Gaza Situation
Live Reporting
Palestinian FM accuses Israel of deliberately starving Gazans
The Palestinian foreign minister has accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against around a million people in Gaza and condemned the “international failure” to respect Palestinians’ rights at a UN meeting in Geneva,.
“As we speak, at least 1m Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, are starving."
Israel rejects Palestinian minister’s charge of starving Gazans
After the Palestinian foreign minister accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against around 1 million Gazans, an Israeli official rejected the charge as “obscene”,.
“As we speak, at least 1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, are starving, not because of a natural disaster or because of lack of generous assistance waiting at the border,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told a U.N. event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Iranian FM says Israel, US cannot wipe out Hamas
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said that Israel and the United States will never be able to wipe out Hamas and that Israel can only secure the liberation of its hostages in Gaza with a political solution to the conflict.
In a speech at the United Nations in Geneva in which he described the group as a “freedom movement”, Amirabdollahian said: “Israel and the United States will never be able to eliminate Hamas.”
Embattled Harvard University president to stay in post
Harvard University’s president, under fire over testimony she gave about anti-Semitism on campus, will remain in her job after a meeting of the institution’s governing body issued a statement backing her.
Claudine Gay has been engulfed by criticism after she declined to unequivocally say whether calling for genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s code of conduct as she testified before Congress alongside the heads of MIT and Pennsylvania universities.
Born and killed in Gaza war: grandmother weeps for one-month-old Idres
Baby Idres was wrapped in a white shroud and a light blue blanket with dots, his grandmother holding his tiny body close to her chest and weeping uncontrollably as she knelt next to a row of corpses lined up on the floor of a Gaza hospital.
Born a month ago as war raged around him, Idres al-Dbari had been living in a tent in Rafah, southern Gaza, with his displaced family when he and his mother Wafaa were killed by an Israeli air strike overnight on Tuesday.
Medical staff shot and killed inside Kamal Adwan Hospital
Israeli forces stormed the hospital under heavy gunfire and artillery shelling.
Tanks pushed deeper at the gates and the entire facility is under heavy bombardment. There are confirmed reports from a source on the ground that some of the medical staff inside the hospital were shot and killed inside the hospital.
Some patients with severe injuries inside the hospital have died due to the constant power outages and a severe shortage of medical supplies.
Loudspeakers are being used to call anyone aged above 15 to come out of the building with their hands in the air.
From what we understood from our source, Israeli forces will blindfold them, strip them of their clothes and take them to undisclosed areas for interrogation.
This is very similar to what happened in Khalifa school and the other two UNRWA schools in the past few days where all males were blindfolded and taken to undisclosed areas for interrogation.
Netanyahu accused of avoiding air force troops in fear of criticism
Former National Security Council Deputy Director Eran Etzion has accused the Israeli prime minister of avoiding meeting air force troops during a scheduled visit, in fear of criticism.
“So what do they do? Evacuate the unit of its personnel. Visit empty hangars. Pose with SUVs and classified vehicles,” Etzion said on X.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that reservists serving in the Shaldag and 669 units were instructed to vacate the premises Netanyahu was expected to visit on Tuesday, without specifying the location. The reservists alleged that the directive was intended to silence their criticism of the prime minister, the publication said.
A public letter by former Unit 669 members criticised Netanyahu’s decision to visit the troops, claiming it would “disrupt operational focus”.
“It would be better if the Prime Minister refrained from these visits and focused on managing the biggest crisis in the nation’s history, which happened on his watch,” Haaretz quoted the letter as saying.
War in southern Gaza no less than the north: UN
Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator, says his organisation hoped and was told that once the war moved to southern Gaza, there would be a different, more precise, approach to the fighting.
“[But] what’s happened is the assault on southern Gaza has been no less than the north. It’s raging through Khan Younis at the moment, and it is threatening Rafah. The compression of the population is greater. We cannot be sure of any of our points of operation to be safe,” he told Al Jazeera.
Griffiths added that UN aid workers were operating on a form of “humanitarian opportunism” in the Gaza Strip which is not the typical characteristic of a humanitarian operation, which includes a level of dependability and safety, both for aid workers and for the people they serve.
“Those conditions don’t exist in southern Gaza.”
Diarrhea and smallpox spreading in Rafah
Marwan al-Hams, director of the Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, has shared the latest healthcare situation in the Gaza Strip:
Here are his translated comments:
We have been receiving around 1,500 cases of intestinal diseases every day due to food shortages
Smallpox cases have been reported in children
Diarrhea and influenza are spreading among the displaced people in Rafah
There has been no transfer or travel of patients through the Rafah crossing today
Israeli raids continue in the occupied West Bank
In addition to the raid in the city of Jenin, where four Palestinians have been killed, Israeli forces have carried out operations in other parts of the occupied West Bank:
Israeli raids took place in the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah where 15 people were arrested.
Several people were detained in the town of Samu in Israeli raids on Palestinian homes.
?Olive fields in the towns of Qasr and Orta, south of Nablus, were vandalised by Israeli forces who were accompanied by Israeli settlers.
Raids were also reported in Bethlehem and Deir Ballut south of Qalqilya city.
Know their names: Palestinians killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank
This year, at least 483 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,769 wounded by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Since October 7, as jets bombarded Gaza, the Israeli military ramped up its raids in the West Bank. As of December 10, at least 106 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers this year, reaching three times the number recorded in 2022.
This year alone accounts for a quarter of all Palestinian deaths over the past 20 years.
Houthis say they targeted tanker headed to Israel
A spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi group has confirmed that it was behind a missile attack on a Norway-flagged chemical tanker off the Yemeni coast on its way to Israel.
“In support of the oppressed Palestinian people, currently reeling under the destruction, killing and siege of the Gaza Strip, and to heed the calls of our free Yemeni people, the Yemeni Naval Forces carried out an outstanding military operation against MV Strinda,” Yahiya Sarie said.
“Over the past two days, the Yemeni Armed Forces prevented a number of vessel from passing through. Those vessels heeded our warnings.
“We reiterate that we will continue to prevent all vessels headed to the Israeli ports, regardless of their nationalities, from navigating in the Arab or Red Sea, until the necessary food and medical supplies are delivered to our brothers in the Gaza Strip.”
Children among at least 20 killed in bloody night in Rafah
It was a bloody night for the residents of Rafah and the one million Palestinians who have been pushed to this southern city as Israeli air strikes – multiple and massive – destroyed three homes in a very densely populated neighbourhood.
It’s not only the locals who live there but those who have been displaced and evacuated since the start of the war. Twenty people have been reported killed, including seven children and at least five women.
There’s concern that there are people trapped under the rubble as the strikes severely damaged surrounding homes, with some collapsing after a couple of hours.
With little equipment and machinery, rescue efforts are difficult. People are using their hands to remove the rubble and rescue those trapped.
The search continues, but again, it’s very, very basic and simple. There are no machines or equipment to help people.
THE US IS CONCERNED ABOUT REPORTS THAT ISRAEL DEPLOYED US-PROVIDED WHITE PHOSPHORUS
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the United States is “concerned” about reports that Israel deployed U.S.-provided white phosphorus munitions in October in southern Lebanon.
“We’ve seen the reports — certainly concerned about that,” Kirby said. “We’ll be asking questions to try to learn a little bit more.”
Reports about possible use of white phosphorous munitions by Israel were first reported Monday by the Washington Post. Kirby said white phosphorus does have a “legitimate military utility” when used for illumination and producing smoke to conceal movements.
“Obviously, anytime that we provide items like white phosphorus to another military, it is with a full expectation that it will be used in keeping with those legitimate purposes and in keeping with the law of armed conflict.”
Kirby said the administration has repeatedly made clear that it does not want to see a second front open in the Israel-Hamas war.
“We absolutely don’t want to see this conflict spill over into Lebanon,” Kirby said. “And so it is also in the context of that we’re concerned about these reports.”
Netanyahu says post-war Gaza to remain under Israeli military control
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the question of the day after plans in Gaza, saying the Strip will be under Israeli military control, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported.
“The Strip will be under Israeli military control. After the war, a civilian administration will operate in Gaza and the Strip will be rehabilitated under the leadership of the Gulf States. We will not give in to international pressure,” Netanyahu told the broadcaster.
US President Joe Biden has repeatedly expressed the wish to see the Palestinian Authority reunify the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and to avoid an Israeli occupation or a reduction in the Palestinian territories.
Netanyahu said his government did not rule out the possibility of a possible war against Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank and was making contingency plans to respond to such an event.
Israeli artillery shelling kills two Palestinians in Khan Younis
More Israeli attacks are being reported in southern Gaza.
In addition to the strikes on Rafah, the Al Jazeera reported that two people have been killed in an Israeli attack in Khan Younis which is again in southern Gaza.
Latest casualty figures
Gaza
Killed: 18,205
Wounded: 49,645
Occupied West Bank
Killed: 278
Wounded: Over 3,365
Israel
Killed: 1,147 (revised down from 1,400)
Wounded: 8,730
Figures reported by Palestine Health Ministry and Israeli Army
Israeli drone attack kills three in occupied West Bank
Three people have been killed by an Israeli drone attack in Jenin, occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.
We earlier reported that a large contingent of Israeli armoured vehicles entered the city earlier this morning.
Palestine’s UN mission asks ‘peace-loving nations’ to support ceasefire resolution
Palestine’s mission to the United Nations has delivered a letter to the President of the UN Security Council “appealing to all peace-loving nations” to support a draft ceasefire resolution in the UN General Assembly.
“The Security Council’s failure to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, due to the veto cast by the United States, has permitted the Israeli war machine to carry on with its slaughter of Palestinians,” Ambassador Riyad Mansour wrote in the letter.
“The General Assembly, the world’s parliament, has an opportunity and a responsibility to correct course,” Mansour added.
??"The Security Council's failure to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the #Gaza Strip,due to the veto cast by the @USUN ,has permitted the Israeli war machine to carry on with its slaughter of #Palestinians” Read our letterDelivered to @UN today. @antonioguterres pic.twitter.com/yQl6wMiqM5
— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) December 11, 2023
Protester calling for Gaza ceasefire confronts US VP Kamala Harris
A protester unfurled a banner calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as US Vice President Kamala Harris addressed supporters at her residence in Washington DC.
In a video posted on Instagram and verified by Al Jazeera’s verification unit, Sanad, the protester asks Harris why she refused to support the global call for a ceasefire.
Harris is heard responding to the female protester, who is quickly ushered away by security.
Arrests made as Israeli forces target area near Ramallah
At least a dozen people have been arrested in Silwad, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, as Israeli forces raided several homes.
The number of detainees is expected to grown, with the Palestinian news agency, Wafa, describing the arrests as “massive”. Among those arrested was a 12-year-old boy.
Earlier, Al Jazeera correspondent Hoda Abdel-Hamid said that a major raid was underway in Jenin, with Israeli forces reported massing outside Al Razi Hospital.
There have also been reports of Israeli military vehicles obstructing the work of ambulance crews during a raid in the the town of Aqaba, north of the city of Tubas.
UN envoys say 'enough' to war on trip to Gaza border
RAFAH CROSSING, Egypt (Reuters) - U.N. Security Council envoys spoke of unimaginable suffering and urged an end to the war in the Gaza Strip on Monday as they visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, the besieged Palestinian enclave's only entry point for aid.
China's representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, asked by reporters if he had a message to nations which opposed a ceasefire in Gaza, said simply: "Enough is enough."
A majority of U.N. member states support an immediate and lasting ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, as dire conditions worsen for its 2.3 million residents.
Palestinians shut shops, schools in protest at Gaza onslaught
RAMALLAH (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Shops, schools and government offices shut in the occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and allied countries Monday as Palestinians staged a general strike protesting against Israel's relentless onslaught in Gaza.
The bloodiest ever war in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 18,200 Palestinians in the territory, mostly women and children, as well as 104 Israeli soldiers, according to the latest reported death tolls.
Activists called the day-long strike covering businesses, public workers and education in solidarity with the besieged coastal strip, with rallies held in the West Bank.
US submits amendment to UNGA draft resolution
The US mission to the UN has reportedly submitted an amendment to a ceasefire draft resolution being considered by members of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
Al Jazeera Arabic’s Rami Ayari, reporting from the UN in New York, said the US’s proposed amendment would add the following sentence:
“Unequivocally rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting 7 October 2023 and the taking of hostages.”
The 193 members of the UNGA will vote on potential amendments before voting on a final agreed text at a special session to be held on Tuesday.
A similar amendment put forward by Canada prior to a previous resolution was rejected in a vote by member states in October, said Ayari.
The current proposed draft was put forward by the Arab Group and the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation.
NEW: @USUN has submitted an amendment to the Arab Group/OIC #Gaza ceasefire draft resolution in an attempt to add (you guessed it) unequivocal rejection and condemnation of #Hamas’ Oct 7 attack and the taking of hostages. This amendment will be voted on before the draft… https://t.co/0A6Q0Kpkog pic.twitter.com/bqlKfXiMfw
— Rami Ayari (@Raminho) December 12, 2023
Palestinians starve as Gaza war rages amid fears of exodus into Egypt
GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Israel on Monday denied it intended to push Palestinians seeking refuge from its bombardment of Gaza over the border into Egypt as international relief agencies said hunger was spreading among the besieged enclave's civilian population.
Amid the worsening humanitarian crisis, Hamas fighters and Israeli troops fought across the territory, with the militants trying to block Israeli tanks from advancing through the shattered streets.
The Gaza health ministry said 18,205 people had now been killed and 49,645 wounded in Gaza in just over two months of warfare - hundreds since the United States vetoed a proposal for a ceasefire at the United Nations Security Council on Friday.
Tank ammunition sales to Israel a ‘mistake’: US senator
Elizabeth Warren has criticised the Biden administration’s decision to bypass Congress to approve the sales “amid unacceptable civilian harm”.
In a post on X, she added that US military aid to Israel “should be contingent on upholding our values and international law”.
The White House announced on Saturday that it had used emergency authority to approve the sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel, worth more than $106m.
There are growing calls among Democratic lawmakers for all US military aid or weapons sales to Israel to be contingent on the country’s human rights record. The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance each year.
Hunger rises in Gaza as UN prepares to vote on ceasefire resolution
CAIRO/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Hunger was worsening among Palestinians in the besieged Gaza strip, aid agencies said, as the United Nations General Assembly prepared to vote on Tuesday on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the two-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Hundreds more civilians have died in Israel's assault on Gaza since the U.S. on Friday vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge or food in the densely populated coastal enclave. The U.N. World Food Programme has said half of the population is starving.
