Closing summary
It’s 2am in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut and we’re about to close this blog. Our live coverage will continue later in the day. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
At least 22,600 Palestinians have been killed and 57,910 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday. About 162 Palestinians were killed and 296 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry added. At least six people have been killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on a home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight.
The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, has described the Gaza Strip as having become “uninhabitable” after relentless bombing by Israeli forces. In a statement, Griffiths warned that a “public health disaster is unfolding” in the territory as people are facing “the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded”. “Famine is around the corner,” he added.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said it is “appalled” by the “continuous” shelling of al-Amal hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) headquarters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. In a statement on Friday, the IFRC said these strikes had resulted in the loss of innocent civilian lives, including a five-day-old infant, and that one of its medics had been injured.
The head of Unicef has said time is running out for children in Gaza who are “caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day”. Children in the territory face a “deadly triple threat” to their lives from the spread of diseases, plummeting nutrition and the escalation in fighting, Catherine Russell said in a statement, adding that most young children and women in the Gaza Strip are unable to meet their basic nutrition needs.
The governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda have denied a report that they have been in talks with Israel over taking in thousands of Palestinians from Gaza. According to the report, the Israeli government has been conducting secret talks with multiple countries regarding a “voluntary” migration scheme for Palestinians. The report came as two far-right Israeli ministers earlier this week called for the resettlement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Turkey to start his fourth Middle East tour since the Israel-Gaza war broke out three months ago. Blinken will also travel to Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt. The head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said he hoped Blinken’s visit will focus on ending aggression in the region.
France and Jordan teamed up to airdrop seven tonnes of aid to civilians and aid workers in Gaza late on Thursday, the French presidency has said. The “extremely complex” operation involved supplies equipped with systems that remotely guided them to a Jordanian field hospital set up in Gaza’s second city, Khan Younis, it said.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, warned against an Israeli occupation of Gaza as she called for more humanitarian pauses in the war. Israel “must do more for the protection of the civilian population” in its war against Hamas in Gaza, Baerbock said at a press conference on Friday. She is expected to travel to Israel on Sunday for her fourth visit since the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, has urged the UK government to demand an end to Israel’s “indiscriminate attacks” that have killed thousands of children in Gaza. In a statement on Friday, Yousaf said it was time for the UK to make clear to Israel that its actions in Gaza had gone “way beyond a legitimate response” to the 7 October Hamas attacks.
Hezbollah’s head, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that the assassination of one of Hamas’s most senior officials, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut has changed the nature of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. In a second nationally televised address within three days, Nasrallah warned that a response is “inevitable”, further heightening fears of a dangerous escalation in the conflict. His comments came as Lebanon issued a formal complaint to the UN security council over al-Arouri’s killing, and over Israeli incursions into Lebanon’s airspace to attack targets in Syria.
Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, has warned that time is running out on diplomatic efforts to end tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. Gallant, during a situational assessment at the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) northern command base on Friday, said that Israel would soon be left with no choice but to launch a military offensive against Hezbollah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday that it carried out an airstrike on a Hezbollah command centre in the southern Lebanese village of Blida in response to attacks on the border. IDF tanks and artillery also shelled a number of areas along the Israel-Lebanon border, apparently to foil planned Hezbollah attacks, it said.
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said at the funeral on Friday for the victims of twin Islamic State bombings that their deaths would be avenged. More than 84 people were killed at a memorial in the city of Kerman on Wednesday for the former top commander Qassem Suleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone. Iranian security forces have detained 11 people suspected of links to the attack, Iran’s intelligence ministry said on Friday. The US has reportedly collected communications intercepts that confirm the Islamic State was behind the attacks.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, will be in Lebanon from 5 to 7 January to discuss the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border and the importance of avoiding regional escalation, the EU said in a statement. Borrell will meet the speaker of the parliament, Nabih Berri; the prime minister, Najib Mikati, the foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, and the armed forces commander Gen Joseph Aoun. He will also have an exchange with the head of the UN’s interim force in Lebanon, Gen Aroldo Lázaro.
A Turkish court has decided to formally arrest 15 people and deport eight others suspected of being linked to Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency. Turkey warned Israel last month of “serious consequences” if it tried to hunt down members of Hamas on Turkish soil.
Jewish settlers have quietly carried out an “unprecedented surge” of unauthorised moves in the occupied West Bank while the world’s attention has been focused on war in Gaza, an Israeli watchdog group has warned. The result has been “not only physical harm to Palestinians and their lands but also a significant political shift in the West Bank”, a report said.
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The UN’s migration agency has launched an urgent appeal for $69m (£54m) to support its response to rising and critical humanitarian needs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In a statement, the International Organization for Migration (IMO) said hundreds of thousands of civilians need aid desperately, but that getting help to them continues to be hampered by “long clearance procedures for humanitarian aid trucks at the border (and) the intense ground operation and fighting”.
“Frequent disruption” to communication networks has also prevented humanitarian aid coordination, it said, as has “insecurity, blocked roads and scarcity of fuel”.
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Watchdog warns of 'unprecedented surge' in unauthorised Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank
While the world’s attention has been focused on war in Gaza, Jewish settlers have quietly carried out an “unprecedented surge” of unauthorised moves in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli watchdog group has warned.
A report by Peace Now found that settlers have established a record number of nine unauthorised settlement outposts since the start of the war in October. The group’s team said it had also documented the creation of more than a dozen new dirt paths and roads.
“The three months of war in Gaza are being exploited by settlers to establish facts on the ground,” the report said.
The group said that settlers were “disregarding the legal status of the land” by constructing outposts on private Palestinian lands and restricting Palestinian movement in the West Bank. The report continued:
The permissive military and political environment allow the reckless construction and land seizure almost unchecked, with minimal adherence to the law. The result is not only physical harm to Palestinians and their lands but also a significant political shift in the West Bank.
Most of the new outposts consist only of a few tents and an Israeli flag, the report said. But many such outposts have evolved into more permanent developments over the years.
Israel’s coalition government is dominated by supporters of the settler movement, including those who want to annex some or all of the West Bank. Most countries view all settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be a violation of international law.
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The government of Rwanda has also denied the report that it has discussed with Israel the possibility of taking in Palestinians from Gaza.
In a social media post, Rwanda’s foreign ministry said the report – which we reported earlier – was “completely false”, adding that:
No such discussion has taken place either now or in the past, and the disinformation should be ignored.
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo has denied a report that it is in talks with Israel over taking in thousands of Palestinians from Gaza.
According to a report in Zman Israel, the Israeli government has been conducting secret talks with multiple countries regarding a “voluntary” migration scheme for Palestinians.
“Congo will be willing to take in migrants,” a senior source in the security cabinet told the outlet.
But a spokesperson for the Congolese government said there has “never been any form of negotiation, discussion or initiative” with Israel about taking in Palestinian migrants, the Times of Israel reported.
The paper also cited a senior Israeli official dismissing the report as a “baseless illusion”. “Israel is not conducting any talks with any country on this issue,” the official said.
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The head of the World Health Organization has warned of the number of people in Gaza who have suffered “life-changing” amputations as a result of the war.
In a social media post, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the lack of treatment and experts means that people “are having all or parts of their arms and legs removed, sometimes with insufficient and anesthesia and pain relief”.
He said the WHO is working with local partners in Gaza to deliver supplies and assess needs, but that “much more is required”, adding that “this suffering needs to end”.
The war in #Gaza has caused many people, of all ages, to suffer life-changing amputations.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 5, 2024
Many people are only able to receive care several days after their injuries occurred, reducing the possibility of saving their limbs.
The lack of treatment and experts means people are… pic.twitter.com/aUyAfP5OwS
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The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said it is “appalled” by the “continuous” shelling of al-Amal hospital and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) headquarters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
In a statement on Friday, the IFRC said these strikes had resulted in the loss of innocent civilian lives, including a five-day-old infant.
One of the group’s volunteer medics was injured in the strike, it said, in addition to 26 others who have been injured since 7 October and four colleagues who have been killed in the line of duty.
Al-Amal hospital, one of the few still functioning in the south of the Gaza Strip, is marked by the Red Crescent emblem, it said, which “guarantee[s] protection in times of conflict and disaster”.
The continuous bombardments have disrupted PRCS ambulances and paramedics, hindering vital medical aid and basic lifesaving emergency care. Access to medical care is a basic right, and blocking these services is unacceptable.
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Former US vice-president Mike Pence has visited the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) northern command near Israel’s border with Lebanon on Friday.
During his visit, he received an operational update and met with reserve soldiers, according to an IDF statement.
Traveled to Israel’s Northern Command today to meet with military leaders and joined @IDF soldiers stationed near Israel’s border with Lebanon. Ever since October 7th, these courageous Israelis, several of whom are also American citizens, left families and home to stand strong… pic.twitter.com/2vj3mmArSl
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) January 5, 2024
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France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, has said that Gaza is Palestinian land and its future will not be decided by Israel.
Speaking to CNN, Colonna said:
It’s not up to Israel to determine the future of Gaza, which is Palestinian land. We need to return to the principle of international law and respect it.
Her comments came after two far-right Israeli ministers earlier this week called for the resettlement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, doubled down on a call for “voluntary emigration” by Palestinians from Gaza.
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, on Monday called for promoting “a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza’s residents”.
Such calls are “irresponsible” and “brings us away from a solution,” Colonna said, adding that such rhetoric is also against the long-term interests of Israel. She added:
Gaza is Palestinian land, which wants to become part of the future Palestinian state. We support the two-state solution, which is the only viable option. Gaza and the West Bank must together be part of the future Palestinian state.
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Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Gaza, Israel, and Yemen.
Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, has urged the UK government to demand an end to Israel’s “indiscriminate attacks” that have seen thousands of children in Gaza killed.
In a statement on Friday, Yousaf said the UK government’s refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza was “shameful”.
It was time for the UK to make clear to Israel that its actions in Gaza had gone “way beyond a legitimate response” to the 7 October Hamas attacks, he said.
He also described comments by Israeli ministers earlier this week calling for the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza as “deeply disturbing” and said they should be “universally condemned”, adding:
Gaza is Occupied Palestinian Territory and will be part of a future Palestinian state - Gazans should not be subject to forcible displacement or relocation from Gaza.
The Scottish leader said the UK government should make clear that Israeli officials, including Benjamin Netanyahu, will be held accountable for “the killing of thousands of innocent civilians and the deaths of tens of thousands more from starvation and disease” if Israel does not “immediately cease indiscriminate attacks” and allow aid to enter Gaza. He added:
Talk of a sustainable ceasefire from the UK Government has made no difference on the ground, as the situation has worsened for the people of Gaza. The UK government must use its voice and influence to stop the killing – directly with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the US.
Gaza has 'simply become uninhabitable', says UN humanitarian chief
The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, has described the Gaza Strip as having become “uninhabitable” after relentless bombing by Israel forces following the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
“Three months since the horrific 7 October attacks, Gaza has become a place of death and despair,” Griffiths said in a statement on Friday.
He warned that a “public health disaster is unfolding” in the territory as people are facing “the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded”. “Famine is around the corner,” he added.
He said that the past 12 weeks of fighting have been particularly “traumatic” for children, adding:
No food. No water. No school. Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out.
Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on.
The humanitarian community has been left with the “impossible” mission of supporting more than two million in Gaza, “even as its own staff are being killed and displaced”, he said.
Gaza has “shown us the worst of humanity,” he said, adding that “hope has never been more elusive.”
We continue to demand an immediate end to the war, not just for the people of Gaza and its threatened neighbours, but for the generations to come who will never forget these 90 days of hell and of assaults on the most basic precepts of humanity.
The head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has said he hopes a visit by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to the Middle East will focus on ending aggression in the region.
Haniyeh, in a statement on Telegram reported by NBC, wrote:
We hope that the permanent brothers in the Arab and Islamic countries that will meet with the US secretary will convey to the American administration that the future of our region and its stability are partly linked to our Palestinian cause.
He added that he hoped that Blinken would help “end the occupation of all Palestinian land.”
As we reported earlier, Blinken arrived in Turkey on Friday to begin a week-long Middle East tour. He is also scheduled to travel to Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
During his upcoming visit to Israel, Blinken is expected to put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, allow more aid to reach the territory and rein in outspoken far-right ministers who have called for the mass resettlement of Palestinians – rhetoric that the US has condemned as inflammatory and irresponsible.
A Turkish court has decided to formally arrest 15 people and deport eight others suspected of being linked to Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency.
Turkish authorities detained 34 people earlier this week who were suspected of being linked to Mossad and of targeting Palestinians living in Turkey, Reuters reported that state broadcaster TRT Haber said.
Turkey warned Israel last month of “serious consequences” if it tried to hunt down members of Hamas on Turkish soil. Unlike most of its western allies and some Arab nations, Turkey does not classify Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
Report: IDF attacks Hezbollah 'command center' in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it carried out an airstrike on a Hezbollah command center in the southern Lebanese village of Blida on Friday in response to attacks on the border, the Times of Israel reports.
The newspaper says IDF tanks and artillery also shelled a number of areas along the Israel-Lebanon border, apparently to foil planned Hezbollah attacks.
Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant warned earlier Friday that time was running out on diplomatic efforts to end tensions between his country and Hezbollah, and that Israel would soon have no choice but to launch a military offensive.
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The US learned that the terror group Islamic State (IS) was behind Wednesday’s twin bomb attacks in Iran that killed dozens from “communications intercepts”, Reuters is reporting.
The news agency cites two anonymous US sources. “The intelligence is clear-cut and indisputable,” one of the sources said, referring to the communications confirming an “Afghanistan-based branch” of IS was responsible.
At least 89 people died when two blasts ripped the a crowd attending a memorial for Iranian senior Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani in the city of Kerman, four years after he was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad.
Suleimani was had been a staunch enemy of Isis, which resents the damage it says did to the group’s cause in Iraq and Syria.
While Isis claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks on Thursday, the US collection of the intercepts has not been previously reported.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi joined mourners in Kerman on Friday for the funerals of the 89 people killed.
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Summary of the day so far
It’s 9pm in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
At least 22,600 Palestinians have been killed and 57,910 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday. About 162 Palestinians were killed and 296 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry added. At least six people have been killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on a home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Turkey to start his fourth Middle East tour since the Israel-Hamas war broke out three months ago. Blinken will hold talks with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, and the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Istanbul on Saturday. He will also travel to Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
The head of the Unicef has said time is running out for children in Gaza who are “caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day”. Children in the territory faced a “deadly triple threat” to their lives from the spread of diseases, plummeting nutrition and the escalation in fighting, Catherine Russell said in a statement, adding that most young children and women in the Gaza Strip were unable to meet their basic nutrition needs.
Hezbollah’s head, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that the assassination of one of Hamas’s most senior officials, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut has changed the nature of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. In a second nationally televised address within three days, Nasrallah warned that a response is “inevitable”, further heightening fears of a dangerous escalation in the conflict. His comments came as Lebanon issued a formal complaint to the UN security council over Arouri’s killing, and over Israeli incursions into Lebanon’s airspace to attack targets in Syria.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has suggested that Israel would keep security control of Gaza after Hamas has been defeated with an undefined, Israeli-guided Palestinian body running day to day administration and the US, EU and regional partners taking responsibility for the reconstruction of the territory. Yoav Gallant revealed the plan on Thursday before a visit by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and after growing pressure from the US for Israel to make proposals for postwar scenarios.
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said at the funeral on Friday for the victims of twin Islamic State bombings two days earlier that their deaths would be avenged. More than 84 people were killed at a memorial in the city of Kerman on Wednesday for the former top commander Qassem Suleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone. Iranian security forces have detained 11 people suspected of links to the attack, Iran’s intelligence ministry said on Friday.
France and Jordan teamed up to airdrop seven tonnes of aid to civilians and aid workers in Gaza late on Thursday, the French presidency has said. The “extremely complex” operation involved supplies equipped with systems that remotely guided them to a Jordanian field hospital set up in Gaza’s second city, Khan Younis, it said.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, warned against an Israeli occupation of Gaza as she called for more humanitarian pauses in the war. Israel “must do more for the protection of the civilian population” in its war against Hamas in Gaza, Baerbock said at a press conference on Friday. She is expected to travel to Israel on Sunday for her fourth visit since the outbreak of the Gaza war.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, will be in Lebanon from 5 to 7 January to discuss the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border and the importance of avoiding regional escalation, the EU said in a statement. Borrell will meet the speaker of the parliament, Nabih Berri; the prime minister, Najib Mikati, the foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, and the armed forces commander Gen Joseph Aoun. He will also have an exchange with the head of the UN’s interim force in Lebanon, Gen Aroldo Lazaro.
The US is offering rewards of up to $10m (£7.9m) for information that will lead to the disruption of Hamas’s financial network. The state department is looking for information on five Hamas financiers: Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Khair, Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb, Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah, and Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah.
Gallant warns 'hourglass about to turn' on Hezbollah
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has warned that time is running out on diplomatic efforts to end tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
Gallant, during a situational assessment at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) northern command base, indicated that Israel would soon be left with no choice but to launch a military offensive against Hezbollah, the Times of Israel reported. He was quoted as saying:
We prefer the path of an agreed-upon diplomatic settlement, but we are getting close to the point where the hourglass will turn over.
He said Israel would continue to “intensify our operations across the entire sector as needed” with the objective to “safely return the residents of the north to their homes”, Ynet reported.
France and Jordan teamed up to airdrop seven tonnes of aid to civilians and aid workers in Gaza, the French presidency has said.
The “extremely complex” operation, which took place on Thursday night, involved each country sending a C-130 transport plane with mixed French-Jordanian crews, bringing a total of seven tonnes of “humanitarian and health” aid, it said.
The supplies were equipped with systems that remotely guided them to a Jordanian field hospital set up in Gaza’s second city, Khan Younis, the French presidency said.
Jordan has previously carried out drops in Gaza, but it was the first time France had directly taken part in such an operation.
“The humanitarian situation remains critical in Gaza,” France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, posted to social media, adding:
In a difficult context, France and Jordan delivered by air aid to to the population and those who are bringing them help.
La situation humanitaire reste critique à Gaza. Dans un contexte difficile, la France et la Jordanie ont livré par les airs de l’aide à la population et à ceux qui lui portent secours. pic.twitter.com/jNXGiZieCh
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 5, 2024
Saleh al-Arouri’s assassination took place in the Hezbollah stronghold of Beirut’s southern suburbs, as the group has attempted to pursue a policy of supporting Hamas in Gaza while stopping short of triggering its own major war with Israel.
Friday’s comments by Hassan Nasrallah, were, however, more forceful than those made earlier this week, and came as Lebanon issued a formal complaint to the UN security council over Arouri’s killing, and over Israeli incursions into Lebanon’s airspace to attack targets in Syria.
In what appeared to be an effort to talk up Hezbollah’s carefully calibrated campaign since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the Hezbollah chief said his group had been engaged in a war with Israel for more than 90 days in which it had hit a large “number of targets”.
He said Hezbollah had launched 670 attacks on Israel in the past three months at an average rate of between six and seven a day.
“For those who demand to know why we are fighting on the [southern] front, we are obliged to reply.
There are two goals on this front: to pressure the enemy and its government to cease the aggression against Gaza. The second goal is to relieve the pressure on the resistance [Hamas] in Gaza.
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Hezbollah chief says response to killing of senior Hamas official is inevitable
The assassination of a senior official in Beirut has changed the nature of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, the group’s head, Hassan Nasrallah, has said, warning that a response is “inevitable”.
In a second nationally televised address within three days, Nasrallah said all of Lebanon would be exposed if there was no response from his group to the killing of Saleh al-Arouri, further heightening fears of a dangerous escalation in the conflict. Israel said its military was ready for any eventuality.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s current operations on the southern border also opened a “historic opportunity” for Lebanon to liberate land occupied by Israel. He said residents of northern Israel would be the first to pay the price in any expanded war.
Since the war in Gaza began three months ago, Nasrallah has spoken four times, the two most recent addresses within days of each other after the killing of Arouri, the No 2 in Hamas’s political bureau, in a suspected Israeli drone strike on Tuesday.
He left the door open to a diplomatic solution over areas occupied by Israel when the war with Gaza ends, but analysts inferred that his remarks suggested a response was imminent and that they also signalled that other Iranian proxies may escalate their attacks on US forces in Iraq.
Reiterating that Hezbollah would be required to respond to the assassination, Nasrallah said that “the battle in the south of Lebanon” where Israel and Lebanon have been exchanging daily fire for three months was intended to “reinforce the equilibrium of dissuasion”.
A response to what occurred in a southern suburb of Beirut is inevitable … I am not going to say at the appropriate time and place.
“The war today is not only for Palestine but also for Lebanon and its south, in particular the region south of the Litani River,” he said.
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Unicef also said most young children and women in the Gaza Strip were unable to meet their basic nutrition needs.
About 90% of children under the age of two are consuming two or fewer food groups, the agency said in a statement on Friday.
Most families said their children are only getting grains – including bread – or milk, which would meet the definition of severe food poverty, it said.
A quarter of pregnant and breastfeeding women said they only eat from one food group a day, it said.
The deteriorating situation is “raising concerns about acute malnutrition and mortality breaching famine thresholds”, it said, adding that it was particularly worried about the nutrition of more than 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as more than 135,000 children under two.
“Unicef works to provide the life-saving aid the children of Gaza so desperately need. But we urgently need better and safer access to save children’s lives,” the agency’s executive director, Catherine Russell, said.
The futures of thousands more children in Gaza hang in the balance. The world cannot stand by and watch. The violence and the suffering of children must stop.
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UN says 'time is running out' for Gaza children 'caught in a nightmare'
The head of the Unicef has said time is running out for children in Gaza who are “caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day”.
Catherine Russell said in a statement on Friday that children in the territory faced a “deadly triple threat” to their lives from the spread of diseases, plummeting nutrition and the escalation in fighting.
Living conditions for children were continuing to “rapidly deteriorate”, she said, noting the increasing cases of diarrhoea and food poverty.
Cases of diarrhoea in children under five rose from 48,000 to 71,000 in a week from 17 December, equivalent to 3,200 new cases a day, the agency said. Such an increase in such a short timeframe is a “strong indication that child health in the Gaza Strip is fast deteriorating”, Unicef said.
Russell said:
Children and families in the Gaza Strip continue to be killed and injured in the fighting, and their lives are increasingly at risk from preventable diseases and lack of food and water. All children and civilians must be protected from violence and have access to basic services and supplies.
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Blinken arrives in Turkey on first leg of Middle East tour
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Turkey to start his fourth Middle East tour since the Israel-Hamas war broke out three months ago.
He will hold talks with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, and the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Istanbul on Saturday. He is then scheduled to pay a brief visit to Greece later the same day.
Blinken will also travel to Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
“We don’t expect every conversation on this trip to be easy. There are obviously tough issues facing the region and difficult choices ahead,” the state department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
But the secretary believes it is the responsibility of the United States of America to lead diplomatic efforts to tackle those challenges head on.
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The US is offering rewards of up to $10m (£7.9m) for information that will lead to the disruption of Hamas’s financial network.
The state department is looking for information on five Hamas financiers: Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Khair, Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb, Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah, and Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah.
The first financier, known as Hamza, is a Sudan-based individual who has managed numerous companies in Hamas’s investment portfolio and was previously involved in the transfer of almost $20m to Hamas, the department said in a statement. He also has longstanding financing ties to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden-linked companies in Sudan, it said.
Three of the individuals – Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb, and Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah – are part of the group’s investment network in Turkey, the department said.
The department is looking for information that would lead to the identification and disruption of Hamas’s sources of revenue or “its key financial facilitation mechanisms”, and any major donors or financial facilitator, it said.
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Iranian security forces have detained 11 people suspected of links to Wednesday’s attack on a crowd in southern Iran that killed at least 84 people, according to Iran’s intelligence ministry.
Security forces also seized explosives during the arrest, Reuters reported.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack in the city of Kerman, near the site of where the senior Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani was buried.
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Germany urges Israel to do more to protect Gaza civilians
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, warned against an Israeli occupation of Gaza as she called for more humanitarian pauses in the war at a press conference in Berlin.
Israel “must do more for the protection of the civilian population” in its war against Hamas in Gaza, Baerbock said today.
She reiterated Germany’s solidarity for Israel in its fight against “blind terror” but called for more “humanitarian pauses”, adding that “peace cannot be won if the prospect of a life in dignity dries up, if Gaza is uninhabitable after the war.”
“Our position on the so-called day after is very clear,” Baerbock said at the news conference.
There must be no occupation of the Gaza Strip, no expulsions and no reduction in the size of the territory. And at the same time there must be no more danger to Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Israelis and Palestinians would “only be able to live side by side in peace if the security of the one means the security of the other”, she added.
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Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, is expected to travel to Israel on Sunday for her fourth visit since the outbreak of the Gaza war.
While in Israel, Baerbock will hold talks with her new Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, as well as the president, Issac Herzog, her spokesperson, Sebastian Fischer, said.
She will also meet the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, and the foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, during her visit.
She will then travel to Egypt to meet the foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, and also plans to visit Lebanon, said Fischer.
The talks will focus on the “dramatic humanitarian situation in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank and the extremely volatile situation on the Israel-Lebanon border”, as well as efforts to secure the release of more hostages held by Hamas, he said.
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The Israeli defence minister has suggested Israel could keep security control of Gaza after Hamas has been defeated with an undefined, Israeli-guided Palestinian body running day-to-day administration and the US, EU and regional partners taking responsibility for the reconstruction of the territory.
Yoav Gallant revealed the plan to media on Thursday before a visit by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and after growing pressure from Washington for Israel to make proposals for postwar scenarios.
Under Gallant’s plan, which is not official policy and has yet to be submitted to other ministers, Israel’s offensive in Gaza would continue until hostages taken on 7 October are freed and Hamas’s “military and governing capabilities” dismantled.
Then, the outline says, a new phase would begin during which “Hamas will not control Gaza and will not pose a security threat to the citizens of Israel”, with unspecified Palestinian bodies – apparently local civil servants or communal leaders – assuming the territory’s governance.
The picture Gallant outlined differs starkly from US calls for a revitalised Palestinian Authority to take control of the territory, ruled by Hamas since 2005, and a start to new negotiations towards creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has ruled out the US proposal.
Gallant said Israel would reserve its right to operate in the territory, but the plan states that there would be “no Israeli civilian presence in the Gaza Strip after the goals of the war have been achieved”.
“Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the state of Israel,” Gallant’s outline said, without giving details.
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The al-Harir airbase in Erbil, Iraq, which hosts US and international forces, was targeted by an armed drone on Friday, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counterterrorism service said in a statement.
The statement, reported by Reuters, did not elaborate on whether the attack caused casualties or infrastructure damage.
The airbase was previously attacked in November by drones that were downed by air defences and caused no casualties.
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Summary
Here is a quick roundup of some of the key events from today:
At least 22,600 Palestinians have been killed and 57,910 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday. About 162 Palestinians were killed and 296 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, will be in Lebanon from 5 to 7 January to discuss the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border and the importance of avoiding regional escalation, the EU said in a statement. Borrell will meet the speaker of the parliament, Nabih Berri; the prime minister, Najib Mikati, the foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, and the armed forces commander Gen Joseph Aoun. He will also have an exchange with the head of the UN’s interim force in Lebanon, Gen Aroldo Lazaro.
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said at the funeral on Friday for the victims of twin Islamic State bombings two days earlier that their deaths would be avenged. More than 80 people were killed at a memorial in the city of Kerman on Wednesday for the former top commander Qassem Suleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone.
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has outlined his plan for how Gaza would be run once Hamas has been defeated, before a visit by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to the region. Gallant unveiled the plan to the press on Thursday before submitting it to the country’s war cabinet, which has been divided in recent weeks over the future of Gaza.
The Iraqi government is forming a bilateral committee to prepare for ending the mission of the US-led international coalition, the office of the prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, said on Friday. The statement was issued a day after a US strike killed local militia leader in Baghdad, Reuters reports.
The German government is monitoring the situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday as the country’s top diplomat prepares to travel to the Middle East for talks. The spokesperson said: “The risk of escalation is unfortunately very real.”
India’s defence ministry is providing security to Indian container ships around the Red Sea as the situation continues to simmer, a government source said.
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Lebanon files complaint to UN Security Council over killing of Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut
Lebanon has filed a complaint to the UN Security Council over Israel’s targeted killing of the senior Hamas figure Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, calling it the “most dangerous phase” of Israeli attacks on the country.
The complaint, dated 4 January, said Israel used six missiles in the attack that killed al-Arouri and added that Israel used Lebanese airspace to bomb Syria.
Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said Lebanon would be “exposed” to more Israeli operations if his group did did not respond to the killing of al-Arouri, an attack which some analysts have described as an Israeli message to Hezbollah that its strongholds were vulnerable.
Delivering a televised address for the second time in less than a week after nearly two months without doing so, Nasrallah said the group “cannot be silent about a violation of this level.”
“This means that all of Lebanon will become exposed, all cities, villages, and figures will become exposed,” he said.
Hezbollah launched rockets across the border on 8 Octover in support of Hamas, one day after Hamas gunmen carried out the deadly attack on southern Israel that triggered Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah had carried out some 670 operations on the Lebanese-Israeli border since then, destroying a “large number” of Israeli military vehicles and tanks. He also said that if the Israeli military managed to achieve its military goals in Gaza, it would then turn to Lebanon.
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The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a speech on Friday that all of Lebanon would be exposed if the group did not react to the assassination of the deputy Hamas chief, Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.
Nasrallah added that its current operations on the southern borders opened a “historic opportunity” for Lebanon to liberate its land occupied by Israel and that the Islamic resistance in Iraq also has a “historic opportunity” to get rid of the US presence in that country, Reuters reports.
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Lebanon has filed a complaint to the UN security council over the targeted killing of the Hamas deputy chief, Saleh al-Arouri, in Beirut on Tuesday, Reuters reports. It says Israel used six missiles in the attack that killed Arouri.
The complaint accuses Israel of using Lebanese airspace to bomb Syria, and says this is the “most dangerous phase” in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, according to Reuters. The complaint is dated 4 January but was seen by Reuters on Friday.
More details to follow.
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At least six people killed in apparent Israeli airstrike on a home in Rafah
At least six people have been killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on a home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight, according to a report from Associated Press.
AP reports:
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have crammed into Rafah, one of the areas where Israel has told people to seek refuge. But Israeli forces continue to strike all parts of the besieged territory.
Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, says several thousand Hamas fighters remain in northern Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been blasted into rubble. Heavy fighting is also underway in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli officials say Hamas’s military structure is still largely intact.
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Friends and relatives of hostages taken by Hamas gathered to listen to a press conference at a site in Re’im, southern Israel. Here are some images from the wires:
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A plan by Israel’s military to mount an internal investigation into the 7 October Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war is drawing criticism from rightwing government ministers, who want a more sweeping review of policy towards the Palestinian territory.
The armed forces chief, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, informed the security cabinet of the planned inquiry during a briefing on Thursday evening. The briefing was meant to be closed but some of it was aired by Israeli media, including criticism by several ministers who were present.
The 7 October attack by Hamas militants, in which Israel said about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 taken hostage, blindsided the country’s advanced security apparatus and exposed the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to criticism.
Unlike some other top officials, he has made no personal admission of failure. He has spoken more generally of the eventual need of a public reckoning with all Israeli decision-makers involved in Gaza policy, including those predating his record-long term.
Two far-right cabinet ministers said they were upset at the inclusion in the military’s inquiry of Shaul Mofaz, a retired general who was defence minister when Israel unilaterally quit the Gaza Strip in 2005 and razed Jewish settlements there.
The two ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accused another ex-general helping with the inquiry of having weakened the military by supporting reservists who protested against a campaign for a judicial overhaul by Netanyahu last year.
“These are people whose own actions should be under investigation – and who should not be the ones doing the investigating,” Ben-Gvir said in a social media post.
In his own online post, Smotrich said he was not in principle opposed to a military review intended to improve war performance. But any investigation of what led to the events on 7 October, and of wider security doctrines, demanded cabinet input, he said.
The office of an Israeli military spokesperson said the inquiry had not yet begun, adding: “The general staff are planning the process of the investigation and the appointment of the heads of the investigation teams.”
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Suspects arrested over Wednesday bomb blasts in Iran, interior minister tells state TV
Mourners wept over the coffins of victims of two deadly blasts in Iran as the interior minister said on Friday a number of suspects had been arrested over the attacks claimed by Islamic State.
Crowds chanted “revenge, revenge” in state TV footage of the funerals in the city of Kerman, the scene of Wednesday’s explosions, the bloodiest such attacks in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Reuters reports.
Nearly 100 people were killed in Wednesday’s assaults at a memorial for top commander Qassem Suleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone.
The explosions came as regional tensions soared and Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza neared the three-month mark.
The interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, told state TV a number of suspects had been arrested.
He said:
Our country’s capable intelligence agencies have found very good clues regarding elements involved in the terrorist explosions in Kerman and a section of those who had a role in this incident have been arrested.
Isis said on Thursday two of its members had detonated explosive belts in the crowd that had gathered for Soleimani’s memorial in the south-eastern city.
At the funeral in Kerman’s Imam Ali religious centre, Revolutionary Guards commander Maj Gen Hossein Salami said:
We will find you wherever you are.
In a televised address, President Ebrahim Raisi said:
Our enemies can see Iran’s power and the whole world knows its strength and capabilities.
Our forces will decide on the place and time to take action.
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At least 22,600 Palestinians have been killed and 57,910 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
About 162 Palestinians were killed and 296 wounded in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
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India’s defence ministry is providing security to Indian container ships in the high seas around the Red Sea as the situation continues to simmer, a government source said.
Containers could face delays of 14 days in their turnaround time due to the longer route which is also causing higher transport and insurance costs, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.
Tankers have been avoiding the Red Sea after the Houthi militant group stepped up maritime attacks against commercial vessels, which it said was a response to Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports.
The German government is monitoring the situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday, as the country’s top diplomat prepares to travel to the Middle East for talks.
The spokesperson said:
The risk of escalation is unfortunately very real.
The foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, will depart on Sunday for Israel to meet her new counterpart, Israel Katz, and the Israeli president, Yitzhak Herzog, according to the spokesperson. She is also scheduled to hold talks in the Palestinian territories, Reuters reports.
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A community that was attacked during Hamas’s 7 October assault into southern Israel says one of its residents, who was taken hostage, has died in captivity.
According to AP, the kibbutz Nir Oz community did not give a cause of death for Tamir Adar, 38. About 250 people were captured during Hamas’ attack, with approximately 80 taken from Nir Oz alone, out of a population of 400.
Tamir’s grandmother, 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, was also abducted by militants that day. She was among more than 100 hostages released during a weeklong ceasefire in November.
The Israeli government says militants are still holding 113 hostages, including 19 women and two children under the age of five, as well as the bodies of 24 others.
Hamas has said it will not release any more hostages until Israel ends its military offensive and withdraws from Gaza. Israel has vowed to crush the militant group and return all the captives.
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EU's Josep Borrell to emphasise need for 'diplomatic efforts' to secure peace on visit to Lebanon
The EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, is travelling to Lebanon amid escalating tensions and fears that Beirut could be drawn into a widened conflicted in the Middle East.
Borrell will meet the speaker of the parliament Nabih Berri, the prime minister, Najib Mikati, minister of foreign affairs and emigrants, Abdallah Bou Habib, and the Lebanese armed forces commander Gen Joseph Aoun.
He will also have an exchange with the head of the UN’s interim force in Lebanon, Gen Aroldo Lazaro.
His trip comes as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, heads to the Middle East in an effort to ease resurgent fears that the Israel-Gaza war could erupt into a broader conflict.
A spokesperson for Borrell said he would “re-emphasise the need to advance diplomatic efforts with regional leaders with a view to creating the conditions to reach a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine and in the region”.
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Israel to continue war with 'new combat approach' until hostages returned and Hamas dismantled, defence minister plans
The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has outlined his plan for how Gaza would be run once Hamas has been defeated, before a visit by the US secretary of state Antony Blinken to the region.
Gallant on Thursday unveiled the plan to the press before submitting it to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, which has been divided in recent weeks over the future of Gaza after the ouster of Hamas, rulers there since 2007.
Under the plan, Israel’s war in the territory would continue until it had secured the return of the hostages taken on 7 October, dismantled Hamas’s “military and governing capabilities” and removed any remaining military threats.
The document issued by Gallant was titled a “vision for phase 3” of the war. It also said the ideas were Gallant’s and not official policy, which would have to be set by Israel’s war and security cabinets.
In his plan for the next stage of the war in Gaza, he described how Israeli forces would change to an apparently scaled-down “new combat approach” in northern Gaza, while continuing to fight Hamas in the south of the territory “for as long as necessary.”
Gallant’s statement said that in the north Israeli forces would shift to a new approach that included raids, destruction of tunnels, “air and ground activities and special operations”. The aim would be “the erosion” of the remaining Hamas presence.
You can read more on this story here.
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The Iraqi government is forming a bilateral committee to prepare for ending the mission of the US-led international coalition in Iraq, the office of the prime minister, Mohammed Shia, Al-Sudani, said on Friday.
The statement was issued a day after a US strike killed local militia leader in Baghdad, Reuters reports.
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Here are some of the latest images from the news wires.
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said at the funeral on Friday for the victims of twin Islamic State bombings two days earlier that their deaths would be avenged.
Nearly 100 people were killed at a memorial in the city of Kerman on Wednesday for former top commander Qassem Suleimani, who was assassinated in Iraq in 2020 by a US drone.
Islamic State said on Thursday that two of its members had detonated explosive belts in the crowd that had gathered at the cemetery in the south-eastern city, Reuters reports.
At the funeral, referring to Islamic State, Iranian Maj Gen Hossein Salami said:
We will find you wherever you are.
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EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, will be in Lebanon from 5 January to 7 January to discuss the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border and the importance of avoiding regional escalation, the EU said in a statement.
The statement said:
[Borrell] will re-emphasise the need to advance diplomatic efforts with regional leaders.
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Blinken set to to arrive in Middle East
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is due to arrive in the Middle East for the fourth time in three months, on a tour expected to focus largely on easing resurgent fears that the Israel-Gaza war could erupt into a broader conflict.
With international criticism of Israel’s operations in Gaza mounting, growing US concerns about the end game, and more immediate worries about a recent explosion in attacks in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, Blinken will have a packed and difficult agenda, AP reports.
He arrives a day after a US strike on Baghdad killed the commander of an Iranian-backed Shia militia. Earlier in the week a suspected Israeli attack killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut and dozens of people were killed in Iran in a double bombing claimed by Islamic State.
“We don’t expect every conversation on this trip to be easy,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “There are obviously tough issues facing the region and difficult choices ahead. But the secretary believes it is the responsibility of the United States of America to lead diplomatic efforts to tackle those challenges head on, and he’s prepared to do that in the days to come.”
Blinken left late Thursday on his latest extended Mideast tour, which will take him to Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt.
Apart from Gaza-specific priorities he will bring to Israel – including pressing for a dramatic increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, a shift toward less intense military operations and a concerted effort to rein in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by Jewish settlers – Blinken will be seeking regional assistance in calming the situation.
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Opening summary
Thanks for joining the Guardian’s live coverage of the Middle East crisis.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is set to arrive in the Middle East, a day after a US airstrike in Baghdad on Thursday killed the commander of an Iranian-backed Shia militia that Washington blames for attacks on American forces in the region.
Fears are growing over tensions in the region; in addition to the US strike, a suspected Israeli attack killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut earlier this week and on Wednesday dozens of people were killed in a double bombing in Iran, claimed by Islamic State.
Criticism is also growing of the US role in Israel’s war on Gaza, to which Washington has given its staunch support even as it struggles to persuade Israel to take a more targeted approach against Hamas.
Blinken is set to visit Israel and the occupied West Bank, as well as Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt over the next week, the US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told reporters.
As well as attempting to calm tensions he will be pressing Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and rein in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
More on that soon. In other developments:
More than 22,438 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority of them women and children, according to the latest figures from Gaza’s health ministry on Thursday. The figures include 125 Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours. At least 12 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a home in al-Mawasi evacuation zone, Palestinian hospital officials said. The blast reportedly killed a man and his wife, seven of their children and three other children ranging in age from five to 14.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said it is deeply concerned for the safety of its staff and others who are sheltering at al-Amal hospital and PRCS headquarters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. In a statement, the PRCS said the hospital compound has been subject to “repeated direct targeting” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for the past three days, and that seven people had been killed, including a five-year-old baby.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said that there will be no Israeli civilian presence in Gaza and Palestinian bodies will be “in charge” of the territory after the war ends. In a statement by his office on Thursday, Gallant also outlined Israel’s new phase in its war on Gaza, including that Israel will “transition to a new combat approach in accordance with military achievements on the ground” in the northern region of the Gaza Strip.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is seeking a “fundamental change” on Israel’s border with Lebanon. The Israeli prime minister, at a meeting with US special envoy Amos Hochstein on Thursday, said he was committed to resettling evacuated residents from Israel’s north back in their homes safely. Separately, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said there must be a “new reality” that would allow Israelis who have evacuated from northern areas of the country to return, referring to the repeated exchanges of fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut for the funeral of one of Hamas’s most senior officials, Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed earlier this week in an Israeli drone strike in the Lebanese capital. The general secretary of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who addressed the killing in a speech televised nationally in Lebanon, is expected to speak about the issue again on Friday amid speculation over the likely response of both Hezbollah and Hamas.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for two explosions at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate commander Qassem Suleimani. At least 84 Iranians were killed and scores more injured in the attack on Wednesday, which came at a memorial ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of Suleimani, the head of Iran’s al-Quds force. The US is “in no position to doubt” the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility, the White House has said.
A Houthi drone boat laden with explosives detonated in the Red Sea on Thursday, a senior US military officer said, just hours after the US and its allies warned the Iran-backed militia group to stop attacks or face “consequences”.
Several Gulf Arab states have strongly condemned remarks by two Israeli government ministers this week calling for Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza. Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has called on Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could “make the desert bloom” while national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for promoting “a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza’s residents” and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory. The UN’s top human rights official, Volker Türk, said he was “very disturbed” by the statements.
Three Israelis who were considered missing since the Hamas attacks on 7 October are being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said. This brings the number of people held hostage in Gaza since the attacks on Israel to 132, according to figures provided by Israeli officials.
The IDF said they have killed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) northern Gaza operations chief, Mamdouh Lolo, in an airstrike in northern Gaza. The IDF said the strike was a joint operation with Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet. Separately, the IDF said it raided and destroyed a Hamas military compound along the central coast of the Gaza Strip, including an underground tunnel system that led to a facility that was used
At least 120 Palestinians were detained during an Israeli military raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem on Thursday, according to reports. The IDF said they had detained hundreds of people suspected of militant activities.
