South Africa launches ‘urgent request’ to UN over Israelas Rafah ceasefire calls intensify – latest

Three people have been found guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of a terror offence after they displayed images of paragliders at a pro-Palestine march in central London a week after Hamas militants attacked Israel.

Giving his verdict, Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram said: “Seven days earlier, Hamas went into Israel with what was described by the media as paragliders. A reasonable person would have seen and read that.

“I do not find a reasonable person would interpret the image merely as a symbol of freedom.

“I want to be clear, there’s no evidence that any of these defendants are supporters of Hamas, or were seeking to show support for them.”

South Africa said on Tuesday it had asked the World Court to consider whether Israel’s plan to extend its offensive in Gaza into the city of Rafah requires additional emergency measures to protect Palestinians’ rights.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) last month ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops from committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in a case brought by South Africa.

Israel has said it is planning to expand its ground assault into Rafah, where over 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge from the offensive that has laid waste to much of the Gaza Strip since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

“In a request submitted to the court yesterday (Feb. 12), the South African government said it was gravely concerned that the unprecedented military offensive against Rafah, as announced by the State of Israel, has already led to and will result in further large-scale killing, harm and destruction,” a statement issued by South Africa’s presidency said.

“This would be in serious and irreparable breach both of the Genocide Convention and of the Court’s Order of Jan. 26.”

The death toll from Israel’s offensive in southern Gaza’s Rafah city has gone up to 74, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said on Tuesday.

The raid took place early Monday in Rafah, a city on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to escape fighting elsewhere in Israel’s war against Hamas.

Women and children were among those killed in the airstrikes, Palestinian officials said.

The overall Palestinian death toll from the war in Gaza has surpassed 28,000 people, according to the health ministry.

The Labour candidate for Rochdale, Azhar Ali, has apologised after he reportedly said Israel had been warned about the 7 October attack and allowed it to happen.

The Labour Party has issued a statement on behalf of the candidate after the Mail on Sunday published comments from a recording of him telling the Lancashire Labour Party that Israel had been warned of the attack before it happened, but they “deliberately took the security off”.

Mr Ali is alleged to have said: “The Egyptians are saying that they warned Israel 10 days earlier… Americans warned them a day before [that] there’s something happening… They deliberately took the security off, they allowed… that massacre that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want.”

Houthi rebels fired two missiles at a ship in the Bab Al-Mandeb strait, the US military said early on Tuesday.

The rebels trageted MV Star Iris, a Greek-owned and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo vessel transiting the Red Sea carrying corn from Brazil.

The Iran-bound vessel suffered minor damage but the crew were not hurt, the US central command said on X.

It was a warm handshake between the unlikeliest of statesmen, conducted under the beaming gaze of President Jimmy Carter.

Sunlight streamed through the trees at Camp David, Maryland, as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin solidified a landmark agreement that has allowed over 40 years of peace between Israel and Egypt. It has served as an important source of stability in a volatile region.

That peace has held through two Palestinian uprisings and a series of wars between Israel and Hamas. But now, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to send Israeli troops into Rafah, a city in Gaza on the border with Egypt, the Egyptian government is threatening to void the agreement.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was ready to support any action leading to the release of Israeli hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.

“We are ready to support any action that will lead to the release of the hostages and a ceasefire. But we believe that the actions should be constructive, aimed at a comprehensive solution of the problem within the framework of international law and previously-adopted Security Council resolutions,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

If every war has a tipping point, the death of little Hind Rajab should be it.

The six-year-old was killed in Gaza City by what undeniably looks like Israeli gunfire, while trapped in a car, surrounded by the bodies of her dead relatives.

An ambulance that had reportedly received permission to rescue Hind from the unthinkable scene was also fired on. Two paramedics lost their lives. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has accused Israel of deliberately targeting them.

Israel has not released an official statement regarding Hind, her family, or the deaths of the paramedics – naysayers will argue that we can’t possibly attribute culpability; that we don’t know what really happened.

But all too often, the simplest explanation is the right one. And the facts speak for themselves, no matter which way you look at it: a little girl died, alone and terrified, in unimaginable circumstances. Her death shames us all.

Victoria Richards writes.