Gaza Violence
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The United States said on Thursday that there are "serious and widespread concerns" that the current draft of a UN Security Council resolution that aims to boost humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip "could actually slow down" deliveries.
"The goal of this resolution is to facilitate and help expand humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza, and we cannot lose sight of that purpose," said Nate Evans, spokesperson for the US mission to the United Nations ahead of a likely vote on Thursday.
"We must ensure any resolution helps and doesn’t hurt the situation on the ground," he said.
Israel orders more evacuations in southern Gaza as envoys push for truce
The UN's human rights office said on Thursday it has received reports that Israeli troops "summarily killed" at least 11 unarmed Palestinians in a possible war crime in Gaza.
The OHCHR office in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the killings were alleged to have been carried out in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City this week.
The reports came after the UN Security Council again delayed a vote on a new resolution calling for a ceasefire and desperately needed aid as envoys wrangled over key wording to avoid another US veto.
Israel orders more evacuations in southern Gaza as envoys push for truce
Israel ordered more evacuations on Thursday in southern Gaza's main city of Khan Younis, where the UN said more than 140,000 displaced people were sheltering, as diplomats pressed on with efforts to secure a pause in the war that Palestinian health officials say has claimed more than 20,000 lives.
The UN Security Council again delayed a vote on a new resolution calling for a ceasefire and desperately needed aid as envoys wrangled over key wording to avoid another US veto.
Sirens, interceptions in Tel Aviv as Hamas fires rockets from Gaza
Sirens have sounded in Tel Aviv and a Reuters camera crew witnessed rocket interceptions as Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip said they launched a salvo at Israel's commercial capital.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said there had been several impact points in southern Tel Aviv but no immediate word of casualties.
The launches showed Hamas, the dominant Palestinian Islamist group, retained some longer-range rocket capabilities even as Israeli forces gain ground in a Gaza war now in its third month.
Ben-Gvir issues warning to Netanyahu’s war cabinet
The far-right Israeli minister of national security has warned against anyone stopping the Israeli military before “Hamas has been defeated and all the abductees returned”.
In a post on X, Itamar Ben-Gvir also said that any reduction in military activity in Gaza would signal a failure of Netanyahu’s limited three-person war cabinet and called for its immediate dismantlement.
“It’s time to return the reins to the expanded cabinet,” he said.
Israeli protestors attempt to block aid trucks entering Gaza: Report
The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli army has quashed a protest intended to block trucks of humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza.
Protesters who were stopped by police waved Israeli flags and held signs accusing the government of supporting the enemy by allowing the trucks into Gaza. “Aid to the enemy kills soldiers”, one sign read.
The protest was arranged by two groups, including the Mothers’ March which claims to represent the parents of Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza.
Lebanon obligated to take responsibility for Hezbollah’s ‘terrorism’: Gantz
Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz says he told France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna after her visit to Lebanon that “Israel will not put up with the threat that Hezbollah poses to the residents of the north” of his country.
“The State of Lebanon is obligated to take responsibility for the terrorism that emanates from its territory. The interest in reaching a diplomatic solution in the border area is first of all the interest of Lebanon,” Gantz said on X.
“The State of Israel will do everything necessary to protect its citizens and allow them to return safely to their homes.”
Eyewitnesses say Israeli forces stormed houses and ‘randomly’ opened fire
On Wednesday, The UN Human Rights Agency (UN OCHA) published a report that alleged that Israeli soldiers had “summarily killed at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members” in Gaza City.
UNOCHA called on the Israeli army to “immediately” investigate the allegations.
Eyewitnesses in Gaza also told Al Jazeera that on Friday, Israeli soldiers stormed homes and opened fire “randomly”, killing more than 18 people.
“We kept saying we are all civilians. My son-in-law was sitting on his chair with his arms up, ‘I am a civilian,’ he said, but the Israeli soldiers executed him. Their dead bodies are still lying there. We cannot recover their bodies for burial,” one eyewitness said.
Another told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces forced entry into flats and “killed all men and detained all women and children”.
“Women were grabbed by the hair, rounded up; other young children were stripped of their clothes and forced to their knees. All women were kept on the fourth floor and ordered to remove hair covers,” a woman said.
Concerns mount as Israeli army presses deeper into Khan Younis
An Israeli military order to evacuate an area covering about 20 percent of central and south Khan Younis has sparked fear among civilians in the south of a further expansion of Israel’s military operation.
“A large number of people are going to be affected by this order and will end up being displaced,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said, reporting from Khan Younis.
“The central part [of Khan Younis] is the heart of the city with the major public facilities, including part of the Ministry of Health’s operation centre, the Nasser hospital, the Jordanian field hospital and most of its residential buildings,” he added.
‘No one is talking about the end of war’
Tamer Qarmout, an assistant professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, spoke to Al Jazeera about the delayed vote for a UN draft resolution to halt the fighting.
“There seems to be some forces in the [US] State Department that want to push President Biden to accept it or at least not to veto it. And that’s a positive dynamic.”
“However, I think the key issue here is that the US still wants to give Israel some space to carry on with its war on the Gaza Strip. They don’t want to restrain Israel. I think that’s an issue.”
“There is an openness by the US to consider a resolution that addresses the very dire humanitarian needs of the Gaza Strip. And there is an international appetite for this to see more aid pouring into the Gaza Strip and a softer approach to war.”
“But still, no one is talking about the end of war, which is the key issue here.”
Hospital overwhelmed after Wednesday’s attack on Rafah
More than 25 injured were brought to the Kuwait Specialty Hospital.
It was really packed – we’re not only talking about the injured but also their relatives who came along with them either in the ambulance or who had carried the injured from the site of the attack. There was a very crowded scene inside the hospital, making it very difficult for the medical team to operate.
It ran out of space quickly so the injured were transferred to other hospitals in Rafah for better treatment … it’s a larger hospital, but they have the same problem. There are no medical supplies and no space in those hospitals. Most hospitals in Rafah have been turned into evacuation zones.
Lebanese civilian killed by Israeli shelling
The Lebanese Civil Defence announced a woman was killed and her husband injured when their house was hit by Israeli shelling in the border village of Maroun al-Ras.
This is the third report of a civilian death in Lebanon as a result of Israeli army strikes in as many days.
Heavy shelling along Gaza coast: Report
We are getting reports of heavy artillery shelling from Israeli military vessels towards the beaches of Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
More updates to follow.
Australia in ‘lockstep’ with US as it joins Red Sea force: Greens lawmaker
Responding to news that Australia will send as many as six troops to support a US-led Red Sea force, Senator David Shoebridge says the country’s Labor government “is happy to walk in lockstep with the United States”.
As we reported earlier, Australian Defence Minister Marles said the country would be sending troops to join Operation Prosperity Guardian. But it won’t be sending any warships.
“It’s pretty clear the government wanted to send warships to meet the US request,” Shoebridge, a legislator with the Greens, told Al Jazeera in an email.
But he said Australia “simply doesn’t have any that could effectively defend themselves from repeated drone attacks”.
Israeli forces continue night raids across West Bank: Media
Israeli forces have stormed cities, towns and villages across the occupied West Bank, raiding homes, making arrests and clashing with local youths in a number of locations, the Wafa news agency reports.
Live bullets and stun grenades were fired during clashes, though there were no initial reports of injuries, according to the news agency.
Locations raided by Israeli forces include:
The village of Ya`bad west of Jenin city
Qalqilya City and the town of Azzun to the east
The cities of Al Bireh and Jericho, and the Ain Sultan refugee camp in Jericho
Beit Ummar town northwest of Hebron; Bani Naim town to the east, and Al-Dhahiriya to the south
Beit Liqya town southwest of Ramallah city
Nahalin village southwest of Bethlehem and Tuqu’ town to the southeast
Iraq Burin and Beit Wazan villages and Al-Sawiya town south of Nablus
Israeli military reports three more soldiers killed in Gaza
The three were reported killed in fighting in northern Gaza and included a 19-year-old sergeant in Battalion 931 and two lieutenants aged 20 and 21, both serving in the “Geffen” Battalion.
At least 134 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far in the ground invasion of Gaza and some 740 wounded, the UN reported on Wednesday, citing the Israeli military.
It was not known if the latest three deaths were included in the total number of Israeli casualties reported by the UN.
Meta silencing Palestinian voices, says HRW
In a new report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that Meta is systematically censoring content about Palestine on Instagram and Facebook.
“Meta’s censorship is furthering the erasure of Palestinians’ suffering,” said HRW’s Deborah Brown on the release of the report.
The prominent human rights organisation says it reviewed 1,050 cases of online censorship and found six broad categories:
Content removals
Suspension or deletion of accounts
Inability to engage with content
Inability to follow or tag accounts
Restrictions on the use of features such as Instagram/Facebook Live
“Shadow banning”, meaning a significant decrease in visibility without notifying the account holder
Israeli military publishes names of soldiers killed in Gaza
The Israeli military released the names of three soldiers killed on Wednesday while fighting in the northern Gaza Strip.
The list included a 19-year-old sergeant and two cadets aged 20 and 21.
They also reported that eight soldiers had been seriously injured in several separate battles across the Gaza Strip.
US Red Sea taskforce gets limited backing from some allies
(Reuters) – Several US allies have said they support efforts to protect shipping in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group, but some have said they would not join a naval coalition that Washington said it was building for the task.
The response has added to confusion for shipping companies, some of which have been rerouting vessels away from the area after the attacks that the Houthi group says it has launched in response to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.
Egypt seeks to broker Gaza ceasefire as Hamas, Israel assert demands
CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The U.S. said "very serious" negotiations were taking place on a new Gaza ceasefire and release of more Israeli hostages, but prospects for a deal remained uncertain as Hamas insisted it would not discuss anything less than a complete end to Israel's offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh visited Egypt on Wednesday for the first time in more than a month for discussions with Egyptian officials who are seeking to mediate another truce.
A source briefed on the negotiations said envoys were intensively discussing which of the hostages still held by Palestinian Islamist militants in Gaza could be freed in a new truce and which Palestinian prisoners Israel might release in return.
Houthi leader threatens to attack US warships if Washington targets Yemen
DUBAI (Reuters) – The leader of Yemen's Houthis warned on Wednesday they would strike US warships if the Iranian-backed militia was targeted by Washington, which this week set up a multinational force to counter Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, which control vast amounts of territory in Yemen after years of war, have since last month fired drones and missiles at international vessels sailing through the Red Sea, attacks it says respond to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.
The US-led security initiative will see Washington and ten other, mostly NATO countries patrol the Red Sea to deter and respond to future Houthi attacks that have so far led to major global shipping lines rerouting around Africa instead.
Blinken says US wants Israel to shift to targeted operations in Gaza focusing on Hamas leadership
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. wants and expects Israel to shift its military operations in Gaza to a lower-intensity phase during which there will be more targeted operations focused on the Hamas leadership and its infrastructure, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a year-end news conference, Blinken said once this shift happens, the "harm done to civilians" should decrease significantly, while repeating his calls for Israel to heed its obligation to minimize civilian casualties as it moves to destroy Hamas.
Also Read UN vote on Gaza aid further delayed as US works 'intensely'
"It's clear that the conflict will move and needs to move to a lower-intensity phase," Blinken told reporters. "We expect to see and want to see a shift to more targeted operations with a smaller number of forces that's really focused in on dealing with the leadership of Hamas, tunnel network and a few other critical things," he said.
Russia, Arab League demand UN ceasefire for Gaza
MARRAKESH (Morocco) (AFP) – Russia and the Arab League called jointly on Wednesday for a UN ceasefire resolution for the Israel-Hamas war during the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The forum, which usually focuses on diplomatic and economic ties, was dominated by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Also Read: UN vote on Gaza aid further delayed as US works 'intensely'
"We hope that the Security Council will raise its voice for a mature resolution (calling for a ceasefire)," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the meeting. "We have agreed to continue coordination within the United Nations."
UN vote on Gaza aid further delayed as US works 'intensely'
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A United Nations Security Council vote on a bid to boost aid to the Gaza Strip and ask the U.N. to monitor humanitarian aid deliveries in the Palestinian enclave has again been delayed at the request of the U.S., diplomats said on Wednesday.
"Negotiations are ongoing and need more time. A rushed vote does not seem like it will end well," a U.N. diplomat familiar with negotiations told Reuters, referring to a possible U.S. veto of the draft resolution.
Also Read Russia, Arab League demand UN ceasefire for Gaza
It was not immediately clear when a council vote might be rescheduled.
