Live updates | UN top court hears genocide allegation as Israel focuses fighting in central Gaza

The United Nations' top court began hearings on Thursday on South Africa's allegation that Israel's war with Hamas amounts to genocide against Palestinians. Israel strongly denies the claim. Although the case is likely to take years to resolve, South Africa is asking the International Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli military operations in Gaza have lately focused on the southern city of Khan Younis and urban refugee camps in the territory's centre. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent days in strikes across the territory, including in areas of the far south where Israel told people to seek refuge.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been meeting with leaders across the Mideast, seeking to rally the region behind postwar plans for Gaza. He spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday about a reformed Palestinian Authority governing Gaza once the war is over. Blinken then flew to the tiny Gulf nation of Bahrain before wrapping up his tour Thursday in Cairo.

The October 7 Hamas attack from Gaza into southern Israel that triggered the war killed around 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage by militants. Israel's air, ground and sea assault in Gaza has killed more than 23,000 people, 70 per cent of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Here's what's happening in the war: HAMAS PRAISES SOUTH AFRICA'S CASE AGAINST ISRAEL AT INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE CAIRO — Hamas praised the case made by South Africa's legal team at The International Court of Justice on Thursday accusing Israel of genocide.

In a short statement issued on the group's Telegram page, it said South Africa is proving "its principled position in support of our Palestinian people … and its rejection of the brutal crimes of the occupation (by Israel) against our people." The militant group said it hoped the case will first bring an end to Israel's three-month bombardment of Gaza and then result in the country being prosecuted on genocide charges.

The Hamas-Israel war erupted on October 7 when militants from the group stormed southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, and abducted about 250 others. Israel has said the attack amounts to a war crime.

Israel responded by launching an aerial and ground assault on Gaza, flattening large swathes of the territory. The Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 23,300 people have been killed by Israeli fire and strikes since the war erupted.

HEBZOLLAH SAYS AN ISRAELI STRIKE ON A HEALTH CENTER KILLED 2 PARAMEDICS BEIRUT — Hezbollah says an Israeli airstrike on a health centre run by the militant group killed two paramedics and wounded another.

Thursday's airstrike in the border village of Hanine hit a centre run by Hezbollah's Islamic Health Organization.

Hezbollah's media office described the attack as "a flagrant aggression on a centre that serves Lebanese citizens wounded by the ongoing Israeli aggression." There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Tensions have soared along the Israeli-Lebanese border since Hamas' October 7 attack into southern Israel ignited the war in Gaza. Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has been attacking Israeli military posts along the border. Israel has been carrying out artillery shelling and airstrikes.

The violence has killed at least 20 civilians in Lebanon and more than 150 Hezbollah members.

GAZA HEALTH MINISTRY SAYS 23,469 PALESTINIANS HAVE BEEN KILLED IN THE WAR CAIRO — The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire and airstrikes has risen to 23,469 since the war erupted on October 7. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesperson for the ministry, said 59,604 other people were wounded over the same period. He said 70 per cent of those killed were women and children.

The majority of the dead have been killed in Israeli airstrikes that have decimated vast swathes of the territory.

The war between Israel and Hamas broke out when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, and abducted about 250 others.

ISRAEL CALLS SOUTH AFRICA'S APPEARANCE AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE 'HYPOCRISY' TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman is calling South Africa's appearance at the International Court of Justice to accuse Israel of genocide "one of history's greatest displays of hypocrisy." In a post on X, formerly called Twitter, after the hearing Thursday, Lior Haiat called South Africa "Hamas' representatives in court." He said its lawyers distorted the reality in Gaza through a series of "baseless and false claims," without elaborating.

He said South Africa ignored the brutal nature of Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, when 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, saying it was an attempt at genocide. He said the lawyers also ignored Hamas' use of civilians as human shields and that it operates from within civilian areas.

He said Israel would continue to work to crush Hamas and free the hostages that remain in its captivity.

BLINKEN WRAPS UP MIDEAST TOUR ABOUT POSTWAR PLANNING FOR GAZA CAIRO — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is wrapping up his latest urgent Mideast tour on Thursday with talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, as US officials claim modest success in getting Mideast leaders on board with general planning for construction and governance in Gaza after Israel's war with Hamas ends.

Blinken secured Arab support to begin such planning in discussions with the leaders of Turkiye, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain over the weeklong mission.

Each country — along with Greece, which Blinken also visited — pledged to participate in the planning, but officials said precise roles have yet to be determined.

Speaking at Cairo's airport, Blinken said Israel bolstering its security and the creation of a Palestinian state is the best way to thwart attacks from Iran's regional proxies.

"The other path is to continue to see the terrorism, the denialism, and the destruction by Hamas, by the Houthis, by Hezbollah, all backed by Iran," he said.

No details were immediately released about his meeting with the Egyptian president.

Arab support is contingent on not only the end of the conflict but the establishment of a specific pathway for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes.

US ENVOY ARRIVES IN BEIRUT TO TRY TO CONTAIN REGIONAL FALLOUT FROM THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR BEIRUT — A senior US envoy who arrived on Thursday in Beirut as part of an international scramble to contain the regional fallout of the ongoing war in Gaza reiterated that the US wants a diplomatic solution to prevent a further escalation of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah along the Lebanese border.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have clashed almost daily for the past three months. The border fighting has escalated in recent weeks, particularly since suspected Israeli strikes killed a top Hamas leader and a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon this month.

Israeli officials have threatened a wider war in Lebanon if Hezbollah does not withdraw its forces north of the Litani river as stipulated in a 2006 cease-fire agreement.

"I think you've all heard what the government of Israel has said, which is that there is a narrow window, but that they prefer a diplomatic solution. I think that is the case," Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, told journalists after meeting with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and powerful Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

"We are living in a crisis moment where we would like to see a diplomatic solution, and I believe that both sides prefer a diplomatic solution" so the tens of thousands of displaced people on both sides of the border can return home, he said.

Hochstein mediated a landmark deal demarcating Lebanon and Israel's maritime border in 2022. Before the outbreak of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, he said he hoped to broker a similar deal on the land border — a trickier and more politically fraught topic.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a recent speech signaled an openness to Lebanon reaching an agreement on the land border but said it can only happen after the Israel-Hamas war ends. Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has said that no deal on a land border demarcation or on Hezbollah's presence in the border area would be signed before the war ends, but that discussions could start while the conflict continues.

FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES YELL ACROSS THE BORDER INTO GAZA IN HOPES LOVED ONES HEAR TEL AVIV, Israel — The families of hostages held by militants in the Gaza Strip have gathered along the border with the beleaguered territory to scream messages that they hope will be heard by their captive loved ones.

In stormy weather, dozens of relatives held posters bearing their loved ones' photos on Thursday. They used a microphone and speaker to beam their messages into Gaza.

"Omer, can you hear us? It's ima and aba," said Orna Neutra, the mother of Omer, who is being held in Gaza, using the Hebrew words for mom and dad. "We're here. We're fighting for you." In its October 7 attack, Hamas-led militants captured roughly 250 people. Dozens were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November, but about 110 remain in captivity. Some 20 hostages were killed, several were retrieved by Israel and three were killed mistakenly by Israeli forces fighting in Gaza.

The gathering comes as Israel faces genocide accusations at the world court in The Hague, which it vehemently denies.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)