 - 20:10
 (20:10 GMT)
Developing

PRCS: 16 Palestinians dead in Deir el-Balah strike

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says on X that it transported the bodies of 16 people, including women and children, recovered from the wreckage of a residential home that was hit by Israeli bombs.

Earlier, we reported on another Israeli strike on the central Gaza Strip city, also on a residential home, that killed at least two little girls.

30 Jan 2024 - 20:00
 (20:00 GMT)

Following deadly hospital raid, Israel says ‘will go after terrorists wherever they are hiding’

Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi claims Israel is not seeking to fight in medical centres, but will go after “terrorists wherever they are hiding”.

“We do not want to turn hospitals into battlefields … but we are even more determined not to allow hospitals in Gaza, Judea and Samaria [occupied West Bank], Lebanon — above ground or in shafts and tunnels under hospitals — to become a place that is a cover for terrorism,” he tells a group of reserve soldiers, according to a statement from the military posted on Telegram.

Halevi adds that Israeli forces will “also enter the most complex places to eliminate terrorism”.

 

30 Jan 2024 - 19:50
 (19:50 GMT)

33 homes demolished in Tulkarem city and its camps since Oct 7

By Ayman Nobani

Reporting from Nablus, occupied West Bank

Nihad al-Shaweesh, who heads the Popular Services Committee in Nur Shams camp east of Tulkarem, says that another 170 homes were damaged, all of which led to the displacement of about 700 Palestinians.

“Yesterday marked the 15th Israeli military raid since October 7. In addition to rendering people homeless by attacking their homes, Israeli forces have also destroyed 40 businesses and 150 cars belonging to people from the camp,” al-Shaweesh told Al Jazeera.

“The aim of these continuous raids is to empty the camps from its residents and to put an end to the refugee issue as well as wiping out the Palestinian identity,” he said.

“They also want the camp’s residents to turn against the resistance and to rid the refugee camps from the fighters.”

Smoke rises during an Israeli army raid in Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, West Bank, on January 3, 2024 [Majdi Mohammed/AP]
30 Jan 2024 - 19:40
 (19:40 GMT)

US says Israel has right to ‘bring terrorists to justice’ after raid on Jenin hospital

The US State Department has said that it it cannot offer an assessment of Israel’s controversial raid on a hospital in Jenin, where Israeli soldiers disguised as civilians and medical staff entered the hospital and killed three alleged Palestinian fighters, one of whom was receiving medical treatment. Palestinian authorities in the occupied West Bank denounced the raids as an “assassination”.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday that the US wants to see hospitals protected but that Israel has the right to “bring terrorists to justice”.

According to the Red Cross, international law says that combatants receiving medical attention cannot be targeted if “not, or no longer, taking part in hostilities”.