Summary of the day so far
It’s 3:14am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and this blog is now closing. But first, here is a summary of the latest developments:
The UN security council has postponed a vote calling for a sustainable cessation of hostilities in Gaza to give more time to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The vote was due on Monday mid afternoon in New York but the US said it could not support a reference to a cessation of hostilities, but might accept suspension of hostilities.
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has announced the creation of a multinational operation in the Red Sea after a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. Austin, on a trip to Bahrain after talks in Tel Aviv earlier on Monday, said countries participating in the US-led initiative include the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.
Yemen’s Houthis were behind two more attacks against commercial shipping in the Southern Red Sea, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Tuesday. Reuters news agency is reporting the cost of shipping goods to Israel by sea has risen in recent days as some container lines pull out while others impose new surcharges.
BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after a step-up in attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants. The British oil company said it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East. BP becomes the first oil company to directly halt its own shipping, after five big shipping firms stopped their vessels passing through the waters between Asia and Africa that connect Asia and Europe.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. The discussions focused on Israel shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders, the US official said.
The US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was still not imposing a timetable despite international calls for a ceasefire. “This is Israel’s operation. I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms.”, Austin said.
Israeli forces have forced displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City to evacuate the facility and arrested medical staff, according to reports. Richard Sewell, the dean of the Anglican-run St George’s College in Jerusalem, said most of the hospital’s staff have been detained, while medical sources told Al Jazeera that the hospital is now out of service.
At least 19,453 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the latest tally by the territory’s health ministry on Monday. 52,286 people have been injured, it said. Meanwhile, four Palestinians have been killed on Monday in the Faraa refugee camp, south of the West Bank city of Tubas, in an Israeli military raid, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, has released a video of three elderly Israeli men being held hostage in Gaza. One man said he was being held in harsh conditions with other elderly hostages suffering chronic illnesses. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the video was “atrocious terror” that “shows the cruelty of Hamas against elderly civilians.”
The Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency on Monday to discuss a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to reports. But a Palestinian source familiar with the talks told the BBC that negotiations over a new temporary ceasefire “haven’t begun yet”.
The US has raised concerns with Israel after a mother and daughter were allegedly killed by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City, the White House said. The two women were killed inside the Holy Family parish in Gaza City on Saturday, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Most of Gaza’s Christian families have taken refuge in the compound since the start of the war. The most senior Catholic cleric in England said the shooting was a “cold–blooded killing” that did “nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself”. The IDF has appeared to deny responsibility for the deaths.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas militants. “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip,” HRW said in a report. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime.”
British foreign minister David Cameron will call for increased coordination between allies to address the “desperate” humanitarian situation in Gaza during a visit to Paris and Rome on Tuesday, his office said.
The UK Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has joined the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as the political rhetoric continued to shift away from unqualified support for Israel’s assault in line with moves from the US and others.
Updated
Yemen’s Houthis were behind two attacks against commercial shipping in the Southern Red Sea, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Tuesday.
The chemical/oil tanker motor vessel SWAN ATLANTIC was attacked by a one-way attack drone and an anti-ship ballistic missile launched from a Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen … At approximately the same time, the bulk cargo ship M/V CLARA reported an explosion in the water near their location.
This attack is separate from the attack on the M/V SWAN ATLANTIC
There were no injuries reported during either incident, CENTCOM said.
Earlier, the US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, announced the creation of a multinational operation in the Red Sea after a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
Meanwhile, Reuters news agency is reporting the cost of shipping goods to Israel by sea has risen in recent days as some container lines pull out while others impose new surcharges, adding to the country’s supply chain pressures amid its war in Gaza.
Israel, whose economy relies on seaborne trade, said in October it would provide compensation for ships damaged due to the war with Hamas, although it has not detailed whether it will cover additional shipping costs.
British foreign minister David Cameron will call for increased coordination between allies to address the “desperate” humanitarian situation in Gaza during a visit to Paris and Rome on Tuesday, his office said.
David Cameron is a former British prime minister who took over the foreign secretary role about a month ago. He said in a statement:
From the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza, to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s brutality in Ukraine, it is more important than ever to strengthen our alliances and make sure our voice is heard
President Emmanuel Macron’s office has said the leaders will discuss Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East, Reuters reports.
Cameron will reiterate his call for a “sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, and for increased coordination across European allies to ensure humanitarian aid can get into the enclave, the statement added.
There has been growing concern among foreign governments and international organisations over the civilian death toll in Gaza from Israeli bombardments.
The Israel Defence Forces has posted on X in the last couple of hours a video statement referencing the shooting in Gaza of hostages by mistake, which was announced on Friday. In the video the IDF outlines its view of the challenges of fighting Hamas in Gaza and says that they “conduct our operations as carefully and as professionally as possible”. The video also references how “deviations” from that are investigated.
Israel has come under increasing pressure to protect civilians as well as speed up the delivery of aid to Gaza.
"We do our best to conduct our operations as carefully and as professionally as possible...there may be deviations that require further examination. The IDF has a robust system for doing so, and it starts with the IDF’s General Staff Fact Finding and Assessment Mechanism."
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 18, 2023
Watch… pic.twitter.com/NRHO1m0Q9q
The US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was still not imposing a timetable despite international calls for a ceasefire.
The head of the CIA jetted to Europe for talks with Israeli and Qatari officials on Monday, sounding out the potential for a deal on a new ceasefire.
Neither side elaborated on what needed to change on the ground for a shift to more precise operations after weeks of devastating bombardment and a ground offensive, Associated Press reports.
After talks with Israeli officials Austin said:
This is Israel’s operation. I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will keep fighting until it ends Hamas rule in Gaza.
On the possibility of another ceasefire, national security council spokesperson John Kirby said the talks were not “at a point where another deal is imminent.”
Reged Ahmad here picking up the blog from Leonie Chao-Fong
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has released its latest update on the situation in Gaza.
Here is what they say about the amount of aid getting into Gaza, both medical and other supplies:
On 16 December, a convoy operated by the World Health Organization (WHO), departing from Rafah, managed to deliver medical supplies for about 500 people in Shifa Hospital, in Gaza city. This is the third humanitarian convoy that has managed to access north Gaza since the end of the humanitarian pause on 1 December. According to the Director-General of WHO, “Gaza’s largest hospital is at the moment able to provide limited trauma stabilization and some dialysis support. Surgery is not yet possible; the hospital has no blood for transfusion, and hardly any staff to care for the constant flow of patients. The hospital needs sustained supplies of medicines, equipment, water, food, fuel, and additional human resources.”
On 16 December, 121 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies and four tankers of fuel entered Gaza, based on initial reports as of 22:00. This is well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel and private sector goods) that entered every working day prior to 7 October.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Israeli forces have forced displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City to evacuate the facility and arrested medical staff, according to reports. Richard Sewell, the dean of the Anglican-run St George’s College in Jerusalem, said most of the hospital’s staff have been detained, while medical sources told Al Jazeera that the hospital is now out of service.
The UN security council has postponed a vote calling for a sustainable cessation of hostilities in Gaza to give more time to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The vote was due on Monday mid afternoon in New York but the US said it could not support a reference to a cessation of hostilities, but might accept suspension of hostilities.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. The discussions focused on Israel shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders, the US official said.
At least 19,453 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the latest tally by the territory’s health ministry on Monday. 52,286 people have been injured, it said. Meanwhile, four Palestinians have been killed on Monday in the Faraa refugee camp, south of the West Bank city of Tubas, in an Israeli military raid, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, has released a video of three elderly Israeli men being held hostage in Gaza. One man said he was being held in harsh conditions with other elderly hostages suffering chronic illnesses. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the video was “atrocious terror” that “shows the cruelty of Hamas against elderly civilians.”
The Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency on Monday to discuss a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to reports. But a Palestinian source familiar with the talks told the BBC that negotiations over a new temporary ceasefire “haven’t begun yet”.
The US has raised concerns with Israel after a mother and daughter were allegedly killed by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City, the White House said. The two women were killed inside the Holy Family parish in Gaza City on Saturday, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Most of Gaza’s Christian families have taken refuge in the compound since the start of the war. The most senior Catholic cleric in England said the shooting was a “cold–blooded killing” that did “nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself”. The IDF has appeared to deny responsibility for the deaths.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas militants. “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip,” HRW said in a report. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime.”
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has announced the creation of a multinational operation in the Red Sea following a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. Austin, on a trip to Bahrain after talks in Tel Aviv earlier on Monday, said countries participating in the US-led initiative include the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.
BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after a step-up in attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants. The British oil company said it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East. BP becomes the first oil company to directly halt its own shipping, after five big shipping firms stopped their vessels passing through the waters between Asia and Africa that connect Asia and Europe.
The UK Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has joined the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as the political rhetoric continued to shift away from unqualified support for Israel’s assault in line with moves from the US and others.
Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon who worked at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza for the first weeks of the war, has also reported that Israeli forces have rounded up staff at the facility.
Posting to social media, Abu-Sittah – who last month described horrific scenes at al-Ahli Arab and Dar al-Shifa hospitals while he was there – wrote:
Palestinian hospitals giving any health care, even as a First Aid stations, are being re-targeted by the Israeli army. Yesturday it was Al Awda hospital. Morning they shelled Shifa Hospital. This afternoon they attacked Al Ahli hospital and are rounding up the staff and wounded.
Palestinian hospitals giving any health care, even as a First Aid stations, are being re-targeted by the Israeli army. Yesturday it was Al Awda hospital. Morning they shelled Shifa Hospital. This afternoon they attacked Al Ahli hospital and are rounding up the staff and wounded.
— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) December 18, 2023
Updated
Israeli forces have forced displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City to evacuate the facility and arrested medical staff, according to reports.
Richard Sewell, the dean of the Anglican-run St George’s College in Jerusalem, said most of the hospital’s staff have been detained, adding that he was “hardly even shocked now” by the “distressing” news.
The hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital, is now out of service, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.
The distressing news just keeps on coming: IDF has forced closure of our Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza and detained most of our staff. Just skeleton staff remains to tend to over one hundred seriously wounded patients. No running water and no electricity. Hardly even shocked now.
— Richard Sewell (@sgcjerusalem) December 18, 2023
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has announced the creation of a multinational operation in the Red Sea following a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
Austin, who is on a trip to Bahrain after talks in Tel Aviv earlier today, said countries participating in the US-led initiative include the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.
In a statement, Austin said:
This is an international challenge that demands collective action. Therefore today I am announcing the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian, an important new multinational security initiative.
Hamas: Gaza tunnel 'accomplished its mission'
Hamas is downplaying the discovery by Israel of a tunnel close to a key border crossing in Gaza City, insisting it was done with it anyway.
A Hamas official on Monday said the tunnel had “successfully” accomplished its mission, according to AFP.
The news agency quoted Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, telling a media briefing in Beirut:
The publishing of images of the long tunnel... 72 days after the start of the [Israeli] aggression, came too late. Thanks to this tunnel, the mission that we wanted to accomplish has been carried out successfully.
He did not elaborate on what the mission was.
On Sunday the Israeli army showed images of what it said was the biggest Hamas tunnel uncovered so far under the Gaza Strip, near the Erez crossing between the Palestinian territory and Israel.
The army said the subterranean passage had formed part of a wider branching network that stretched for more than 2.5 miles (4km), and was being used by Hamas in a campaign of terrorism.
Read more:
Updated
John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, has been talking about Israel, and in particular the risk of the war spreading to the northern border with Lebanon, where the exchange of fire between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Hezbollah militia has been escalating.
The Biden administration is reported to have rebuked Israel for firing on Lebanese army positions, but the IDF says Hezbollah has been using those positions to fire rockets across the border. Kirby said:
The continued attacks across that border are of concern to us. We don’t want to see the conflict widened. We don’t want to see a northern front opened up.
We want to keep this conflict focused, as it rightly should be, on Hamas in the wake of October 7. And so we’re in active discussions with our Israeli counterparts about the activities going on up there at the northern border.
Obviously Israel has a right to self defense but we don’t want to see a full on conflict between Hezbollah and in Israel. And of course the attacks that have occurred on the Lebanese Armed Forces are also deeply concerning since [they] are not part and parcel of this conflict, nor do they want to be.
Talking to reporters by Zoom, Kirby also spoke of the shooting death of a mother and daughter in the Holy Family parish in Gaza City on Saturday, allegedly by Israeli snipers:
Unfortunately, it appears that in this case a mother and a daughter lost their lives. And our hearts go out to the families who are grieving their loved ones.
We have raised our concerns about this particular incident with the Israeli government, about the need for those who have injuries or had been wounded, to be able to be safely evacuated so they receive appropriate medical treatment.
Updated
IDF appears to be denying responsibility for church deaths
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) appears to be denying responsibility for the deaths of two Christian women at the Holy Family Parish church complex on Saturday, which we reported earlier.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic authority in the Holy Land, said the two women, named as Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar, were shot dead inside the compound by an Israeli sniper.
On Monday, a spokesperson for the IDF issued what CNN said was a “carefully worded"” statement in which it admitted a conversation with the church on Saturday about blasts in the area, but the church had not reported fatalities:
During the dialogue between the IDF and representatives of the community, no reports of a hit on the church, nor civilians being injured or killed, were raised. A review of the IDF’s operational findings support this.
Earlier Monday, the US raised concerns with Israel about the deaths, White House spokesperson John Kirby telling a media briefing: “We’ve been very clear that we believe every effort possible must be made to prevent civilian casualties”.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 10.30pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The UN security council has postponed a vote calling for a sustainable cessation of hostilities in Gaza to give more time to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The vote was due on Monday mid afternoon in New York but the US said it could not support a reference to a cessation of hostilities, but might accept suspension of hostilities.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. The discussions focused on Israel shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders, the US official said.
At least 19,453 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the latest tally by the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry on Monday. 52,286 people have been injured, it said. Meanwhile, four Palestinians have been killed on Monday in the Faraa refugee camp, south of the West Bank city of Tubas, in an Israeli military raid, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, has released a video of three elderly Israeli men being held hostage in Gaza. One man said he was being held in harsh conditions with other elderly hostages suffering chronic illnesses. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the video was “atrocious terror” that “shows the cruelty of Hamas against elderly civilians.”
The Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency on Monday to discuss a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to reports. But a Palestinian source familiar with the talks told the BBC that negotiations over a new temporary ceasefire “haven’t begun yet”.
The US has raised concerns with Israel after a mother and daughter were allegedly killed by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City, the White House said. The two women were killed inside the Holy Family parish in Gaza City on Saturday, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Most of Gaza’s Christian families have taken refuge in the compound since the start of the war. The most senior Catholic cleric in England said the shooting was a “cold–blooded killing” that did “nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself”.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas militants. “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip,” HRW said in a report. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime.”
BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after a step-up in attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants. The British oil company said it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East. BP becomes the first oil company to directly halt its own shipping, after five big shipping firms stopped their vessels passing through the waters between Asia and Africa that connect Asia and Europe.
The UK Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has joined the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as the political rhetoric continued to shift away from unqualified support for Israel’s assault in line with moves from the US and others.
Updated
UN security council postpones Gaza vote
The UN security council has postponed a vote calling for a sustainable cessation of hostilities to give more time to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution.
The vote was due on Monday mid afternoon in New York but the US said it could not support a reference to a cessation of hostilities, but might accept suspension of hostilities.
The Arab countries negotiating the text said they had been encouraged by the US approach which suggested the White House was trying to find some wording that they could support as opposed simply to vetoing resolutions, the position it adopted on a humanitarian pause on 18 October and on an urgent humanitarian ceasefire on 9 December.
Divisions within the US administration have been growing with some officials saying the US is misunderstanding the scale of disillusionment in the Global South over US perceived hypocrisy in calling out Russian war crimes in Ukraine, but finding a multitude of reasons to justify the large scale killings of Palestinians in Gaza.
A range of US diplomats have visited Jerusalem to urge the Israeli government to adopt different military tactics, but with only limited success, and a US support for a suspension of hostilities at the UN, if it happened, would be a signal of US frustration with the Israeli government.
The US has also previously rejected cessation of hostilities resolutions at the 15 strong security council due to the absence of clear criticism of Hamas for its killing of more than 1,000 Israelis, including many women and children on 7 October. The latest draft prepared by the United Arab Emirates simply condemns all acts of terrorism, and calls for all hostages to be released unconditionally.
Pressure has been building on the US after the UN general assembly on 12 December voted by 153 to 10 with 23 abstentions to call for an urgent cessation of hostilities. Permanent members of the security council cannot apply their veto on the General Assembly votes as they can on those held at the security council.
But general assembly votes are expressions of world opinion and do not have the force of law supposedly attached to security council resolutions. In practice many resolutions are ignored.
The sense of US isolation at the General Assembly was a mirror image of the isolation Russia experienced at the Assembly last year over the invasion of Ukraine.
In a bid to win over the British foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, the draft resolution as prepared on Monday had called for a sustainable ceasefire, matching the wording he had used in a weekend article jointly penned with his German counterpart. The wording was designed to make it easier for the UK to move from an abstention, the UK position the last time the issue was debated at the Security Council, to a positive vote in favour.
The UK has on occasion on Middle East issues voted positively for resolutions initially opposed by the US, notably in January 2009 when Gordon Brown instructed the UK envoy to back a UN ceasefire resolution after 13 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The UK stance helped force the US move from opposition to abstention.
A UN call for a suspension of hostilities would in conjunction with other parts of the resolution put pressure on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza at scale, and by land sea and air. A monitoring process would be established to overcome blockages to aid reaching Gaza.
A video released by Hamas showing three elderly Israeli men held hostage in Gaza is “atrocious terror”, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.
The Times of Israel reported that Hagari said at a briefing today:
It shows the cruelty of Hamas against elderly civilians, innocents, who require medical attention. The world must work to allow medical aid and to verify their conditions.
Addressing the three men shown in the video, the IDF spokesman added:
You should know that we are doing everything to return you home safely. We will not rest until you return.
A journalist has said he was shot by an Israeli sniper while working in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Mohammed Balousha, who works for the Emirati-owned Al Mashhad channel, told the Washington Post he was filming a report near his home on Saturday afternoon when he was shot in the thigh. He said he was wearing a helmet and press badge at the time.
He told the newspaper he was unconscious for about 20 minutes after he was shot, and that it took him six hours to reach the second floor of his house, where he kept a first aid kit.
He said he was transferred “onto a wooden board attached to a wheelchair” to a local clinic and then later to another health centre, where he was told his thigh had suffered a double fracture. The report goes on:
He needed surgery, which could only be done at al-Ahli Hospital, the last functioning operating facility in northern Gaza. The ambulance headed out but had to turn back because Israeli tanks blocked the way to the hospital, Balousha said. With no other option for surgery in Jabalya, he returned home.
Balousha accused Israel of directly targeting him as a journalist, telling the Post:
I was wearing everything to prove that I was a journalist, but they deliberately targeted me, and now I am struggling to get the treatment necessary to preserve my life.
Balousha had previously broke a story that four premature babies left behind at al-Nasr children’s hospital had died and their bodies had decomposed, after Israel forced the hospital staff to evacuate without ambulances.
Hamas releases video of elderly Israeli hostages
The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, has released a video of three elderly Israeli men being held hostage in Gaza.
The video, shared on Telegram, shows Chaim Peri, 79, who was kidnapped on 7 October, Haaretz reported. His wife, Channa Peri, was released by Hamas on 24 November.
The other hostages shown in the video are Yoram Metzger, 80, and Amiram Cooper, 84, the outlet reported. Both men’s wives have also been released.
The US has raised concerns with Israel after reports that an Israeli military sniper shot and killed two Christian women inside a Christian compound in Gaza on Saturday, the White House said.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said at a briefing:
We’ve been very clear that we believe every effort possible must be made to prevent civilian casualties.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic authority in the Holy Land, said the two women, named as Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar, were shot dead in the compound of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza.
Based on our report of December 16, 2023, concerning the deaths and injuries of a number of citizens in the Latin convent of Gaza, as well as the serious damage to the structures, we are displaying some of the photographs we received. It is time to end this senseless conflict pic.twitter.com/VDb9udQOuz
— Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (@LPJerusalem) December 18, 2023
Keir Starmer has joined Rishi Sunak in calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as the political rhetoric continued to shift away from unqualified support for Israel’s assault in line with moves from the US and others.
Some senior Conservatives were even more explicit. Ben Wallace, a former defence secretary, said Israel’s “killing rage” risked it losing international support, and Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, said she believed Israel had broken international humanitarian law.
The Labour leader said there was a need “to get to a sustainable ceasefire as quickly as possible”, beginning with a pause in the fighting during which the remaining hostages seized by Hamas on 7 October can be freed and aid can enter Gaza. He said:
It will have to be a political process, to a two-stage solution which, in the end, is the only way that this is going to be resolved.
The prime minister earlier said Israel had a right to defend itself following Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians, but “it must do that in accordance with humanitarian law”. “It’s clear that too many civilian lives have been lost and nobody wants to see this conflict go on a day longer than it has to,” Sunak said.
And that’s why we’ve been consistent – and I made this point in parliament last week – in calling for a sustainable ceasefire, whereby hostages are released, rockets stopped being fired into Israel by Hamas and we continue to get more aid in.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials about shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders.
“Hamas should never again be able to project terror from Gaza into Israel. This is Israel’s operation; I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms,” Austin told reporters after meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. He added that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza was “both a moral duty and a strategic imperative”.
Austin was the latest in a steady stream of senior figures in the Biden administration to visit Israel since the unprecedented attack by Hamas on 7 October in which 1,140 people were killed and another 250 were seized as hostages. The trip to Israel is part of a wider Middle East tour, as the conflict in Gaza threatens to spill over into a regional conflagration.
Washington, Israel’s closest ally, has provided intense military and diplomatic cover for the war in Gaza, where the death toll is approaching 20,000, but last week Joe Biden warned that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing”.
Austin and Netanyahu discussed plans for Israel to transition to more surgical, intelligence-led operations aimed at killing Hamas leaders, destroying tunnels and rescuing hostages, in order to stem the loss of civilian life, the US official said.
More than 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.
Tal Henrich, at a daily briefing, said 122 trucks entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing and 79 trucks through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened on Sunday for aid trucks for the first time since the outbreak of war, officials said, in a move intended to double the amount of food and medicine reaching the territory.
More than 190 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and entered Gaza on Monday, Israel’s office for the coordination of government activities in the territories (Cogat) said in a post on social media.
🚚191 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip today (Dec. 18).
— COGAT (@cogatonline) December 18, 2023
🚛127 inspected at the Nitzana crossing and transferred to Gaza via the Rafah Crossing.
🚛64 inspected and transferred to Gaza via Kerem Shalom.#HumanitarianAidforGaza pic.twitter.com/Etor1EBPrC
We reported earlier that the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency today.
The meeting with Bill Burns and David Barnea in Warsaw was about a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Axios reported, citing US and Israeli officials. The CIA director played a key role in brokering the previous deal that led to the release of more than 100 hostages last month.
But a Palestinian source familiar with the talks has since told the BBC that negotiations over a new temporary ceasefire “haven’t begun yet”, despite Israel’s “repeated announcement that it is proceeding with negotiating steps”.
Hamas told mediators that any negotiation “would not include discussing new truces, but rather a comprehensive ceasefire, and it would not negotiate any more humanitarian pauses”, the news outlet reported, citing the source.
Updated
Gallant: Civilians may soon be able to return to northern Gaza
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israeli forces had made a “very meaningful and successful achievement” on the battlefield against Hamas.
Speaking at the joint news conference with Lloyd Austin, Gallant said the elimination of the Hamas leadership “will be achieved hopefully soon”.
Israel will gradually transition to the next phase of operations in the war in which the local population may be able to return to the north of the Gaza Strip, he said. Gallant said:
I can tell you that soon we will be able to distinguish between different areas in Gaza.
He said this would allow Israel to start working on bringing back the local population “maybe sooner in the north” than in the south. “This is an ongoing discussion,” he added.
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Austin: US not dictating timelines or terms of war
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, asked by a reporter if Washington had set a deadline to the current phase of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza, replied:
This is Israel’s operation and I’m not here to dictate timelines or turn. Our support to Israel’s right to defend itself is ironclad.
Austin said he had had “great” discussions with Israeli counterparts about the status of Israel’s goals and objectives, as well as “how to reduce harm to civilians in the battle space”.
He said the US could “offer some insight” based on its own experience in fighting terrorist groups, and that it had some “great thoughts about how to transition from high-intensity operations to lower-intensity operations”.
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Footage shows people fleeing from Al Nasser medical centre in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, after a shell hit the facility’s maternity ward.
At least one child was killed and several others were injured. A hole can be seen in a wall of a room in the building.
Gaza’s health ministry said it was an Israeli shell that failed to explode. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
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Lloyd Austin said he discussed “the pathways toward a future for Gaza after Hamas” during his talks today in Tel Aviv.
Speaking at the news conference, Austin said Israelis and Palestinians had both “paid too bitter a price” to go back to before the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
He said that based on clear principles laid down last month by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that Israelis and Palestinians “both deserve a horizon of hope”, adding:
The US continues to believe … that it is the interest of both Israelis and Palestinians to move forward toward two states living side by side in mutual security.
Quoting John F Kennedy, Austin said America’s friendship with Israel was “a national commitment”, adding:
That was true then and it’s even truer now. The United States will remain Israel’s closest friend in the world. As I said repeatedly, our support for Israel security remains unshakable. And it always will.
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Austin: protecting Gaza civilians 'a more duty and strategic imperative'
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has said protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza “is both a moral duty and a strategic imperative”.
The US would continue to “urge the protection of civilians” and to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Austin said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
The US was also working to stabilise the region and to ensure that the conflict did “not escalate beyond Gaza”, he said, adding that the US “urgently” calls on Iran to “take steps to deescalate”.
Austin said that during his meetings today that he discussed “the need to take urgent action to stabilise the West Bank”, adding that attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinians must stop and those committing the violence must be held accountable. He said:
We know that the past 72 days have been some of the most painful days in Israel’s history. But it would compound this tragedy if all that was waiting for the Israeli people and your Palestinian neighbours at the end of this awful war, was more insecurity, fury and despair.
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Austin: US support for Israel 'unshakeable'
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said he and Yoav Gallant have been speaking “almost daily” by phone and that it was good to see his Israeli counterpart in person.
Speaking at a press conference during his fourth visit to Israel since the 7 October Hamas attacks, Austin said:
I know that Israel has been profoundly changed from where you were on October 6. So I’m here with a clear message: American support for Israel security is unshakable. Israel is not alone.
He said Israel had” every right” to defend itself against Hamas, who he described as a “fanatical terrorist group” whose stated purpose was to “murder Jews and eradicate the Jewish state”. Austin said:
Hamas is still holding hostages, including American citizens. Hamas embeds itself and hides itself behind innocent Palestinian civilians. Hamas does not speak for the Palestinian people.
The US would continue to push “relentlessly” for the safe return of hostages in Gaza and to help Israel in its efforts to bring them home, Austin said, adding that the issue remained a “top priority” for the US and Joe Biden.
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Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has been speaking at a joint news conference with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, after talks in Tel Aviv.
Gallant said Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were operating “to minimise the harm to civilian population” in Gaza and that Israel was operating “according to international law”.
Israel had also been working with international partners to “facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid”, he said.
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Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian, describes the extra hardship that winter rain brings and a friend reminisces about a cappuccino for their Gaza diary for the Guardian:
8am I have never been a fan of the sun nor the sunny weather. I am a lover of the rain, winter and tree leaves falling. I remember at high school – my English language teacher would always ask me and other students during the recess to stand in the sun. “Hug the sun, feel its warmth. It is full of vitamin D.” I did what she asked but never liked it.
On the other hand, this teacher opened the door for me to learn about literature, which I loved. In class, we would read summarised classics like Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice and A Tale of Two Cities.
My friend shares with me the results of the Booker prize; it seems that Prophet Song won this year. Based on brief descriptions of the shortlisted books, I see myself more interested in reading The Bee Sting.
I just wish to go back to spending a whole day in my bed, while it is raining outside, and enjoy reading one book after another. One fear I had was dying before reading enough of all the beautiful and great books in this world. Now, I am terrified of dying before even living my life.
But during these times, I could not pray enough for the weather to be sunny. First, for those who are living in schools and tents not to suffer, and to be able to charge our batteries and phones using the solar power of our neighbours. Unfortunately, since yesterday, it has been raining heavily. We had hail.
In no time, most of the streets around us were covered by water due to the poor infrastructure. Most people are still wearing flip-flops; shoes are a luxury they cannot afford. I have noticed many people wearing torn flip-flops. How can they move in the streets?
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires showing Palestinian families who have lost their homes taking shelter at a UNRWA school in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
According to the UN agency, up to 1.9 million people – more than 85% of the population – have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some multiple times. Nearly 1.4 million people are sheltering in UNRWA facilities across Gaza, it said.
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Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has described the Israel-Gaza war as a threat to his country’s national security and “to the Palestinian cause in general”.
Sisi’s remarks came as he secured a third, six-year term in office after winning 89.6% of votes in an election in which he faced no serious challengers, Egypt’s national election authority said on Monday.
Some voters had cited the war in Gaza as a reason for voting for the incumbent Egyptian president, who has long presented himself as a bulwark of stability in the region, Reuters reported.
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The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said he held a “productive meeting” with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv today.
Posting to social media, Austin said the pair discussed “Israel’s ongoing campaign to defeat Hamas, to include objectives, phasing and protecting civilians”, adding:
We also focused on Iran-backed threats across the region, and our shared commitment to confront this aggression.
Productive meeting today with @yoavgallant to discuss Israel’s ongoing campaign to defeat Hamas, to include objectives, phasing, and protecting civilians. We also focused on Iran-backed threats across the region, and our shared commitment to countering this aggression. pic.twitter.com/HOCKiC5yFX
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) December 18, 2023
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The Egyptian president has said the Israel-Hamas war poses a threat to national security.
“This ongoing war on our eastern borders, which calls for the mobilisation of all our efforts to prevent its continuation, represents a threat to Egyptian national security in particular and to the Palestinian cause in general,” Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a televised speech after winning a third term in office.
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The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, is expected to press Israel to wind down major combat operations in Gaza during a visit.
It will be the latest test of whether Washington can leverage its unwavering support for the offensive to blunt its devastating impact on Palestinian civilians, the Associated Press reports.
France, the UK and Germany – some of Israel’s closest allies – joined international calls for a ceasefire over the weekend, and Israeli protesters have demanded the government relaunches talks with Hamas on releasing more hostages after three were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops while waving a white flag.
The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has insisted Israel will keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, crushes its formidable military capabilities and returns the dozens of hostages still held by the group after its attack on 7 October, which ignited the current conflict.
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19,453 people killed, Gazan health ministry reports
According to a tally by the Gaza health ministry, 19,453 people have been killed since Israeli attacks on Gaza began on 7 October.
It said 52,286 had been injured.
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The British prime minister has said too many civilian lives have been lost in the Israel-Hamas conflict and repeated his call for a “sustainable ceasefire” to allow the release of hostages.
Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said a sustainable ceasefire was one that could last but added that Britain was not advocating a general and immediate cessation of hostilities.
With intense ground fighting having expanded this month across the Gaza Strip and a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding, some leaders have begun to toughen their language over the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths.
Last week, the US president, Joe Biden, said Israel was losing support because of its “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza and that its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, should change strategy.
Sunak said on Monday Britain believed Israel had the right to defend itself after the Hamas attack on southern Israel in October that triggered the conflict.
He told reporters in Scotland:
It must do that in accordance with humanitarian law. It’s clear that too many civilian lives have been lost. And that’s why we’ve been consistent … in calling for a sustainable ceasefire, whereby hostages are released, rockets stop being fired into Israel by Hamas and we continue to get more aid in.
Britain abstained in a vote last week at the UN general assembly that overwhelmingly called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
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Mounting attacks by the Iran-aligned Yemeni Houthi militant group on ships in the Red Sea are disrupting maritime trade as leading global freight firms reroute around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Suez canal.
Reuters reports that the group said it launched a drone attack on a cargo vessel in the area on Monday, the latest in a series of missile and drone strikes on shipping that it described as a response to Israel’s assault on Gaza Strip.
Several large freight companies have begun to sail around Africa, adding costs and delays that are expected to be compounded over the coming weeks, according to industry analysts. About 15% of world shipping traffic transits via the Suez Canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.
Combined, the companies that have diverted vessels “control around half of the global container shipping market”, the ABN Amro analyst Albert Jan Swart said. “Avoiding the Red Sea will lead to higher cost due to longer travel time.”
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Reuters has a report on the hardship faced by babies born during the conflict:
The grandmother has a simple wish for her twin baby granddaughters, Alma and Salma: they should be in a clean, safe room where they can be bathed.
Instead, the infants are living in a tent in a camp for displaced people in Rafah, southern Gaza. Their mother cannot breastfeed them because she is not getting enough nutrition for her body to produce milk. And they have never been bathed.
Alma and Salma are part of a generation of Gaza babies born into homeless, destitute families struggling to survive Israel’s ferocious military assault on their crowded strip of land, which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
Their grandmother, Um Mohammed al-Jadba, struggles every day to find water to make them bottles of formula milk. She boils the water in a thermos flask on a fire outside the tent.
Gesturing to a floor consisting of mats and blankets spread on sand, she said:
They are a month old now, and have not been bathed yet. Do you see the space they are living in?
A few belongings were hanging in plastic bags from plywood slats that held up the roof of the tent. Otherwise, precious possessions such as clothes and a plastic water bottle were piled on the floor, around the edges of the mats.
Al-Jadba said four babies in her family had been born into displacement since the start of the war: her daughter-in-law gave birth to a girl, then her sister-in-law had a boy, then Alma and Salma were born to her other daughter-in-law.
It was a struggle to feed all of them, she said. The whole family was hungry.
She said:
There is no nutrition (for the mothers), nor food for them to eat, how can they breastfeed? There is nothing for them to eat. Every day I feed them thyme, there is nothing else for them to eat.
Our hope was for these children to be born in a safe place, without air strikes, without wars, without the displacement these children are experiencing.
The Bank of Israel governor has urged government leaders and lawmakers to maintain responsible fiscal policies during the war, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to boost defence spending.
Speaking on Sunday at an inauguration for his second five-year term as central bank chief, Amir Yaron said that Israel needs to adapt its economic policy to the war since investors, ratings agencies, financial markets and the public “are currently keeping a close eye on policy in Israel”.
Last week, parliament approved a special war budget for 2023 of nearly 30 billion shekels ($8 billion) to help fund the war and compensate those impacted. This budget was controversial since it included hundreds of millions of spending on “coalition funds”, money promised to Netanyahu’s allies to join his ruling coalition. The central bank, the opposition and some of Netanyahu’s own party members contested the approval of these funds.
Yaron said:
It is important to... avoid expenses that are not connected with the war effort or that do not advance growth.
All military and civilian expenditures that are directly connected with the war should be included in a temporary special budget that would come in addition to the original expenditure ceiling for 2024.
He added the state must find a balance between financing expenses for the war and the expected growth of the defence budget with continuing to spend of civilians.
Netanyahu said that in recent years the defence budget as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) declined since the economy grew rapidly.
He said:
We cannot continue this policy. From now, we need to significantly raise, by leaps and bounds, the defence budget by 20 billion shekels a year and also as a percentage of GDP.
The defence budget for 2023 was 63 billion shekels out of total state spending of 484 billion. It is set to rise to 64 billion in 2024 out of 514 billion shekels.
Afternoon summary
BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after a step-up in attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants. The British oil company said on Tuesday that it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East. BP becomes the first oil company to directly halt its own shipping, after five big shipping firms stopped their vessels passing through the waters between Asia and Africa that connect Asia and Europe.
Four Palestinians have been killed on Monday in the Faraa refugee camp, south of the West Bank city of Tubas, in an Israeli military raid, the Palestinian health ministry has said.
A global rights group has accused Israel of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas militants. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed no letup in the bombardment and siege of the densely populated coastal enclave, where buildings lie in ruins, hunger is rife and health authorities say about 19,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The UN security council is to be asked to support a new call for an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities that allows the delivery of humanitarian aid by land sea and air. The resolution places pressure on the US not to protect Israel again by using its veto as one of the five permanent members of the 15-member security council.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, is expected to press Israel to wind down major combat operations in Gaza on a visit on Monday, in the latest test of whether the US can leverage its unwavering support for the offensive to blunt its devastating impact on Palestinian civilians. France, the UK and Germany, some of Israel’s closest allies, joined global calls for a ceasefire over the weekend, and Israeli protesters have demanded the government relaunch talks with the militant group on releasing more hostages after three were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops while waving a white flag.
In the UK, Downing Street has suggested there can be no ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war as long as the militant group remains in Gaza. The prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters on Monday: “I think Israel have been very clear, as have we, that Hamas has no future in Gaza given the horrific actions they have taken. And we have been straightforward in our position throughout.”
The Israeli government’s “killing rage” in Gaza poses a threat to the country’s moral and legal authority and will fuel conflict for another 50 years, the former UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has warned. In an intervention that goes further than any other front-rank British politician in its criticism of Israel’s methods in the war, the senior Conservative MP wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “Going after Hamas is legitimate; obliterating vast swathes of Gaza is not. Using proportionate force is legal, but collective punishment and forced movement of civilians is not.”
The shooting of a mother and daughter allegedly by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City was a “cold-blooded killing”, the most senior Catholic cleric in England has said. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, said the shooting did “nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself”.
The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, has criticised Israeli forces for allegedly shooting and killing people in a Christian compound in the Gaza Strip, saying such actions would not help in its war to defeat Hamas. “An [Israeli] sniper shot two women inside a church. This has nothing to do with the fight against Hamas because the terrorists are certainly not hiding in Christian churches,” Tajani said, offering rare censure of Israel from Italy.
A hacking group that Iran accuses of having links to Israel claimed it carried out cyber-attacks that disrupted services at petrol stations across Iran on Monday, Iranian state TV and Israeli local media have reported. The oil minister, Javad Owji, told Iranian state TV earlier that services had been disrupted at about 70% of Iran’s petrol stations and that outside interference was a possible cause, Reuters reported.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is “appalled” after Israel’s deadly raid on northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital at the weekend. The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the “effective destruction” of the hospital over the past several days was “rendering it non-functional and resulting in the death of at least eight patients”.
The Israeli army has said it uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip so far, just a few hundred metres from a key border crossing. Such was its size that small vehicles would be able to travel within it, reported an AFP photographer who was granted access to it. The underground passage formed part of a wider branching network that stretched for more than 2.5 miles (4km) and came within 400 metres of the Erez border crossing, the army said. It would have cost millions of dollars and taken years to construct, Israeli forces said.
The Syrian army has said Israeli missiles launched from the occupied Golan Heights hit sites near Damascus that regional intelligences say targeted Iranian militias’ stronghold near Syria’s holiest Shia Muslim shrine. Syria’s air defences shot down some of the missiles that targeted the countryside around the capital in an incident that injured two soldiers, the army said in a statement on Sunday.
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BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after a step-up in attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants.
The British oil company said on Tuesday that it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East.
BP becomes the first oil company to directly halt its own shipping, after five big shipping firms stopped their vessels passing through the waters between Asia and Africa that connect Asia and Europe.
The companies have moved to secure their vessels after attacks were mounted by Houthis in protest against Israel’s efforts to attack Hamas in Gaza. These have included an attack on a US warship, and commercial vessels have come under fire off the coast of Yemen.
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BP pauses all transits through Red Sea
BP has said it will pause its oil tanker shipments through the Red Sea.
The move follows an escalation of attacks on merchant shipping being mounted from Yemen’s ports by Houthi forces.
BP said:
The safety and security of our people and those working on our behalf is BP’s priority. In light of the deteriorating security situation for shipping in the Red Sea, BP has decided to temporarily pause all transits through the Red Sea.
It emerged over the weekend that the US was preparing to announce the launch of an expanded maritime protection force, to guard shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial route for oil and fuel.
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In the UK, Downing Street has suggested there can be no ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war as long as the militant group remains in Gaza.
The prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters on Monday: “I think Israel have been very clear, as have we, that Hamas has no future in Gaza given the horrific actions they have taken. And we have been straightforward in our position throughout.”
The official said a “sustainable ceasefire” was one “that can last, that means that Hamas no longer have a place in Israel, that rockets have stopped firing, that the hostages are returned.
“We’ve wanted a sustainable ceasefire for some time. Obviously right now we want to see immediate humanitarian pauses and we want them to lead to a sustainable ceasefire as soon as possible.
“We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate ceasefire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward. We need the right conditions to ensure that it lasts as long as possible.”
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The CIA director, Bill Burns, is to meet the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, and the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, in Poland on Monday, it has been reported.
The meeting in Warsaw is to discuss a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Axios reports, citing two US and Israeli officials.
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The shooting of a mother and daughter allegedly by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City was a “cold–blooded killing”, the most senior Catholic cleric in England has said.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, said the shooting did “nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself”.
The two women were killed inside the Holy Family parish in Gaza City on Saturday, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Most of Gaza’s Christian families have taken refuge in the compound since the start of the war.
Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar were shot as they walked to the sister’s convent, the patriarchate said. “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.”
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A global rights group has accused Israel of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas militants.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed no let-up in the bombardment and siege of the densely-populated coastal enclave, where buildings lie in ruins, hunger is rife, and health authorities say about 19,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Despite rising global pressure to protect civilians, who have nowhere to go, Israel is bent on eliminating the Hamas group behind the rampage that killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities, Reuters reports.
The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Israeli forces were deliberately blocking delivery of water, food and fuel, razing agricultural areas and depriving Gaza’s 2.3 million people of items needed for survival.
“The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip,” HRW said in a report. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime.”
There was no immediate response to the HRW report from Israel. It has denied targeting civilians while saying Hamas embeds itself in residential areas. Israel says it is trying to facilitate aid to innocent people while choking off supplies to thousands of Hamas fighters operating from tunnels.
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The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, has criticised Israeli forces for allegedly shooting and killing people in a Christian compound in the Gaza Strip, saying such actions would not help in its war to defeat Hamas.
“An [Israeli] sniper shot two women inside a church. This has nothing to do with the fight against Hamas because the terrorists are certainly not hiding in Christian churches,” Tajani said, offering rare censure of Israel from Italy.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic authority in the Holy Land, said at the weekend the two women, named as Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar, were shot dead in the compound of the Holy Family parish in Gaza.
The patriarchate statement said a further seven people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others.
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The Israeli government’s “killing rage” in Gaza poses a threat to the country’s moral and legal authority and will fuel conflict for another 50 years, the former UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has warned.
In an intervention that goes further than any other front-rank British politician in its criticism of Israel’s methods in the war, the senior Conservative MP wrote in the Daily Telegraph: “Going after Hamas is legitimate; obliterating vast swathes of Gaza is not. Using proportionate force is legal, but collective punishment and forced movement of civilians is not.”
He also criticised Israel’s new generation of “bull in a China shop” politicians for “crashing from one crisis to another”.
International pressure on Israel has been growing over the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza. About 19,000 people have been killed in the course of the Israeli offensive, according to health officials in the Hamas-run territory, since the Hamas attack on Israel of 7 October, which killed 1,200 people.
A hacking group that Iran accuses of having links to Israel claimed it carried out cyber-attacks that disrupted services at petrol stations across Iran on Monday, Iranian state TV and Israeli local media have reported.
The oil minister, Javad Owji, told Iranian state TV earlier that services had been disrupted at about 70% of Iran’s petrol stations and outside interference was a possible cause, Reuters reported.
Iran’s state TV news said the Predatory Sparrow group claimed it was responsible for the disruption. Israeli local media outlets also reported the claim.
“This cyber-attack was carried out in a controlled manner to avoid potential damage to emergency services,” Predatory Sparrow said in its statement, according to Iranian media.
Iran’s civil defence agency, which is responsible for the country’s cybersecurity, said it was considering all possible causes for the disruptions as it investigated.
State media added that the hackers group had previoulsy claimed cyber-attacks against Iranian petrol stations, rail networks and steel factories.
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Four Palestinians killed in West Bank in Israeli raid, says health ministry
Four Palestinians have been killed on Monday in the Faraa refugee camp, south of the West Bank city of Tubas, in an Israeli military raid, the Palestinian health ministry has said.
More details soon ...
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The UN security council is to be asked to support a new call for an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities that allows the delivery of humanitarian aid by land sea and air.
The resolution places pressure on the US not to protect Israel again by using its veto as one of the five permanent members of the 15-member security council.
The draft, now in its third version, follows the large UN general assembly vote last Tuesday backing a ceasefire by 153 to 10 with 23 abstentions. The US has twice vetoed security council resolutions calling for humanitarian pauses, most recently on 9 December when the UK abstained. The US said the resolution was unbalanced.
The latest resolution contains no explicit criticism of Hamas, an absence that has caused the US to vote against ceasefire or pause resolutions in the past. But it calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages as well as humanitarian access.
It also condemns all violations of humanitarian law, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, all violence and hostilities against civilians and all acts of terrorism.
The terrorism reference is designed to overcome US and UK objections. Arab diplomats hope the scale of the general assembly vote and the depth of the unfolding humanitarian crisis will persuade the US at least not to veto the resolution.
The call for a sustainable ceasefire is designed to attract British support since at the weekend the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, in a joint article with his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, he had called for a “sustainable ceasefire”.
But Lord Cameron defined “sustainable” as one in which Hamas could no longer pose a military threat to Israel. The article said Israel in its self-defence had a right to eliminate Hamas.
At the same time, the article said too many civilians had been killed. Cameron will meet Arab leaders in Kuwait on Monday.
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The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, is expected to press Israel to wind down major combat operations in Gaza on a visit on Monday, in the latest test of whether the US can leverage its unwavering support for the offensive to blunt its devastating impact on Palestinian civilians.
France, the UK and Germany, some of Israel’s closest allies, joined global calls for a ceasefire over the weekend, and Israeli protesters have demanded the government relaunch talks with the militant group on releasing more hostages after three were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops while waving a white flag.
The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said Israel will keep fighting until it removes Hamas from power, crushes its still-formidable military capabilities and returns the roughly 129 hostages still held by the group after its attack on 7 October, which “ignited the war”, Associated Press reported.
The US has vetoed international calls for a ceasefire and rushed munitions to its close ally while pressing it to take greater steps to avoid harming civilians. The 10-week-old war against Hamas has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians and transformed much of northern Gaza into a moonscape.
About 1.9 million Palestinians – nearly 85% of Gaza’s population – have fled their homes, with most packing into UN-run shelters and tent camps in the southern part of the besieged territory.
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Mohammad Mosa packed his laptop when he fled his home in October and hoped he would still be able to Zoom into classes between airstrikes. The 14-year-old has his heart set on a competitive scholarship and has studied through wars before.
Two months later, the only new thing he has learned is how to bake bread over an open fire. Intense bombardment and a tight blockade have meant that civilian life in Gaza has turned into a daily fight to survive, and education is one of the many casualties.
“There is absolutely no form of education or schooling in the Gaza Strip at the moment,” said Jonathan Crick, a spokesperson for Unicef in Jerusalem. “There were approximately 625,000 [school-age] students in the Gaza Strip before the escalation of hostilities and none of them are attending schools now. The level of violence and the ongoing hostilities, the intense bombing which is taking place, doesn’t allow for education.”
Outside Gaza, this tragedy has gone relatively unnoticed amid even more urgent crises. More than 7,700 children have been killed, thousands injured, and there is no end to the bombing in sight. Others are starving, severely ill or at risk of disease because they have no access to clean water or sanitation.
It will be many weeks, and more likely many months, before any children in Gaza start studying again. For survivors, this gap in their education – on top of time lost to Covid and previous conflicts – will cast a long shadow over their future, adding to the legacy of trauma and loss from this war.
Hamas has been the focus of a relentless Israeli onslaught in Gaza but with resilient and diverse finances, it is expected to have a significant war chest at its disposal as the conflict drags on, Agence France-Presse reports.
While Israel pursues its military objective of destroying the Palestinian militant group after its bloody 7 October attack, undermining its revenue streams will prove a formidable task.
“Hamas is financially solid,” Jessica Davis, president of the Canadian group Insight Threat Intelligence, said.
In the last decade, if not longer, they have been creating a resilient finance network.
Davis said the group had set up investments and sources of income in many countries without being disrupted. Those sources included “small businesses and real estate” in countries such as Turkey, Sudan and Algeria.
Hamas also relies on an informal network of donations.
It has become “very good at developing and operating a very complex system of money changers”, said Yitzhak Gal, an Israeli expert on the Palestinian economy, adding that the exchanges ran through Turkey, the UAE, Europe and the United States.
The number of donors has not necessarily decreased since 7 October. Lucas Webber, co-founder of the specialist website Militant Wire, said:
Despite its atrocities, Hamas seems to have gained support amongst certain population segments internationally as a perceived resistance vanguard.
For years, the group’s major backer has been Tehran. Estimates put Iran’s annual contribution at $70m to $100m, through a diverse range of sources that includes payments in cryptocurrency, suitcases of cash and transfers via foreign banks and the informal “hawala” system, the AFP report says.
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Here are some of the latest images coming in from Gaza and Israel, as Israeli forces continued their attacks up and down the territory on Sunday, killing at least 130 people, according to Palestinian officials, media and witnesses.
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Hopes for another ceasefire and hostage releases were raised at the weekend when a source said Israel’s spy chief had spoken on Friday with the prime minister of Qatar, which has previously mediated hostage releases in return for a week-long ceasefire and the freeing of Palestinian prisoners.
Reuters reports that two security sources from Egypt – another mediator – said on Sunday that Israel and Hamas were both open to a renewed ceasefire and hostage release, though disagreements remained on how it would be implemented.
“We are open to any efforts aimed at ending the Israeli aggression,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said when asked for comment on the Egyptian statement. “This is the ground for any discussion.”
In a further positive sign, the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened for aid trucks on Sunday for the first time since the outbreak of war, officials said, in a move to double the amount of food and medicine reaching Palestinians in Gaza.
But Israeli authorities said they were determined to fight on to eliminate Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2006 and is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said in Tel Aviv:
It is important for me to make clear, the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] is determined to complete the task of dismantling Hamas.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, who travelled to Kuwait on Sunday to offer condolences on the death of Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, is expected in Israel later for meetings with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other officials.
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In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, residents reported hearing Israeli planes and tanks bombing and shelling and the sound of rocket-propelled grenades, apparently fired by Hamas.
The Israeli military said it had killed seven militants in an airstrike on Khan Younis and found rocket manufacturing parts and three tunnel shafts near a school used as a shelter, Reuters reports.
An Israeli tank shell hit the maternity building inside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, killing a 13-year-old girl named Dina Abu Mehsen, according to a spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, Ashraf Al-Qidra.
He said Abu Mehsen had previously lost her father, mother, two of her siblings and one of her legs during the shelling of a house in the Al-Amal neighbourhood in Khan Younis a few weeks ago.
About 19,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Hamas-run Gaza health authorities, since Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took another 240 hostage in its 7 October attack.
Israeli officials say 121 of its soldiers have been killed since its ground campaign began on 27 October.
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Scores killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza
Israeli forces launched deadly attacks up and down the Gaza Strip on Sunday, hitting a refugee camp in the north, a hospital in the south and killing a teenage girl who had lost her leg in an earlier strike, according to Palestinian officials, media and eyewitnesses.
Reuters reports that Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said the Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed 90 Palestinians on Sunday.
Another missile attack on a house belonging to the Shehab family killed 24 people, Hamas Aqsa radio said.
The son of Dawoud Shehab, spokesman of Hamas-ally Islamic Jihad, was among the dead, an official from the group said.
A medic said dozens of people had been killed or wounded in the Shehab family home and nearby buildings.
We believe the number of dead people under the rubble is huge but there is no way to remove the rubble and recover them because of the intensity of Israeli fire.
In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, medics said 12 Palestinians had been killed and dozens wounded, while in Rafah in the south, an Israeli airstrike on a house left at least four people dead.
People rushed to the building to rescue those trapped under the rubble. The sound of the explosion was “as powerful as an earthquake”, said Mahmoud Jarbou, who lives nearby.
The Israeli government said it operated against militant targets and that it took extraordinary measures to avoid hitting civilians.
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UN security council to vote on ceasefire call
The United Nations security council will vote on Monday on a new resolution calling for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, as Washington shows growing impatience with key ally Israel.
Agence France-Presse reports that the vote comes days after the US blocked a previous security council resolution that would have called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the battered Palestinian territory. But in the general assembly, the UN’s 193 members voted overwhelmingly for a ceasefire, with 153 in favour.
The coming security council resolution was introduced by Arab countries that had come away from last Tuesday’s general assembly vote bolstered by such broad international support, though the latest text’s fate remains uncertain.
The new draft, drawn up by the United Arab Emirates, calls for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip”.
It also affirms support for a two-state solution in the region and “stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority”.
In a move criticised by Israel and the US, the draft does not explicitly name Hamas, though it does call for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” and condemns “all indiscriminate attacks against civilians”.
The security council has faced sharp international criticism as it has passed only one resolution on Gaza since the start of the war, in which the 15-member body called for “humanitarian pauses”, after five other resolutions were rejected, including two because of US vetoes.
According to diplomatic sources, negotiations on the new text continued on Sunday in an effort to avoid another impasse, days after US president Joe Biden warned that Israel was at risk of losing international support due to its “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza.
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our rolling live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. I’m Adam Fulton and I’ll be with you for the next couple of hours.
Israeli forces launched attacks up and down the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 130 people as a refugee camp in the north and a hospital in the south were hit, according to Palestinian officials, media and eyewitnesses.
A teenage girl who had lost her leg in an earlier strike was reportedly among the dead.
Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed 90 Palestinians on Sunday, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said. Another missile attack on a house belonging to the Shehab family killed 24 people, Hamas Aqsa radio said.
In central Gaza, medics said 12 Palestinians had been killed and dozens wounded in Deir al-Balah, while in Rafah in the south an Israeli airstrike on a house left at least four people dead.
Meanwhile, the United Nations security council will vote on Monday on a new resolution calling for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, as Washington exhibits growing impatience Israel, its key ally Israel.
The vote comes days after the US blocked a previous security council resolution that would have called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Palestinian territory.
More on those stories soon. In other key developments:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is “appalled” after Israel’s deadly raid on northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital at the weekend. WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said the “effective destruction” of the hospital over the past several days was “rendering it non-functional and resulting in the death of at least eight patients”.
The Israeli army has said it uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip so far, just a few hundred metres from a key border crossing. Such was its size that small vehicles would be able to travel within it, an AFP photographer granted access to it reported. The underground passage formed part of a wider branching network that stretched for more than 4km (2.5 miles) and came within 400 metres of the Erez border crossing, the army said. It would have cost millions of dollars and taken years to construct, Israeli forces said.
The United Nations security council could vote as early as Monday on a proposal to demand that Israel and Hamas allow aid access to Gaza – via land, sea and air routes – and set up UN monitoring of the humanitarian assistance delivered. Diplomats said the fate of the draft security council resolution hinges on final negotiations between Israel ally the US, which has council veto power, and the United Arab Emirates, which has drafted the text.
The Syrian army has said Israeli missiles launched from the occupied Golan Heights hit sites near Damascus that regional intelligences say targeted Iranian militias’ stronghold near Syria’s holiest Shia Muslim shrine. Syria’s air defences shot down some of the missiles that targeted the countryside around the capital in an incident that injured two soldiers, the army said in a statement on Sunday.
The Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened on Sunday for aid trucks for the first time since the outbreak of war, officials said, in a move intended to double the amount of food and medicine reaching the territory. Two sources in the Egyptian Red Crescent said trucks had crossed Kerem Shalom on Sunday on their way into Gaza. One said there were 79 trucks.
The Palestinian health ministry in the occupied West Bank is calling for an international investigation into reports that Israeli forces buried Palestinians alive in the courtyard of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital using bulldozers amid its deadly raid over the weekend. Palestinian health minister Mai Alkaila cited reports from witnesses who said they saw the Israeli actions in one of the few remaining functioning hospitals in Gaza, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The Guardian could not confirm the reports and Israel had not responded to them.
France said that one of its workers was killed by an Israeli attack in Rafah. According to French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, speaking after a visit to Israel and the West Bank, the man killed was a Palestinian national who worked for the French Institute for decades.
The director of Israeli spy agency Mossad has met the Qatari prime minister for talks on resuming indirect negotiations on the release of hostages, CNN has reported, quoting diplomatic sources. The sources said the meeting on Friday between David Barnea and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani was positive, the network said. Reuters has quoted two Egyptian security sources as saying Israel and Hamas are both open to a renewed deal involving a ceasefire and hostage release, although disagreements on detail remain. They said Hamas was insisting on setting the list of hostages to be released unilaterally and demanding Israel withdraw its forces behind pre-determined lines.
Former UK defence secretary Ben Wallace has warned Israel that it risks undermining the legal basis for its action in the Gaza Strip, adding to growing international pressure over the escalating conflict. Writing for Britain’s Telegraph, the senior Tory warned against a “killing rage” and said Israel’s “original legal authority of self-defence is being undermined by its own actions”.
The US is to announce the launch of an expanded maritime protection force involving Arab states to combat the increasingly frequent Houthi attacks being mounted from Yemen’s ports on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The force is due to be announced by the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, during his Middle East visit. Five big shipping companies have now stopped their ships using the Red Sea in the wake of attacks mounted by Houthis in protest at Israel’s efforts to eliminate Hamas in Gaza.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza: “By any account, I haven’t seen anything of this scale.” Philippe Lazzarini went on to say in an interview with Al Jazeera: “Everything is absolutely unprecedented and staggering. The number of people who have been killed … in 40 days, more women and children killed than the number of civilians in the Ukraine war.”
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