This month Israeli attacks on Gaza killed more than 5,100 Palestinians, including at least 1,800 children and 900 women, and injured at least 9,781 others. The attacks in January brought the comprehensive death toll in Gaza since 7 October to at least 26,900, including 10,600 children and 7,200 women, while 65,946 have been injured. Israel also killed 61 Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), 23 of whom were children, bringing the comprehensive death toll in the West Bank since 7 October to 374 killed, including 94 children. Palestinians in Gaza discovered a mass grave in Beit Lahiya on 30 January for 30 Palestinians; Israel had blindfolded and handcuffed them before executing them and throwing them in the mass grave. In Lebanon, Israeli forces assassinated Hamas Political Bureau deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri and 6 other members of Hamas in an airstrike on the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut on 2 January.
In Gaza Israel has systematically targeted Palestinian journalists and not allowed journalists from outside of the area to enter, aside from some on guided tours by Israeli soldiers. Israel’s effort to prevent the broadcasting of its genocide was highlighted this month by the Israeli killing of the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, Hamza, and his colleague Mustafa Thuraya in an airstrike on their car on 7 January. Israel claimed Hamza and Mustafa were “terrorist operatives,” changing its narrative the following day to say that they appeared to be terrorists. A Washington Post investigation would later reveal that there was no indication that the 2 were operating as anything other than journalists and that there was no militant activity in the area where they were killed. Israel had also previously killed Dahdouh’s wife, his other son, daughter, grandson, and 7 other relatives in an airstrike on 25 October and had later injured Dahdouh in an airstrike on Khan Yunis on 15 December in which his cameraperson Samer Abudaqa was killed. The Intercept reported that Israel ignored pleas from multiple organizations to have Abudaqa evacuated to save his life; he was left to bleed out for 5 hours before emergency responders were able to reach him. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) would later issue a report stating that 72 of 99 journalists killed throughout the world in 2023 were Palestinians reporting from Gaza. CPJ said Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more journalists in Gaza in 3 months than there had ever been killed in a single country over an entire year. CPJ noted in the case of Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya, Israel presented no credible evidence to support the claim that the 2 were terrorists and raised concerns of Israel’s deliberate targeting of members of the media.
While Israel continued to ignore international law in its aggression on Gaza, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began proceedings in the South African genocide case against Israel in The Hague. South Africa presented its arguments on 11 January, and Israel presented its defense the following day. After 13 days of deliberations the 17 ICJ judges ruled that the court does have jurisdiction in the case and that they had grounds for further investigations. They also introduced 6 provisional measures: (1) That Israel must prevent genocide and desist from killing, injuring, destroying life, and preventing births in Gaza; (2) Israel must prevent its forces from violating the first measure; (3) Israel must desist from incitement and must punish acts of and encouragement of genocide; (4) Israel must facilitate the provision of aid; (5) Israel must prevent the destruction of evidence; and (6) Israel must submit reports to the ICJ about the measures it has taken to comply with the ruling. The ICJ did not rule to impose the South African requests to end Israeli operations altogether and to have Israel refrain from aggravating the situation. Only 2 of the judges voted against provisions: Ugandan judge Julia Sebutinde dissented from all the measures and the Israeli appointed judge Aharon Barak dissented from measures 1, 2, 5, and 6. Hamas said a day before the ruling that it would abide by any measures imposed by the court if Israel did as well. The Palestinian Authority called the court’s decision “historic” while Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “outrageous.” The U.S. State Department misleadingly claimed that the court did not “make a finding about genocide” despite the court saying it is continuing the trial of Israel on charges of genocide. By the end of the month, South African foreign minister Naledi Pandor said Israel was ignoring the court’s ruling.
On the same day the ICJ announced the measures, 26 January, Israel alleged that 12 UNRWA employees had taken part in or had aided attacks on Israel on 7 October. UNRWA immediately announced an investigation into Israel’s claim and terminated the contracts of 9 of the employees, began investigations into claims against 2 of the employees, while saying the 12th employee had been killed. Eight countries instantly announced that they would suspend aid to the agency, a number that grew to 14 by the end of January. Reuters reported on 29 January that Israel had made further claims against UNRWA employees, now stating that 190 employees were militants affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, while 10 percent of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees had other affiliations with one of the groups. Israel has long sought to discredit and dismantle UNRWA because it sees the Palestinian refugee issue as one of the main obstacles to entrenching the Zionist project. While the accusations against the agency were predictable, the willingness of major donors to suspend funding at the whim of (unsubstantiated) Israeli claims was shocking, especially considering the crucial role UNRWA has played in Gaza since Israel’s genocidal war began.
As Israel sought to eliminate UNRWA, opportunists in the Israeli government presented their own version of the future of Gaza. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ramped up their calls for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, calling for Palestinian “voluntary migration” from Gaza, dismissing the fact that Palestinians leaving Gaza amidst its total destruction by Israel could not be considered voluntary. They were later joined by several members of the Knesset including Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu, who also reiterated his call for Israel to use its nuclear weapons on Gaza. Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and 10 other Israeli ministers further elaborated on their vision for Gaza on 28 January at the Conference for the Victory of Israel – Settlements Bring Security: Returning to the Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria, where they laid out plans for the establishment of 21 settlements in Gaza. Ben-Gvir said at the conference that the “only human solution for Gaza is the mass deportation of its inhabitants.” Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said of the “voluntary migration” that in war “voluntary is at times a state you impose [on someone] until they give their consent.” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz presented a slightly different vision for the ethnic cleansing on 22 January, showing EU foreign ministers a video of an envisioned artificial island in the Mediterranean that Palestinians in Gaza could live on. In the meantime, Prime Minister Netanyahu on 18 January said that Israel would continue to control all the territory between the river and the sea, elaborating “[t]his conflict is not about the lack of a state [Palestine], but about the existence of a state.”