Israel has continued its bombing of Gaza as fierce fighting raged on Tuesday, with Hamas saying clashes had taken place in central Gaza and witnesses reporting deadly Israeli strikes in the south of the territory.
Agence France-Press reports that strikes on Monday targeted Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis, now the centre of the fighting, as well as Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where tens of thousands of people are seeking shelter.
Some of the heaviest close-quarters fighting in more than two months of conflict took place over the weekend, as the Israel Defense Forces tried to consolidate control of urban centres in northern Gaza and pursued Hamas leaders in the heart of the biggest city in the south, Khan Younis.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said late on Monday that “Hamas is on the verge of dissolution – the IDF is taking over its last strongholds”.
The World Health Organization has issued a strong statement in which it accuses Israel of delaying a vital medical mission, and making Palestinian medical staff kneel at gunpoint, while detaining them and preventing them doing their jobs.
It writes:
On 9 December 2023, a WHO team … completed a high-risk mission to Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City to deliver medical supplies, assess the situation in the hospital, and transfer critically injured patients to a hospital in the south.
On the way north, the UN convoy was inspected at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, and ambulance crew members had to leave the vehicles for identification. Two PRCS staff were detained for over an hour, further delaying the mission. WHO staff saw one of them being made to kneel at gunpoint and then taken out of sight, where he was reportedly harassed, beaten, stripped and searched.
As the mission entered Gaza City, the aid truck carrying the medical supplies and one of the ambulances were hit by bullets.
On the way back towards southern Gaza, with the patients from Al-Ahli hospital on board, the convoy was again stopped at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, where PRCS staff and most of the patients had to leave the ambulances for security checks. Critical patients remaining in the ambulances were searched by armed soldiers.
One of the same two PRCS staff temporarily detained earlier on the way in was taken for interrogation a second time. The mission made numerous attempts to coordinate his release, but eventually – after more than two and a half hours – had to make the difficult decision to leave the highly dangerous area and proceed, for the safety and wellbeing of the patients and humanitarian workers. Palestine Red Crescent Society reported afterwards that during the transfer process one of the injured patients died as a result of his untreated wounds.
The PRCS staff member was released later that night after joint UN efforts. Yesterday, the WHO team met him, as well as his father, supervisor, and colleagues. He said he was harassed, beaten, threatened, stripped and blindfolded. His hands were tied behind his back and he was treated in a degrading and humiliating manner. Once released, he was left to walk towards the south with his hands still tied behind his back, and without clothes or shoes.
There has been political pushback in Israel after reported comments by Benjamin Netanyahu that the Oslo accords led to as many Israelis being killed as the attacks on 7 October did, it just happened over a more prolonged period of time.
It has been reported that at a foreign affairs and defence committee meeting, Netanyahu described the Oslo accords as “the original sin”.
Likud Knesset member Danny Danon is reported to have responded by saying “there is no place to compare, both because we are in the middle of a war, and because the events of that black Saturday happened in a number of hours, a number of killed and wounded that Israel has never seen since its founding”.
The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has been highly critical of Netanyahu on social media, saying:
The State of Israel is at war. We are all going from one funeral to the next, from shiva to shiva. The soldiers are fighting heroically. The heart breaks anew every morning in front of the pictures of those killed.
It is impossible to understand the level of disconnect and cynicism of the prime minister, who is conducting a wicked political campaign during wartime whose entire purpose is to absolve himself of responsibility, to accuse others, and to create hatred. The nation deserves alternative leadership.
Some observers believe that Netanyahu will be politically vulnerable after the war ends, as attention will turn to how the events of 7 October were allowed to happen under his watch.
Israel’s military has already said there were failures of intelligence gathering in the run-up to the surprise Hamas attack inside Israel which killed at least 1,200 people, and during which an estimated 240 people were seized and taken to Gaza as hostages.
The Oslo accords established the Palestinian National Authority, granting limited self-governance over patches of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Further negotiations were planned at the time.
Some prominent Palestinians regarded the accords as a form of surrender while rightwing Israelis opposed giving up settlements or territory. The political charge against Oslo was led by the future prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu himself.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said he was concerned about the prolonged checks of health convoys in the Gaza Strip and the detention of health workers there.
Reuters reports that in a post on social media, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a WHO-led mission to Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on Saturday was stopped twice at a checkpoint on the way to north Gaza and on the way back, and that some staff of the Palestine Red Crescent Society were detained on both occasions.
“We are deeply concerned about prolonged checks and detention of health workers that put lives of already fragile patients at risk,” Tedros said.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday has risen to four, the Palestinian health ministry has reported.
AFP reports the ministry did not provide further details on the fatalities, while the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said they were killed in a drone strike.
About 270 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire and settler attacks in the West Bank, Palestinian officials say, as violence has escalated in the territory since the outbreak of the war on 7 October.
An AFP photographer saw Israeli military vehicles entering Jenin refugee camp on Tuesday and a drone flying above.
Israeli forces “continue to storm Jenin camp and ambulance crews are prevented from entering to deal with medical cases without prior coordination”, the Red Crescent said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment on the killings from the Israeli military, which has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that 20 civilians were killed, and dozens more were injured, when Isreal bombed a number of homes in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. The Wafa correspondent there said that there were still missing people under the rubble.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Yemen’s Houthis have said that they carried out a military operation against a Norwegian commercial tanker.
The group targeted the tanker with a rocket after the crew refused to respond to warnings, Reuters reports Houthi military spokesperson Yehia Sareea said in a televised statement.
He added that the group had managed to obstruct the passage of several ships in recent days, acting in support of the Palestinians.
He vowed that the Houthis would continue blocking all ships heading to Israeli ports until Israel allows the entry of food and medical aid into the Gaza Strip.
It’s 9:01am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here are some of the latest developments:
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The UN general assembly is due to vote Tuesday on a non-binding resolution demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza – a call that the paralysed security council has so far failed to make.
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Israel has continued its bombing of Gaza as fierce fighting raged on Tuesday, with Hamas saying clashes had taken place in central Gaza and witnesses reporting deadly Israeli strikes in the south of the territory. Agence France-Press reports that strikes on Monday targeted Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis, now the centre of the fighting, as well as Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where tens of thousands of people are seeking shelter.
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Israel said it will open two additional checkpoints to examining relief supplies before dispatching them to the Palestinian territory through the Rafah gateway. No new direct crossings will be opened, Israel stressed on Monday, but the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom crossings will be used to carry out checks before sending the trucks through Rafah, Agence France-Presse reports.
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The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) has highlighted in its daily update the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza as the war continues. “Due to the overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions at UNRWA shelters in the south, there have been significant increases in some communicable diseases and conditions such as diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, skin infections and hygiene-related conditions like lice.”
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A land-based cruise missile launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen has struck a commercial tanker vessel, causing a fire and damage but no casualties, two US defence officials have told Reuters. The Iran-aligned Houthis have waded into the Israel-Gaza conflict – which has spread around the Middle East since the war erupted on 7 October, attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel itself.
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The US president, Joe Biden, hosted a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Monday night, vowing to continue to stand with Israel in its war with Hamas while saying that a “surge of antisemitism” around the globe is “sickening”. Reuters is reporting that in his speech, Biden alluded to the complex relationship he has with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, suggesting Netanyahu is in a “tough spot” and that the two have had their share of disagreements over the years and at present.
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Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallan, on Monday said the next phase of the war in Gaza would be lower-intensity fighting against “pockets of resistance” and would require Israeli troops to maintain their freedom of operation, according to the Associated Press. “That’s a sign the next phase has begun,” he said. He’s pushed back against international calls to wrap up the country’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the current phase of the operation against the Hamas militant group will “take time”. In a briefing with the Associated Press, Gallant refused to commit to any firm deadlines, but he signalled that the current phase, characterised by heavy ground fighting backed up by air power, could stretch on for weeks and that further military activity could continue for months.
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The White House said it was “concerned” over reports that Israel’s military is using white phosphorus bombs against target in Lebanon. At a morning briefing, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the national security council, said use of the highly incendiary substance could legally be used for a smokescreen to conceal military operations, but that the US would seek clarification from Israel about how stocks were being used.
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Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant gave a fleeting and noncommittal answer when asked at his Monday briefing about reports the country was using white phosphorus in military attacks. The Israel Defense Forces operate “according to international law”, he said.
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Gallant also said Israel had “no intention” of staying permanently in Gaza after the completion of its military campaign to eliminate Hamas. The country was open to discuss alternatives about who will control the territory as long as it is not a group hostile to Israel, he said, and would consider an agreement with Hezbollah in Lebanon if security guarantees were received.
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European leaders Leo Varadkar of Ireland, Pedro Sánchez of Spain, Robert Abela of Malta and Alexander De Croo of Belgium, wrote to the EU president, Charles Michel, calling for a discussion about a Gaza ceasefire at the union summit on 14 and 15 December. US network CNN said the letter expressed “alarm” over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza and questions Israel’s military campaign and its effect on the civilian population.
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The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry updated casualties since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October, stating that 18,205 Palestinians have been killed, and 49,645 injured. The reported death toll has risen by more than 500 in the two days from Saturday, when it stood at 17,700, the ministry said.
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Qatar has spoken with Israel to gauge interest in talks about a possible new pause in the fighting in Gaza, according to a journalist for Axios. The report directly contradicts the position of diplomats at the annual Doha Forum conference in Qatar, who have said they are not expecting any reopening of Gaza ceasefire talks for some weeks.
On the same night US president Joe Biden hosted a Hanukah reception at the White House, a protest took place outside by Jewish organisations calling for a ceasefire.
Here are some of the images from the event:
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) has also highlighted in its daily update the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza as the war continues:
Due to the overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions at UNRWA shelters in the south, there have been significant increases in some communicable diseases and conditions such as diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, skin infections and hygiene-related conditions like lice.
On average, UNRWA shelters located in the middle and southern areas are currently sheltering nine times the number of IDPs [internally displaced persons] as was planned for.
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