al jazeera

By Lyndal Rowlands and John Power

    “Perilous situation” in Rafah in southern Gaza demands immediate implementation of existing provisional measures, says the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

    US President Biden says he hopes Israel “will not make any massive land invasion” on Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering, before a “temporary ceasefire”.
   At least five patients have died after Israel’s incursion into Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital saw electricity and oxygen supplies cut.
   People in Gaza are eating weeds and animal food to stay alive as the UN’s FAO warns of challenges in distributing aid, especially in the north.
   Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 28,775 Palestinians and wounded 68,552 since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139.

    ‘Virtually impossible’ to move aid in Gaza with police escorts gone: US official

    It has become “virtually impossible” to move aid in Gaza, David Satterfield, the US State Department special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues has said, after confirming that Israel struck police escorting aid in Rafah.

    “With the departure of police escorts, it has been virtually impossible for the UN or anyone else – Jordan, the UAE, any other implementer – to safely move assistance in Gaza,” Satterfield added.

    Satterfield said that “criminal gangs” were attacking aid convoys within Gaza, but according to the latest update from the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA), people in Rafah are so desperate they are eating food immediately after taking it from trucks.

    Satterfield also said, “We can move hundreds of truckloads of assistance a day over the border to warehouses.”

    However, according to OCHA, less than 43 trucks entered Gaza on average per day between February 9 to 15, a significant decrease from previous levels.

    NY governor regrets ‘inappropriate analogy’ in Gaza-Canada comments

    New York Governor Kathy Hochul has apologised for her “poor choice of words” and “inappropriate analogy” between Canada and Israel’s war on Gaza, the New York Times reports.

    “If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I’m sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day,” Hochul said in a speech on Thursday.