It’s currently 4am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This blog is now closing but first, here are some of the latest developments:
Israeli forces have surrounded the Gaza house of top Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, Benjamin Netanyahu has said. “It’s only a matter of time before we get him,” the Israeli prime minister said on Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sinwar, who Israeli officials have described as the architect of the 7 October attacks, is hiding underground. A senior Netanyahu adviser described the operation as a “symbolic victory”.
Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip. As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fighting their way through badly bomb-damaged urban areas in northern and southern Gaza, Hamas has increasingly relied on improvised bombs to inflict casualties and slow down the assault. The focal points of the fighting over the past two days have been the Jabalia refugee camp and the Shuja’iyya district in northern Gaza, and Khan Younis and Bani Suheila in the south.
Israeli forces have surrounded the city of Khan Younis are now operating “in the heart” of the southern Gaza city, the IDF said on Wednesday. The IDF called on residents of Khan Younis to flee the city for safer areas on Wednesday morning, noting that there would be a pause until 2pm in the bombardment of Rafah, immediately to the south on the Egyptian border. Residents reported that the IDF dropped leaflets quoting a verse in the Qur’an on the area. The UN and aid agencies say nowhere in Gaza is safe any more.
The United States has discussed with Israel its timeline for military operations in Gaza and “how this falls into a longer-term strategy for addressing this issue that goes beyond just military means,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has told Reuters in a telephone interview. “We have talked to them about timetables. I don’t want to share that because Israel has already kind of telegraphed precisely the location of its ground operation and I don’t want to be the one telegraphing timetables”
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps will use a trip to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories to push for humanitarian aid to be delivered faster, including by sea directly into Gaza, his office said on Thursday. “We are working to find the best way to get aid and support to those in desperate need in the quickest and most direct route. That includes options by land, sea and air,” Shapps said.
Gaza’s health ministry has said 1,207 Palestinians had been killed since the collapse of a temporary ceasefire at the beginning of the month, and that 70% of the dead were women and children. At least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October, according to a statement from the Hamas media office on Tuesday. There are reported to be more than 7,600 people missing. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures issued during the conflict. The Gaza ministry said more than 100 bodies were currently awaiting burial inside the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, which it said was without fuel and was coming under fire.
Israel’s security cabinet has agreed to allow a “minimal addition” of fuel for entry to the Gaza Strip “to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of disease” in the territory’s south, a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Wednesday. The “minimal amount” will be determined by the war cabinet, it said.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has invoked a rarely used clause in the UN charter to warn that the conflict “may aggravate existing threats to international peace and security”. Guterres, in a letter to the Security Council, said he expects “public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions” in Gaza as the territory comes under constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In response, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said Guterres “reached a new moral low” and once again called for the UN chief to resign.
Premature babies that were evacuated from Gaza are now being treated at a hospital in Egypt. Some of those images have been released.
Here are some of the latest images of the wounded at a hospital in Rafah, Gaza.
The United States has discussed with Israel its timeline for military operations in Gaza and “how this falls into a longer-term strategy for addressing this issue that goes beyond just military means,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has told Reuters in a telephone interview.
We have talked to them about timetables. I don’t want to share that because Israel has already kind of telegraphed precisely the location of its ground operation and I don’t want to be the one telegraphing timetables…
I will just say that we’ve talked through with them what they’re thinking in terms of the duration and how this falls into a longer-term strategy for addressing this issue that goes beyond just military means
In their daily update, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says there has been intense fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups.
Here is some of their latest updates:
Heavy Israeli bombardments from air, land, and sea across Gaza have continued on 5 and 6 December, alongside intense fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups, in particular in the eastern parts of Gaza city, Jabalia refugee camp, and areas east of Khan Younis. Rocket firing by Palestinian armed groups to Israel continued.
OCHA has added that an area of Khan Younis city has been marked for immediate evacuation:
On 6 December, an additional area in Khan Younis city encompassing about one square kilometre was designated by the Israeli military for immediate evacuation. Along with similar designations in previous days, about 25 per cent of the city area, where about 178,000 original residents (73 per cent of the population) and an estimated 170,000 IDPs [internally displaced persons] received have evacuations orders. The Israeli military instructed residents to move to two areas in Rafah and to Al Fakhouri in eastern Khan Younis governorate.
The Senate has blocked a supplemental funding bill that included financial aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as provisions aimed at bolstering border security.
The vote came one day after Senate Democrats formally unveiled the $111bn supplemental security bill, reflecting the funding request that Joe Biden issued in October to provide assistance to the US’s allies abroad.
Here’s our piece on what has happened today including comments from progressive Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who has expressed concern about the Israel portion of the funding.
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps will use a trip to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories to push for humanitarian aid to be delivered faster, including by sea directly into Gaza, his office said on Thursday.
He will discuss with leaders there options to provide civilians in Gaza with more aid, how the UK can support the Palestinian Authority, the recovery of hostages, as well as efforts to prevent further escalation in the Middle East, Reuters reports.
“We are working to find the best way to get aid and support to those in desperate need in the quickest and most direct route. That includes options by land, sea and air,” Shapps said.
Earlier this week Shapps said Britain was considering sending military support vessel RFA Lyme Bay to provide medical and humanitarian aid in the Middle East.
Shapps is due to meet the Interior Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Gen Ziad Hab Al-Reeh, to discuss the need for measures to improve security for Palestinians in the West Bank, his office said, while in Tel Aviv he will meet Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant “to address the current security situation and Israel’s next steps”. Shapps will also visit kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel which was attacked by Hamas on 7 October.
The president of Harvard University on Wednesday faced criticism and calls for her resignation over comments at a Capitol Hill hearing on campus antisemitism, Agence-France Presse is reports.
The deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas militants has ignited tensions on many American college campuses, with protests flaring.
At Harvard, donors have specifically called for President Claudine Gay to offer more explicit support for Israel, and condemnation of student groups who have voiced support for the Palestinian people.
On Tuesday, Gay testified before the House Education Committee at a hearing dedicated to holding campus leaders accountable for antisemitic incidents.
Republican lawmaker Elise Stefanik likened student calls for a new intifada – an Arabic word for uprising that harks back to the first Palestinian revolt against Israel in 1987 – to inciting “genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and globally.”
When Stefanik asked Gay if such calls would violate Harvard’s code of conduct, the Harvard president said: “We embrace a commitment to free expression even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful.
“When speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies, including policies against bullying, harassment or intimidation, we take action.”
Stefanik called on Gay to immediately resign, while Republican Senator Ted Cruz called the comment “disgraceful.”
On Wednesday, Gay issued a brief statement clarifying her testimony. “There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,” she said in a statement on social media. Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”
Reged Ahmad here, picking up the blog from Leonie Chao-Fong.
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Gaza and Israel:
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli forces have surrounded the Gaza house of top Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, Benjamin Netanyahu has said. “It’s only a matter of time before we get him,” the Israeli prime minister said on Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sinwar, who Israeli officials have described as the architect of the 7 October attacks, is hiding underground. A senior Netanyahu adviser described the operation as a “symbolic victory”.
Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip. As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fighting their way through badly bomb-damaged urban areas in northern and southern Gaza, Hamas has increasingly relied on improvised bombs to inflict casualties and slow down the assault. The focal points of the fighting over the past two days have been the Jabalia refugee camp and the Shuja’iyya district in northern Gaza, and Khan Younis and Bani Suheila in the south.
Israeli forces have surrounded the city of Khan Younis are now operating “in the heart” of the southern Gaza city, the IDF said on Wednesday. The IDF called on residents of Khan Younis to flee the city for safer areas on Wednesday morning, noting that there would be a pause until 2pm in the bombardment of Rafah, immediately to the south on the Egyptian border. Residents reported that the IDF dropped leaflets quoting a verse in the Qur’an on the area. The UN and aid agencies say nowhere in Gaza is safe any more.
Gaza’s health ministry has said 1,207 Palestinians had been killed since the collapse of a temporary ceasefire at the beginning of the month, and that 70% of the dead were women and children. At least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October, according to a statement from the Hamas media office on Tuesday. There are reported to be more than 7,600 people missing. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures issued during the conflict. The Gaza ministry said more than 100 bodies were currently awaiting burial inside the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, which it said was without fuel and was coming under fire.
Israel’s security cabinet has agreed to allow a “minimal addition” of fuel for entry to the Gaza Strip “to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of disease” in the territory’s south, a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Wednesday. The “minimal amount” will be determined by the war cabinet, it said.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has invoked a rarely used clause in the UN charter to warn that the conflict “may aggravate existing threats to international peace and security”. Guterres, in a letter to the Security Council, said he expects “public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions” in Gaza as the territory comes under constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In response, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said Guterres “reached a new moral low” and once again called for the UN chief to resign.
An exodus of Palestinians from Gaza into other countries in the region would be “catastrophic”, the UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi has warned. Grandi, in an interview on Wednesday, stressed the need for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, adding the war “has to end as soon as possible”.
The UN human rights chief has warned of a heightened risk of atrocity crimes in Gaza, urging parties involved to refrain from committing such violations. “My humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic. In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes,” Volker Türk said in Geneva on Wednesday.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Israeli military will retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after its war against Hamas ends. In a news conference late Tuesday, Netanyahu said Gaza would have to remain demilitarised and that the only body capable of ensuring this would be the Israeli military.
Israel has criticised the head of the UN children’s agency after she condemned acts of sexual violence committed against women during Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel on 7 October, as attention has focused on rapes and other atrocities in recent days. Israel said the comments by Catherine Russell, the executive director of Unicef, were insufficient and were issued only as a result of international pressure.
The high court has been urged to intervene and suspend UK arms sales to Israel in a legal challenge launched on Wednesday. The Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) have applied for a judicial review of the government’s export licences for the sale of British weapons capable of being used in Israel’s action in Gaza.
Israel says UN chief 'reached a new moral low' after invoking Article 99
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has said António Guterres “reached a new moral low” after the UN secretary general invoked a rarely used clause to urge the body’s security council members to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Posting to social media, Erdan said the UN chief had decided to activate “this rare clause only when it allows him to put pressure on Israel.”
He described the move as “more proof of the Secretary-General’s moral distortion and his bias against Israel” and said Guterres’ call for a ceasefire was “actually a call to keep Hamas’ reign of terror in Gaza”. He added:
I again call on the secretary-general to resign immediately - the UN needs a secretary-general who supports the war on terror, not a secretary-general who acts according to the script written by Hamas.
Today, the Secretary-General has reached a new moral low. He writes that he is activating, for the first time, Article 99 of the UN Charter in relation to the Israel-Hamas war, an article that can only be invoked in a situation where international peace and security are… pic.twitter.com/rQm18aT1vq
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) December 6, 2023
Israeli military drops leaflets with Qur'an verse over Khan Younis - report
Residents of Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza and the latest focus of the Israeli military’s ground offensive, have said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dropped leaflets quoting a verse in the Qur’an on the area.
The leaflets contained the quote, “The flood overtook them as they were wrongdoers,” AP reported.
The Israelis drop ominous leaflets today over Khan Younis that warn the residents with a Quranic verse:
— Gaza Report - اخبار غزة (@gaza_report) December 6, 2023
"the flood carried away the wrongdoers"
(Surah 29, verse 14) pic.twitter.com/kGrl48Akl7
Journalist Aamer Tabsh in Khan Younis said he saw Israeli planes drop thousands of the flyers, the news agency wrote.
Palestinians deciding whether to flee Khan Younis as Israeli tanks drew closer are convinced the reference to the epic flood of Noah in the Qur’an and Bible “means that something much worse is coming”, it said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment when asked about the leaflet drop.
Israel says it will allow 'minimal' fuel into Gaza
Israel’s security cabinet has agreed to allow a “minimal addition” of fuel for entry to the Gaza Strip “to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of disease” in the territory’s south.
In a statement, the Israeli prime minister’s office said:
This minimal amount will be determined from time to time by the war cabinet, in accordance with the disease rate and humanitarian conditions in the Strip.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled to Rafah, near Gaza’s border with Egypt, to escape Israeli bombardments, the UN has said.
Most of those displaced people in Rafah have been sleeping rough because of a lack of tents, the UN humanitarian office said in a report.
Israeli authorities have approved the construction of more than 1,700 new homes in a settlement partly in occupied East Jerusalem, according to reports.
Half the “new neighbourhood”, known as the Lower Aqueduct project, will be in the city’s annexed east, the Israeli non-governmental organisation Peace Now told AFP.
A representative told the news agency:
If it weren’t for the war (between Israel and Hamas), there would be a lot of noise. It’s a highly problematic project for the continuity of a Palestinian state between the southern West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The Ir Amim organisation, which tracks the construction of Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, said an access road would be built over private Palestinian land, adding that this land would likely be expropriated, the Times of Israel reported.
The Palestinian foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Israel was “taking advantage of international concern over the war in Gaza to approve the construction of a settlement in occupied Jerusalem”.
It was part of a plan to “flood Jerusalem with settlements and settlers” and “separate it from its Palestinian surroundings”, the ministry said.
Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar 'hiding underground', says Israeli army
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, whose house they say they have surrounded, is hiding underground.
Earlier today, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that troops “are encircling Sinwar’s house,” adding that “he can escape, but it’s only a matter of time before we get him.”
Sinwar, a founding member of Hamas, grew up in a refugee camp of Khan Younis.
Asked whether Netanyahu’s statement meant Israeli troops were closing in on the Sinwar home, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “The house of Sinwar is the area of Khan Younis.”
“Sinwar is not above ground; he is underground,” Hagari said, adding:
I don’t want to elaborate where and how and what we know in terms of intelligence. This is not the place to talk about such things in the media. Our job is to find Sinwar and kill him.
Germany has called on the EU to consider sanctions on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
On Tuesday, the US announced it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in recent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank in a rare punitive move against Israel.
The German foreign ministry spokesperson, Sebastian Fischer, on Wednesday said Berlin welcomed the fact that the US “will now take concrete measures in the form of entry restrictions”.
It was “important to drive this debate forward at European level too”, he said. He added that the violence by settlers against Palestinian communities in the West Bank had taken on “such alarming proportions” in recent weeks that many families had left their homes in fear. adding: “This is completely unacceptable.”
UN refugee chief warns exodus of Palestinians from Gaza would be 'catastrophic'
An exodus of Palestinians from Gaza into other countries in the region would be “catastrophic”, the UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi has warned.
Grandi, in an interview with AFP, said it was “very, very important to … prevent an exodus that would be really catastrophic” as he stressed the need for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
“One should never forget that two-thirds of the population of Gaza are already refugees from the original conflict,” he said, referring to the events of 1948 in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland after the creation of Israel, in what is known as the Nakba.
A fresh exodus “would be an additional burden on the refugee population, on the Palestinian population and on the region”, Grandi said.
He said the priority should be to “go back to a pause... hopefully followed by a humanitarian ceasefire”, adding that this “has to end as soon as possible”.
The high court has been urged to intervene and suspend UK arms sales to Israel in a legal challenge launched on Wednesday.
The Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network (Glan) have applied for a judicial review of the government’s export licences for the sale of British weapons capable of being used in Israel’s action in Gaza. Ahmed Abofoul, a lawyer at Al-Haq, said:
The UK has a legal and moral obligation to not grant licences for the sale of British weapons to regimes that commit atrocity crimes.
The legal challenge argues the government has granted licences for the sale of British weapons to Israel under a wide range of categories in recent years, including components for military radars and targeting equipment, components for military support, combat aircraft, naval vessels and more.
Since 2015 there have been £472m in limited value “standard” licence grants and 58 unlimited value “open” licences to Israel, according to the organisations, which argue that open licences lack transparency and allow for unlimited quantities.
Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip, with devastating consequences for the civilian population amid a complete collapse in humanitarian relief.
Here’s our video report:
Here’s more from Wednesday’s Group of Seven (G7) nations virtual meeting, which earlier called for further humanitarian pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The group’s leaders have issued a joint statement reaffirming support for a two-state solution to the long-running Israel-Palestinian conflict, AFP reports:
We remain committed to a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution that enables both Israelis and Palestinians to live in a just, lasting, and secure peace.
The statement isn’t surprising. A two-state solution, partitioning Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, has long been favored globally.
Last month, the United Nations called for the international community to move towards a two-state solution, stating that Jerusalem should serve as the capital of both states.
“It is long past time to move in a determined, irreversible way towards a two-state solution, on the basis of UN resolutions and international law,” Tatiana Valovaya, director-general of the UN office in Geneva, said in a speech at the time.
A spokesperson for the US state department says the Biden administration “has seen”, but isn’t yet ready to comment on a letter from United Nations secretary general António Guterres warning the UN security council that public order is set to break down in Gaza completely, and that there was no means of getting aid into the territory.
Guterres wrote that the capacity of the UN to act had been decimated by supply shortages, lack of fuel, interrupted communications and lack of security.
Matthew Miller, the state department spokesperson, told a lunchtime press briefing in Washington DC that the US will continue to consult with Guterres and security council members, Reuters reports:
Of course there are threats to regional security and threats to global security that are presented by this conflict. We said that in the very aftermath of October 7th, and we made quite clear that one of the things that we are trying to do is prevent this conflict from spreading.
Netanyahu advisor says Sinwar operation is 'symbolic victory' for Israel
A senior adviser to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it’s a “symbolic victory” that troops of the Israel Defense Forces have surrounded the Gaza home of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Mark Regev was speaking from Tel Aviv to CNN, the US network where he has become something of a regular mouthpiece for the Israeli government. He said:
It’s a symbolic victory for Israel. But it will be a real victory very soon. It’s only a matter of time before we get the man who was directly responsible for the massacre of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, the brutal massacre, the atrocities, the rapes, the burnings, the beheadings.
We will reach him and justice will be done.
Israeli officials have described Sinwar as the architect of the 7 October Hamas attacks. Since then, more than 16,015 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Regev was also asked about today’s vote in the US Congress, where it looks like Republicans will continue to block Joe Biden’s request for approval of a $106bn (£844m) budget package to include money for Israel and humanitarian aid for Gaza:
Israel’s fight against Hamas is America’s fight too, because Hamas represents the sort of barbarism, this extremism, this terrorism. They might have attacked Israel on October 7, but that sort of extremism can attack Europe and it can reach America.
It’s important that we win here not just for Israel, but for the whole free world. We have to show this sort of barbarism is destroyed. We have to nip it in the bud, so to speak, we can’t allow them to have a victory.
Israel’s victory here will be America’s victory too.
Updated
Israel's military says its forces in Gaza operating in 'heart' of Khan Younis
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops who have surrounded the city of Khan Younis are now operating “in the heart” of the southern Gaza city.
An IDF statement said its soldiers It said soldiers “arrived at the center of Khan Younis and began targeted raids in the heart of the city,” which it identified as a symbol of Hamas’ military and administrative rule.
From the Times of Israel’s Emanuel Fabian:
The IDF says its 98th Division is leading the ground offensive against Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip, during which troops have surrounded the city of Khan Younis and are beginning to operate in it.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 6, 2023
The 98th Division is made up of paratrooper forces — both from the standing… pic.twitter.com/YuehtX8dT0
Leaders of the Group of Seven nations (G7) have called for further humanitarian pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, the G7 said it was “deeply concerned with the devastating impact on the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza.”
Leaders urged for “more effective action … be taken to prevent the displacement of additional people and protect civilian infrastructure” in the territory, as well as to ensure unhindered humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza. The statement said:
More urgent action is needed to address the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza and minimise civilian casualties. We support and encourage further humanitarian pauses to enable this.
The leaders also condemned the rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which they said “threatens prospects for a lasting peace.” Those who have committed crimes “must be held to account,” it added.
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces were “encircling” the Gaza house of top Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar. “His house may not be his fortress and he can escape but it’s only a matter of time before we get him,” the Israeli prime minister said on Wednesday. Israeli officials have described Sinwar as the architect of the 7 October attacks.
Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip. As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fighting their way through badly bomb-damaged urban areas in northern and southern Gaza, Hamas has increasingly relied on improvised bombs to inflict casualties and slow down the assault. The focal points of the fighting over the past two days have been the Jabalia refugee camp and the Shuja’iyya district in northern Gaza, and Khan Younis and Bani Suheila in the south
Gaza’s health ministry has said 1,207 Palestinians had been killed since the collapse of a temporary ceasefire at the beginning of the month, and that 70% of the dead were women and children. At least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October, according to a statement from the Hamas media office on Tuesday. There are reported to be more than 7,600 people missing. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures issued during the conflict. The Gaza ministry said more than 100 bodies were currently awaiting burial inside the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, which it said was without fuel and was coming under fire.
The IDF called on residents of Khan Younis to flee the city for safer areas on Wednesday morning, noting that there would be a pause until 2pm in the bombardment of Rafah, immediately to the south on the Egyptian border. The UN and aid agencies say nowhere in Gaza is safe any more.
Israel’s military has said it found a major arms depot “in the heart of a civilian population” in Gaza. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement on Wednesday described it as “one of the largest weapons depots in the Gaza Strip” and said it was “found near a clinic and school” in the north of the Palestinian territory.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has invoked a rarely used clause in the UN charter to warn that the conflict “may aggravate existing threats to international peace and security”. Guterres, in a letter to the Security Council, said he expects “public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions” in Gaza as the territory comes under constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The UN human rights chief has warned of a heightened risk of atrocity crimes in Gaza, urging parties involved to refrain from committing such violations. “My humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic. In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes,” Volker Türk said in Geneva on Wednesday.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Israeli military will retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after its war against Hamas ends. In a news conference late Tuesday, Netanyahu said Gaza would have to remain demilitarized and that the only body capable of ensuring this would be the Israeli military.
Israel has criticised the head of the UN children’s agency after she condemned acts of sexual violence committed against women during Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel on 7 October, as attention has focused on rapes and other atrocities in recent days. Israel said the comments by Catherine Russell, the executive director of Unicef, were insufficient and were issued only as a result of international pressure.
Al Jazeera said one of its employees lost 22 members of his family in an Israeli air attack on a home they were sheltering in the Gaza Strip. The family members of Momin Alshrafi, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, were killed early on Wednesday morning at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the network said.
Vladimir Putin has arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on a rare overseas trip to discuss the Israel-Hamas war as Moscow seeks to reassert Russia’s role in the Middle East. The Russian president is due to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday, after holding talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi.
Updated
An EU commissioner has condemned an attack by Israeli settlers on a school in Zanuta, a Palestinian village situated in the occupied West Bank.
Janez Lenarčič, the EU’s commissioner for crisis management, described the destruction of the EU-funded school as “intolerable” and a violation of international humanitarian law.
Israeli settlers demolished a school in Zamuta, a village in the Occupied #Palestinian Territory.
— Janez Lenarčič (@JanezLenarcic) December 6, 2023
The school was built by EU funds - because every child, everywhere has a right to education.
This destruction is intolerable and a violation of International Humanitarian Law.#IHL pic.twitter.com/2KAp2m33fP
Daily settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank have more than doubled, UN figures show, since the Hamas attacks on Israel no 7 October.
Al Jazeera said one of its employees lost 22 members of his family in an Israeli air attack on a home they were sheltering in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The family members of Momin Alshrafi, a correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, were killed early on Wednesday morning at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, the network said.
Among those killed were Alshrafi’s parents Mahmoud and Amina, his siblings and their spouses, it said. Several children in Alshrafi’s family were also killed in the attack, it said.
In a statement, Al Jazeera said it “demands that the Israeli military is held accountable for the daily crimes committed against journalists and innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip”. It added:
Al Jazeera reaffirms that it will pursue all legal steps to holding accountable all those responsible for this crime.
Al Jazeera unequivocally condemns the Israeli massacre that resulted in the tragic loss of 22 family members of our colleague, Moamen Al-Sharafi. pic.twitter.com/1bRkN8zFNZ
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 6, 2023
On the Sabbath morning of 7 October, Sigalit Cohen could hear alarms sounding from her home in Tzur Hadassah, just outside Jerusalem.
Hours later she learned of the unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage – including her son.
Eliya Cohen, 26, was at the Supernova music festival with his girlfriend, Ziv, three miles from the Gaza border when Hamas militants attacked partygoers. At least 260 people were killed in the festival grounds, in one of the deadliest attacks on Israel in decades.
“It was a very bad dream, I didn’t know what to do, I was in shock,” Cohen, 55, said.
I just sat in the chair and slapped my face to see if I’m in the real world or if it’s a dream.
Within hours of the alarms, Cohen received a phone call from Ziv’s sister telling her of the attack. Ziv was missing but Eliya was said be OK, confirmed by a photograph of him in hospital. But an hour later she received a Facebook message from Eliya’s high school friend asking if she knew that her son had been abducted.
“That was the message when I understood that something’s wrong with Eliya,” said Cohen. She was sent the same photo of her son, this time overlaid with Arabic text saying he was in Gaza.
At the first moment, I think it’s fake. I tried to call all the hospitals in the south and when I had no answer from the hospital that Eliya is there, I understood that he’s kidnapped.
Three days later, confirmation came from Israeli soldiers.
Read the full interview: ‘I just want my son home’: agony of hostage’s family amid Gaza fighting
UN chief says he expects public order in Gaza to 'completely break down'
Here’s more on the UN secretary general António Guterres’ letter to the Security Council, as he invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter which allows him to bring to attention any event that threatens the security of the world.
Guterres, in his letter, said he expects “public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions” in Gaza as the territory comes under constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The humanitarian system in Gaza is “facing a severe risk of collapse,” he wrote.
The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region. Such an outcome must be avoided at all cost.
Guterres urged members of the Security Council to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe”, and reiterated his appeal for “a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared”.
I've just invoked Art.99 of the UN Charter - for the 1st time in my tenure as Secretary-General.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 6, 2023
Facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe & appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared. pic.twitter.com/pA0eRXZnFJ
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The UN heard accounts of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks by Hamas, in a meeting on Monday where speakers criticised women’s rights activists and UN officials for not doing more to investigate or condemn these crimes.
Here’s our video report:
France will send 600 tonnes of extra food aid over to the civilian population of Gaza, the French foreign ministry has said.
France will “relentlessly pursue its efforts to help the civilian population of Gaza”, a statement from the office of foreign minister Catherine Colonna said.
Israeli forces surrounding Hamas' Gaza leader's house, says Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces were “encircling” the Gaza house of top Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar.
The Israeli prime minister, in a recorded video statement on Wednesday, said:
Yesterday I said that our forces could reach anywhere in the Gaza Strip. Today they are encircling Sinwar’s house. His house may not be his fortress and he can escape but it’s only a matter of time before we get him.
Sinwar was a founding member of Hamas and has risen to become perhaps its most powerful figure.
Israeli officials have described him as the architect of the 7 October attacks. Though military commanders probably planned the details of the 7 October attacks, Sinwar is thought to have instigated the operation and been involved in almost all aspects.
He is now in hiding, possibly in the network of tunnels Hamas have built under southern Gaza.
Updated
UN chief urges security council to act as he warns Gaza war may aggravate threats to global peace
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has written to the UN security council warning public order is set to break down in Gaza completely and there is no means of getting aid over the border into Gaza.
He has intervened using his powers under Article 99 of the UN Charter that allows him to bring to the UN’s attention any event that threatens the security of the world.
His move is designed to put pressure on the US to direct Israel to let aid cross over from Egypt into Gaza. The US claimed it had reached such an agreement last week, and since then has fended off complaints that its agreement has not been honoured by Israel.
Some Arab foreign ministers including the Egyptian foreign minister have travelled to New York to demand action.
Guterres, in his letter, wrote that the capacity of the UN to act has been decimated by supply shortages, lack of fuel, interrupted communications and lack of security.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has responded to criticism of its role in facilitating the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza.
The hostages are “at the very top of our priority list – but under current circumstances access is difficult and very dangerous for the hostages themselves,” ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric told the BBC.
It requires an agreement between both the parties and that agreement is lacking at the moment. We speak to both sides all the time and we are demanding that Hamas gives us access – from day one I have always clearly said that taking hostages is against international humanitarian law.
Last week, Rachel Goldberg, whose son is believed to be a hostage, said the Red Cross had done a good job “being the Uber service for the released hostages” but had done nothing for those still in captivity.
Spoljaric said the criticism of the ICRC as being an “Uber service” was “profoundly unjust, unfair, and wrong”, adding:
These operations are extremely complex and have to be planned - we are working around the clock with the authorities on the Israeli side and Israel knows that we use all our available resources whenever we can facilitate a release or access to hostages.
Yemen’s Houthis has said it launched several ballistic missiles at “military targets” in the Israeli city of Eilat.
The Yemen-based group have repeatedly claimed attacks against Israeli territory, as well as Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea.
Israel has criticised the head of the UN children’s agency after she condemned acts of sexual violence committed against women during Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel on 7 October.
Israel said the comments by Catherine Russell, the executive director of Unicef, were insufficient and were issued only as a result of international pressure.
In a post on Wednesday on X, Russell said the accounts of sexual violence were “horrific”. She added:
Survivors must be heard, supported, and provided with care. Allegations must be fully investigated. We condemn gender-based violence and all forms of violence against women and girls.
The accounts of sexual violence on 7 October in Israel are horrific.
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) December 6, 2023
Survivors must be heard, supported, and provided with care. Allegations must be fully investigated.
We condemn gender-based violence and all forms of violence against women and girls.
Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry, said the statement was too little and too late. He told the AFP news agency:
It took Unicef almost two months to say something about the Israeli victims … [and] only after an international campaign and pressure.
The fact that she [Russell] doesn’t mention the Hamas terror organisation is another way of turning a blind eye on the atrocities that Hamas did. By not mentioning Hamas, she is legitimising their activities.
Putin lands in Saudi Arabia in rare trip abroad to discuss Israel-Hamas war
Vladimir Putin has arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Russian news agencies reported, on a rare overseas trip to discuss the Israel-Hamas war as Moscow seeks to reassert Russia’s role in the Middle East.
The Russian president is due to discuss oil, Gaza and Ukraine with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman today, after holding talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi.
The trip makes a rare foray outside Russia for Putin, who has had an international criminal court arrest warrant issued against him for his alleged role in the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
Updated
The state of Saxony-Anhalt in east Germany has announced that applicants for citizenship will now be required to declare their support for Israel’s right to exist.
The new legislation, issued by the state’s interior ministry, states that residents who do not declare in writing that they believe in Israel’s right to exist will be refused naturalisation.
The decree states that Israel’s right to exist is Germany’s “Staatsräson” or “reason of state,” German news agency DPA reported. The document states:
Obtaining German citizenship requires a commitment to Israel’s right to exist.
Saxony-Anhalt’s interior minister, Tamara Zieschang, wrote to the state’s citizenship offices, saying that applicants will have to confirm in writing “that they recognise Israel’s right to exist and condemn any efforts directed against the existence of the State of Israel”.
A Thai couple who were released after being held hostage for weeks by Hamas in Gaza have said they are worried they may not be able to pay off their mounting debt.
Boonthom Pankhong and Natthawaree Mulkan, who had worked in Israel, were among at least 32 Thais abducted by Hamas during the 7 October attacks. They were among the first 17 Thais released by Hamas during the short truce in November.
A further six Thais were later freed, but the Thai foreign ministry believes nine hostages are still being held.
Boonthom, 45, told AFP that he still gets panic attacks when he hears loud noises. He and his partner, Natthawaree, 35, worked on the same farm in southern Israel but said they were held separately after being abducted by Hamas militants.
Natthawaree told the news agency she had earned about 50,000 baht (£1,130) a month which she used to support her two children.
Thailand’s labour ministry has promised returnees around 50,000 baht in compensation, and the government has also said they would be eligible for a low-interest loan of up to 150,000 baht.
But Natthawaree, who said she owes 500,000 baht, said she had received less than half of what the government promised, and desperately needed more to support her family and pay off existing debts.
“I am finding a way to work abroad again,” she said. “Now we have nothing.”
More than 100 bodies are awaiting burial inside the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, Gaza health ministry’s director general said.
Israeli forces “does not allow us to bury them”, Munir al-Bursh told NBC News today.
He added that the entire hospital is without fuel and that Israeli troops were firing on people.
France has condemned shelling by Israel in south Lebanon that killed a Lebanese soldier on Tuesday and wounded several others.
The shelling, which took place near a village in south Lebanon near the border with Israel, marked the first time a Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) soldier was killed since cross-border hostilities began in October, the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said.
Three others were wounded, according to a Lebanese army statement.
Speaking today, a French foreign ministry spokesperson said:
France is gravely concerned by the ongoing clashes on the border between Lebanon and Israel. France condemns the Israeli strike which cost the life of a member of the Lebanese armed forces, and sends its sincere condolences to the victim’s relatives.
In a rare statement on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was “regret over the incident” and said its forces had been “working to neutralise a tangible threat that was identified” at a Hezbollah launch and observation post along the border.
Earlier today, IDF soldiers operated in self defense to eliminate an imminent threat that had been identified from Lebanon. The threat was identified within a known launch area and observation point of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, near al-Awadi. Hezbollah’s activities…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 5, 2023
IDF says it has found major arms depot in 'heart of civilian' area in Gaza
Israel’s military has said it found a major arms depot “in the heart of a civilian population” in Gaza.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement described it as “one of the largest weapons depots in the Gaza Strip” and said it was “found near a clinic and school” in the north of the Palestinian territory, AFP reported.
The IDF statement continued:
The depot contained hundreds of RPG missiles and launchers of various types, dozens of anti-tank missiles, dozens of explosive devices, long-range missiles aimed at central Israel, dozens of grenades and UAVs.
Some of them were destroyed on-site and others were sent for further investigation, it said.
Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong in Washington taking over the live blog. You can reach me at leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It is 5pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
Israeli forces and Hamas are fighting house-to-house battles along the length of the Gaza Strip, with devastating consequences for the civilian population amid a complete collapse in humanitarian relief. The focal points of the fighting over the past two days have been the Jabalia refugee camp and the Shuja’iyya district in northern Gaza and Khan Younis and Bani Suheila in the south. The IDF has taken control of most of the Salah al-Din road, the main north-south highway running down the middle of the coastal strip.
The UN and aid agencies say nowhere in Gaza is safe any more. According to the UN, 1.87 million people, more than 80% of Gaza’s population, have left their homes. Many have had to flee shelter several times in the path of the Israeli advance.
Israel’s military has claimed it struck at approximately 250 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip over the last day, including targeting what it claimed was Hamas activity located at schools.
Hamas has said that Israel has killed at least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October. There are reported to be more than 7,600 people missing. Earlier this week an unnamed Israeli military source told news agencies it estimated that 15,000 people had been killed, with 5,000 of them being combatants. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures issued during the conflict.
The Israeli army has said the International Committee of the Red Cross must have access to the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza Strip. Israel believes 138 of the estimated 240 people seized in Hamas’s attack on 7 October are still being held in Gaza.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says the Israeli military will retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after its war against Hamas ends. In a news conference late Tuesday, Netanyahu said Gaza would have to remain demilitarized and that the only body capable of ensuring this would be the Israeli military.
The UN human rights chief has warned of a heightened risk of atrocity crimes in Gaza, urging parties involved to refrain from committing such violations. “My humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic. In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes,” Volker Türk said in Geneva.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday it intercepted a surface-to-surface missile launched towards Eilat in southern Israel, and that Israeli forces have responded to a “number of launches” from Lebanon in the north of the country.
Cyprus says a number of countries have offered to store humanitarian assistance in the east Mediterranean island nation as part of a plan to ship the aid to Gaza via a maritime corridor.
Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida told his Netanyahu over the phone on Wednesday that it was important to minimise civilian casualties in the conflict with Hamas.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has visited the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The conflict in Gaza was said to be on the agenda for talks.
The US president, Joe Biden, has denounced the reported rape and sexual violence committed against Israeli girls and women by Hamas militants during the 7 October attack on Israel, calling on the world to condemn such conduct “without equivocation” and “without exception.”
Robert Tait offers this analysis of whether a change of tone from the Biden administration towards the conflict in Gaza is being matched by a change in policy:
A soaring civilian death toll and a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza has jolted the Biden administration into a stark change of rhetoric towards the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Out has gone cavalier White House disavowals against “drawing red lines” for Israel in Gaza; in have come blunt invocations of international law and the need to limit civilian casualties to a minimum.
The defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, warned that Israel risked replacing “a tactical victory with a strategic defeat” if it failed to protect civilians, thus “driving them into the arms of the enemy”.
Striking a still tougher pose, Vice-President Kamala Harris, speaking at the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai, said “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed” and added: “International humanitarian law must be respected.”
The altered tone, however, has not been accompanied by a substantive policy shift – raising doubts among critics about the credibility of official US pronouncements on the unfolding carnage.
Antony Blinken reportedly told Israeli officials who showed him plans for extensive fighting in southern Gaza that would last several more months that “you don’t have that much credit”.
Yet to the administration’s critics, it is the White House which is losing credit.
Read more of Robert Tait’s analysis here: The White House is changing its tune on Israel – but does it matter in practice?
Hind Khoudary is reporting for Al Jazeera from Deir al-Balah in Gaza. In her latest dispatch she writes:
The humanitarian situation is completely devastating. The streets are completely crowded and people are trying to find food and water, even if it is not clean or drinkable water. People are still, to this point, trying to rescue those who were targeted last night from under the rubble. Garbage is everywhere in the streets, the smell is suffocating, and you can barely stand it.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza and Israel.
Peter Beaumont is in Jerusalem and offers this analysis of why Israel has made Khan Younis a target in its war on Hamas:
At the start of Israel’s now more than 60-day offensive in Gaza, its focus was on the north of the territory: Hamas’s leader in Gaza was portrayed as being hunkered down in a bunker, while its key command centre was said at other times to be located under Dar al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, illustrated by mocked-up graphics in Israeli briefings.
Amid a rolling Israeli campaign of huge destruction, the southern city of Khan Younis, the territory’s second biggest urban concentration, is now being depicted as Hamas’s stronghold. Where Gaza City has its high-rise blocks, the skyline of Khan Younis is lower, hemmed in on one side by a rural periphery of villages that run up to the border with Israel.
And while Hamas has been associated with its roots in Gaza City, Khan Younis has long been linked to Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, and with its shadowy military leader, Mohammed Deif, the mastermind of the 7 October attack. Both grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp, where Sinwar was born in 1962 while Gaza was under Egyptian administration.
The reality is that while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claim to have killed numerous lower-ranking Hamas commanders, issuing a photograph of one group in a tunnel that had those killed marked, the group’s most senior leadership has so far avoided a similar fate – in keeping with previous conflicts.
The aim of the expanded operation in the south, senior IDF officers have insisted publicly, is to catch or kill Sinwar and other members of the senior leadership.
Read more of Peter Beaumont’s analysis here: Israel’s focus turns to Khan Younis as it hunts for Hamas leaders
Cyprus says a number of countries have offered to store humanitarian assistance in the east Mediterranean island nation as part of a plan to ship the aid to Gaza via a maritime corridor.
The countries include the UK, which last week sent humanitarian aid that is being stored at Larnaca port, from where ships will depart for Gaza once conditions on the ground in the territory allow for it, government spokesperson Constantinos Letymbiotis said Wednesday.
Associated Press reports he said the UK has also offered a shallow-draft ship capable of approaching Gaza’s shoreline, where it would be able to offload the aid without the need for port facilities required by large vessels.
Earlier this week, Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides said he held talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who reaffirmed their support for the aid corridor. Israel has also backed the plan but has given no indication yet when the aid could begin to flow.
More from the United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk [see 10.30am GMT] who has warned there was a heightened risk of “atrocity crimes” in Gaza, urging parties involved to refrain from committing such violations.
“Some 1.9 million out of the 2.2 million Palestinians have been displaced and are being pushed into ever diminishing and extremely overcrowded places in southern Gaza in unsanitary and unhealthy conditions,” Turk said.
“Humanitarian aid is again virtually cut off as fears of widespread disease and hunger spread.”
Turk said that the only way to end the conflict was to end the Israeli occupation and opt for a two-state solution.
“I think one thing is very clear: it cannot go back to what it was,” he said.
Turk’s office requested access to Israel to collect information on the 7 October attacks, including acts of sexual violence, but had not received a response from Israel.
Israeli authorities have already opened their own investigation into sexual violence committed by Hamas.
“I’ve repeated this call and I hope it will be heard,” Turk said on his request to access Israel. “It is clear: atrocious forms of sexual violence need to be thoroughly investigated.”
Hamas denies its fighters committed such abuses.
Turk also noted what he called “dehumanising and inciteful statements” made by high-level Israeli officials and figures from Hamas, which he said could potentially be viewed as incitement to committing atrocity crimes.
“History has shown us where this kind of language can lead,” he said. “This is not just unacceptable, but a competent court may view such statements in the circumstances in which they are made as incitement to atrocity crimes.”
Updated
Israel’s military has said in the last hour that it intercepted a surface-to-surface missile launched towards Eilat in southern Israel, and that Israeli forces have responded to a “number of launches” from Lebanon in the north of the country.
In messages posted to the Telegram messaging app, the IDF said:
Following the report regarding sirens that sounded in the city of Eilat, a launch of a surface-to-surface missile toward Israel was identified, and was successfully intercepted in the area of the Red Sea by the “Arrow” aerial defence system. The target did not cross into Israeli territory [and] did not pose a threat to civilians.
It also posted to say:
A short while ago, a number of launches were identified from Lebanon. The IDF is striking the sources of the fire. Furthermore, since this morning, IDF tanks and artillery have been striking several locations in Lebanon and IDF aircraft struck a military command center and military infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
It said that the launches from Lebanon had been aimed at IDF military posts.
This is an updated map showing the extent of damage in the Gaza Strip caused by the Israeli bombardment since 7 October. The UN has said 1.87 million people – more than 80% of Gaza’s population – have been driven from their homes since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel began its campaign after Hamas launched its surprise attack inside southern Israel on 7 October, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and during which an estimated 240 were abducted and taken captive. Israeli authorities believe that 138 hostages who were seized that day are still being held in Gaza.
Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida told his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone on Wednesday that it was important to minimise civilian casualties in the conflict with Hamas, Reuters reports the Japanese government said.
Hamas has claimed that Israel has killed at least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October. There are reported to be more than 7,600 people missing. Earlier this week an unnamed Israeli military source told news agencies it estimated that 15,000 people had been killed, with 5,000 of them being combatants.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify casualty figures issued during the conflict.
Warning sirens have sounded in Eilat, Israel’s southern resort and port city on the Red Sea.
While warning sirens in the north of Israel near the blue line boundary with Lebanon, and in the south in proximity to the Gaza Strip are a regular occurrence, it is rarer for a warning to sound in Eilat. The city has been targeted previously in this conflict by Yemen’s Houthi group, and also with a long-range attempted strike from inside Gaza.
Turkey’s president, who has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, has told Turkish media that there would be serious consequences if Israel pressed ahead with a threat to attack Hamas officials on Turkish soil, and said his country has petitioned the international criminal court for Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was speaking to journalists on a flight returning from Qatar on Tuesday, with the media in Turkey reporting the comments on Wednesday morning.
His comments echoed warnings from other Turkish officials on Tuesday in response to the head of Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet, who said in an audio recording that his organization is prepared to destroy Hamas “in every place,” including inside Turkey.
On the legal moves, Erdoğan said “We brought the war crimes committed in Gaza to the court’s agenda and we will be following up on this. Netanyahu will not be able to evade paying the penalty for his actions. Sooner or later, he will be tried and will pay the price for the war crimes he committed”. Erdoğan has previously referred to Netanyahu as “the butcher of Gaza”.
Erdoğan also rejected comments made in Israel about the future of Gaza, saying that plans for a buffer zone conveyed by Israel to several Arab states and Turkey were disrespectful” to Palestinians.
Erdoğan said Gaza’s future after the war would be decided by Palestinian people and that Israel must return the territories it occupies. He also said western support for Israel, namely from the US, had caused the current situation in the region.
UN human rights chief warns of 'heightened risk of atrocity crimes' in Gaza
The UN human rights chief has warned of a heightened risk of atrocity crimes in Gaza, urging parties involved to refrain from committing such violations.
“My humanitarian colleagues have described the situation as apocalyptic. In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes,” Volker Türk told reporters in Geneva, according to Reuters.
“Measures need to be taken urgently, both by the parties concerned and by all states, particularly those with influence, to prevent any such crimes.”
Updated
The UK maritime trade operations agency has reported an incident involving a drone in the Red Sea, off the coast of Yemen.
UKMTO ADVISORY 002/DEC/2023
— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) December 6, 2023
INCIDENT
UKMTO has received a report of an incident involving a Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) in the vicinity of position 1425N 04212E, 47nm west of port Hodeidah, Yemen.
2023 (https://t.co/5An1YH0JyE)#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/u0CoqtPi48
The Iran-allied Houthi group has recently attacked shipping in the region in a bid to target Israeli interests.
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The Israeli army has said the International Committee of the Red Cross must have access to the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza Strip.
“As the IDF expands its operations to dismantle Hamas in Gaza, we have not lost sight … of our critical mission to rescue our hostages,” the army spokesperson, Daniel Hagari said, Agence France-Presse reports.
“The international community must take action. The Red Cross must have access to the hostages that are in the hands of Hamas.”
Israel believes 138 of the estimated 240 people seized in Hamas’s attack on 7 October are being held in Gaza.
One hundred and five hostages were released during the recent temporary truce.
Israel has previously complained that one of the conditions of the ceasefire had been to allow the Red Cross access to hostages, which was not met by Hamas.
Last week, Rachel Goldberg, whose son is believed to be a hostage, said the Red Cross had done a good job “being the Uber service for the released hostages” but had done nothing for those still in captivity.
Updated
Tass reports that Vladimir Putin has arrived in Abu Dhabi. He is scheduled to hold talks with UAE president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Russian leader will then travel to Riyadh for talks with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Topics for discussion are anticipated to include the conflict in Gaza, as well as oil production policies.
The trip makes a rare foray outside Russia for Putin, who has had an international criminal court arrest warrant issued against him for his alleged role in the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
In a separate development, Tass reports that the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, has announced that 883 Russians of about 1,100 who asked for help in evacuating from Gaza have arrived in Russia.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Khan Younis, where there are reports today of a heavy bombardment and the movement of Israeli tanks into the city.
Updated
AFP reports that the streets of Khan Younis were almost empty on Wednesday morning as people tried to take shelter from shelling and artillery fire.
Hassan Al-Qadi, a displaced Khan Younis resident taking refuge in Rafah told the news agency:
The whole city is suffering from destruction and relentless shelling. Many people arriving from northern Gaza are facing dire circumstances. Many are homeless and some are searching for their missing children. We are not mere numbers. We are human beings.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
It is 11.30am in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
Israeli forces have expanded their ground offensive inside Gaza to include its second-largest city, further shrinking the area where Palestinians can seek safety and halting the distribution of vital aid across most of the territory. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have told AFP their fighters were battling Israeli troops early on Wednesday in an effort to prevent them from breaking into Khan Younis, which local media reported was under heavy bombardment, with Israeli tanks approaching from the east.
Israel has told Palestinians that it will not allow the movement of civilians on the Salah al-Din road that runs through the Gaza Strip in sections north and east of Khan Younis. It is instead instructing residents evacuating from the north to use a diversion along a coastal route where it says the IDF will allow movement.
Israel’s military has said it struck at approximately 250 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip over the last day, including targeting what it claimed was Hamas activity located at schools. Israeli forces have killed at least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October, a statement from the Hamas media office has said. At least 43,616 people have been injured and at least 7,600 people are missing, according to the statement on Tuesday.
Fuel and medical supplies are at critically low levels at al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza due to road closures while hundreds of patients are being admitted every day, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said.
The UN’s top aid official has said the Israeli military campaign in southern Gaza has been just as devastating as in the north, creating “apocalyptic” conditions and ending any possibility of meaningful humanitarian operations. Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said he was speaking on behalf of the entire international aid community in saying the continuing offensive had robbed aid workers of any significant means of helping the 2.3 million people of Gaza.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says the Israeli military will retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after its war against Hamas ends. In a news conference late Tuesday, Netanyahu said Gaza would have to remain demilitarized and that the only body capable of ensuring this would be the Israeli military.
Two Palestinians have been killed in clashes with the Israeli military in the West Bank, local media has reported.
The US president, Joe Biden, has denounced the reported rape and sexual violence committed against Israeli girls and women by Hamas militants during the 7 October attack on Israel, calling on the world to condemn such conduct “without equivocation” and “without exception.”
Israeli media is reporting that the health of Hanna Katzir, one of the hostages released by Hamas from Gaza last month, has deteriorated. Her daughter told army radio she had returned “both heartbroken and with cardiological problems”.
Updated
AFP reports, citing sources in Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that Palestinian fighters were battling Israeli troops early on Wednesday in an effort to prevent them from breaking into Khan Younis.
The report tallies with a statement by Israel’s army chief Herzi Halevi late on Tuesday that “our forces are now encircling the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip”.
Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah for Al Jazeera, said: “As of the early hours of this morning, under heavy aerial bombardment, Israeli tanks started pushing deeper and deeper to the centre of Khan Younis city, coming from the eastern side.”
Pictures taken from southern Israel on Wednesday morning show smoke billowing over the Gaza Strip, and an Israeli Apache helicopter firing into Gaza.
Updated
The Associated Press is carrying a couple of quotes from people in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Hamza Abu Mustafa, a teacher who lives near a school-turned-shelter and is hosting three families, said “the situation is extremely dire.”
“You find displaced people in the streets, in schools, in mosques, in hospitals … everywhere.”
A woman who identified herself as Umm Ahmed said the harsh conditions and limited access to toilets were especially difficult for women who are pregnant or menstruating. “For women and girls, the suffering is double,” she said. “It’s more humiliation.”
Updated
Israeli media is reporting that the health of Hanna Katzir, one of the hostages released by Hamas from Gaza last month, has deteriorated.
The Times of Israel reports that on army radio, the daughter of the 77-year-old said: “My mother’s condition is serious, her condition has deteriorated following the captivity. She had no heart problems when she was kidnapped, but now she has severe heart problems due to harsh conditions and starvation. She came back both heartbroken and with cardiological problems.”
Katzir’s son Elad remains among those believed to be held in captivity by Hamas.
Updated
Hani Mahmoud has been reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza for Al Jazeera. He writes that in the past 12 hours, the Israeli military has intensified its attacks on the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, describing it as “coordinated attacks by air, land, and sea in the densely populated area where thousands of people are still stranded”.
Mahmoud also reports that, driving around Rafah, he saw “on the walls of residential buildings, written statements of the names of people who were still under the rubble”.
He notes that “Civil defence crews … are unable to remove bodies from under the rubble. They lack the equipment and the machinery, and they rely on their hands to remove rubble.”
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has previously said that more than 6,000 people are missing.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Gaza and Israel over the news wires.
Updated
Reuters reports that Hamas’s armed wing has claimed it killed or wounded eight Israeli troops and destroyed 24 military vehicles on Tuesday. Separately the IDF has released the names of two soldiers it says were killed on Tuesday – one fighting in Gaza, it says, and the other in a car crash in southern Israel.
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Israel has told Palestinians that it will not allow the movement of civilians down the Salah al-Din road that runs through the Gaza Strip in sections north and east of Khan Younis.
It is instead instructing residents evacuating from the north to use a diversion along a coastal route where it says the IDF will allow movement.
#عاجل سكان قطاع غزة، جيش الدفاع يتصرف بقوة ضد حماس والمنظمات الإرهابية في قطاع غزة وبشكل خاص في منطقة خان يونس.
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) December 6, 2023
فيما يلي عدة تعليمات عاجلة:
⭕️القتال والتقدم العسكري لجيش الدفاع في منطقة #خان_يونس لا يسمحان بتنقل المدنيين عبر محور صلاح الدين في المقاطع الواقعة شمالي وشرقي… pic.twitter.com/BTUT5dEohS
The UN has estimated that more than 75% of Gaza’s population has been internally displaced from this homes since Israel began its military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
The message from Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee also states that “there will also be a local and temporary tactical suspension of military activities for humanitarian purposes” in one district from 10am (8am GMT) to 2pm (noon GMT).
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Israel’s military has issued its morning situational update, in which it claims to have struck at approximately 250 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip.
On the Telegram messaging app, it wrote:
During these strikes, terrorists from the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations were eliminated, and a number of terrorist infrastructure were destroyed.
It claims to have destroyed “an armed terrorist cell operating adjacent to a school in the northern Gaza Strip” and that “in an additional school in the northern Gaza Strip, weapons and ammunition were located”.
The claims have not been independently verified.
On Monday, an unnamed Israeli military official said the IDF believed that at least 15,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza since 7 October, of which it estimated 5,000 to be Hamas combatants.
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Fuel and medical supplies running out at al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza, Doctors Without Borders says
Fuel and medical supplies are at critically low levels at al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza due to road closures while hundreds of patients are being admitted every day, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said.
The hospital, which we reported earlier received the bodies of 45 people killed on Tuesday from an Israeli strike on Deir al-Balah, according to its director, has been receiving between 150 and 200 wounded patients each day since the truce between Israel and Hamas ended on Friday, the aid agency said.
Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial, the MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, said:
There are 700 patients admitted in the hospital now, with new patients arriving all the time. We are running out of essential supplies to treat them.
Shortages of medicine and fuel could result in the hospital being unable to provide life-saving surgeries or intensive care. Without electricity, ventilators would cease to function, blood donations would have to stop, the sterilisation of surgical instruments would be impossible.”
It is vital that the supply of humanitarian supplies is facilitated. The hospital urgently needs surgical sets, external fixators to hold broken bones together, and essential drugs, including drugs for chronic illnesses.
The agency called for an end to Israel’s siege on Gaza and for medical humanitarian supplies and aid to be allowed into the territory.
#Gaza: Fuel and medical supplies have reached critically low levels at Al-Aqsa hospital in the Middle Area of the Strip due to road closures, while hundreds of patients need emergency care due to the unrelenting Israeli bombardment...
— MSF International (@MSF) December 6, 2023
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The release of Palestinian prisoners under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement last week has touched nearly everyone in the occupied West Bank, where 750,000 Palestinians have been arrested since 1967, the AP reports.
In negotiations with Israel to free hostages in Hamas captivity in Gaza, the militant group has pushed for the release of high-profile prisoners. But experts say most Palestinians passing through Israel’s ever-revolving prison door are young men arrested in the middle of the night for throwing stones and firebombs in villages near Israeli settlements.
Nabi Saleh is one such village, long known for its grassroots protest movement. Israel’s crackdown affected the entire community, where parents come to learn, generation after generation, that they’re powerless to protect their children. Here’s an extract from AP’s report which you can read in full here:
For all Palestinian parents, Marwan Tamimi said, there comes a moment they realise they’re powerless to protect their children.
For the 48-year-old father of three, it came in June, when Israeli forces fired a large rubber bullet that struck the head of his eldest son, Wisam. A week later, Marwan said, soldiers came for the 17-year-old, dragging him out of bed with a fractured skull.
Wisam was charged with a range of offences he denied – throwing stones, possessing weapons, placing an explosive device and causing bodily harm – and sent to prison. Last Saturday, after six months behind bars, he returned home with 38 other Palestinians in exchange for Israeli hostages – part of a temporary ceasefire in the war that started after Hamas’ 7 October attack.
His parents said they hadn’t seen or heard from him in two months, since the war started. Wisam said he stayed in an overcrowded cell, was beaten and interrogated, and lacked food and medication.
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Countries supporting Israel with arms have a 'permanent stain on their reputation', Norwegian Refugee Council says
Countries supporting Israel with arms have a “permanent stain on their reputation”, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major aid agency, has said in a statement.
While condemning the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas and demanding the release of hostages held by the militant group, Jan Egeland said Israel’s military campaign “can in no way be described as ‘self-defence.” He said:
The pulverising of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for the innocent people enduring this hell …
Countries supporting Israel with arms must understand that these civilian deaths will be a permanent stain on their reputation.
They must demand an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. Only a cessation of hostilities will allow us to ensure effective relief to the 2 million who now require it.
— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) December 5, 2023
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Israeli military campaign creating 'apocalyptic' conditions, top UN aid official says
The UN’s top aid official has said the Israeli military campaign in southern Gaza has been just as devastating as in the north, creating “apocalyptic” conditions and ending any possibility of meaningful humanitarian operations.
Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said he was speaking on behalf of the entire international aid community in saying the continuing offensive had robbed aid workers of any significant means of helping the 2.3 million people of Gaza, other than to call for an immediate end to the fighting.
His comments came as the Israeli military said it had stormed southern Gaza’s main city in the most intense day of fighting so far, and hospitals struggled to cope with scores of dead and wounded Palestinians.
“What we’re saying today is: that’s enough now. It has to stop,” Griffiths said in an interview with the Guardian, adding that the small amount of aid being allowed into Gaza could no longer be distributed, since the Israeli ground offensive had spread to southern Gaza and the city of Khan Younis, bringing the humanitarian operation effectively to an end.
“It isn’t really a statistically significant operation any more,” said Griffiths, who is also UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs. “It’s a bit of a patch on a wound and it doesn’t do the job, and it would be an illusion for the world to think that the people in Gaza can be helped by the humanitarian operation under these conditions.
Not good for US to 'be identified with so much killing', Mary Robinson says
It’s not good for the US to be “identified with so much killing”, former Irish president Mary Robinson has told CNN in the wake of a statement by the Elders group calling on the US and other countries to reconsider their military aid to Israel.
Robinson, who is the chair of the Elders group of global leaders and a former UN human rights commissioner, told the US broadcaster on Tuesday:
We as Elders are asking that countries that provide military aid, notably the United States to Israel, now have to urgently review military assistance and put in place conditions for any future provision.
I think it’s really necessary. I’ll tell you why – if this doesn’t happen, then the United States owns the problem. And that is not good for the United States, that the United States would be identified with so much killing.
In their statement on Monday, the Elders – a group founded by Nelson Mandela – called for governments to set conditions for any future provision of arms to Israel. They warned that the military campaign in Gaza risked “fuelling an escalating cycle of mass atrocities”.
It continued:
Israel’s disproportionate response to the horrendous terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October – which the Elders unequivocally condemned - has reached a level of inhumanity towards Palestinians in Gaza that is intolerable.
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Israeli PM says IDF will enforce demilitarisation of Gaza after war ends
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Israeli military will retain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip long after its war against Hamas ends.
In a news conference late Tuesday, Netanyahu said Gaza would have to remain demilitarized and that the only body capable of ensuring this would be the Israeli military, the AP and the Times of Israel reported.
“Gaza must be demilitarized. And in order for Gaza to be demilitarized, there is only one force which can ensure this demilitarization – and this force is the Israel Defense Forces,” said Netanyahu.
“No international force can be responsible for this,” he said.
Various proposals have been made about who would take charge of security in Gaza after the war, including the suggestion that Arab states could send troops, although this has been dismissed by Arab countries.
Two Palestinians have been killed in clashes with the Israeli military in the West Bank, local media has reported.
Two teenagers were killed by Israeli gunfire in the city of Tubas, Reuters cited the Palestinian news agency Wafa as reporting.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper meanwhile reported that two people were killed and four injured in clashes with the military in the West Bank, citing the Red Crescent.
It was not immediately clear if the reports referred to the same incident – more on that as soon as we can find out more.
At least six people have been killed and others wounded in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp, Al Jazeera has reported.
The broadcaster said it had a news team at the site of the strike and that its footage showed a collapsed building and and rescue efforts.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed the death toll and cited civil defence forces as saying that “a large number” of people were feared to be under the rubble, Al Jazeera reported.
Wafa also reported casualties following separate Israeli attacks on the southern city of Khan Younis; the neighbourhoods of Tuffah, al-Daraj, and Shujayea in Gaza City; as well as on Fukhari, Khuza’a, Abasan and the Jabalia refugee camp.
Here are some of the latest images that have come into us overnight from Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which has been flooded with those killed and injured in Israeli attacks. The Israeli military said it had reached the heart of southern Gaza’s largest city on Tuesday, as well as surrounding it.
Biden condemns reports of rape of Israeli women and girls by Hamas militants
US President Joe Biden has denounced the reported rape and sexual violence committed against Israeli girls and women by Hamas militants during the 7 October attack on Israel, calling on the world to condemn such conduct “without equivocation” and “without exception.”
Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Boston, Biden noted that in recent weeks, female survivors and witnesses to the attacks have shared “horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty.”
“Reports of women raped – repeatedly raped – and their bodies being mutilated while still alive – of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them,” Biden said, according to AP. “It is appalling.”
Israel has said it is investigating several cases of sexual assault and rape from the Hamas attack on Israel. Witnesses and medical experts have said that Hamas militants committed a series of rapes and other attacks before killing the victims in the 7 October attack, though the extent of the sexual violence remains unknown.
The United Nations held a meeting on Monday at which it heard accounts of the sexual violence allegedly committed by Hamas, and at which speakers also attacked women’s rights activists and UN officials for not doing more to investigate or condemn these crimes.
Read our full report on the meeting here:
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Dozens reportedly killed in strike on central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike on homes sheltering displaced people in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, according to the head of the local hospital and an AP reporter there.
“We have received 45 martyrs from the Israeli bombing on the houses of three families in Deir al-Balah in the past hour,” Dr Eyad Al-Jabri, head of the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah told Reuters on Tuesday.
An AP reporter at the hospital counted at least 34 people bodies including at least six children. It was not possible to verify the reports independently. The AP reported further:
Footage from the scene showed women screaming from an upper floor of a house shattered to a concrete shell. In the wreckage below, men pulled the limp body of a child from under a slab next to a burning car. At the nearby hospital, medics tried to resuscitate a young boy and girl, bloodied and unmoving on a stretcher.
In the south, witnesses said an Israeli strike hit a school in Khan Younis where hundreds of displaced people were sheltering on Tuesday, Reuters reported. It wrote:
Casualties overwhelmed the nearby Nasser hospital, where wounded men and children were lain on a bloody floor amid a tangle of IV tubes. In the morgue, a woman draped herself over the stretcher where her dead husband and child lay among at least nine bodies.
“What’s happening here is unimaginable,” said Hamza al-Bursh, who lives near the school. “They strike indiscriminately.”
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war with me, Helen Livingstone.
Dozens of people sheltering at homes in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah were among those killed in Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, as the Israeli military reported its “most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation”.
Dr Eyad Al-Jabri, head of the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital, told Reuters at least 45 were killed in the strike. A reporter for the Associated Press who was at the hospital and counted the bodies said at least 34 people were killed, including at least six children. It was not possible to verify either report.
Israel’s military is meanwhile assaulting southern Gaza’s main city, Khan Younis, in what the commander of the Israeli military’s Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, said was the fiercest combat since it began its ground invasion of Gaza.
Finkelman said Israeli forces, backed by war planes, on Tuesday reached the heart of Khan Younis and also surrounded the city. Hamas’ armed wing, the al Qassam Brigades, said its fighters engaged in violent clashes with Israelis.
In other key developments:
The UN’s top aid official has said the Israeli military campaign in southern Gaza has been just as devastating as in the north, creating “apocalyptic” conditions and ending any possibility of meaningful humanitarian operations. “What we’re saying today is: that’s enough now. It has to stop,” Martin Griffiths said in an interview with the Guardian, adding that the small amount of aid being allowed into Gaza could no longer be distributed.
Israeli forces have reported the most intense day of fighting in Gaza since the ground attack began nearly six weeks ago. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday they had mounted an attack into the “heart” of Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, and that paratroopers and navy commandos had raided the Hamas general security headquarters there. Heavy fighting was also reported in Shujai’iya, another Hamas stronghold in the north.
Israeli forces have killed at least 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, in Gaza since 7 October, a statement from the Hamas media office has said. At least 43,616 people have been injured and at least 7,600 people are missing, according to the statement on Tuesday.
A “catastrophic hunger crisis” is intensifying in Gaza, the World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday. “Only a lasting peace can end the suffering and avert the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” it said in a statement calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.
The UN has heard accounts of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks by Hamas, in a meeting where speakers also attacked women’s rights activists and UN officials for not doing more to investigate or condemn these crimes. Joe Biden also spoke about “horrific” reports of sexual violence by Hamas on 7 October, urging: “The world can’t just look away at what’s going on.”
Recently released hostages and relatives of Israelis still held by Hamas in Gaza have confronted Benjamin Netanyahu at an angry meeting in which some of those present reportedly called on the Israeli prime minister to resign. By the latest count, 138 Israelis and other nationals are still being held by Hamas in Gaza. During a week-long ceasefire that expired on Friday, 105 civilians were freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza – including 81 Israelis, 23 Thai nationals and one Filipino – in return for the release of 240 Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli jails.
The US state department has announced it will impose visa bans on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank. The restrictions will target those who have committed acts of violence or taken other actions that restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities and may also apply to those individuals’ family members, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said. The move comes just a month after Israel was granted entry into the US’s visa waiver programme. Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said only Israeli military and security forces and the police have the right to use violence.
The US aid chief has announced new support for the Palestinian people during a visit to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on Tuesday. Samantha Power, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAid), announced $21m (£16.7m) in new US assistance that will include hygiene and shelter supplies and food for people in Gaza, as she travelled to the Egyptian town of El-Arish, the gateway to the Rafah crossing into Gaza.
The Israeli military (IDF) issued a rare apology after an IDF strike killed a Lebanese soldier and injured three others on Tuesday, saying it had been targeting Hezbollah militants on its northern border with Lebanon.
A Hamas official has said there will be no negotiations or exchange of detainees until the Israeli assault against the Gaza Strip stops. Speaking to reporters in Beirut on Tuesday, Osama Hamdan also said that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was “responsible” for the lives of Israeli hostages in Gaza, adding that his true objective is to “eliminate the Palestinian people”.
Israel revoked the visa of the top UN humanitarian aid official for the Palestinian Gaza Strip and West Bank, according to foreign minister Eli Cohen. In a post on X, Cohen accused Lynn Hastings of failing to condemn Hamas for the 7 October massacre and instead of condemning Israel. He said she “cannot serve in the UN and cannot enter Israel!”
It is not good for the US to be “identified with so much killing, former Irish president Mary Robinson has told CNN in the wake of a statement by the Elders group calling on the US and other countries to reconsider their military aid to Israel.
Qatar’s prime minister has said mediation talks were still ongoing with an objective to end the war. “Qatar continues to make efforts to restore the truce, release hostages, and exchange prisoners,” Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Tuesday.
Rishi Sunak expressed his “disappointment” about the breakdown of the pause in fighting in Gaza during a call with Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Downing Street said. The two leaders also discussed “urgent efforts to ensure all remaining hostages are safely freed and to allow any remaining British nationals in Gaza to leave”, a No 10 spokesperson said.
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