Israeli Hostilities
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Hamas condemns US 'emergency' sale of munitions to Israel
The Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers on Saturday condemned the US approval of a $147.5 million sale of high-explosive artillery munitions and related equipment to Israel.
The United States announced the sale of the 155mm artillery munitions on Friday under an emergency provision that waives the normal requirement for a congressional review.
Hamas said the sale was "clear evidence of the American administration's full sponsorship of this criminal war".
President Joe Biden's administration "conspicuously aligns itself with and actively supports all atrocities perpetrated" by Israel, the group said in a statement.
Those wartime atrocities, it added, have led to the "ruthless killing of children and civilians, forced displacement of residents, and the systematic destruction of civilian life" in Gaza.
Palestinian group says captive Israeli soldier killed by Israeli air strike in Gaza
The armed wing for the Liberation of Palestine has said that an Israeli soldier being held captive by the group in Gaza had been killed in an Israeli air strike that had also wounded some of his captors.
In an audio speech broadcast by Al Araby television, a spokesperson for the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades group said the air strike took place following a failed attempt by Israeli commandos to free the soldier.
The spokesperson gave no details of when the soldier had been taken captive, or where he was being held in Gaza. He said the group is still holding the body of the slain soldier.
The Israeli military spokesperson’s office declined to comment.
Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian man in West Bank: Health ministry
The Palestinian health ministry says Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank after the army reported he allegedly carried out a car ramming.
The Israeli military said soldiers “neutralised” the driver who rammed the car into a military post near Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron.
An AFP journalist saw Israeli forces surrounding a vehicle with soldiers and military vehicles deployed in the area.
The Palestinian health ministry said Mohammed Masalmeh was shot dead by Israeli troops at the camp entrance.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported one person was moderately wounded.
Syria says an Israeli air strike targeted areas south of Aleppo
The Syrian defence ministry has said that Israel has targeted areas near Syria’s Aleppo with an air strike that caused some material damage.
“Israel carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Latakia, targeting a number of points south of the city of Aleppo,” the statement said.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment.
War exacerbates woes of women-led households in Gaza
— Susanne Mikhail Eldhagen (@SusanneUNWomen) December 30, 2023
WATCH: Columbia professor says US ‘isolated globally’ for supporting Israel
Israel pushes deeper into Gaza camps, 12 weeks into war
Israeli tanks pushed deeper into districts in central and southern Gaza overnight under heavy air and artillery fire, residents said, pressing a deadly offensive that has razed much of the enclave and that Israel has said may last months more.
Fighting late on Friday and early Saturday was focused in al-Bureij, Nuseirat, Maghazi and Khan Younis, backed by intensive air strikes that filled hospitals with injured Palestinians.
Gaza health ministry updates death toll to 21,672
A total of 21,672 Palestinians have been killed and 56,165 more wounded in Israeli strikes in Hamas-run Gaza since October 7, the health ministry has said.
According to AFP, the figures include 165 Palestinians killed and 250 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
10 pro-Iran fighters killed in Syria strikes, says Syrian human rights monitor
Air strikes in eastern Syria “likely” launched by US forces have killed at least 10 pro-Iran fighters and wounded 30 others, a war monitor has said.
According to AFP, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “10 pro-Iranian fighters, including three Syrians, were killed and more than 30 were wounded” in at least nine air strikes that were “likely American”.
They targeted military positions in Albu Kamal and its surroundings, in Deir Ezzor province near the border with Iraq, added the Britain-based Observatory, which has a broad network of sources inside war-torn Syria.
WATCH: Thousands rally in New York for killed Palestinian children
At least 100 killed within 24 hours: Medical official
A health official has told Al Jazeera that about 100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli army bombings in the central region of the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, while 158 others have been injured.
War in Gaza most destructive campaign in modern history: Report
The American Wall Street Journal has reported that the war in Gaza “is generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating warfare in the modern record”.
In a report published on Saturday, it confirmed that by mid-December Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the besieged enclave, destroying or damaging nearly 70 percent of Gaza’s homes.
Israeli forces arrest 15 Palestinians in West Bank: Report
Israeli forces have arrested 15 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since dawn, Wafa news agency has reported.
Israeli forces arrested two people south of Hebron, beat them and seized their vehicles, the report said. They also arrested a young man east of Nablus and assaulted another south of Nablus.
Two young men from Beit Iba, west of Nablus were among the detained after Israeli forces arrested ten Palestinians during a raid on Jalazoun refugee camp north of Ramallah.
Red Crescent educates children on how to maintain hygiene despite water scarcity
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has shared a video on X showing the team conducting awareness activities with the displaced children in Khan Younis due to the spread of disease and epidemics.
The team has been teaching the children how to maintain hygiene despite the water scarcity.
Due to the spread of diseases and epidemics among displaced individuals in shelter centers, especially children, the PRCS Community Work teams have undertaken awareness activities ????with displaced children at the PRCS’s headquarters in #KhanYounis to teach them ways to maintain… pic.twitter.com/MJdjkbjpgi
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 30, 2023
Civilians attempt to retrieve bodies underneath rubble in al-Zawaida
Journalist Ashraf Abu Amra has shared a video on Instagram documenting a group attempting to retrieve the bodies of children from under the rubble of a house in al-Zawaida area in the central Gaza Strip after it was shelled by the Israeli forces.
The video has been verified by Al Jazeera.
Warning: Images are graphic.
‘We can’t tell her the truth’: Gaza’s hospitals filling with lone orphans
When nine-year-old Razan Shabet was brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital one month ago, she was unconscious with a severe head injury, a brain haemorrhage and broken legs and arms.
For the first four days, she was listed as “101 Unknown”. Nobody knew who she was.
Today, the doctors and nurses at the hospital, where she remains housed in a tent in the compound, having been discharged from emergency medical treatment, still do not have the heart to tell her that both her parents are dead.
Tel Aviv teen Tal Mitnick refuses to fight against Palestinians
Tel Aviv teen Tal Mitnick is the latest Israeli to refuse to fight against Palestinians, and he is willing to pay a price, Al Jazeera reported.
He’s a baby-faced 18-year-old with a heart full of idealism. When Tel Aviv teen Tal Mitnick refused to enlist in the Israeli army, he was put on trial: on Tuesday, he was taken to military prison to serve a 30-day sentence.
Standing alone in a country on a determined war footing is an agonising decision. But, speaking at Tel Hashomer, a base near the Gaza fence in central Israel, Mitnick staunchly defended his decision.
“I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter,” he said. “The criminal attack on Gaza won’t solve the atrocious slaughter that Hamas executed. Violence won’t solve violence. And that is why I refuse.”
The statement appeared on the X account of Mesarvot, a support network connecting refuseniks in a campaign against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. In an earlier interview posted on the account, Mitnick laid out his universalist stance on the conflict.
The solution, he said, would not come from corrupt politicians in Israel or from Hamas. “It will come from us, the sons and daughters of the two nations,” he said.
Friends came out in support of Mitnick, holding placards with phrases like: “You cannot build heaven with blood”, “An eye for an eye and we all go blind” and “There is no military solution.”
Military service is mandatory for most Jewish Israelis, viewed as a rite of passage. In the country’s highly militarised society, so-called refuseniks risk being labelled traitors.
US policy in Gaza war ‘totally contradicting’
The Biden administration is pursuing a “dual-track” approach when it comes to the Gaza war amid its recent decision to sell more weapons to Tel Aviv, according to Luciano Zaccara, associate professor of Gulf Politics at Qatar University’s Gulf Studies Center.
“On the one hand, they are trying to convince the public opinion that the US is really concerned about civilian casualties, but also they keep sustaining Israel (militarily),” Zaccara told Al Jazeera. “It is totally contradicting … it is hard to understand how this is in the national interest.”
Zaccara said the policy was especially perplexing in light of “mounting pressure” in the US, including among democrats, against the war as civilian casualties in Gaza continue to rise.
Israeli forces fire artillery shells east of Rafah border crossing
An Al Jazeera correspondent has confirmed that Israeli forces are firing heavy fire and artillery shells east of the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that Israel aims to build an underground wall in Rafah, Egypt, under the pretext of preventing the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip.
US sponsoring Israel’s ‘genocidal’ in Gaza: Hamas
Hamas’ head of International Relations Basem Nail has released a statement condemning the international community for failing to stop the “genocidal war” in Gaza that has killed more than 21,000 people.
“While these crimes have been committed with Israeli hands, they were sponsored and backed up by the US administration. We, therefore, hold the Biden administration, especially in the president (Joe Biden) himself, and his foreign and defense secretaries accountable for their direct role in sponsoring and orchestrating this ongoing genocide against our people,” he said in a televised statement.
“We also hold the international community accountable for their failure to stop the genocide,” Naim added.
Still no fuel delivered from UNICEF: Municipality
The Municipality of Gaza has asked UNICEF on X where the is the fuel to operate the water pumps.
“Sorry for any inconvenience, but can we know where is the fuel to operate the water pumps? You promised to deliver it during the last truce, we haven’t received it yet,” it said.
“You may know children are dying in Gaza and you can’t give them a sip of water!”
Dear Sir/Madam @UNICEF,
— ????? ??? - Municipality Of Gaza (@munigaza) December 30, 2023
Sorry for any inconvenience, but can we know where is the fuel to operate the water pumps? You promised to deliver it during the last truce, we haven’t received it yet.
You may know children are dying in Gaza and you can’t give them a sip of water!
Israel’s military claims to have destroyed hideout of top Hamas official
Israel’s military has claimed to have destroyed a network of tunnels and a hideout belonging to Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza.
The Israeli military’s 14th Reserve Brigade Combat Team located and destroyed Sinwar’s apartment near Gaza City “in recent weeks,” military officials said on Friday.
“The tunnel was built so that it would be possible to stay inside it and conduct combat from it for long periods of time,” Israel’s military said in a statement.
Al Jazeera could not independently verify the Israeli military’s claim.
Israeli officials have accused Sinwar of being one of the masterminds of Hamas’s October 7 attacks and referred to him as a “dead man walking”.
McDonald’s Malaysia sues Israel boycott movement: Report
McDonald’s Malaysia has sued a movement promoting boycotts against Israel for “false and defamatory statements” that it says hurt its business, seeking damages amounting to 6 million ringgit ($1.31m), according to Reuters news agency.
Gerbang Alaf Restaurants Sdn Bhd (GAR), which is the licensee of McDonald’s in Malaysia, is suing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Malaysia movement for a series of social media postings allegedly linking the fast-food franchise, among other companies, to Israel’s “genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza”.
McDonald’s Malaysia confirmed it filed the suit against BDS Malaysia to protect its “rights and interests”, it said in a statement on Friday.
In response, BDS Malaysia said it “categorically denies” defaming the fast-food company and would leave the matter to the court.
‘Genocide’ case brought by South Africa an ‘important opportunity’
The case brought by South Africa under the 1948 Genocide Convention is an “important opportunity” for the International Court of Justice to examine the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza, Human Rights Watch has said.
“By taking this step, Pretoria is looking to the World Court, the United Nations’ highest judicial body, to provide clear, definitive answers on the question of whether Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at HRW, said in a statement.
“South Africa has called on the World Court to urgently issue provisional measures to protect the Palestinian people and to ensure Israel’s compliance with the Genocide Convention,” Jarrah added.
Video shows historic Omari Mosque destroyed by Israeli forces
A journalist has shared a video on Instagram showing the destruction of Omari Mosque in northern Gaza following Israeli attacks.
The historic Omari Mosque is the third largest mosque in Palestine and dates back nearly 1,400 years.
UN’s Philippe Lazzarini says Israel and media spreading ‘baseless misinformation’
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestine relief agency, has accused Israeli officials and media outlets of “creating a stream of baseless misinformation” about gaps in aid deliveries to Gaza.
In a statement on Friday, Lazzarini, the chief of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA ), said that Israeli statements have “insinuated or directly held UNRWA responsible for gaps in aid deliveries”.
“These statements were amplified by Israeli and other mainstream and social media, creating a stream of baseless misinformation,” Lazzarini said.
Lazzarini said that Israeli authorities continue to impose “severe restrictions” on humanitarian access despite deliveries of aid from Egypt and through the Rafah crossing.
“This is not the time to exchange accusations and promote misinformation. International humanitarian law is very clear: The state of Israel, as the occupying power, must ensure that the population has access to and is provided with basic services,” he said.
Lazzarini also urged media outlets to “verify their reports and cross-check information including statements from government officials, before publishing information”.
‘Exhausted’: People in Gaza desperate for fighting to stop as Israel presses attack
After nearly three months of nonstop attacks by Israel’s army, navy and air force, people in Gaza have told the French news agency AFP that they are “exhausted” and need the fighting to end now.
“Enough with this war! We are totally exhausted. We are constantly displaced from one place to another in cold weather,” 49-year-old Um Louay Abu Khater told AFP from a camp in the southern border city of Rafah.
“The bombs keep falling on us every day and night. We expect missiles [at any moment], while others are preparing for New Year’s Eve celebrations.”
Ahmed al-Baz, 33, said 2023 has been “the worst” year in his life.
“It was a year of destruction and devastation,” he said. “We went through hell and encountered death itself,” he added.
“We just want the war to end and start the new year at our homes, with a ceasefire declared.”
In Rafah, 27-year-old Youssef Ahras said he hoped negotiations between Israel and Hamas would “stop the bloodshed … because the price of war is so high”.
Many more will die in Gaza if humanitarian crisis not halted, UK ambassador warns
The UK’s ambassador to the United Nations has warned that “many more” people will die in Gaza from violence, disease and famine without action to stop the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza on Friday, Barbara Woodward recounted a conversation with Save the Children’s director for the occupied Palestinian territory in which she was told that four in 10 of those killed in Gaza were children.
“That is close to 8,500 children dead,” Woodward said. “For those injured and surviving, nearly two-thirds of homes and schools are damaged or destroyed. Many more will die from attacks, from disease, from famine if we do not act to stop this humanitarian catastrophe.”
The UK earlier this month voted in favour of a UN Security Council resolution calling for an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, which passed after the United States lobbied to weaken language regarding calls for a ceasefire.
London has supported Israel’s right to self-defence but has expressed growing unease at the civilian death toll in Gaza in recent weeks.
UN envoy questions if ‘racism’ behind US presidential candidate’s call for Palestinians to leave Gaza
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese has questioned if “overt racism” motivated US presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s recommendation that the Palestinian population of Gaza should leave their territory for other countries.
Albanese was referencing an interview that Haley gave to the US news channel ABC in which she said that “Palestinians should go to the Rafah gate and Egypt should take them”.
“They should go to pro-Hamas countries,” Haley added. “That’s where they should go”.
Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in occupied Palestinian territories, also reminded Haley in a post on social media that “forced displacement” is prohibited under international law and is considered a crime against humanity when it takes place amid “widespread attacks” on civilians.
“It is unclear on which grounds – other than overt racism – @NikkiHaley urges that Palestinians should be displaced to Egypt,” Albanese wrote.
Freed French-Israeli captive describes going through ‘hell’
Mia Schem, a French-Israeli dual citizen who was released by Hamas last month after 54 days in captivity, has described going through “hell” in Gaza.
In an interview aired on Israel’s Channel 12 on Friday, Schem claimed she had witnessed Hamas fighters shooting wounded people who appeared to be still alive and that she had been operated on in a Gaza hospital without anaesthetic or painkillers.
Schem said she didn’t see the face of the man who carried out surgery on her arm for a gunshot wound but “he looked at me and he said, ‘You’re not going home alive,'” the Times of Israel reported.
She also said she felt “pure hatred” during her captivity and claimed that there was “not one” innocent civilian in Gaza, the Times said.
Schem was one of the 105 captives released during a Qatar-brokered temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last month.
Residential areas hit, civilians killed in south Gaza where Israel told people to flee: UN
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza by its army, navy and air forces targeted multiple locations in the Palestinian territory’s southern Khan Younis and Rafah areas, hitting residential areas and civilian infrastructure and resulting in a large number of deaths, the UN reports.
Those killed were in areas where Palestinians were ordered to relocate from northern Gaza by Israeli forces, the UN said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) also reports in its latest Gaza situational update:
In 24 hours between Thursday and Friday afternoon, a further 187 Palestinians were killed and 312 wounded in attacks by Israeli forces.
The spread of disease has reportedly intensified in Gaza, particularly in the south of the enclave.
Almost 180,000 Palestinians are suffering from upper respiratory infections; approximately 136,400 people suffer from diarrhoea – half being children under five years old; more than 5,300 cases of chickenpox have been reported; 42,700 people are suffering from skin rashes; more than 4,680 have cases of Acute Jaundice Syndrome; and 126 cases of meningitis have been reported.
UN officials said Israeli soldiers fired on a humanitarian aid convoy as it travelled back from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli military.
Ten people were reported killed on Thursday when Israel attacked the vicinity of the El Amal Hospital. On Wednesday, 31 people were killed when Israelis attacked the same location. Approximately 14,000 displaced people are sheltering around the hospital.
UN chief says longer Gaza war continues, greater the risk of regional conflict
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reiterated his concerns that the war in Gaza will spill over into a regional conflict.
“There is a continued risk of wider regional conflagration, the longer the conflict in Gaza continues, given the risk of escalation and miscalculation by multiple actors,” Guterres said in a statement.
Burgeoning violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces and Israeli settlers is “extremely alarming”, the UN chief said, as is fighting between Hezbollah and Israel across the south Lebanon border, attacks from Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis attacking shipping in the Red Sea.
“The Secretary-General again appeals to all members of the international community to do everything in their power to use their influence on the relevant parties to prevent an escalation of the situation in the region,” Stephane Dujarric, Gutteres’s spokesman said in the statement.
South Africa files ICJ case accusing Israel of 'genocidal acts' in Gaza
THE HAGUE (AFP) – South Africa launched a case on Friday at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel for what it said were "genocidal" acts in Gaza, with Israel rejecting the case "with disgust."
According to a statement, the ICJ application related to alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the Genocide Convention, and said that "Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza."
In The Hague application, South Africa also says that Israel has been acting "with the requisite specific intent... to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group."
US warship shoots down drone, missile fired by Yemen's Houthis
WASHINGTON (AFP) - An American warship shot down a drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the US military said.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is battling militant group Hamas.
"The USS Mason (DDG 87) shot down one drone and one anti-ship ballistic missile in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the Huthis," US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement, referring to a guided-missile destroyer.
Israel bombs Gaza as Egypt hosts Hamas to discuss truce proposal
GAZA STRIP (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel pounded Gaza on Friday, nearly 12 weeks into the war started by the October 7 attacks, as Egypt hosted a Hamas delegation for talks aimed at ending the conflict that has devastated much of the besieged Palestinian territory.
With vast areas of northern Gaza in ruins and largely deserted, Israeli air strikes and ground combat have focussed on central and southern districts, driving ever more displaced families into crowded areas around Rafah near the Egyptian border.
Intense fighting around central Deir al-Balah and the biggest southern city, Khan Yunis, has driven about 100,000 newly displaced people into already-overcrowded Rafah, said the UN humanitarian office, even as targets there were bombed too.
Displaced Gazans flee again as Israel launches fresh tank, air assaults
GAZA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of fleeing Palestinians sought shelter on Friday (Dec 29) as Israeli tanks pushed through the central Gaza Strip, with more than 180 people reported killed in 24 hours of airstrikes and artillery barrages on the shattered enclave.
Israeli warplanes attacking the south of Gaza flattened homes and buried families as they slept, residents said.
The assaults in central and southern Gaza propelled a new exodus of people already driven from other areas in what Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called an essential stage of Israel's mission to destroy its foe Hamas.
