Here’s how things stand on Tuesday, January 9, 2024:
Latest updates and human impact
- Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday that Israel continues to withhold the Palestinian Authority’s tax funds, despite US intervention.
- Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, will be based in Jordan. She was appointed to the new post in December after Israel refused visas to other UN staff.
- At least 23,084 Palestinians have been killed and 58,926 others injured in ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip since October 7, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Monday.
- An Israeli air strike killed a veteran Hezbollah commander, identified by Hezbollah as Wissam Tawil, in Kherbet Selem village, southern Lebanon, on Monday, raising fears of a regional conflict.
- Israeli forces bombarded the eastern part of Khan Younis and the central Gaza Strip amid ground clashes on Monday, residents said.
- Israel said four soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday, bringing its total war losses there to 182.
Diplomacy
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv late on Monday to brief Israeli officials on his two days of talks with Arab leaders on ending the war.
- He said he would press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “to do more to protect civilians and to do more to make sure that humanitarian assistance is getting into the hands of those who need it”.
- Speaking to reporters after meeting Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the oasis town of Al-Ula, Blinken said he still found support among Arab leaders for Israel’s goal of normalising relations.
- However, that will “require that the conflict end in Gaza” and “a practical pathway to a Palestinian state”.
- Egyptian sources have confirmed to the Al Araby Al Jadeed newspaper that an Israeli security delegation has arrived in Cairo with the aim of “resuming negotiations aimed at releasing Israeli prisoners held by resistance factions in Gaza”.
- US Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated the steadfast support of the US for Israel in a call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
I was pleased to speak this evening with @VP Kamala Harris who stressed the steadfast commitment of @POTUS Joe Biden, along with her own and that of the Administration, to the well-being and security of the State of Israel.
I thanked her for the US’s continued support for…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) January 8, 2024
West Bank raids
- Live ammunition fired by Israeli forces injured a young Palestinian late on Monday night in the town of Qaffin, north of Tulkarem, said local sources, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
- Israeli forces shot and killed three young Palestinian men: Yusuf Ali Al-Kholi, 22, Ahed Salman Mousa, 23, and Tareq Amjad Shahin, 24, in the town of Iktaba to the east of Tulkarem city on Monday, a fourth was detained by forces despite being shot and injured, Wafa reported.
- An Israeli military vehicle ran over one of these men after shooting him, as seen in a video, reported Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut.
- National and Islamic factions declared a general strike in Tulkarem on Tuesday to mourn the three Palestinians killed.
- Al Jazeera and local media are also reporting overnight raids in Anabta, Kafr al-Labad, Qalqilya, Nablus, Husan, west of Bethlehem, Atara, north of Ramallah, and several towns and villages in Jenin.
