Little hope in Gaza that ICC arrest warrants for leaders will cool Israeli onslaught

Gazans saw little hope on Friday that International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli leaders would slow down the onslaught on the Palestinian territory, where medics said at least 24 people were killed in fresh Israeli military strikes.
In Gaza City in the north, an Israeli strike on a house in Shejaia killed eight people, medics said. Three others were killed in a strike near a bakery and a fisherman was killed as he set out to sea. In the central and southern areas, 12 people were killed in three separate Israeli air strikes.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces deepened their incursion and bombardment of the northern edge of the enclave, their main offensive since early last month. The military says it aims to prevent Hamas fighters from waging attacks and regrouping there; residents say they fear the aim is to permanently depopulate a strip of territory as a buffer zone, which Israel denies.
Residents in the three besieged towns on the northern edge – Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun – said Israeli forces had blown up dozens of houses.
An Israeli strike hit the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, one of three medical facilities barely operational in the area, injuring six medical staff, some critically, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
“The strike also destroyed the hospital’s main generator and punctured the water tanks, leaving the hospital without oxygen or water, which threatens the lives of patients and staff inside the hospital,” it added. It said 85 wounded people, including children and women, were inside, eight in the ICU.
Later on Friday, the Gaza health ministry said all hospital services across the enclave would stop within 48 hours unless fuel shipments are permitted, blaming restrictions which Israel says are designed to stop fuel being used by Hamas.
Gazans saw the ICC’s decision to seek the arrest of Israeli leaders for suspected war crimes as international recognition of the enclave’s plight. But those queuing for bread at a bakery in the southern city of Khan Younis were doubtful it would have any impact.
“The decision will not be implemented because America protects Israel, and it can veto anything. Israel will not be held accountable,” said Saber Abu Ghali as he waited for his turn in the crowd.
Saeed Abu Youssef, 75, said even if justice were to arrive, it would be decades late: “We have been hearing decisions for more than 76 years that have not been implemented and haven’t done anything for us.”
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led militants stormed across the border fence, killed 1,200 people and seized more than 250 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, nearly 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, much of which has been laid to waste.
The court’s prosecutors said there were reasonable grounds to believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution, and starvation as a weapon of war, as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”
The Hague-based court also ordered the arrest of the top Hamas commander Ibrahim Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif. Israel says it has already killed him, which Hamas has not confirmed.
Israel says Hamas is to blame for all harm to Gaza’s civilians for operating among them, which Hamas denies.
Israeli politicians from across the political spectrum have denounced the ICC arrest warrants as biased and based on false evidence, and Israel says the court has no jurisdiction over the war. Hamas hailed the arrest warrants as a first step towards justice.
Efforts by Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, to conclude a ceasefire deal have stalled. Hamas wants a deal that ends the war, while Mr. Netanyahu has vowed the war can end only once Hamas is eradicated.
Israeli forces pounded southern Lebanon and the outskirts of the capital Beirut on Friday, killing at least five medics, and ground troops clashed with Hezbollah fighters in the south.
Israel has pushed on with its intense military campaign against the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, tempering hopes that efforts by a U.S. envoy will lead to an imminent ceasefire.
U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein said this week in Beirut that a truce was “within our grasp.” He travelled on to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz before returning to Washington, the news outlet Axios said.
His trip was aimed at ending more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanon’s southern border, which escalated when Israel ramped up its strikes in late September and sent ground troops into Lebanon on Oct. 1.
Israeli troops have fought Hezbollah in a strip of towns along the border and this week pushed deeper to the edges of Khiyam, a town some six kilometres from the border.
Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at Israeli troops east of Khiyam at least four times on Friday. Lebanese security sources told Reuters Israeli troops had also advanced in a string of villages to the west. They said Israel was most likely trying to isolate Khiyam before attacking the town.
An Israeli air strike on a residence near Dar Al-Amal University Hospital in Baalbek province, northeastern Lebanon, killed the hospital’s director, along with six of his colleagues, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Friday.
Four Italian soldiers were lightly injured after two rockets exploded at a UNIFIL peacekeeping force base in southern Lebanon, a spokesperson for UNIFIL said on Friday.
Italian sources said an investigation was under way. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told Italian media that Hezbollah might be responsible for the attack.
Israeli strikes on two other villages in southern Lebanon killed five medics from a rescue force affiliated with Hezbollah, the Lebanese health ministry said.
The more than 3,500 people killed by Israeli strikes over the last year include more than 200 medics, the health ministry said.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from Israel’s north because of rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which began firing across the border in support of Hamas at the start of the war in Gaza in October, 2023.
Israel also mounted more strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a once densely populated stronghold of Hezbollah.
Abeer Darwich, a resident of a building that was hit in Beirut southern suburbs on Friday, had to leave her apartment immediately after an evacuation warning from Israel’s military.
She stood watching while an Israeli strike pounded the high rise building into dust.
“Do you know that most of the apartments’ owners took credit to buy those houses? Life savings are gone, memories and safety … which Israel decided to steal from us,” Ms. Darwich said .
Evacuation orders were issued on X for several buildings in the area on Friday. Reuters footage showed one of the strikes appearing to pierce the centre of a multi-storey building, which toppled in a cloud of smoke.