Closing summary
This blog is closing now. You can read our latest news wrap here. Thank you for reading.
It’s just 4.15am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The US has defied appeals from its Arab allies and the UN secretary general to back an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The US vetoed a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire late on Friday. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1 with the UK abstaining. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has reportedly asked Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israel’s Merkava tanks to be used in its offensive in Gaza.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the US veto of the ceasefire resolution was “a turning point in history”. In a strongly worded address to the security council after the vote, Mansour said the results of the vote were “regrettable” and “disastrous”, warning that prolonging the war in Gaza “implies the continued commission of atrocities, the loss of more innocent lives, more destruction”.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, thanked the US and Joe Biden for vetoing a draft security council resolution. Posting to social media, Erdan praised the US president for “standing firmly by our side” and for showing “leadership and values”.
Hamas condemned the US veto at the UN security council, describing it as “unethical and inhumane”. “The US obstruction of the ceasefire resolution is a direct participation with the occupation in killing our people and committing more massacres and ethnic cleansing,” said Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the group’s political bureau.
Human Rights Watch has said the US risks “complicity in war crimes” by continuing to provide Israel with weapons and “diplomatic cover” as it commits “atrocities” in Gaza. The US veto prevented the security council from making some of the call Washington itself has been demanding, including compliance with international humanitarian law, protection of civilians, the rights watch group said in a statement.
The UN security vote came after a dramatic warning from UN chief António Guterres that civil order in Gaza was breaking down. With the UN claiming its relief operation was grinding to a halt and its staff being killed, Guterres chose earlier this week to take the extremely rare step of invoking article 99 of the UN charter, which permits him to bring a threat to world security to the attention of the security council.
The head of the main UN agency in Gaza (UNRWA) has said it was “the darkest hour” in the organisation’s history. Philippe Lazzarini said the agency is “barely” operational in Gaza, and that its staff – at least 130 of whom have been killed – “take their children to work, so they know they are safe or can die together.” “We are hanging on by our fingertips,” he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it is concerned by images of semi-naked Palestinian men being paraded by the Israeli military in Gaza. While Israeli media initially suggested that the images, apparently filmed by at least one Israeli soldier, showed the surrender of Hamas fighters, several of the men pictured were identified as civilians, including a journalist.
The European Commission has announced it will provide €125m (£107.2m, $134m) in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in 2024. The funds will go toward supporting humanitarian organisations working in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the commission said in a statement on Friday.
Tributes poured in for the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer on Friday after friends said he was killed in a strike on Gaza. Alareer, who fiercely denounced Israel and its policies towards the Palestinians, was one of the leaders of a young generation of writers in Gaza who chose to write in English to tell their stories, with friends describing his defiance in the face of the Israeli army’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
More journalists have been killed during Israel’s war with Hamas than in any other conflict in more than 30 years, a leading organisation representing journalists worldwide said. In its annual count of media worker deaths, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said 94 journalists had been killed so far this year and almost 400 others had been imprisoned.
Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed remarks by the Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister that Hamas could serve as a junior partner in governing Gaza after the war. The authority’s prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said in an interview that the PA is working with US officials on a plan to run Gaza after the current conflict ends. “The Palestinian Authority is not the solution,” the Israeli prime minister responded.
More than a dozen member states of the World Health Organization submitted a draft resolution on Friday that urged Israel to respect its obligations under international law to protect humanitarian workers in Gaza. Separately, the UN said late on Thursday that only 14 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip were functioning in any capacity.
More than a dozen member states of the World Health Organization submitted a draft resolution on Friday that urged Israel to respect its obligations under international law to protect humanitarian workers in Gaza.
The text of the draft resolution is due to be examined on Sunday during a special session of the WHO’s Executive Board convened to discuss “the health situation in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
It was proposed by Algeria, Bolivia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Palestinian representatives have WHO observer status, and were also signatories to the proposal.
The member states expressed their “grave concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, especially the military operations in the Gaza Strip”.
They called for Israel to “respect and protect” medical and humanitarian workers exclusively involved in carrying out medical duties, as well as hospitals and other medical facilities.
Separately, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters on Friday that Gaza’s health system was on its knees and could not afford to lose another ambulance or a single hospital bed.
“The situation is getting more and more horrible by the day... beyond belief, literally,” he said.
The United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA said late on Thursday that only 14 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip were functioning in any capacity.
Salvoes of rockets were launched early on Friday at the US embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, AFP has reported, the latest in a flurry of such attacks amid the Israel-Hamas war.
“A multi-rocket attack was launched at US and Coalition forces in the vicinity of Union III and the Baghdad embassy complex” without causing any reported casualties or damage, a US official said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The United States “strongly” condemned the attacks and called on Iraq to bring the perpetrators to justice, the State Department said in a statement.
“The many Iran-aligned militias that operate freely in Iraq threaten the security and stability of Iraq, our personnel, and our partners in the region,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in the statement.
Since mid-October there have been dozens of rocket or drone strikes by pro-Iran groups against US or coalition forces in Iraq, as well as in Syria.
But Friday’s rocket attack was the first against the US embassy in Baghdad since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, raising regional tensions and fears of a wider conflict.
Three Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian were killed on Friday in an Israeli drone strike on their car in the south of Syria, according to a report by AFP.
“A Syrian and three Lebanese Hezbollah fighters from the surveillance and missile-launching unit were killed in the Israeli drone strike on their rented car” in Madinat al-Baath town in the province of Quneitra, close to the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Later on Friday Hezbollah said that three of its fighters had been killed, without giving any further details.
Israel has undertaken hundreds of air strikes in its neighbour Syria since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011, targeting the positions of the Syrian army and groups affiliated with Iran, such as Hezbollah.
Those missions have intensified since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, which was triggered by the Islamist group’s unprecedented attack on Israeli soil.
Israel rarely comments on its operations in Syria, but says it wants to prevent Iran, its sworn enemy, from establishing itself on Israel’s doorstep.
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 2am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The US has defied appeals from its Arab allies and the UN secretary general to back an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The US vetoed a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire late on Friday. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1 with the UK abstaining. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has reportedly asked Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israel’s Merkava tanks to be used in its offensive in Gaza.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the US veto of the ceasefire resolution was “a turning point in history”. In a strongly worded address to the security council after the vote, Mansour said the results of the vote were “regrettable” and “disastrous”, warning that prolonging the war in Gaza “implies the continued commission of atrocities, the loss of more innocent lives, more destruction”.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, thanked the US and Joe Biden for vetoing a draft security council resolution. Posting to social media, Erdan praised the US president for “standing firmly by our side” and for showing “leadership and values”.
Hamas condemned the US veto at the UN security council, describing it as “unethical and inhumane”. “The US obstruction of the ceasefire resolution is a direct participation with the occupation in killing our people and committing more massacres and ethnic cleansing,” said Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of the group’s political bureau.
Human Rights Watch has said the US risks “complicity in war crimes” by continuing to provide Israel with weapons and “diplomatic cover” as it commits “atrocities” in Gaza. The US veto prevented the security council from making some of the call Washington itself has been demanding, including compliance with international humanitarian law, protection of civilians, the rights watch group said in a statement.
The UN security vote came after a dramatic warning from UN chief António Guterres that civil order in Gaza was breaking down. With the UN claiming its relief operation was grinding to a halt and its staff being killed, Guterres chose earlier this week to take the extremely rare step of invoking article 99 of the UN charter, which permits him to bring a threat to world security to the attention of the security council.
The head of the main UN agency in Gaza (UNRWA) has said it was “the darkest hour” in the organisation’s history. Philippe Lazzarini said the agency is “barely” operational in Gaza, and that its staff – at least 130 of whom have been killed – “take their children to work, so they know they are safe or can die together.” “We are hanging on by our fingertips,” he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it is concerned by images of semi-naked Palestinian men being paraded by the Israeli military in Gaza. While Israeli media initially suggested that the images, apparently filmed by at least one Israeli soldier, showed the surrender of Hamas fighters, several of the men pictured were identified as civilians, including a journalist.
The European Commission has announced it will provide €125m (£107.2m, $134m) in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in 2024. The funds will go toward supporting humanitarian organisations working in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the commission said in a statement on Friday.
Tributes poured in for the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer on Friday after friends said he was killed in a strike on Gaza. Alareer, who fiercely denounced Israel and its policies towards the Palestinians, was one of the leaders of a young generation of writers in Gaza who chose to write in English to tell their stories, with friends describing his defiance in the face of the Israeli army’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
More journalists have been killed during Israel’s war with Hamas than in any other conflict in more than 30 years, a leading organisation representing journalists worldwide said. In its annual count of media worker deaths, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said 94 journalists had been killed so far this year and almost 400 others had been imprisoned.
Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed remarks by the Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister that Hamas could serve as a junior partner in governing Gaza after the war. The authority’s prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said in an interview that the PA is working with US officials on a plan to run Gaza after the current conflict ends. “The Palestinian Authority is not the solution,” the Israeli prime minister responded.
Updated
The Israeli military believes it needs another three to four weeks to complete its military offensive in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to a report.
Citing a senior Israeli official, Israel’s Walla news reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) believes it needs a similar amount of time after that to wrap up the first stage of the war in Gaza, according to the Times of Israel.
The report says that the US has not given Israel a hard deadline, but that Washington has said that time is running out, it said.
According to the report, the Biden administration would be happy for the IDF to complete intensive operations by the end of the month, but Israel believes it needs until the end of January, it said. The official was quoted as saying:
The American message is that they would like to see us finish the fighting sooner, with less harm to Palestinian civilians and more humanitarian assistance for Gaza. We would also like this to happen, but the enemy does not always agree.
Updated
The US state department has denied it prevented the Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad Malki, from speaking to reporters during a visit to Washington DC.
Malki, at a joint press conference by the Arab and Turkish diplomats in the US capital, was asked by a reporter about an interview with Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh.
As we reported earlier, Shtayyeh told Bloomberg that he hoped Hamas could serve as a junior partner in governing Gaza after the war.
During the press conference in Washington, Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan quickly intervened, AP reported.
The Saudi minister told journalists that the US government had imposed visa “restrictions on his excellency that do not allow him to respond to media questions”. He added that he believed the ban was a “historical” practice and that violating it would bring legal repercussions.
In a statement afterwards, the US state department said: “We have imposed no restrictions that prohibit individuals from speaking to the press.”
Updated
Tributes continue to pour in for the prominent Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, who friends said was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Alareer, 44, was one of the leaders of a young generation of writers in Gaza who chose to write in English to tell their stories in the Palestinian territory.
He taught world literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza and edited two short story collections, Gaza Unsilenced and Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine.
Alareer, who fiercely denounced Israel and its policies towards the Palestinians, helped found We Are Not Numbers, which connected young Palestinian writers with mentors to tell stories that go beyond the numbers in the news.
Updated
The Israeli military said two of its soldiers were seriously wounded in a failed attempt to free Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it killed numerous militants in the overnight operation, but was unable to rescue any hostages.
As we reported earlier, the armed wing of Hamas said an Israeli soldier who was being held hostage was killed in a clash between the militants and an Israeli special forces unit that was conducting a rescue operation. They identified the captive soldier as 25-year-old Sa’ar Baruch. Israel’s military had no comment on the claim.
US risks 'complicity in war crimes' by giving Israel weapons and 'diplomatic cover', says Human Rights Watch
The US risks “complicity in war crimes” by continuing to provide Israel with weapons and “diplomatic cover” as it commits “atrocities” in Gaza, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
The HRW UN director, Louis Charbonneau, posted a statement after the US vetoed a security council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The veto by the US prevented the council from making some of the call Washington itself has been demanding, including compliance with international humanitarian law, protection of civilians and releasing all civilians held hostage, he wrote. The statement continues:
By continuing to provide Israel with weapons and diplomatic cover as it commits atrocities, including collectively punishing the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, the US risks complicity in war crimes.
🚨 US just vetoed another #Gaza ceasefire resolution in the UN Security Council. Drafted by UAE with nearly 100 co-sponsors.
— louis charbonneau (@loucharbon) December 8, 2023
13 votes in favor, 1 against (US) and 1 abstention (UK).@hrw reaction follows in a short thread 🧵 pic.twitter.com/EstVHyRcBN
.@hrw: By continuing to provide Israel with weapons and diplomatic cover as it commits atrocities, including collectively punishing the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, the US risks complicity in war crimes. pic.twitter.com/YpbggNjd3y
— louis charbonneau (@loucharbon) December 8, 2023
Updated
Israel thanks US for vetoing ceasefire resolution
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, has thanked the US and Joe Biden for vetoing a draft security council resolution that demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
Posting to social media, Erdan praised the US president for “standing firmly by our side” and for showing “leadership and values”, adding:
On this Hanukkah holiday, a little of the light dispelled a lot of the darkness.
I thank the United States and President Biden for standing firmly by our side, today and showing their leadership and values. On this Hanukkah holiday, a little of the light dispelled a lot of the darkness.
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) December 8, 2023
It is shocking that while Hamas is firing rockets at Israel from…
The UK ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, has explained the decision to abstain from the UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
Britain backs “further and longer pauses” to get aid to Palestinians and to allow the release of Israeli hostages, Woodward said.
But she argued to the council that “we cannot vote in favour of a resolution which does not condemn the atrocities Hamas committed against innocent Israeli civilians” on 7 October, adding:
Calling for a ceasefire ignores the fact that Hamas has committed acts of terror and is still holding civilians hostage.
World Food Programme describes 'fear, chaos, despair' in Gaza
Carl Skau, deputy director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), has been in Gaza and paints a bleak picture of humanitarian aid failing to reach those in need.
A statement just released by the agency, a first-hand account written by Skau, makes for depressing reading, and shows how aid workers are facing almost impossible odds to keep providing relief in the face of an unrelenting onslaught from Israel’s military:
“Nothing quite prepared me for the fear, the chaos, and the despair we encountered,” he wrote.
Confusion at warehouses, distribution points with thousands of desperate hungry people, supermarkets with bare shelves, and overcrowded shelters with bursting bathrooms. The dull thud of bombs was the soundtrack for our day.
At a food distribution [point], one woman told me she lived with nine other families in one apartment. They take turns sleeping at night because not all could lay down at the same time.
He praised WFP teams as doing “incredible work” inside Gaza while living through “an immense humanitarian crisis, while also trying to tackle that crisis”. He said the agency had reached more than one million people with food so far.
They work resolutely every day, to prevent starvation among Gazans and keep finding creative solutions, despite the fear for their lives and the many challenges.
“But this is no longer tenable,” he said:
With law and order breaking down, any meaningful humanitarian operation is impossible. With just a fraction of the needed food supplies coming in, a fatal absence of fuel, interruptions to communications systems and no security for our staff or for the people we serve at food distributions, we cannot do our job.
People in Gaza are desperate. You can see fear in the eyes of women and children. Gazans are living packed into unhealthy shelters or on the streets as winter closes in, they are sick, and they do not have enough food.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Gaza.
Palestine UN observer: US ceasefire veto a 'turning point in history'
The US veto of a United Nations resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is “a turning point in history”, according to Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of the state of Palestine to the UN.
Mansour joined Russia (which failed to acknowledge its own actions in Ukraine while denouncing the “bloodbath” in Gaza) in a strongly worded address to the UN security council following the vote:
This is a moment of truth. This is a turning point in history. It is beyond regrettable, it is disastrous, that the security council was again prevented from rising to this moment to uphold its clear responsibilities in the face of this grave crisis threatening human lives and threatening regional and international peace and security.
Millions of Palestinian lives hang in the balance. Every single one of them is sacred, worth saving.
[But] instead of allowing this council to uphold its mandate by finally making a clear call after two months of massacres that atrocities must end, the war criminals are given more time to perpetuate their crimes. How can this be justified? How can anyone justify the slaughter of an entire people?
Those who were advocating for a prolonging of the assault on the one hand, while also pleading against the commission of atrocity on the other hand, should be convinced by now that the prolongation of this war, obviously, implies the continued commission of atrocities, the loss of more innocent lives, more destruction.
Hundreds of people will be killed by this time tomorrow. Then hundreds more, and then thousands. Children will be killed, orphaned, wounded, disabled for life, not by mistake, but by design, because the killers have no regard whatsoever for Palestinian life.
Updated
Russia: US and UK 'complicit to merciless Israeli bloodbath'
Russia was scathing in its criticism of the US and UK for respectively voting against and abstaining from the vote to support a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying “history will judge the actions of Washington DC”.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, deputy charge d’affaires of the Russian Federation, told the UN security council after the vote failed:
One can speak cynically with nice empty words about democracy, human rights, women, peace, security, rules, order, as much as you like. However, the real value of those we have just witnessed when two members of the security council preferred to remain complicit to the merciless Israeli bloodbath.
I am confident that the outcome of our vote has resounded painfully in the hearts of ordinary people in the US and the UK, whose calls for peace and common sense have gone unheeded by the ruling elites of those countries. I’m confident that they will still express their opinion.
We in the council have nothing left to do other than redoubling or tripling our efforts to try to come up with a decision that would alleviate the suffering of civilians within the limited toothless bounds that we have left to act in thanks to Washington and London.
It’s important to ensure the implementation of [the] resolution regardless of how we do it.
US envoy criticises 'flawed' resolution 'divorced from reality'
Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN security council, was critical of colleagues for introducing a “flawed” resolution that did not include condemnation of Hamas:
All of our recommendations were ignored. And the result of this rushed process was an imbalanced resolution that was divorced from reality. It would not move the needle forward on the ground in any concrete way.
We still cannot comprehend why the resolution’s authors declined to include language condemning Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on Israel, an attack that killed over 1,200 people, women, children, the elderly, people from a range of nationalities burned alive, gunned down subjected to obscene sexual violence.
We are very disappointed that for the victims of these heinous acts, the resolution’s authors offered not their condolences or condemnation of their murders. It’s unfathomable. Nor is there condemnation of the sexual violence unleashed by Hamas on October 7.
Updated
US blames Hamas for decision to veto Gaza ceasefire resolution
The US has blamed Hamas’s refusal to keep to the agreement to release young female hostages, and a failure of the United Nations to condemn the group’s attacks on Israel, for its decision to veto the UN security council resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire.
Robert Wood, deputy US ambassador to the UN, just told the council a ceasefire would “plant the seeds for the next war”:
Even as we have supported the right of another member state to defend its people against heinous atrocities and acts of terrorism, the US at the highest levels has undertaken intensive diplomacy to save lives, and lay a foundation for durable peace.
American diplomacy open the way for the first trucks that flowed into Gaza. With aid in partnership with Qatar and Egypt, it helped reunite more than 100 hostages with their loved ones and dramatically expanded aid to civilians in Gaza during a seven-day long humanitarian pause.
Hamas however, has a different set of goals. Its refusal to release young women hostages led to a breakdown in the pause and resumption of the fighting. This council’s failure to condemn Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attacks, including its acts of sexual violence and other unthinkable evils, is a serious moral failure.
It underscores the fundamental disconnect between the discussions that we have been having in this chamber and the realities on the ground. An undeniable part of that reality is that if Israel unilaterally laid down its weapons today as some member states have called for, Hamas would continue to hold hostages.
Hamas continues to pose a threat to Israel and remain in charge of Gaza. That is not a threat that any one of our governments would allow to continue to remain on our own borders.
For that reason, while the US strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire. This would only plant the seeds for the next war.
Updated
US blocks UN security council resolution for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
The US has vetoed a UN security council vote on a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
The UK abstained from the vote.
#BREAKING United States vetoes Security Council draft resolution that would have demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and immediate and unconditional release of all hostages
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) December 8, 2023
VOTE
In Favour: 13
Against: 1 (US)
Abstain: 1 (UK) pic.twitter.com/hY0YcJ1JKF
Updated
The UN representative for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), speaking before the security council vote, said at least 97 members states have co-sponsored its resolution.
The resolution “is clear in its intention – an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, he said.
Saving lives right now, must supersede all other considerations, he added.
Updated
The UN security council session has resumed and is expected to vote on a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
We will bring you the results of the vote once they are in.
Updated
Biden administration asks Congress to approve 45,000 shells for Israeli tanks - report
The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israel’s Merkava tanks to be used in its offensive in Gaza, Reuters is reporting, citing a US official and former US official.
The potential sale is worth more than $500m (£399m) and is under informal review by the Senate foreign relations and House of Representatives foreign affairs committees, it said.
The US state department is pushing the congressional committees to quickly approve the transaction, a former state department spokesperson, Josh Paul, told Reuters. He said:
This went to committees earlier this week and they are supposed to have 20 days to review Israel cases. State [department] is pushing them to clear now.
Updated
The UN security council vote on backing an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza has been delayed again.
The vote was scheduled to take place about half an hour ago, after it was first delayed again in the morning.
Ambassadors are now meeting behind closed doors over the final text of the resolution, after which a vote should commence.
The draft demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as well as an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. It also reiterates the demand of the council for all warring parties to comply with their obligations under international law, notably with regard to protection of civilians in both Palestine and Israel.
Draft resolutions do not represent an official position of the security council until they are adopted.
UN security council 'complicit in ongoing slaughter' in Gaza, says MSF
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has accused the UN security council of being “complicit in the ongoing slaughter” in Gaza over its “inaction” amid the humanitarian crisis in the territory.
The statement comes as the security council is expected to vote shortly on backing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Since the collapse of the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, MSF said its team has witnessed “a resumption of indiscriminate killing and of forced displacement on a staggering scale and intensity”.
It said that between 1 and 7 December, 1,149 patients were received in the emergency section of al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza, 350 of whom were dead on arrival. On 6 December, the hospital received more dead patients than injured, it said.
The MSF statement reads:
To date, the inaction of the United Nations Security Council and vetoes from member states, particularly the United States, make them complicit in the ongoing slaughter; this inaction has given licence to the mass killing of men, women and children.
It said repeated assurances from both the US and Israel that the war is being waged on combatants alone “runs counter to what we see on the ground”. “On the contrary, this is a total war that doesn’t spare civilians,” it added. The statement continues:
Today, the United Nations Security Council must demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and lift the siege. This responsibility falls to each member – history will judge the delay in ending this slaughter; basic humanity demands action.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 10pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
The UN security council is expected to vote on a resolution to back an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The vote in New York was delayed after the US and the UK made it clear they would not drop their objections. Both countries have a veto. The vote comes after the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, invoked a rarely exercised power this week to warn the security council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
The UN is at a “breaking point” in Gaza, its most senior official has warned, as his colleagues described the “untenable” humanitarian catastrophe in the territory. Urging the UN to back a security council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, António Guterres said: “The eyes of the world and the eyes of history are watching.” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), the main UN agency in Gaza, said it was “the darkest hour” in the organisation’s history.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it is concerned by images of semi-naked Palestinian men being paraded by the Israeli military in Gaza. While Israeli media initially suggested that the images, apparently filmed by at least one Israeli soldier, showed the surrender of Hamas fighters, several of the men pictured were identified as civilians, including a journalist.
The European Commission has announced it will provide €125m (£107.2m, $134m) in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in 2024. The funds will go toward supporting humanitarian organisations working in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the commission said in a statement on Friday.
Tributes poured in for the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer on Friday after friends said he was killed in a strike on Gaza. Alareer was one of the leaders of a young generation of writers in Gaza who chose to write in English to tell their stories, with friends describing his defiance in the face of the Israeli army’s assault on the Gaza Strip. Alareer was a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he taught Shakespeare among other subjects.
More journalists have been killed during Israel’s war with Hamas than in any other conflict in more than 30 years, a leading organisation representing journalists worldwide said. In its annual count of media worker deaths, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said 94 journalists had been killed so far this year and almost 400 others had been imprisoned.
Hamas said on Friday that Israel had bombed Gaza’s medieval Omari mosque, causing widespread destruction to the building and calling it a “heinous, barbaric crime”. Photographs carried by Hamas-run media in Gaza that Reuters could not immediately verify showed massive damage to the mosque, with fallen walls and roofs and a huge crack at the bottom of the stone minaret.
Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed remarks by the Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister that Hamas could serve as a junior partner in governing Gaza after the war. The authority’s prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said in an interview that the PA is working with US officials on a plan to run Gaza after the current conflict ends. “The Palestinian Authority is not the solution,” the Israeli prime minister responded.
Updated
Netanyahu says Palestinian Authority is 'not the solution' for Gaza
Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed remarks by the Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister that Hamas could serve as a junior partner in governing Gaza after the war.
As we reported earlier, the authority’s prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said in an interview that the PA is working with US officials on a plan to run Gaza after the current conflict ends.
In the interview, Shtayyeh said the preferred outcome would be for Hamas to become a junior partner under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), helping to build a new independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The Times of Israel has reported that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, responded in a statement:
There will not be a Hamas, we will eliminate it. The fact that this is the Palestinian Authority’s proposal only strengthens my policy: the Palestinian Authority is not the solution.
Updated
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said a failure to vote on a demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza would give a licence to Israel “to continue with its massacre”.
Safadi, at the joint press conference alongside Prince Faisal bin Farhan and other regional foreign ministers, said:
The message that’s being sent is that Israel is acting above international law ... and the world is simply not doing much. We disagree with the United States on its position vis-a-vis on the ceasefire.
He said the priority should be to “stop the war, stop the killing, stop the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure”.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, has called for an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, but said governments worldwide do not seem to see it as a priority.
Prince Faisal, at a press conference before a meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said:
Our message is consistent and clear that we believe that it is absolutely necessary to end the fighting immediately.
But he said “one of the disturbing facts” is that “ending the conflict and the fighting doesn’t seem to be the main priority”, for the world.
He added that it was “unacceptable” that aid going into Gaza has been restricted because of “bureaucratic obstacles”.
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What is article 99 of the UN charter?
The UN security council is expected to vote in less than an hour’s time on a resolution that would demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
The vote comes after the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, invoked a rarely exercised power this week to warn the security council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, and to urge members to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The UN chief involved article 99 of the UN charter which permits the secretary general to bring a threat to world security to the attention of the security council. It was the first time he had invoked the article since he took on the role of UN secretary general in 2017.
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
The last time article 99 was invoked was during fighting in 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh and its separation from Pakistan.
In his letter, Guterres described “appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories” and said “the capacity of the UN and its humanitarian partners had been decimated by supply shortages, lack of fuel, interrupted communications and growing insecurity”.
He said the conditions for meaningful humanitarian operations did not exist amid the fighting. He added: “Without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to break down soon due to the desperate conditions.”
Following his letter, the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the security council, circulated a short resolution to members late on Wednesday calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The vote is scheduled to take place at 8pm UK time or 3pm ET. The US has said it does not support a ceasefire.
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The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) affairs has said society is “on the brink of full-blown collapse” in Gaza.
Thomas White, posting to social media, said:
Civil order is breaking down in #Gaza – the streets feel wild, particularly after dark – some aid convoys are being looted and UN vehicles stoned.
He said the UN agency continues to serve the population of the Palestinian territory with what limited aid it has.
Civil order is breaking down in #Gaza - the streets feel wild, particularly after dark - some aid convoys are being looted and UN vehicles stoned. Society is on the brink of full-blown collapse. @UNRWA continues to serve the population with what limted aid we have.
— Thomas White (@TomWhiteGaza) December 8, 2023
EU announces €125m of humanitarian aid for Palestinians
The European Commission has announced it will provide €125m (£107.2m) in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in 2024.
The funds will go toward supporting humanitarian organisations working in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the commission said in a statement today.
The assistance is delivered through the UN humanitarian agencies, non-governmental organisations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as local aid organisations partnering with them, it said.
In Gaza, where the commission said humanitarian needs are “at an all-time high”, the new funding will focus on life-saving emergency response, and restoring access to basic needs like water, food, healthcare, shelter and sanitation.
In the West Bank, where the commission said many Palestinian communities are “at risk of displacement or already forcibly displaced”, the funding will provide protection services, such as legal aid or material assistance, and will support their access to basic services and education in emergencies.
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A Palestinian man has said he was handcuffed and blindfolded by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in northern Gaza on Thursday.
The 22-year-old man, who was among the dozens of Palestinian men detained by IDF soldiers yesterday, told the BBC:
They (the IDF) forced us to sit in the middle of [the] street for almost three hours, then trucks came, they handcuffed and blindfolded us and they took us to an unknown place.
He said that when they arrived at the location, the men were randomly selected for questioning and interrogated about their relationship with Hamas.
He said he, his father, brother and five cousins were taken to a sandy place and left almost naked but given a blanket at night. He said:
They released all of us, except my father and eldest cousin. My father works for UNRWA [the UN agency for Palestinian refugees]. I don’t know why they took him.
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The UK’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, has said Israel must be “targeted and precise” in achieving its goal “to defend itself against Hamas terrorism”.
Woodward, speaking at the security council, said the sheer scale of civilians killed in Gaza was “shocking”, and said civilians must be protected.
She added that the world needed to “work to avoid escalation” in violence in the occupied West Bank, noting that Israel’s announcements approving new settlements there was alarming and that it would only raise tensions. She said:
Let us be clear: settlements are illegal under international law. They present an obstacle to peace, and they threaten the physical viability and delivery of a two-state solution.
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The 21-second clip went viral almost as soon as it was posted early on Sunday evening. It showed hundreds of protesters, some with Palestinian flags, united in a rhyming chant: “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!”
They were protesting outside Goldie, a vegan falafel restaurant owned by Michael Solomonov, the Israel-born celebrity chef best known for Zahav, an Israeli-themed restaurant widely considered one of the United States’ finest eateries. It was one brief stop along a march traversing Philadelphia that lasted about three hours.
Many of the protesters hadn’t even returned home from the march when the condemnations began to pour in. The Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, posted on X: “Tonight in Philly, we saw a blatant act of antisemitism – not a peaceful protest. A restaurant was targeted and mobbed because its owner is Jewish and Israeli. This hate and bigotry is reminiscent of a dark time in history.” Even the White House piled on: it was “antisemitic and completely unjustifiable to target restaurants that serve Israeli food over disagreements with Israeli policy”, said the deputy press secretary, Andrew Bates.
It was the apex of a saga that has resulted in at least three workers fired from Solomonov’s restaurants over, as they see it, their pro-Palestine activism coming into conflict with their bosses’ views and policies, and at least one other worker who has resigned in protest – thrusting the renowned Israeli eateries into the thick of bitter US disagreements over the Israel-Hamas war.
Interviews with protesters and current and former employees at Solomonov’s restaurants paint a more complex version of events than what the video clip may have suggested. They reject the notion that Goldie was singled out because of the owners’ ethnicity, arguing that their objections stem from management using the restaurants to fundraise for Israel after 7 October in spite of worker concerns. Activists also say their protest shines a necessary spotlight on the political commitments of one of the highest-profile restaurateurs in the United States.
Read the full story: A protest against a top Israel-born chef was called antisemitic. Staff tell a different story
The US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, said Israel must respect international humanitarian law and conduct its operations in a way that minimises civilian harm.
Wood, speaking at the UN security council, said:
In every conversation we also have underscored that Israel must avoid further mass displacement of civilians in the south of Gaza, many of whom previously fled violence.
He added that civilians displaced in Gaza must be able to return as soon as conditions permit, adding that “under no circumstances would the US support forced relocation of Palestinians”.
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US says it does not support calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
The US ambassador to the UN, Robert A. Wood, has said his country does not support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, arguing that it “would only plant the seeds for the next war”.
Wood, speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, said the security council’s failure to condemn the Hamas 7 October attacks on Israel was a serious moral failure.
Hamas continues to pose a threat to Israel, he said, adding that an “undeniable part of that reality” that if Israel unilaterally laid down its weapons today, Hamas would continue to hold hostages. He said:
For that reason, while the US strongly supports a durable peace in which both Israel and Palestine can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire. This would only plant the seeds for the next war, because Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace, to see a two-state solution.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, did not give a concrete vision of a postwar plan discussed with US officials under which the PA would take over control of Gaza.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that Israel would not accept rule over Gaza by the Palestinian Authority (PA) as it stands.
Abbas told Reuters:
The United States tells us that it supports a two-state solution, that Israel is not allowed to occupy Gaza, to keep security control of Gaza or to expropriate land from Gaza. America doesn’t force Israel to implement what it says.
He said the US, which “fully” supports Israel, “bears the responsibility of what is happening” in Gaza, adding:
It is the only power that is capable of ordering Israel to stop the war and fulfil its obligations, but unfortunately it doesn’t. America is an accomplice of Israel.
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The leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has called for an international peace conference to end the war in Gaza and work out a lasting political solution that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Abbas, in an interview with Reuters in Ramallah, said the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in general had reached an alarming stage that required an international conference and guarantees by world powers.
Besides Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, he said Israeli forces had intensified their attacks everywhere in the occupied West Bank over the past year. He said:
I am with peaceful resistance. I am for negotiations based on an international peace conference and under international auspices that would lead to a solution that will be protected by world powers to establish a sovereign Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
He said based on a binding international agreement, he would revive the weakened Palestinian Authority (PA), implement long-awaited reforms, and hold presidential and parliamentary elections, which were suspended after Hamas won in 2006 and later pushed the PA out of Gaza.
Asked whether he would risk holding elections given the possibility that Hamas could win, as it did in 2006, he said: “Whoever wins wins, these will be democratic elections.”
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Israel envoy rejects ceasefire in UNSC address
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, firmly rejected calls for a ceasefire as he addressed the security council.
Erdan said regional stability in the Middle East could “only be achieved once Hamas is eliminated”. Calling for a ceasefire would not achieve that end, he said.
He said Hamas’s main weapon was terror and was seeking to “maximise civilian casualties” to put more and more pressure on Israel to relent. He added that calling for a ceasefire would ensure that the suffering and the fighting in Gaza would continue.
He said that if Hamas was not destroyed, then atrocities would be carried out by the group “again and again”.
Israel would continue with its mission while supporting “every humanitarian initiative”, but the destruction of Hamas was the only option, Erdan said.
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Israeli objective is 'ethnic cleansing' in Gaza Strip, says Palestinian ambassador to UN in call for immediate ceasefire
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, thanked the UN secretary general’s “crystal clear” speech calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Mansour, addressing the security council, said if anyone says they are against the destruction and displacement of Palestinian people, then they must be in favour of an immediate ceasefire.
When you refuse to call for a ceasefire, you are refusing to call for the only thing that can put an end to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. This is how Israel is conducting the war, through atrocities.
He said Israel’s military actions in Gaza have “besieged and bombed our people and deprived them of all requirements of life”, adding:
I keep reading in the media that Israel has no clear war objectives. Are we supposed to pretend that we don’t know the objective is the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip?
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The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said Israeli strikes on Gaza had “placed very possible impediment on humanitarian aid and access”.
Addressing the security council, Mansour said the aim of Israel’s war was not security, but to “prevent for ever any prospect of Palestinian impudence and peace.
“These intentions are clear in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” he said.
He noted the universality of international law, adding that “Israeli exceptionalism has to end, and it has to end now”.
The Palestinian people will not die in vain, the Palestinian people deserve respect … we have earned it, we have paid the heaviest price to end it … show us respect, not in words but in deeds, show us respect for our lives and our rights.
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The Palestinian Authority (PA) is working with US officials on a plan to govern Gaza after the war is over, the authority’s prime minister has said.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Mohammad Shtayyeh said his preferred outcome would be for Hamas to become a junior partner under the broader Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), helping to build a new independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
“Hamas before 7 October is one thing and after is another thing,” the Palestinian prime minister said.
If they are ready to come to an agreement and accept the political platform of the PLO, then there will be room for talk. Palestinians should not be divided.
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The UN chief also reiterated his “unreserved condemnation” of Hamas’s brutal attacks on Israel on 7 October which killed about 1,200 people, for which he said there was “no possible justification”.
At the same time, he said, “the brutality perpetrated by Hamas can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”. Guterres added:
While indiscriminate rocket fire by Hamas into Israel, and the use of civilians as human shields, are in contravention of the laws of war, such conduct does not absolve Israel of its own violations.
The people of Gaza “are looking into the abyss”, he said, as he called on the international community to do “everything possible” to end their ordeal.
He called on security council members to “spare no effort to push for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” adding:
This is vital for Israelis, Palestinians, and for international peace and security. The eyes of the world – and the eyes of history – are watching.
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UN chief: Civilians in Gaza 'told to move like human pinballs'
António Guterres warned that there was a serious risk of starvation and famine in Gaza, noting that half the people in northern Gaza and more than one third of displaced people in the south were “simply starving”.
Attacks from air, land and sea were “intense, continuous and widespread”, the UN secretary general told the security council.
Civilians in Gaza “are being told to move like human pinballs – ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival”, he said.
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UN chief says humanitarian situation in Gaza 'becoming untenable'
The UN chief, António Guterres, told the security council that the catastrophic situation in Gaza continued to worsen by the day.
He said more than 130 of his UN colleagues had already been killed, adding:
This is the largest single loss of life in the history of this organisation. Some of our staff take their children to work so they know they will live or die together.
The humanitarian situation is “simply becoming untenable”, he said, while reiterating that the UN is committed to stay and deliver for the people of Gaza.
More than 17,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed since the start of Israel’s military operations two months ago, including over 4,000 women and 7,000 children, according to Gaza health ministry figures. Tens of thousands are reported to have been injured, and many are missing, presumably under the rubble.
Updated
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has been speaking at the UN security council, where members have gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss the catastrophic situation in Gaza.
The meeting was convened after the UN chief invoked a rarely exercised power to warn the security council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, and to urge members to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Guterres, speaking the UN headquarters in New York, said he had invoked article 99 of the UN charter because “we are at breaking point” in the war between Israel and Hamas. He said:
There is a high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza, which would have devastating consequences.
He said public order could completely break down in the Palestinian territory, increasing pressure for mass displacement across the border into Egypt. “I fear the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region,” he added.
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While the Israel Defense Forces – which were contacted by the Guardian about the source of the pictures and if they were officially distributed – have yet to comment, a spokesperson appeared to suggest that the Israeli military was arresting and interrogating all men it came across in areas where there was fighting.
“[Hamas] are hiding underground and come out and we fight them,” said R Adm Daniel Hagari in response to a question at a press conference.
Whoever is left in those areas, they come out from tunnel shafts, and some from buildings, and we investigate who is linked to Hamas, and who isn’t. We arrest them all and interrogate them.
Under international humanitarian law, combatants in armed forces captured in uniform are entitled to protection under the third Geneva convention, which requires that PoWs be treated humanely and with respect for their honour in all circumstances. They are protected against any act of violence, as well as against intimidation, insults and “exposure to public curiosity”.
While it is not clear that Hamas members would be covered by the convention, the apparent presence of civilians among those being paraded raises questions about their treatment.
The images came as further details were disclosed on how Israel is planning to prosecute detained Hamas members accused of involvement in the 7 October massacre in Israel.
The attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, and state attorney Amit Aisman issued a joint statement suggesting that special legal mechanisms would be required to prosecute those involved. Describing 7 October as “an incident that was extraordinary and unprecedented in scope”, they said:
The law enforcement establishment needs to address the challenges of the complex investigation into the criminal acts of terrorism, as well as the complex legal issues that stem from those acts.
Among possibilities that have been apparently discussed is a special tribunal, amid calls by some politicians to impose the death penalty.
Footage shows IDF parading scores of Palestinian men around in underwear
The Israeli military has rounded up scores of Palestinian men in Gaza, stripped them to their underwear and paraded them in various public locations, video footage and photographs show.
There were claims in Israeli media that the images showed the surrender of Hamas fighters. But as the pictures and footage were circulated widely across social media and elsewhere, several were identified as civilians, including a journalist.
One of those pictured was identified as Diaa al-Kahlout, a correspondent for al-Araby al-Jadeed (the New Arab). In a statement, the news organisation said Kahlout had been rounded up along with his brothers, relatives and other civilians at the market street in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, and then “were forced to strip off their clothes and searched and humiliated before they were taken to an unknown location”.
Another man posted on social media that he had recognised his brother, a shopkeeper, who has epilepsy. The Guardian could not immediately verify the claim.
The images and video show the men kneeling in the street or in a sandy location and were said to have been taken in several different places in Gaza. They emerged on Thursday evening not long after reports in Israeli media describing the surrender of dozens of members of Hamas around the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya.
According to the Times of Israel most of the images appear to have been taken in the Jabaliya area, where there has been heavy street fighting since Israel resumed its ground offensive last week.
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An Israeli drone fired on a car in southwest Syria on Friday, killing four people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a regional security source close to Damascus.
The Israeli army declined to comment on the reported strike in Quneitra near the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The security source said the identities of the dead had yet to be established because their bodies were so badly burned, Reuters reported.
Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, in a civil war that started in 2011.
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Hamas said on Friday that Israel had bombed Gaza’s medieval Omari mosque, causing widespread destruction to the building and calling it a “heinous, barbaric crime”.
Photographs carried by Hamas-run media in Gaza that Reuters could not immediately verify showed massive damage to the mosque, with fallen walls and roofs and a huge crack at the bottom of the stone minaret.
Reuters journalists from Gaza identified the minaret in the picture as being that of the Omari mosque.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the damage.
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A senior Hamas official accused Israeli forces on Friday of carrying out a “heinous crime against innocent civilians” after images of detained Palestinian men stripped to their underwear in Gaza circulated on social media.
Izzat El-Reshiq, who is in exile abroad, urged international human rights organisations to intervene to show what happened to the men and help secure their release.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was concerned by the images and that all detainees must be treated with humanity and dignity in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Hossein Amirabdollahian, the Iranian foreign minister, whose country backs Hamas, also criticised Israel, accusing it on X of “barbarity in the treatment of innocent captives and citizens”.
Israeli TV On Thursday showed footage, which Reuters has verified, of what it said were captured Hamas fighters, stripped to their underwear with heads bowed sitting in a Gaza City street.
“We are talking about individuals who are apprehended in Jabaliya and Shujai’iya (in Gaza city), Hamas strongholds and centres of gravity,” Eylon Levy, the Israeli government spokesperson, told a briefing when asked about the images.
“We are talking about military-age men who were discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago.”
Israel’s military has been telling civilians to leave areas where it plans to operate after launching its campaign to eliminate Hamas in Gaza following the Islamist militant group’s 7 October killing spree in Israel.
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Summary
It’s about 5pm in Jerusalem. Here’s a summary of the day’s main events so far:
The UN security council is due to meet later today, after its secretary general, António Guterres, invoked article 99 of its charter – a step no one in his post has taken for decades. The article allows the secretary general to bring to the council’s attention “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.
“We are reaching a point of no return in Gaza, where the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law scars our collective conscience,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, warned. Its commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, has called on states to provide more funding.
European Union countries put two Hamas commanders on the bloc’s terrorist list. Mohammed Deif, the commander general of the military wing of Hamas, and his deputy, Marwan Issa, had their funds and other financial assets frozen in EU member states.
Updated
We reported earlier that the EU countries put two Hamas commanders on the bloc’s terrorist list. Now, according to Reuters, a senior EU official says he expects it to adopt further sanctions in the coming weeks. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he told the news agency:
I’m pretty sure that the sanctions on Hamas will be adopted in the next couple of weeks, something like that.
Updated
Two months have passed; just when you think you have reached the worst point, you get surprised by a new low. The last three days have been unimaginable. Many of the people who fled their houses once and twice and three times had to flee again. There are no places left. Complete families are in the streets. Women and children are there with nothing to protect them. My friend who, till this moment, couldn’t believe how fast things had moved, tells me: ‘We are like animals now, in the wild. I am terrified for my newborn child’.
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian who has been writing for the Guardian about his experiences in Gaza, sends his latest dispatch:
Hamas commanders become objects of EU sanctions
European Union countries put two Hamas commanders on the bloc’s terrorist list.
Mohammed Deif, the commander general of the military wing of Hamas, and his deputy, Marwan Issa, are subject to the freezing of their funds and other financial assets in EU member states from Friday. EU operators are also prohibited from providing funds and economic resources to them.
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UN security council due to discuss ceasefire call
The UN security council is due to meet later today, after its secretary general, António Guterres, invoked article 99 of its charter – a step no one in his post has taken for decades.
The article allows the secretary general to bring to the council’s attention “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.
Guterres is seeking a “humanitarian ceasefire” to prevent “a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians” and the entire Middle East.
The World Health Organization has reinforced this warning. Its spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier, says:
People are starting to cut down telephone poles to have a little bit of firewood to keep warm or maybe cook, if they have anything available. Civilisation is about to break down.
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The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has felt compelled to justify allowing a Jewish ritual at his official residence, the Élysée Palace, after critics accused him of failing to respect France’s secular traditions, the AP reports.
During an award ceremony on Thursday, at which Macron was handed a prize for his stance against antiemitism, France’s chief rabbi, Haim Korsia, lit the first candle of a menorah – a ceremony that opens the week-long Jewish festival of Hanukkah – as Macron looked on.
Unlike the UK, France has an established tradition of separation of religion and state that is cherished by many – and is even codified in law. Opposition parties have been quick to criticise the president after a video of the event appeared on social media.
The far-left heavyweight Manuel Bompard said Macron had made “an unforgivable political mistake”, while the Green party deputy, Sandrine Rousseau, said “it would have been possible to support France’s Jewish community without allowing a religious ceremony into the Élysée”.
But perhaps the most impactful reaction came from one of France’s foremost Jewish representatives. Yonathan Arfi, president of the representative council of Jewish institutions in France (CRIF), said it was “an error” to kick off Hanukkah in the presidential palace. He tells the Sud Radio broadcaster:
It’s in the DNA of the republic to stay away from anything religious … Jews in France have always considered secularism as a law of protection and a law of freedom. Anything that weakens secularism weakens the Jews of France.
Asked about the criticism during a visit to Notre-Dame, Macron said he had no regrets “at all” and allowed the celebration “in the spirit of the republic and of harmony”. He did not personally participate in any religious ritual or ceremony that, he acknowledged, would have been “disrespectful of secularism”. But “that’s not what happened”, he said.
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The UK government will do all it can to help Israel secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas, the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, told members of the UK Jewish community.
Speaking alongside the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, at a vigil in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, Dowden said the UK was “four-square” behind Israel in its efforts to remove the threat of Hamas.
I stand before you, not just as the deputy prime minister, nor as the member for Hertsmere, but also as a proud friend of Israel and a supporter of our Jewish community.
I want to say to you that the government stands four-square behind the central missions of Israel, of the Israel Defense Forces, of the Israeli government: namely, number one, to secure the release of every one of these hostages, and we will stand four-square until that is delivered.
But, not only that, we must ensure that this cannot happen again, and that means, however difficult it is, we have to remove the threat of Hamas to stop it being able to do this to Israel again, and we stand four-square behind Israel in that mission as well.
About 150 people attended the vigil, holding red balloons and placards with messages calling for the release of Israeli hostages. Mirvis told them:
During the festival of Hanukkah, we celebrate a time when the forces of good overcame the forces of darkness, when light prevailed over all which was bad in the world.
And that is our prayer right now, that we will see the successful release of our hostages. It is so awfully cruel. There is no word in the English language to describe the despicable acts of those who have terrorised an entire people and who have taken little babies, elderly people into captivity.
Between speeches, the crowd sang traditional Jewish songs, and some men and women could be seen crying. The vigils in Borehamwood have been taking place weekly and are expected to carry on until all the hostages are released.
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Sanctions against Israeli settlers involved in attacking people and property in the West Bank will be discussed by EU foreign ministers at a summit in Brussels on Monday.
The US is already working on a list of names, including extremists known to the authorities in Israel and of those who disseminate.
Similar moves in the EU would require agreement of all members of the Schengen area, and diplomats say work has just begun.
The state secretary, Antony Blinken, said this week the US would be “implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities. Immediate family members of such persons also may be subject to these restrictions.”
The EU cannot replicate the US system if it so wished as there is visa-free travel between Israel and the bloc.
But sources suggest one way around it would be use the US list as the basis of restrictions.
Calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, something the EU’s 27 member states could not agree on when they last met in October, will also be raised.
“For us, for Belgium, a humanitarian ceasefire is a priority that could lead to a ceasefire and the relaunch of the negotiations [on the two state solution],” the Belgian minister of foreign affairs, Hadja Lahbib, said at a press conference on Friday.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has destroyed buildings used by Hamas at the Al-Azhar university in the Rimal neighbourhood of the Gaza Strip.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari Rr Adm Daniel Hagari said on X: “IDF soldiers from the 749th Reserve Engineering Battalion of the Bislah Brigade combat team yesterday destroyed buildings, including terrorist infrastructures that were used for Hamas military activity at Al-Azhar University in the Rimal neighbourhood of the Gaza Strip.”
He posted images on X of what the IDF claims to have found at the site:
לוחמי צה"ל מגדוד ההנדסה במילואים 749 מצוות קרב החטיבתי של ביסל"ח השמידו אתמול מבנים ובהם תשתיות טרור ששימשו לפעילות צבאית של החמאס באוניברסיטת "אל-אזהר" שבשכונת רימאל ברצועת עזה >> pic.twitter.com/if97AbciSl
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) December 8, 2023
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As the Israeli army resumes its attacks, accusing Hamas of numerous violations of the ceasefire, there is a growing concern among the Israeli public about the fate of the remaining 130-plus hostages held in Gaza.
The Israeli war cabinet led by Benjamin Netanyahu and the top military echelon will need to start thinking creatively. Since the horrific events of 7 October, when Hamas terrorists stormed parts of southern Israel, it has only responded to events, reacting to measures and actions taken by Hamas, which is dictating the pace, the timing and the number of hostage releases. It’s about time that Israel took the initiative and formulated a better strategy.
Israeli passivity could be understood in the first days of the war, when political and military leaders were paralysed and the public traumatised by the scope, magnitude and cruelty of Hamas. But there is no justification for Israel continuing to behave as if it has still not recovered from the shock.
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Lasting peace in the Middle East will not be possible as long as Hamas can continue its attacks from the Gaza Strip, Reuters quotes a spokesperson from Germany’s foreign office as saying.
At the moment “we advocate for further ceasefires”, the spokesperson said at a regular press conference in Berlin, adding that Israel should avoid civilian suffering in the southern Gaza Strip and was bound to abide by humanitarian law.
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Here are some more details – from AFP – on the strike that killed one journalist and wounded several others in southern Lebanon, which the Israeli military are now investigating.
Amnesty International is quoted as saying the incident was “likely a direct attack on civilians that must be investigated as a war crime” – joining Human Rights Watch in that assessment.
It was not possible to identify precisely which tank fired the shots, but an AFP investigation found a high degree of certainty that it came from a military position near the Israeli village of Jordeikh.
Satellite imagery shows Israeli tanks were operating from that position at the time, the agency says.
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Convicted Israel settlers involved in violence in the West Bank or other Palestinian territories should be subject to travel restrictions, the Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, says.
The position of Belgium has been for a few weeks already that we want to block the access of violent convicted settlers to our territory.
He says the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has taken the same position, adding: “We have reached out to our American colleagues” and said they must explore how it could be operated in practice.
We are at the extremely delicate moment and respect for human rights, respect for human life, stopping the killing innocent civilians, should be a priority for everyone.
"I hope no one is angry if we ask to stop the killing of innocents" in Gaza - Belgian prime minister Alexander De Cross, just now to reporters at launch of Belgian presidency of the EU.
— Lisa O'Carroll (@lisaocarroll) December 8, 2023
"I am more human being than politician" and the killing of innocents has to stop, he said.
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Gaza 'reaching a point of no return', warns UN official
“We are reaching a point of no return in Gaza, where the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law scars our collective conscience,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, warns.
Its commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, has called for more funding, adding:
States must find the political will to end this tragedy. Failing to act now and stop the carnage will forever stain our credibility as representatives of the international community, and fuel endless cycles of violence that will eventually engulf us all.
The agency says 133 of its workers have been killed since 7 October, while “129 incidents impacting UNRWA premises have been reported since the beginning of the war, with some premises hit multiple times”. It adds that “34 UNRWA installations were directly hit and 57 installations sustained collateral damage. UNRWA has also received reports of the military use of its facilities on at least five occasions”.
The organisation says as many as 1.9 million people, which it says account for more than 85% of the strip’s population, have been displaced – many of them multiple times.
As of 6 December, almost 1.2 miliion internally displaced persons (IDPs) were sheltering in 151 UNRWA installations across all five governorates of the Gaza Strip, including in the North and Gaza City. More than 1 million IDPs were sheltering in 94 facilities in the Middle, Khan Younis and Rafah areas.
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A leading organisation representing journalists worldwide has expressed deep concern at the number of journalists killed around the globe during 2023, with Israel’s war with Hamas responsible for more such deaths than any conflict in more than 30 years, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
In its annual count of media worker deaths, the International Federation of Journalists says 94 have been killed so far this year, and almost 400 others have been imprisoned.
The figure for deaths is up from 67 in the same period of 2022 — including 12 killed in Ukraine – and double the total of 47 recorded for the whole of 2021. The group called for better protection for media workers, and for their attackers to be held to account. Its president, Dominique Pradalié, says:
The imperative for a new global standard for the protection of journalists and effective international enforcement has never been greater.
The group says 68 journalists have been killed covering the Israeli-Hamas – the equivalent of more than one a day, and accounting for 72% of all media deaths worldwide this year. It says the overwhelming majority of them were Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces continue their offensive.
The war in Gaza has been more deadly for journalists than any single conflict since the IFJ began recording journalists killed in the line of duty in 1990.
The group adds that deaths have come at “a scale and pace of loss of media professionals’ lives without precedent”.
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Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the two Israeli strikes that killed Abdallah and wounded others were “an apparently deliberate attack on civilians and, thus, a war crime”. The group adds that those responsible must be held to account.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Thursday it was important Israel’s inquiry into the killing reach a conclusion and for the results to be seen.
My understanding is that Israel has initiated such an investigation, and it will be important to see that investigation come to a conclusion, and to see the results of the investigation.
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We reported earlier that the Israeli military has claimed the killing of the Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah in Lebanon took place in an active combat zone. Israel’s armed forces have now said:
On 13 October 2023, the terrorist organisation Hezbollah launched an attack on multiple targets within Israeli territory along the Lebanese border.
One incident involved the firing of an anti-tank missile, which struck the border fence near the village Hanita. Following the launch of the anti-tank missile, concerns arose over the potential infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory.
In response, the IDF used artillery and tank fire to prevent the infiltration. The IDF is aware of the claim that journalists who were in the area were killed.
The area is an active combat zone, where active fire takes place and being in this area is dangerous. The incident is currently under review.
The Reuters investigation found an Israeli tank crew killed Abdallah, a visuals journalist, and wounded six reporters by firing two shells in quick succession from Israel while the journalists were filming cross-border shelling.
The two strikes killed Abdallah and severely wounded the Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Christina Assi a little more than a kilometre from the Israeli border, near the Lebanese village of Alma al-Chaab.
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Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians during a raid near Tubas, a town in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.
The Israeli military spokesperson’s office has said it is checking the report, Reuters reports. There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank in parallel to Israel’s war with Hamas Islamists in Gaza; another territory where Palestinians seek statehood.
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The armed wing of Hamas claims an Israeli soldier who was being held hostage has been killed in a clash between the militants and an Israeli special forces unit that was conducting a rescue operation.
According to Reuters, Al-Qassam Brigades claims its fighters discovered the rescue operation and confronted the unit; leading to the death and injury of several of the Israeli forces. They did not specify a number.
They identify the captive soldier as 25-year-old Sa’ar Baruch and have given an identification number for him, Reuters reports.
The Israel Defense Forces have not immediately responded to a request for comment. Israel rescued a captive soldier from Gaza in late October, and has said it could mount similar operations to retrieve remaining hostages if possible.
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Responding to a Reuters investigation that determined its forces killed one of the news agency’s journalists in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military claims the incident took place in an active combat zone and is under review.
According to Reuters, the Israeli statement did not directly address the death of Issam Abdallah on 13 October, but said that, at the time, Lebanese Hezbollah fighters had attacked across the border and Israeli forces opened fire to prevent a suspected armed infiltration.
Summary of the day so far
It’s just past 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and here are the latest developments:
The UN security council is to meet Friday under acute pressure from the secretary general, António Guterres, and will vote on urging an immediate ceasefire after weeks of war. In a letter to the council on Wednesday, Guterres took the extraordinary step of invoking the UN charter’s article 99, which states that the secretary general may bring to the attention of the council “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”. After Guterres sent his urgent letter, the United Arab Emirates prepared a draft resolution that will be put to a vote on Friday, according to the delegation from Ecuador, which chairs the council this month and decides on scheduling issues, Agence France-Presse reports. The latest version of this document was seen Thursday by AFP and calls the humanitarian situation in Gaza “catastrophic” and “demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said there is a “gap” between Israel’s “intent to protect civilians” in Gaza and what has been happening on the ground. Blinken, speaking at a news conference in Washington after a meeting with the UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said: “It remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection.”
Reuters is reporting that Israel has agreed, at the request of the US, to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing for only the screening and inspection of the humanitarian aid delivered into Gaza via the Rafah crossing, a senior US official said on Thursday. There has been no time frame given for when the crossing might open.
The UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, has said there is no longer a functioning humanitarian operation in southern Gaza, saying instead that the aid that is reaching civilians in the territory is “erratic”, “undependable” and “not sustainable”. Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva on Thursday, Griffiths said the pace of the military assault in southern Gaza “is a repeat” of the assault in northern Gaza, and warned that there was nowhere safe for civilians in the southern part of the besieged territory.
The Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer was killed in an Israeli strike, his friends said overnight on Thursday. “My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family a few minutes ago,” wrote his friend, the Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha, on Facebook.
Israel’s military has continued its heavy bombardment amid intense fighting in Gaza as its war with Hamas hit the two-month mark. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had struck about 250 targets in Gaza over a 24-hour period, ending on Thursday morning. At the northern end of the Gaza Strip, there was heavy fighting in the Jabaliya refugee camp.
At least 350 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the course of 24 hours, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said in its latest update on Thursday. The cumulative total is 17,177 Palestinian deaths and 46,000 injured since the war began on 7 October, according to the ministry’s tally. About 20 people were killed in airstrikes that hit two homes in the residential part of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to witnesses. Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt, is where the IDF has told people to relocate to avoid areas likely to be bombed.
Israeli forces have given contradictory recommendations to Gaza civilians on where to seek refuge and humanitarian relief. Those who have fled to an IDF-declared “humanitarian zone” at al-Mawasi in the south-west corner of the Gaza Strip have depicted a desperate scene with no shelter and barely any food. The IDF, meanwhile, has not ruled out bombing the area.
Joe Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu in a call on Thursday in which the US president “stressed that much more assistance was urgently required” across Gaza, the White House said. Biden “emphasised the critical need to protect civilians and to separate the civilian population from Hamas including through corridors that allow people to move safely from defined areas of hostilities” during his call with the Israeli prime minister, a readout of the call said.
The White House has said Israel and Hamas were not close to another deal on a new humanitarian pause. Discussions are happening “literally every day” on a possible new agreement, the White House’s national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday. The Pentagon said the US military has resumed its flights of surveillance drones over Gaza to aid the search for hostages taken by Hamas.
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Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, is expected to travel to Israel in a matter of weeks, but the opposition says the trip has come too late, Australian Associated Press reports.
As a bipartisan parliamentary delegation prepares to visit the Middle East next week, plans are being made for Sen Wong to make an official visit early next year. The exact date is yet to be determined.
“Australia has been working with countries that have influence in the region to help protect and support civilians, to help prevent the conflict from spreading and to reinforce the need for the just and enduring peace that all of us want.” Wong said in a statement.
Wong’s trip would be the first time a cabinet minister had travelled to the region since the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Opposition foreign spokesperson Simon Birmingham said Sen Wong’s travel plans had come too late.
Sen Birmingham said a visit was also necessary after Israel updated its travel warnings for its citizens to Australia, citing rising levels of antisemitism.
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Doug Emhoff, the husband of vice-president Kamala Harris spoke on Thursday night at the lighting of a massive menorah in front of the White House to mark the first night of Hanukkah.
He said that American Jews are “feeling alone” and “in pain” as he denounced rising antisemitism in the US and abroad, particularly amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Emhoff, the first Jewish person to be the spouse of one of the country’s nationally elected leaders, highlighted fear in the Jewish community, moments before the menorah was lit on the Ellipse, just south of the White House.
Emhoff said he’s held conversations with representatives from across the Jewish community to see how they’re holding up amid the war, as the conflict in Israel and Gaza enters its third month.
“The common denominator of these conversations is that we’re feeling alone, we feel hated, we’re in pain,” he said. “Even as we face darkness today, I am hopeful,” Emhoff said. “The story of Hanukkah and the story of the Jewish people has always been one of hope and resilience.”
Here’s some pictures from a gathering in New York Thursday night, marking the first night of Hanukkah and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Our full report on the day’s events is now live – including what US secretary of state Antony Blinken had to say about Israel’s efforts to protect civilians in Gaza, and the humanitarian concerns.
The US has issued some of its strongest criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas, as growing pressure to speed up the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Gaza has resulted in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu saying that another crossing would be opened into the territory.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said there was a gap between the Israeli government’s declared intentions to protect civilians and the mounting casualties seen on the ground.
Read the rest of our piece here:
The Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer was killed in an Israeli strike, his friends said overnight Thursday.
“My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family a few minutes ago,” wrote his friend, the Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha, on Facebook.
“I don’t want to believe this. We both loved to pick strawberries together.”
Alareer had said a few days after Israel began its ground offensive in October that he refused to leave northern Gaza, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Literary Hub website also paid tribute to him, while author and journalist Ramzy Baroud wrote on X: “Rest in peace Refaat Alareer. We will continue to be guided by your wisdom, today and for eternity.”
Alareer, a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, was also one of the co-founders of the “We are not numbers” project, which pairs authors from Gaza with mentors abroad who help them write stories in English about their experiences.
UN security council to meet Friday and vote on Gaza ceasefire
The UN security council is to meet under acute pressure from Secretary-General António Guterres and will vote on urging an immediate ceasefire after weeks of war.
In a letter to the council on Wednesday, Guterres took the extraordinary step of invoking the UN charter’s Article 99, which states that the secretary-general may bring to the attention of the council “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
No one in his role had done this in decades.
Guterres wrote: “Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.”
After Guterres sent his urgent letter, the United Arab Emirates prepared a draft resolution that will be put to a vote on Friday, according to the delegation from Ecuador, which chairs the council this month and decides on scheduling issues, Agence France-Presse reports.
The latest version of this document was seen Thursday by AFP and calls the humanitarian situation in Gaza “catastrophic” and “demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
The short text also calls for protection of civilians, the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages Hamas is still holding, and humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.
But the outcome of a vote is not clear – four earlier drafts presented since the war broke out were rejected by the security council.
The United States, Israel’s most powerful ally, which vetoed one of the earlier draft resolutions and rejects the idea of a ceasefire, has said a new resolution from the council at this stage would not be “useful.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Wednesday said Guterres’ tenure was “a danger to world peace” after he invoked Article 99.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has commented on the situation in Gaza. It was at a news conference after a meeting with the British foreign secretary David Cameron.
As we stand here almost a week into this campaign into the south … it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection …
And there does remain a gap between … the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground
Reuters has characterised it as the strongest public criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war on Hamas in south Gaza.
Watch his comments here:
Opening summary
It’s 6:33am in Gaza and Tel Aviv, just after sunrise. Welcome to our latest blog on the Israel-Hamas war. I’m Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said there is a “gap” between Israel’s “intent to protect civilians” in Gaza and what has been happening on the ground. Blinken, speaking at a news conference in Washington after a meeting with the UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said: “It remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection.”
More on that in a moment but first – here’s a summary of the main developments so far:
Reuters is reporting that Israel has agreed, at the request of the US, to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing for only the screening and inspection of the humanitarian aid delivered into Gaza via the Rafah crossing, a senior US official said on Thursday. But there has been no time frame given for when the crossing might open.
The United Arab Emirates has asked for the UN security council to vote tomorrow on a draft resolution that demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, according to diplomats. The renewed push for a ceasefire, reported by Reuters, was made after the UN secretary general, António Guterres, took the rare step of invoking article 99 of the UN charter on Wednesday to notify the security council that the crisis in Gaza represented a threat to world peace.
The UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, has said there is no longer a functioning humanitarian operation in southern Gaza, saying instead that the aid that is reaching civilians in the territory is “erratic”, “undependable” and “not sustainable”. Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva on Thursday, Griffiths said the pace of the military assault in southern Gaza “is a repeat” of the assault in northern Gaza, and warned that there was nowhere safe for civilians in the southern part of the besieged territory.
Israel’s military has continued its heavy bombardment amid intense fighting in Gaza as its war with Hamas hit the two-month mark. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had struck about 250 targets in Gaza over a 24-hour period, ending on Thursday morning. At the northern end of the Gaza Strip, there was heavy fighting in the Jabaliya refugee camp.
At least 350 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the course of 24 hours, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said in its latest update on Thursday. The cumulative total is 17,177 Palestinian deaths and 46,000 injured since the war began on 7 October, according to the ministry’s tally. About 20 people were killed in airstrikes that hit two homes in the residential part of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to witnesses. Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt, is where the IDF has told people to relocate to avoid areas likely to be bombed.
Israeli forces have given contradictory recommendations to Gaza civilians on where to seek refuge and humanitarian relief. Those who have fled to an IDF-declared “humanitarian zone” at al-Mawasi in the south-west corner of the Gaza Strip have depicted a desperate scene with no shelter and barely any food. The IDF, meanwhile, has not ruled out bombing the area.
Joe Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu in a call on Thursday in which the US president “stressed that much more assistance was urgently required” across Gaza, the White House said. Biden “emphasised the critical need to protect civilians and to separate the civilian population from Hamas including through corridors that allow people to move safely from defined areas of hostilities” during his call with the Israeli prime minister, a readout of the call said.
The White House has said Israel and Hamas are not close to another deal on a new humanitarian pause. Discussions are happening “literally every day” on a possible new agreement, the White House’s national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday. The Pentagon said the US military has resumed its flights of surveillance drones over Gaza to aid the search for hostages taken by Hamas.
