Thousands of Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza are cut off from water and food after a week-long Israeli incursion that has led to heavy casualties on both sides.

    Israel plans to deploy more troops and “intensify” its ground invasion of southern Rafah in defiance of global warnings over the fate of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians sheltering in the war-battered city.

    South Africa urged the UN’s top court to order a halt to Israel’s assault on Rafah, saying attacks on the southernmost Gaza city “must be stopped“. South Africa’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusimuzi Madonsela, told the International Court of Justice: “Seven months ago, South Africa could not have imagined that Gaza would be largely wiped off the map.”

    An estimated 600,000 people have fled Israeli attacks in Rafah in the past week and another 100,000 in Gaza’s north.

    At least 35,272 people have been killed and 79,205 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attacks stands at 1,139 with dozens still held captive.

    Israeli military government in Gaza would cost about $5.5m per year: Report

    Senior security officials have been told that maintaining an Israeli military government in Gaza would cost about 20 billion shekels (about $5.5m) per year, the Ynet news site reports.

    Citing a copy of a report provided to Israeli security officials, Ynet said that Israel will also need to pay an undetermined amount to rebuild infrastructure and housing in the besieged enclave, after months of relentless bombardment.

    Five Israeli military units would also need to stay in Gaza, while about 400 people would be needed to staff the military government, according to the report.

    Civilians killed as Israeli aircraft, artillery strike across Gaza Strip

    Four people have been killed and others injured after Israeli aircraft bombed a school housing displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reports.

    The attack at dawn on the al-Jaouni School followed a series of overnight air and artillery strikes by Israeli forces on residential homes and shelters from north to south in Gaza.

    Other attacks reported by Wafa include:

•     Artillery shelling that killed a man and injured two others at the al-Awda roundabout in central Rafah. Several other areas of Rafah were also bombed, including the al-Jnaina neighbourhood and in front of the city’s Kuwaiti Hospital.
•     The Shati refugee camp was bombed west of Gaza City, and air strikes were reported in the centre of the city.
•     Injuries were reported in air strikes and artillery fire on the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the territory.
•     The bodies of nine people arrived at the European Gaza Hospital near Khan Younis in the south, Wafa reports, without providing the circumstances of their deaths.
•     Israeli warplanes bombed the house of the al-Tilbani family in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report. Attacks were also reported in the city’s Ashqoula area.

    13 foreign ministers warn Israel to halt Rafah ground invasion: Report

    Germany’s DPA news agency reports that foreign ministers from 13 countries have signed a letter warning Israel to halt its ground invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and to allow more aid to reach the Palestinian population.

    Citing a report in Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, DPA said that apart from the United States, all other members of the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialised nations signed the four-page letter which was dated Wednesday.

    In the letter sent to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministers called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to alleviate the devastating and worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza by opening all border crossings for aid supplies, including the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which is under Israeli military control.

    The letter was signed by the foreign ministers of the G7 states: Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan and Canada, as well as their counterparts from Australia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and Sweden.