Closing summary
It’s now approaching 3 am in Israel and Gaza and we’re closing this live blog. In the meantime you can read our full report on the latest developments here and read all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict here.
In the meantime, here is a summary of the main developments:
The UK and Germany have called for a “sustainable” ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, warning that “too many civilians have been killed” by Israel in spite of its right to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas. In a significant shift in tone, the UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, in a joint article with the German foreign affairs minister, Annalena Baerbock, wrote: “Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations. We therefore support a ceasefire, but only if it is sustainable.
“There is a prolonged communications blackout across the Gaza strip that started on Thursday night and has continued over the past 48 hours,” the UNRWA said on Saturday. “Once again, Gazans find themselves completely isolated – cut off from their loved ones and from the rest of the world.”
Al Jazeera has instructed its legal team to refer the case of what it called “the assassination” of its journalist Samer Abudaqa to the International Criminal Court. In a statement released on Saturday, the network said: “In addition to the assassination of Abudaqa by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza strip, the legal file will also encompass recurrent attacks on the network’s crews working and operating in the occupied territories through killing or intentionally physical assault constitutes a war crime.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue Israel’s war in Gaza while mourning the accidental killing of three Israeli hostages by Israeli forces. Speaking at a press conference on Saturday about Yotam Haim, Samar Al Talalka and Alon Shamriz – the three hostages who were killed by Israeli forces – Netanyahu said that their deaths “broke the hearts of the nation” but vowed to “continue until victory”.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv in anger and frustration over the Israeli government’s handling of the hostage crisis. Many chanted “Deal now!” in calls for a deal to be agreed upon as soon as possible to rescue the remaining hostages.
A contractor working for the US Agency for International Development in Gaza was killed alongside his wife and two daughters in an Israeli airstrike in November, said his employer.“We are deeply saddened to confirm the tragic loss of our colleague, Hani Jnena (33), along with his family in Gaza, including his wife, Abeer (32), and their two young daughters, Mariam and Zayna, aged 4 and 2,” Reuters reports non-profit organization Global Communities as saying in a statement.
Two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli forces in separate incidents in the West Bank on Saturday, Reuters reports the Palestinian health ministry as saying. A 20-year-old man who was identified as Aziz Abdulrahim Elkhlail by the Palestinian news agency WAFA was shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Ummar. He later died from his injuries. Another 25-year-old man was killed by Israeli forces in the city of Tulkarm, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, has condemned the “smear campaigns that target Palestinians and those who provide aid to them”, saying that he is “horrified”. Speaking to reporters at the Global Refugee Forum, Lazzarini said: “This war is also fought on TV screens and on social media. It’s also a media war. I am horrified at the smear campaigns that target Palestinians and those who provide aid to them.”
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza where close to 19,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes while survivors grapple with shortages of food, water, fuel and medical supplies amid a deteriorating humanitarian crisis:
(These photos may be distressing to some viewers and include images of burns.)
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The Palestine Red Crescent Society has visited women displaced by Israeli strikes in shelters across Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
“During these visits, they provided health awareness services for pregnant women and those who recently gave birth, monitoring them in terms of breastfeeding, and proper nutrition for mothers, as well as measuring blood pressure and sugar levels for those dealing with chronic illnesses,” the PRCS said.
The PRCS community work team conducted visits to displaced women in shelters in #KhanYounis.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 16, 2023
📍During these visits, they provided health awareness services for pregnant women🤰and those who recently gave birth, monitoring them in terms of breastfeeding, and proper nutrition for… pic.twitter.com/HOJVlxHJKB
Here are some images of pro-Palestine rallies held across the world this weekend as demonstrators demanded for a ceasefire in Gaza where close to 19,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the last two months:
“There is a prolonged communications blackout across the Gaza strip that started on Thursday night and has continued over the past 48 hours,” the UNRWA said on Saturday.
“Once again, Gazans find themselves completely isolated – cut off from their loved ones and from the rest of the world,” it added.
There is a prolonged communications blackout across the📍#GazaStrip that started on Thursday night and has continued over the past 48 hours.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 16, 2023
Once again, Gazans find themselves completely isolated - cut off from their loved ones and from the rest of the world. pic.twitter.com/Qktp50U1GT
Since 7 October, Gaza has faced multiple total communications blackouts.
In November, Human Rights Watch reported:
The Israeli authorities’ actions have included damage to core communications infrastructure, cuts to electricity, fuel blockades, and apparently deliberate shutdowns through technical measures …
Shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks, Israeli authorities announced ‘a complete siege’ on Gaza, cutting off electricity and other basic necessities, acts that amount to unlawful collective punishment, a war crime. Lack of electricity puts Palestinian civilians at grave risk and contributes to communication blackouts. Gaza’s sole power plant ran out of fuel on October 11.
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Al Jazeera to refer 'the assassination' of its journalist in Gaza to International Criminal Court
Al Jazeera has instructed its legal team to refer the case of what it called “the assassination” of its journalist Samer Abudaqa to the International Criminal Court.
In a statement released on Saturday, the network said:
On Saturday, December 16, 2023, the network established a joint working group, which comprises of its international legal team and international legal experts who will collaboratively initiate the process of compiling a comprehensive file for submission to the court’s prosecutor.
In addition to the assassination of Abudaqa by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza strip, the legal file will also encompass recurrent attacks on the network’s crews working and operating in the occupied territories through killing or intentionally physical assault constitutes a war crime.
Al Jazeera instructs its legal team to urgently refer the case of Samer AbuDaqa’s assassination to the ICC prosecutor.
— Anealla (@anealla) December 16, 2023
The legal file will also encompass recurrent attacks and incitement against Al Jazeera crews in the occupied Palestinian territories. pic.twitter.com/41F3euDUbj
On Friday, Al Jazeera announced that Abudaqa was killed in an Israeli missile attack earlier that day.
The outlet reported that Abudaqa was working alongside its bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh, and that both were reporting at Farhana school in Khan Younis in southern Gaza when they were attacked by Israeli missiles.
Al Jazeera reported that Abudaqa was bleeding and trapped in the school for hours. He was unable to be reached by paramedics due to heavy Israeli shelling around the area.
Meanwhile, Dahdouh, who was hit by shrapnel on the upper arm, was able to reach Nasser hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries, Al Jazeera reported.
Dahdouh, whose wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October, had warned that Abudaqa was “critically injured”.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Tel Aviv, where protesters took to the streets in frustration and called on the Israeli government to secure the immediate release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas:
Updated
Hundreds rally in Tel Aviv over hostage release as Benjamin Netanyahu vows to continue war in Gaza
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue Israel’s war in Gaza while mourning the accidental killing of three Israeli hostages by Israeli forces.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday about Yotam Haim, Samar Al Talalka and Alon Shamriz – the three hostages who were killed by Israeli forces – Netanyahu said that their deaths “broke the hearts of the nation” but vowed to “continue until victory”, the Times of Israel reports.
“If only something had been different … we were so close to embracing them,” said Netanyahu, adding: “But we can’t turn back the clock … We will learn the lessons.”
Following the killings of the three hostages, initial reports have revealed that one of the hostages was carrying a makeshift white flag.
Netanyahu said that Israel will continue working on securing the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. “Only military pressure” secured the release of hostages during last month’s truce with Hamas, Netanyahu said, the Times of Israel reports.
At the same press conference, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said that he takes full responsibility for yesterday’s incident. “This is one of the most tragic incidents I have ever known,” he added.
Meanwhile, hundreds of protestors took to the streets in Tel Aviv in anger and frustration over the Israeli government’s handling of the hostage crisis. Many chanted “Deal now!” in calls for a deal to be agreed upon as soon as possible to rescue the remaining hostages.
Updated
Unicef said on Saturday that children in Gaza “need an immediate, long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire”, adding that Gaza is the “most dangerous place in the world to be a child”.
Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) December 16, 2023
Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble.
Children need an immediate, long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire. Now. pic.twitter.com/GfNXCEy3fN
Approximately 8,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the last two months.
Mental health experts in Gaza have routinely said that there is no such thing as post-traumatic stress disorder for children as the trauma across what human rights groups have condemned as an “open-air prison” has remained constant over the last two decades.
Updated
Teams from the Palestine Red Crescent Society are working on setting up the Qatari field hospital in Rafah in collaboration with the Qatari Red Crescent Society.
The hospital will include 50 beds, an operating room and an intensive care unit.
The Palestinian Red Crescent teams continue working on establishing the Qatari field hospital 🇶🇦in #Rafah, in collaboration with the @QRCS, which will provide healthcare services to thousands of displaced individuals in south of #Gaza.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 16, 2023
📍The hospital, expected to resume… pic.twitter.com/vghAtOdAOw
USAid contractor killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrike, says employer
A contractor working for the US Agency for International Development in Gaza was killed alongside his wife and two daughters in an Israeli airstrike in November, said his employer.
Reuters reports:
“‘We are deeply saddened to confirm the tragic loss of our colleague, Hani Jnena (33), along with his family in Gaza, including his wife, Abeer (32), and their two young daughters, Mariam and Zayna, aged 4 and 2,’ non-profit organization Global Communities, which partners with governments and private sector entities for humanitarian work, said in a statement.
‘Based on the information currently available to us, the young family was killed on Sunday, November 5, during an Israeli air strike in the Al Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City at the residence of Hani’s in-laws,’ the statement added.
The family had recently sought safety there after fleeing air strikes in their own neighborhood of Al Sheikh in Gaza City, Global Communities said, adding his in-laws were killed as well.
In his final message, which was sent on Oct. 10, Jnena wrote: ‘My daughters are terrified, and I am trying to keep them calm, but this bombing is terrifying,’ according to the statement from his employer.
Jnena was a member of the non-profit’s IT team in Gaza and was known for ‘his kindness and commitment to delivering essential IT services in challenging conditions,’ Global Communities said.
Updated
Gaza hunger crisis 'something completely new', says UNRWA chief
In a new interview with the New Statesman, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned that Gazans “could start dying of hunger” amid a deteriorating humanitarian crisis as a result of Israel’s attacks across the strip.
Lazzarini told the outlet:
The [UN’s] World Food Programme is extremely worried that we are now going into starvation. What I can tell you is I saw first hand that people are hungry. This is something completely new in Gaza. We never saw it in previous conflicts.
People are really talking about hunger. I would not be surprised if people indeed start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity.
Updated
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has released a statement surrounding the accidental killings of three Israeli hostages by the Israeli forces.
Cair’s national communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, said:
The killing of unarmed, shirtless Israelis waving a white flag is deadly confirmation that Israeli troops are shooting anything that moves in Gaza …
Despite the daily evidence of the far-right Israeli government’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza, our nation continues to rush taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel to accelerate the slaughter – even bypassing congressional approval to do so.
Updated
As crowds gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest the handling of the hostage crisis and Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in it, former hostage Raz Ben Ami said he had warned the war cabinet of the risk to hostages.
“Ten days ago I warned cabinet members that the fighting could harm the hostages. Unfortunately I was right. Military action alone will not save their lives. Israel must lay out another round of cycles to release the hostages,” he said.
As Netanyahu huddled inside the Kirya with his war cabinet, protesters outside accused him of betraying Israel.
“He promised to bring down Hamas in 2008 and 2012,” said one speaker outside the military headquarters. “He is a traitor and Likud [Netanyahu’s party] is waking up,” the speaker added.
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Palestinian health ministry: two Palestinian men killed by Israeli forces in West Bank
Two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli forces in separate incidents in the West Bank on Saturday, Reuters reports the Palestinian health ministry saying.
A 20-year-old man who was identified as Aziz Abdulrahim Elkhlail by the Palestinian news agency WAFA was shot in the abdomen by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Ummar. He later died from his injuries.
Another 25-year-old man was killed by Israeli forces in the city of Tulkarm, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Saturday’s killings bring the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank to 290 since 7 October.
Updated
The Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem has released a statement on the two Christian women who were killed in attacks by the Israeli forces on a church in Gaza on Saturday, saying that they were “shot in cold blood”.
It said:
Around noon today … a sniper of the IDF murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families has taken refuge since the start of the war. Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others inside the church compound. No warning was given, no notification was provided. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents …
Together in prayer with the whole Christian community, we express our closeness and condolences to the families affected by this senseless tragedy. At the same time, we cannot but express that we are at a loss to comprehend how such an attack could be carried out, even more so as the whole church prepares for Christmas.
Statement by the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem on the shooting and killing of two women in the Catholic church in Gaza. When will this end? Enough. pic.twitter.com/4JSht3SHE7
— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) December 16, 2023
Updated
The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, has released a statement on the accidental killings of the three Israeli hostages, saying: “We all embrace at this time the families whose worlds were destroyed, and mourn with them in their endless loss.”
Herzog added:
Together with them, we also embrace all the families of the abducted and the abductees who are in the middle of a continuous and shaking nightmare, and pledge to continue and do as much as possible to return them home.
The righteousness of the way is clear and does not change for a moment. The tasks are clear: the return of the abductees and the restoration of security to all Israeli citizens.
He went on to say that the IDF commanders and the chief of staff are leading a “comprehensive investigation of the tragedy with full responsibility and transparency”.
האירוע הטראגי בו נהרגו יותם חיים, סאמר טלאלקה ואלון שמריז מותיר אותנו הלומי כאב וצער. כולנו מחבקים בשעה הזאת את המשפחות שעולמן חרב עליהן, ואבלים איתן ביגונן שאין לו סוף. יחד איתן אנו מחבקים גם את כלל משפחות החטופות והחטופים שנמצאות בתוך סיוט מתמשך ומטלטל, ומתחייבים להמשיך ולעשות…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) December 16, 2023
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UNRWA chief 'horrified at the smear campaigns that target Palestinians'
Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, has condemned the “smear campaigns that target Palestinians and those who provide aid to them”, saying that he is “horrified”.
Speaking to reporters at the Global Refugee Forum, Lazzarini said:
This war is also fought on TV screens and on social media. It’s also a media war. I am horrified at the smear campaigns that target Palestinians and those who provide aid to them …
I am asking you to help us push back against misinformation and inaccuracies. I know that some of you are constantly doing fact-checking but fact-checking is absolutely key if we want accurate information.”
"I am horrified at the smear campaigns that target Palestinians and those who provide aid to them."@UNLazzarini: As Commissioner General of @UNRWA, I have experienced this more than once, since our Agency is also one of the targets in this war. pic.twitter.com/mPFrSZ3ZOp
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 16, 2023
Updated
Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes in Gaza have been forced to burn solid waste in attempts to cook and stay warm, in turn prompting health concerns about the resulting air pollution.
The Guardian’s Kaamil Ahmed reports:
Wherever trees have been left standing in Gaza, they are being chopped down for fuel. When wood – furniture and doors included – cannot be found, Gaza’s residents burn waste.
To cook or heat themselves, people in the Palestinian enclave are burning what they can find in crude stoves they have made of clay, scrap metal or loose bricks to replace kitchen cookers or gas stoves. Israel’s siege means it is no longer possible for people to find gas.
But finding fuel is a difficult task – it can take hours to find a tree to cut and transport home – and comes with health concerns about the smoke released, especially as so many are living in overcrowded conditions.
According to the World Food Progamme, 70% of displaced people in southern Gaza rely on firewood for fuel, but the number of those with no fuel at all has doubled over the past two weeks to 15%.
For the full story, click here:
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In the UK, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have gathered again this weekend to call for an end to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Organisers Stop the War Coalition listed 57 pro-Palestinian events across UK on Saturday, including assemblies and candlelit vigils.
There is growing international concern about the Israeli operation in the region.
Updated
Three Israeli hostages killed by the Israel Defence Forces in Gaza were bare-chested and carrying a white flag when they were shot, according to an initial military investigation.
The killing of the three men – who were kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October during its assault on southern Israel – has triggered widespread anger and incredulity in Israel amid a mounting sense of anxiety over the safety of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
According to reports of the IDF probe in the Israeli media, the three men, Yotam Haim, Samer El-Talalka and Alon Shamriz – all in their 20s – had somehow escaped their captors and were approaching an IDF position in the Shejaiya area of Gaza City, where there has been heavy fighting.
One of the men was carrying a stick with a white cloth tied to it and all had removed their shirts. Spotting the three, an Israeli soldier on a rooftop, however, opened fire on the men, shouting: “Terrorists!”
While two of the hostages fell to the ground immediately, the third fled into a nearby building. When a commander arrived on the scene, the unit was ordered into the building where it killed the third hostage despite his pleas for help in Hebrew.
It also emerged that the IDF had identified a nearby building marked with “SOS” and “Help! Three hostages” two days earlier but had believed it might be a trap.
As the first details of the killing were released by the IDF on Friday night, after most Israelis had begun to mark Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, a hastily called demonstration converged on the Kirya, Israel’s sprawling military headquarters compound in Tel Aviv.
Updated
The cousin of Samer al-Talalka, one of the Israeli hostages killed by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), has called for an end to the war.
About 300 people turned out to mourn al-Talalka, 25, at his funeral on Saturday in his home town of Hura, in southern Israel.
His cousin, Alaa al-Talalka, told Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan: “We had so many hopes, expectations, that he would come back to us.”
“We’re not going to start pointing fingers, who is guilty and who is not. It is just not the time,” al-Talalka said. “The families are thinking only of how to bring the hostages back alive. This is the time to ask for the war to end,” he said.
Updated
Mourners and relatives gather around the body of the Palestinian journalist Samer Abu Daqqa outside Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.
Daqqa, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, was killed, and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent, Wael al-Dahdouh, was wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza, the network has said.
Updated
Afternoon summary
An initial IDF probe into the hostage-killing incident suggests all three men were shirtless, with one carrying a makeshift white flag. On seeing them, one Israeli soldier shouted “terrorists!” to the other forces, initiating fire at the men, according to reports. While two hostages were hit immediately and fell to the ground, the third managed to escape into a nearby building where despite pleas in Hebrew, he was also shot and killed, a military official said.
A soldier saw the hostages emerging tens of metres from Israeli forces in the area of Shejaiya, the official said. “They’re all without shirts and they have a stick with a white cloth on it. The soldier feels threatened and opens fire. He declares that they’re terrorists, they (forces) open fire, two are killed immediately,” said the military official. The third hostage was wounded and retreated into a nearby building where he called for help in Hebrew, the official said. “Immediately the battalion commander issues a ceasefire order, but again there’s another burst of fire towards the third figure and he also dies,” said the official. “This was against our rules of engagement,” he added.
The military on Friday identified the three hostages as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, abducted from the Kfar Aza kibbutz, and Samer Talalka, abducted from nearby Nir Am kibbutz, all kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.
The British defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said on Saturday that a navy ship, HMS Diamond, shot down a suspected attack drone targeting merchant shipping in the Red Sea. “HMS Diamond shot down a suspected attack drone which was targeting merchant shipping in the Red Sea,” Shapps said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “One Sea Viper missile was fired and successfully destroyed the target.”
The attack drone was shot down just hours after two of the world’s largest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, said they had suspended passage through the Red Sea strait, a vital crossing for global commerce. The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally, say they are targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its two-month-old war with Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. A senior official from Yemen’s Houthis had warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling towards Israel and the occupied territories, after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday in airstrikes by Israel, Palestinian media said, after the US urged Israel to scale down its military campaign and narrowly target Hamas leaders. At least 14 people died from airstrikes that hit two houses on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia and dozens more were killed in a separate airstrike that hit another home in Jabalia, according to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Iran’s official Irna news agency has reported that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran’s south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Reuters quotes the news agency as saying: “This person communicated with foreign services, including Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad.”
Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp. The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions”. The security camera videos show two Israeli military vehicles pursuing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. One man, who appears to be holding a red canister, is gunned down by soldiers. B’Tselem identified the man as 25-year-old Rami Jundob.
An Al Jazeera cameraman has been killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza, the network has said. Cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh had gone to Farhana school in the southern city of Khan Younis after it was hit by a strike earlier in the day. While they were there, an Israeli drone hit the school with a second strike, the broadcaster said.
Egyptian air defence shot down a suspected drone off the Red Sea coast near the resort town of Dahab on Egypt’s eastern Sinai coast, two security sources said. The security sources said the drone’s origin was unknown, Reuters reported. Witnesses in Dahab said they saw an object fall into the water. They said they saw another flying object fall in the nearby mountains.
A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery on Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had increased in recent days. Internet and telephone lines went down on Thursday evening and were still inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel’s war against Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.
Israel’s insistence to the Biden administration that it needs more time to defeat Hamas has raised questions over the level of damage inflicted on the Islamist militant organisation, and whether it is changing tactics in its fight against the Israel Defense Forces. In a week in which nine Israeli soldiers were killed, including two senior commanders and several other officers in a single complex ambush in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, analysts and commentators have begun to question previously bullish assessments about Hamas’s ability to fight.
The US should back the UN security council’s action to protect Gaza’s civilians, Human Rights Watch has said. HRW’s UN director, Louis Charbonneau, said on Friday that the US should act at the UN security council to “pressure Israel, as well as Palestinian armed groups, to comply with international humanitarian law and protect civilians”.
The German airline carrier Lufthansa has said it will resume flights to Tel Aviv starting on 8 January. In a statement released on Friday, Lufthansa said: “In a first phase, Lufthansa Airlines will initially offer four weekly flights from Frankfurt and three weekly flights from Munich. Austrian Airlines is planning eight weekly connections and SWISS five weekly flights.”
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told the Global Refugee Forum that what continued to shock him was the “ever increasing level of dehumanisation” with the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini said: “The fact that people can laugh, cheer and mock any type of wrongdoing that we observe in this war, when in fact what is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink our values… This is also a make or break moment for all of us and for our shared humanity.”
Updated
Some more detail has emerged about the three Israeli hostages killed mistakenly in Gaza by Israeli forces.
They had been holding up a white flag, according to an initial inquiry into the incident, a military official said on Saturday.
The incident happened in an area of intense combat, where Hamas militants operate in civilian attire and use deception tactics, the official said.
A soldier saw the hostages emerging tens of metres from Israeli forces in the area of Shejaiya, the official said.
“They’re all without shirts and they have a stick with a white cloth on it. The soldier feels threatened and opens fire. He declares that they’re terrorists, they (forces) open fire, two are killed immediately,” said the military official.
The third hostage was wounded and retreated into a nearby building where he called for help in Hebrew, the official said.
“Immediately the battalion commander issues a ceasefire order, but again there’s another burst of fire towards the third figure and he also dies,” said the official. “This was against our rules of engagement,” he added.
The military on Friday identified the three hostages as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, abducted from the Kfar Aza kibbutz, and Samer Talalka, abducted from nearby Nir Am kibbutz, all kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.
Updated
Israel’s insistence to the Biden administration that it needs more time to defeat Hamas has raised questions over the level of damage inflicted on the Islamist militant organisation, and whether it is changing tactics in its fight against the Israel Defense Forces.
In a week in which nine Israeli soldiers were killed, including two senior commanders and several other officers in a single complex ambush in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, analysts and commentators have begun to question previously bullish assessments about Hamas’s ability to fight.
While the IDF and Israeli media have made much of images of Hamas fighters surrendering and the forces claimed to have killed several thousand Hamas militants, the public language from some senior political and military figures has become more cautious.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, has been among those who have alluded to the difficulties in destroying Hamas in comments made to Joe Biden’s national security adviser this week.
“Hamas is a terrorist organisation that built itself over a decade to fight Israel, and they built infrastructure under the ground and above the ground and it is not easy to destroy them,” Gallant said. “It will require a period of time – it will last more than several months, but we will win and we will destroy them.”
Gallant’s comments were echoed by Aharon Haliva, the IDF’s intelligence director, who said that he believed that the war against Hamas would take many more months.
Israeli hostages killed mistakenly in Gaza were holding white flag, official says
An initial IDF probe into the hostage killing incident suggests all three men were shirtless, with one carrying a makeshift white flag.
On seeing them, one Israeli soldier shouted “terrorists!” to the other forces, initiating fire at the men, according to reports.
While two hostages were hit immediately and fell to the ground, the third managed to escape into a nearby building where despite pleas in Hebrew, he was also shot and killed, a military official said.
Updated
The attack drone was shot down just hours after two of the world’s largest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, said they had suspended passage through the Red Sea strait, a vital crossing for global commerce.
The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally, say they are targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its two-month-old war with Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
The maritime tensions have added to fears that the Gaza conflict could spread.
A senior official from Yemen’s Houthis had warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling towards Israel and the occupied territories, after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker.
Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, the head of Yemen’s Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said ships should avoid heading towards Israel and that any that pass Yemen should keep their radios turned on and quickly respond to Houthi attempts at communication.
He also warned cargo ships against “falsifying their identity” or raising flags different to that of the country of the shipowner.
In solidarity with Palestinians under attack from Israel in Gaza, the Houthis are using their control of Yemen’s western seaboard, including ports such as Hodeidah, to mount attacks on what they regard as shipping linked to Israel.
They said they would target all ships heading to Israel, regardless of their nationality, and warned international shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports.
UK says it has shot down a drone targeting merchant ships in the Red Sea
The British defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said on Saturday that a navy ship, HMS Diamond, shot down a suspected attack drone targeting merchant shipping in the Red Sea.
“HMS Diamond shot down a suspected attack drone which was targeting merchant shipping in the Red Sea,” Shapps said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“One Sea Viper missile was fired and successfully destroyed the target.”
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Wherever trees have been left standing in Gaza, they are being chopped down for fuel. When wood – furniture and doors included – cannot be found, Gaza’s residents burn waste.
To cook or heat themselves, people in the Palestinian enclave are burning what they can find in crude stoves they have made of clay, scrap metal or loose bricks to replace kitchen cookers or gas stoves. Israel’s siege means it is no longer possible for people to find gas.
But finding fuel is a difficult task – it can take hours to find a tree to cut and transport home – and comes with health concerns about the smoke released, especially as so many are living in overcrowded conditions.
According to the World Food Progamme, 70% of displaced people in southern Gaza rely on firewood for fuel, but the number of those with no fuel at all has doubled over the past two weeks to 15%.
Nazmi Mwafi, a 23-year-old who uses social media app Snapchat to send out daily updates from Gaza, said finding wood for fuel in the colder weather is one of the biggest preoccupations people now have, and has been made more difficult by the dwindling number of trees.
“We cut any tree [we find], there’s no specific type. We use it to cook, to eat, we heat water with it to wash and to drink. So it’s a big task to go and get the wood,” said Mwafi.
“We go to the woods but it’s a very far distance to travel. It takes you hours, because you have to cut the trees, then you have to drag them a long way through sandy land until you reach a main road.”
Egyptian air defence shot down a suspected drone off the Red Sea coast near the resort town of Dahab on Egypt’s eastern Sinai coast, two security sources said.
The security sources said the drone’s origin was unknown, Reuters reported.
Witnesses in Dahab said they saw an object fall into the water. They said they saw another flying object fall in the nearby mountains.
In late October, drones caused explosions that rocked two other Red Sea towns, which Israel said Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi movement sent them to strike its territory.
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Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.
The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions”.
The security camera videos show two Israeli military vehicles pursuing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. One man, who appears to be holding a red canister, is gunned down by soldiers. B’Tselem identified the man as 25-year-old Rami Jundob.
The military Jeep then approaches Jundob as he lies bleeding on the ground and fires multiple shots at him until he is still. Soldiers then approach a man identified by B’Tselem as 36-year-old Thaar Shahin as he cowers underneath the hood of a car. They shoot at him from close range.
B’Tselem said that Shahin was killed instantly and Jundob died of his wounds the next day.
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A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery on Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had spiralled in recent days.
Internet and telephone lines went down on Thursday evening and were still inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel’s war against Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.
“The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident,” in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group’s director.
The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were “severely disrupted” due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south, according to an AP report.
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More is in on Iran’s official Irna news agency reporting that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran.
Reuters reports the news agency said the person, who it did not name, “communicated with foreign services, specifically Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad”.
Irna said the accused had handed classified information to a “Mossad officer” with the aim of “propaganda for groups and organisations opposed to the Islamic Republic”.
It did not say where the alleged handover had taken place.
It was not clear when the person was arrested, but Irna said an appeal had been rejected.
The execution, which took place in a Zahedan jail in south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, came a day after Baluch militants attacked a police station in the province, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several others.
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Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza, Palestinian reports say
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday in airstrikes by Israel, Palestinian media said, after the US urged Israel to scale down its military campaign and narrowly target Hamas leaders.
At least 14 people died from airstrikes that hit two houses on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia and dozens more were killed in a separate airstrike that hit another home in Jabalia, according to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Reuters reports that Wafa also said a large number of civilians were trapped under rubble.
With intense ground fighting across the length of the Gaza Strip and aid organisations warning of a humanitarian catastrophe, the US has warned that Israel risks losing international support because of “indiscriminate” airstrikes killing Palestinian civilians.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, visiting Israel on Thursday and Friday, carried a message to Israel to scale down the broad military campaign and transition to more narrowly targeted operations against Hamas leaders, US officials said.
During Sullivan’s visit, Israeli officials publicly emphasised that they would continue the war until they achieve their aim of eradicating Hamas, which may take months.
Washington hinted on Friday at disagreement with Israel over how quickly to scale down the war, with Sullivan saying the timing was the subject of “intensive discussion” between the allies.
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Al Jazeera cameraman's death in Israeli strike prompts call for inquiry
An Al Jazeera cameraman has been killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza, the network has said.
Cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh had gone to Farhana school in the southern city of Khan Younis after it was hit by a strike earlier in the day. While they were there, an Israeli drone hit the school with a second strike, the broadcaster said.
“The network holds Israel accountable for systematically targeting and killing their journalists and their families,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.
Following Samer’s injury he was left to bleed to death for over five hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment.
Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his upper arm and managed to reach Nasser hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries, the network reported. The correspondent – whose wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October – said the Al Jazeera crew had been accompanying civil defence rescuers.
Al Jazeera’s managing editor, Mohamed Moawad, paid tribute to the cameraman on X (formerly Twitter), saying:
His unwavering commitment to truth and storytelling has left an indelible mark on our team.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told a general assembly meeting on the war that Israel “targets those who could document [their] crimes and inform the world, the journalists”.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Abu Daqqa is the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted between Hamas and Israel – 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese journalists.
The CPJ called on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the incident “to hold the perpetrators to account”.
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Iran says 'Mossad agent' executed
Iran’s official Irna news agency has reported that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran’s south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Reuters quotes the news agency as saying:
This person communicated with foreign services, including Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad.
Irna did not name the person.
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Iran has executed an “agent of Israel’s Mossad” intelligence service, Reuters has reported in a quick snap, citing Iranian media.
More on that as it emerges.
Protests in Tel Aviv after military admits killing three hostages by mistake
Israel on Saturday mourned the deaths of three Gaza hostages killed when troops mistook them for a threat, with the military expressing remorse over a “tragic” incident that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Israeli army said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during operations in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The three were among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October raids into Israel, which also killed an estimated 1,200 people.
Israel Defense Forces spokesprtson, Daniel Hagari, said:
During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result fired toward them and the hostages were killed.
The IDF expresses deep sorrow regarding this disaster and shares in the grief of the families.
Their bodies were transferred to Israel, and on examination were confirmed as being Haim, a 28-year-old heavy metal drummer, 25-year-old Bedouin man El-Talalqa and Shamriz, 26.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy”. “All of Israel is grieving their loss,” he said, while the White House called it a “tragic mistake”.
As news of the incident spread late on Friday, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of more than 130 hostages Israel believes to still being held in Hamas-ruled territory.
The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards. One message read:
Every day, a hostage dies.
Merav Svirsky, sister of Hamas-held hostage Itay Svirsky, said:
I am dying of fear. We demand a deal now.
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Opening summary
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. My name is Adam Fulton and here’s a rundown of the latest news.
Israel has said its troops killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for a threat, with the armed forces expressing “deep remorse” over a “tragic incident” that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during fighting in Gaza City.
Hundreds of people later marched in Tel Aviv and gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in protest, displaying placards with the faces of some of more than 130 people Israel believes to still be held by Hamas in Gaza and calling for their immediate release.
Meanwhile, an Al Jazeera cameraman was killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the territory, the network has said.
The cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, was “left to bleed to death for over five hours as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him”, it said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the incident “to hold the perpetrators to account”.
More on those stories soon. In other developments as it turns 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, mourned the three hostages killed by Israeli forces by mistake, saying on X (formerly Twitter): “Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the fall of three of our dear sons who were kidnapped.”
Israel reopened an aid crossing into the Gaza Strip on Friday after earlier approving the “temporary measure”. Netanyahu’s office said after weeks of pressure that the aid would be allowed to be delivered directly to Gaza through its Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Two of the world’s largest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, have said they are suspending passage through a Red Sea strait vital for global commerce after Yemeni rebel attacks in the area. The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally, say they are targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its war in Gaza.
The US should back the UN security council’s action to protect Gaza’s civilians, Human Rights Watch has said. HRW’s UN director, Louis Charbonneau, said on Friday that the US should act at the UN security council to “pressure Israel, as well as Palestinian armed groups, to comply with international humanitarian law and protect civilians”.
The German airline carrier Lufthansa has said it will resume flights to Tel Aviv starting on 8 January. In a statement released on Friday, Lufthansa said: “In a first phase, Lufthansa Airlines will initially offer four weekly flights from Frankfurt and three weekly flights from Munich. Austrian Airlines is planning eight weekly connections and SWISS five weekly flights.”
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told the Global Refugee Forum that what continued to shock him was the “ever increasing level of dehumanisation” with the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini said: “The fact that people can laugh, cheer and mock any type of wrongdoing that we observe in this war, when in fact what is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink our values… This is also a make or break moment for all of us and for our shared humanity.”
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