The Israeli military said the bodies of three hostages seized in the October 7 attack that sparked the Gaza war had been recovered from the Palestinian territory, where fighting raged on Friday.
The announcement of the discovery came ahead of a ruling by the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice, in a case accusing Israel of “genocide”.
The ICJ, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, stopped short of ordering a ceasefire in an interim ruling in January but instructed Israel to do everything possible to prevent genocidal acts.
On the ground, witnesses and AFP reported overnight air and naval strikes in Gaza City, and the civil defence and an Al-Ahli hospital doctor said at least five people were killed when a family home in the city’s Al-Daraj neighbourhood was hit.
In and around Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip, where urban combat has reignited months after Israeli operations began, the army said it retrieved the bodies of three hostages during a night-time operation.
The three — Israeli hostage Chanan Yablonka, Brazilian-Israeli Michel Nisenbaum and French-Mexican Orion Hernandez Radoux — were “murdered” during the October 7 attack and their bodies had been taken into Gaza, the military said.
It follows the recovery last week of four bodies of hostages found in tunnels under Jabalia, including of Hernandez Radoux’s girlfriend Shani Louk.
The military reported raids in Jabalia and operations in central Gaza, and said “troops eliminated dozens of terrorists” in the north.
A Palestinian security source told AFP there were clashes between Israeli forces and militants in the town of Jabalia and its refugee camp, with another source at Kamal Adwan hospital saying it was “out of service, and has 14 medical staff trapped inside”.
– ICJ ruling on ceasefire –
Along with Al-Awda, Kamal Adwan is one the last two functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, both of which are besieged, according to the World Health Organization.
Other facilities across Gaza are suffering severe shortages of medical supplies and fuel to power generators, according to UN and Palestinian officials.
Israel in early May launched an assault on Rafah, the last Gazan city to be entered by its ground troops, defying global opposition and sending more than 800,000 people fleeing, according to UN figures.
Troops took over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, further slowing the sporadic arrival of trucks carrying badly needed aid for Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said “we will not stop fighting” for the freedom of hostages “being held by Hamas in living hell”.
The Hague-based International Court of Justice will rule later Friday on a plea by South Africa to order a halt to the Israeli military offensive in Gaza over accusations of “genocide”.
Pretoria, which filed the case later formally supported by Israel-Hamas mediator Egypt, argued the ongoing Israeli operation in Rafah should compel the UN court to issue fresh emergency orders.
The case, which Israel says should be dismissed, could add to mounting international pressure for a truce and hostage release more than seven months into the war.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said this week he had requested arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as top Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohamed Deif, on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, on Friday urged Israel “not to intimidate” or “threaten” the judges of the ICC.
It came as Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X he had decided to “prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians from the West Bank”, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Katz said the move was in response to Spain’s decision to formally recognise a Palestinian state next week, along with Ireland and Norway. His ministry did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
– Truce talks –
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to data provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Netanyahu, facing rising domestic pressure to secure the release of captives still held by Palestinian militants, would “soon” address the US Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Thursday.
The United States, a steadfast ally of Israel during the war, has seen President Joe Biden increasingly push Netanyahu to reduce the violence, threatening to halt arms supplies amid a rising civilian death toll.
An AFP photographer saw a group of Israeli activists rallying outside the US consulate in Jerusalem, carrying banners that call to “Free Gaza” and “Stop arming genocide”, before being removed by security forces.
Anti-occupation groups Free Jerusalem and All That’s Left said seven activists were detained including five US citizens.
In the latest flare-up on Western campuses over the war, British police arrested 16 people at a protest at Oxford University.
Ceasefire talks involving US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators ended shortly after Israel launched the Rafah operation, though Netanyahu’s office this week said the war cabinet had asked the Israeli delegation “to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages”.
CIA chief Bill Burns is expected to hold talks in Paris with Israeli representatives on Friday or Saturday in a bid to relaunch negotiations, a Western source close to the issue said.
The French presidency said President Emmanuel Macron will host Friday foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to discuss “the situation in the Middle East”.
The US-based Axios news website said Israeli negotiators have developed a “new proposal” which includes “some compromises” in Israel’s position compared to the last round of negotiations in Cairo.
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