The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians.
“We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law,” Reuters reports Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said.
The term “forcible transfer” describes the forced relocation of civilian populations and is a crime against humanity punishable by the international criminal court.
A British man has spoken of the agony of waiting for news of relatives still missing after the Hamas attack in Israel 10 days ago, after they came under attack during a morning walk.
Arad Haggai, a surveyor based in Epping Forest, Essex, does not know if his uncle and aunt are alive, kidnapped or dead after Hamas attacked the Nir Oz kibbutz where they lived.
Gad Haggai, 73, a retired chef and talented musician, and his wife, Judih Weinstein Haggai, 72, an English teacher and puppeteer originally from Toronto, Canada, were on their regular early morning walk when they messaged relatives to say they were under attack.
The couple, US citizens who have four adult children, had left the kibbutz at about 6.30am on Saturday 7 October, their nephew said.
“At about 6.50am Israel time, they sent a text to the kids, my cousins, that they were under rocket fire and they have to try to hide somewhere in the fields. There is a possibility that on Saturday morning, at 11am or 11.30am, there was a signal from Gaza, the phone was in Gaza. But we are not sure. We can’t verify it 100%.”
Haggai said the family had not heard from the Israeli authorities whether the couple were among the 199 identified hostages taken by Hamas.
They had not been located at any hospital, and the family could not be certain whether they were moved to Gaza as they could not discount the possibility Hamas had taken the couple’s phones.
Read more of Caroline Davies’s report here: ‘Nobody knows where they are’: British man tells of helpless wait for news of Israeli aunt and uncle
The charity ActionAid has criticised the lack of access to water in Gaza, emphasising that it poses a particular risk for mothers with young children. In a statement, Soraida Hussein-Sabbah, who is based in Ramallah in the West Bank, said:
With water nearly running out throughout Gaza, the situation is critical, particularly for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Unable to access water – and amidst the continuous bombardments and displacement – dehydrated women will struggle to produce the milk they need to feed their babies and keep them alive.
Access to water is universally recognised as a basic human right, meaning that the continued blockade of Gaza is a denial of the rights of women and children across Gaza. We’re urgently calling for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza and the full and uninterrupted restoration of the water supplies from Israel into Gaza.
Reuters has a quick snap that security sources in Lebanon say four people have been killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli shelling.
The mother of 21-year-old Mia Schem spoke to journalists in Tel Aviv after Hamas’s military wing released a video showing her kidnapped daughter having her arm wrapped with bandages and asking to be returned to her family as soon as possible.
The family confirmed it was Schem who was taken from the Reim kibbutz, where she was attending the Supernova festival. “I didn’t know if she’s dead or alive until yesterday,” said her mother, Keren Schem.
The release of the video of the hostage has been condemned as “vile” by the French foreign ministry. Reuters reports the ministry said in a statement that 11 French nationals were still missing and that “several are very likely hostages of Hamas. [Mia Schem] is the case of a national whose vile staging by Hamas in a video France condemns.”
This map shows the direction that Gaza’s citizens have been told to evacuate in by the Israeli authorities ahead of what is widely expected to be a ground operation from Israel into the Gaza Strip.
Earlier Al Jazeera reported that the brunt of the overnight barrage from Israel into Gaza had been directed at Khan Younis, Rafah and Deir al-Balah in the south, and that many of those killed were reported to be families who had evacuated from Gaza City in the north, as the Israeli military had instructed them to do.
Reuters reports the Hamas-run government media office said on Tuesday that the overnight death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza had risen to 80.
Earlier the World Heath Organization stated that there have been 2,800 deaths in Gaza, with 11,000 wounded, since 7 October, when Israel began retaliatory strikes for the attack Hamas launched on southern Israel.
The actors Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan, Miriam Margolyes, Maxine Peake and the director Mike Leigh are among more than 2,000 artists who have signed an open letter calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, and accusing western governments of “not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them”.
The letter says in part:
Gaza is already a society of refugees and the children of refugees. Now, in their hundreds of thousands, bombarded from air, sea and land, Palestinians whose grandparents were forced out of their homes at the barrel of a gun are again being told to flee – or face collective punishment on an unimaginable scale. Dispossessed of rights, described by Israel’s minister of defence as ‘human animals’, they have become people to whom almost anything can be done.
Our governments are not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them. There will come a time when they are held to account for their complicity. But for now, while condemning every act of violence against civilians and every infringement of international law whoever perpetrates them, our obligation is to do all we can to bring an end to the unprecedented cruelty being inflicted on Gaza.
We call for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of Gaza’s crossings to allow humanitarian aid to enter unhindered.
Artists for Palestine UK, which has organised the letter, was launched in 2015. It can be read in full here.
Reuters has more detail of what is expected to happen on the US president, Joe Biden’s, diplomatic mission to the Middle East. He is expected to leave Washington this evening.
Biden is expected to spend part of Wednesday in Tel Aviv for talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has already made two trips to Israel since the Hamas attack on 7 October.
Biden is then expected to fly to Amman in Jordan for talks about accelerating humanitarian assistance to Gaza, where he will meet Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Reuters reports that the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said: “He’ll make it clear that we want to continue working with all our partners in the region, including Israel, to get humanitarian assistance in and provide some kind of safe passage for civilians to get out.”
Earlier today Jordan’s King Abdullah said it was a red line for his kingdom that there should be no displacement of Palestine’s population into Egypt and Jordan as refugees.
The UK prime minister’s office has urged Israel to allow water into Gaza, while still refusing to clarify whether it believes the tactic to shut off the supply was in line with international law.
PA Media reports the prime minister’s official spokesperson told journalists: “We continue to urge Israel as a democracy we work closely with to act within international law in their actions, I think they are taking steps to do that.
“We are in discussions and are keen to see water restored to the area.
“We want to do everything possible to relieve the unfolding humanitarian issues in Gaza. Water is an important part of that.”
Earlier a spokesperson for the UN human rights office said it was concerned that the Israeli military’s evacuation order combined with a complete siege of Gaza may amount to the crime against humanity of “a forcible transfer of civilians”.
In another development in the UK, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is said to have told his cabinet that Hamas was responsible for the “murder and suspected abduction of British nationals”.
Asked if it is believed that some of the 10 missing British citizens may have been kidnapped, the PM’s official spokesperson said: “It’s a dynamic situation. I think, sadly, the full details of this attack are still becoming clear.”
Citing Jordan’s state media, Reuters reports that Jordan on Wednesday will host a four-party summit in Amman with the US president, Joe Biden and Egyptian and Palestinian leaders to discuss the “dangerous” repercussions of the war in Gaza in the region and finding a political resolution.
More details soon …
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Israel and Gaza.
Reuters reports that a deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Ali Fadavi, has said on Iranian state media that: “The resistance front’s shocks against the Zionist regime will continue until this ‘cancerous tumour’ is eradicated from the world map. Another shockwave is on the way, if Israel does not end atrocities in Gaza.”
Madrid has dismissed Israel’s claims that some members of Spain’s acting coalition government have aligned themselves “with Isis-style terrorism” by criticising Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to Hamas’s atrocities and suggesting Israeli forces are committing genocide and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, Ione Belarra, who serves as Spain’s social rights minister and is the leader of Podemos, the junior partners in the socialist-led coalition, suggested the Spanish government should bring Netanyahu before the international criminal court to face war crimes charges.
Belarra’s views were echoed by her Podemos colleague Irene Montero, who is acting equality minister, and by Alberto Garzón, Spain’s acting consumer affairs minister.
Although Israel’s embassy in Madrid did not refer to any of the ministers by name, it put out an angry statement on Monday evening, accusing “certain elements” in the Spanish government of aligning with Hamas and of putting Spain’s Jewish communities in danger. It called on the socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to intervene and condemn his colleagues’ “shameful” comments.
“These remarks are not only absolutely immoral, they also endanger the safety of Jewish communities in Spain, exposing them to the risk of a greater number of antisemitic attacks and incidents.”
Spain, which holds the presidency of the EU council, responded with a strongly worded statement that accused the Israeli embassy of “spreading falsehoods” about some cabinet members.
Read more of Sam Jones’s report from Madrid: Spain rejects Israeli claims of its officials aligning with Hamas
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