Closing summary
It’s approaching 4.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and we’re about to close this blog. Our live coverage will resume later today. Here’s an overview of the latest key developments. Thank you for reading.
The prospect of a deal to release the remaining hostages held by Hamas appeared to recede on Sunday after an official in the militant group said Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of its conditions meant there was “no chance” of their return. The Israeli prime minister earlier dismissed Hamas’s conditions to end the war, which he said included leaving Hamas in power and Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza. A Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Netanyahu’s refusal to end the offensive in Gaza “means there is no chance for the return of the [Israeli] captives”, estimated to number 130. Netanyahu said that “I reject outright the terms of surrender” in Hamas’s demands.
A total of 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday. The head of the UN, António Guterres, later denounced Israel for the “heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable” killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, saying: “Israel’s military operations have spread mass destruction and killed civilians on a scale unprecedented during my time as secretary general.”
Two US Navy Seals who went missing during an operation to seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been declared dead after a 10-day search failed to locate them, the US military has said. The US central command had previously said that two Seals who were reported as lost at sea were involved in the 11 January operation in which the elite special operations personnel boarded a dhow off the coast of Somalia and seized missile components made in Iran.
An Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah fighter on Sunday in south Lebanon, a source close to the group said. According to a Lebanese security official, the strike on a car in south Lebanon “killed a member of Hezbollah’s protection team”, while the senior commander he was protecting “escaped death”. The commander was in a vehicle with three other people behind the car that was hit, the official added.
About 9,000 demonstrators marched through Brussels calling for an end of Israel’s offensive in Gaza on Sunday. The rally in the Belgian capital came a day before EU foreign ministers will meet their Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Saudi and Jordanian counterparts in a string of meetings to discuss the war in Gaza and the plight of Palestinian civilians.
A strike on Damascus targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Syria spy chief and blamed on Israel killed 13 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said in an updated toll. The Guards confirmed it lost five members in Saturday’s strike.
Family members of Hamas-held hostages along with protesters have pitched tents outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Jerusalem after staging a demonstration demanding the government strike an immediate deal for the captives’ release.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) received 80 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent via the Rafah border crossing with Israel over the weekend. The trucks carried food, water, relief items and medical supplies, the PRCS said, adding that no trucks entered through the Karm Abu Salem crossing.
The US said it was taking an attack by Iran-backed militants on an Iraq base “extremely seriously”. On Saturday, the US military said “multiple ballistic missiles and rockets” were fired by Iran-backed militants at al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, while an official said US personnel suffered minor injuries.
The UK’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, described Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to a Palestinian state as “disappointing”, while Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, condemned the Israeli prime minister’s stance. Netanyahu’s spokesperson claimed that in a phone call on Friday with Joe Biden, the Israeli leader told the US president that his country’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief, Ismail Haniyeh, has held a meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, diplomatic sources told AFP, in the first official contact between the two since a phone call on 16 October. One of the sources said the main topics discussed were the establishment of a ceasefire “as quickly as possible” and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Updated
We have a full report on two US Navy Seals being declared dead after going missing during an operation to seize Iranian weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The US military’s declaration came after it said a 10-day search failed to locate them.
The US central command (Centcom) had previously said that two Seals who were reported as lost at sea were involved in the 11 January operation, in which the elite special operations personnel boarded a dhow off the coast of Somalia and seized missile components made in Iran.
Centcom on Sunday described the capture of the missile components as “the first seizure of lethal, Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons … to the Houthis since the beginning of Houthi attacks against merchant ships in November 2023”.
See the full report here:
Updated
About 9,000 demonstrators have marched through Brussels calling for an end of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, in a pro-Palestinian protest that ended in the European Union district.
The march in the Belgian capital on Sunday came a day before EU foreign ministers will meet their Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Saudi and Jordanian counterparts in a string of meetings to discuss the war in Gaza and the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Participants in the peaceful “Justice for Palestine” demonstration, whose size was estimated by Brussels police, yelled out “stop genocide”, “Israel: terrorist” and “free Gaza”, Agence France-Presse reports.
Some also cried out “EU, shame on you” for perceived inaction by Brussels to protect Palestinian civilians while others urged a boycott on Israeli goods and businesses.
One demonstrator, Victor Dumont, said:
We really need to unite against the genocide happening in Gaza and fight for an end to Israel’s occupation.
Another demonstrator, Bahija Dioure, said:
No people deserves that, whatever side they’re on - it’s not possible.
On Monday, the 27 EU ministers are to first meet with Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, before sitting down separately with the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki.
Updated
Here’s more on wounded Palestinians from Gaza being treated in a French field hospital aboard a ship off the coast of Egypt.
Sitting in a wheelchair, Abdulrahman Iyad wrings his hands in his lap, resting them gently near pins protruding from his thighs, Agence France-Presse reports.
He scrolls through his phone, looking at photos of his family, all killed in the blast that tore his own face apart.
“I was sent flying through the air and hit the wall of our neighbour’s house, my leg was trapped under the caved-in ceiling,” Iyad told the news agency on the French helicopter carrier Dixmude, which is being used as a hospital.
When I woke up in hospital, my uncles told me they had visited me, but I couldn’t remember a thing.
Iyad’s home, like much of the Palestinian territory where Israel has waged war against Hamas militants since 7 October, has been reduced to rubble.
The French warship began treating patients in November, off the coast of the port of El-Arish, 50km (30 miles) west of the Egyptian border with Gaza. About 1,000 people from Gaza have been treated aboard the ship, according to its captain, Capt Alexandre Blonce.
In the hull of the vessel, a handful of patients and their families gathered around a table, listlessly playing a card game.
Among them was Nesma Abu Gayad, a bright-eyed Palestinian who was seriously injured when her home was shelled. “I was treated at a few hospitals in Gaza, before arriving in Egypt,” she said, the stump of her right foot floating above the ground from her wheelchair.
The next step will be a prosthetic, but I have to get a referral and travel to get it abroad.
A French doctor on the Dixmude, Salle, said she was shocked by the injuries that she had come across.
I’m in the military, so I deal with the war wounds of our French and allied servicemen. But what shocked me was to find them on civilians.
Updated
Family members of Hamas-held hostages along with protesters have pitched tents outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Jerusalem after staging a demonstration demanding the government strike an immediate deal for the release of hostages, the Times of Israel is reporting.
The protest comes as Netanyahu rejected conditions the militant group has proposed – including an end to the war – in exchange for the captives’ release.
The demonstrators will remain in their tents until “the prime minister agrees to a deal to return the hostages”, according to a spokesman for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Alongside the tents are signs and posters calling for the hostages’ release. One in the centre of the set-up reads:
We love our children more than we hate Hamas.
The Times quotes Orrin Gantz, the mother of 28-year-old Eden Zacharia, who was kidnapped and killed in Hamas captivity, as speaking to the crowd and urging the prime minister and the war cabinet to “give up on ego”.
Gantz said:
My daughter didn’t just die, she died on our watch. Bibi Netanyahu, we trust you. There is no other person who can [return the hostages]. 107 days, they don’t have time. In captivity there is no tomorrow.
Updated
Netanyahu rejects Hamas conditions for hostage release deal
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected conditions presented by Hamas to end the war and release hostages that would include Israel’s complete withdrawal and leaving Hamas in power in Gaza.
As Israeli planes resumed bombing Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters the Israeli leader’s refusal to end the military offensive in Gaza “means there is no chance for the return of the [Israeli] captives”.
Netanyahu said in a statement:
In exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza, the release of all the murderers and rapists. And leaving Hamas intact.
I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas.
Under a deal brokered in late November by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, more than 100 of the estimated 240 hostages taken captive to Gaza during an attack by Hamas militants on 7 October were freed in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Since then, Netanyahu has faced mounting pressure to secure the release the 136 hostages believed to remain in captivity.
The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum demanded in a statement that Netanyahu “clearly state that we will not abandon civilians, soldiers and others kidnapped in the October debacle”.
“We must advance the deal now,” Reuters quoted the forum saying.
If the prime minister decides to sacrifice the hostages, he should show leadership and honestly share his position with the Israeli public.
Updated
Two US navy Seals declared dead after raid on Iranian ship
Two US navy Seals who went missing in the Gulf of Aden have not been located after an “exhaustive” 10-day search and their status has been changed to deceased, the US military says.
The Seals were reported missing while boarding an Iranian vessel carrying advanced conventional weapons, the US central command (Centcom) said on X on Sunday.
As we reported last week, US navy ships and aircraft had combed areas of the Gulf of Aden for the missing Seals as details emerged about their mission to board and take over a vessel carrying components for medium-range Iranian ballistic missiles headed for Somalia, a US defence official said at the time.
Officials had said the Seal mission was not related to Operation Prosperity Guardian, the ongoing US and international mission to provide protection to commercial vessels in the Red Sea, or the retaliatory strikes the US and the UK have conducted in Yemen.
The US official had said crew on the Iranian dhow, which did not have a country flag, were planning to transfer the missile parts – including warheads and engines – to another boat off the coast of Somalia.
Centcom said on Sunday that the search for the two seals had now concluded and “recovery operations” were being conducted.
CENTCOM Status Update on Missing U.S. Navy Seals
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) January 21, 2024
We regret to announce that after a 10-day exhaustive search, our two missing U.S. Navy SEALs have not been located and their status has been changed to deceased. The search and rescue operation for the two Navy SEALs reported… pic.twitter.com/OAMbn1mwK8
Centcom’s post on X said:
During this expansive search operation, airborne and naval platforms from the U.S., Japan, and Spain continuously searched more than 21,000 square miles to locate our missing teammates. Search assistance was also provided by Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, the U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command, University of San Diego – Scripts Institute of Oceanography, and the Office of Naval Research – Oceanographic Support.
Out of respect for the families, no further information will be released at this time.
The post quoted Centcom’s commander, Gen Michael Erik Kurilla, as saying:
We mourn the loss of our two naval special warfare warriors, and we will forever honour their sacrifice and example. Our prayers are with the Seals’ families, friends, the US Navy and the entire special operations community during this time.
Updated
The Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers are to meet their European Union counterparts on Monday as the EU considers potential steps toward a comprehensive peace between the two sides even as the war in Gaza rages on.
Israel’s Israel Katz and Palestine’s Riyad al-Maliki will take part separately in a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels largely devoted to the Middle East but also taking stock of the war in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan and the secretary general of the League of Arab States will also attend.
Ahead of the meeting, the EU’s diplomatic service sent a discussion paper to its 27 member countries, suggesting a roadmap to peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At the heart of the plan is a call for a “preparatory peace conference” to be organised by the EU, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the League of Arab States, with the US and the UN also invited to be conveners of the gathering.
The conference would go ahead even if Israelis or Palestinians declined to take part. But both parties would be consulted at every step of the talks as delegates sought to draw up a peace plan, the document suggests.
The internal document, seen by multiple news organisations, makes clear one key goal of a peace plan should be the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, “living side by side with Israel in peace and security”.
EU officials acknowledge Israeli officials and diplomats currently display no interest in the so-called two-state solution but insist it is the only option for long-term peace.
This is Adam Fulton picking up our live reporting. It’s 1.10am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv
Updated
Summary
Here is where the day stands:
Speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said: “We are in a very difficult and dangerous time in the region.” He added: “We are very worried … that’s why we are calling for de-escalation. We of course believe very much in the freedom of navigation and that’s something that needs to be protected but we also need to protect the security and stability of the region.”
A strike on Damascus targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Syria spy chief and blamed on Israel killed 13 people, a war monitor said Sunday in an updated toll, Agence France-Presse reports. “The death toll has risen to 13,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights of Saturday’s strike, revising earlier death tolls. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed that it lost five members in the strike which has been blamed on Israel.
An Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah fighter on Sunday in south Lebanon, a source close to the group told Agence France-Presse. According to a Lebanese security official, the strike on car in south Lebanon “killed a member of Hezbollah’s protection team”, adding that the senior commander he was protecting “escaped death”. The security official added that the Hezbollah commander was in a vehicle with three other people behind the car that was hit.
The US said that it is taking the attack by Iran-backed militants on an Iraq base over the weekend “extremely seriously”. On Saturday, the US military said that “multiple ballistic missiles and rockets” were fired by Iran-backed militants at al-Asad airbase in western Iraq. “It was a very serious attack, using a capability of ballistic missiles that posed a genuine threat,” White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said.
Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has condemned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal of Palestinian state, saying: “Netanyahu’s dangerous views, denying Palestinian statehood, are not just ‘disappointing’ but must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. For those who want to see peace in the region, we must see meaningful progress on a two state solution.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) received 80 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent via the Rafah border crossing over the weekend. The trucks carried food, water, relief items and medical supplies, the PRCS said, adding that no trucks entered through the Karm Abu Salem crossing.
UN chief António Guterres condemned the refusal to accept a two-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis, writing on Twitter/X: “The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable. The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.”
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society’s (PRCS) psycho-social support team visited paramedics and staff at the occupational therapy unit at al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Video posted online showed PRCS staff members playing music and singing in attempts to bring healthcare workers relief amid Israel’s attacks across the strip which have injured nearly 63,000 Palestinians since 7 October.
🎼 Moments of joy and music, organized by the PRCS Psycho-social support team, brought relief to the paramedics and staff in the occupational therapy unit at Al-Amal Hospital in #KhanYunis.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 21, 2024
⭕ This activity provided them with a much-needed #break from the challenging and tense… pic.twitter.com/vhQOwEChal
Updated
Saudi foreign minister: ‘We are in a very difficult and dangerous time in the region’
Speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said: “We are in a very difficult and dangerous time in the region.”
He added:
We are very worried … that’s why we are calling for de-escalation. We of course believe very much in the freedom of navigation and that’s something that needs to be protected but we also need to protect the security and stability of the region so we are very focused on de-escalating the situation as much as possible.
Bin Farhan’s comments come as Yemen’s Houthis have scaled up their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea which have been met in response with US and UK airstrikes, as well as a rising death toll in Gaza where Israeli forces have killed 25,000 Palestinians since 7 October. Frequent cross-border fire exchanges between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters have also become a growing regional concern.
“We are in a very difficult and dangerous time in the region, and that's why we are calling for de-escalation” - Foreign Minister HH Prince @FaisalbinFarhan’s interview with @CNN. pic.twitter.com/sWhE5P8t0M
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) January 21, 2024
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from protests held around the world over the weekend, in which thousands of people called for a ceasefire in Gaza where Israeli forces have killed 25,000 Palestinians since 7 October while displacing nearly 2 million survivors:
Updated
A strike on Damascus targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Syria spy chief and blamed on Israel killed 13 people, a war monitor said Sunday in an updated toll.
Agence France-Presse reports:
‘The death toll has risen to 13,’ said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights of Saturday’s strike, revising earlier death tolls.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed it lost five members in the strike it blamed on Israel, its regional arch-foe.
The British-based monitor, which has a vast network of sources inside Syria, said the deaths include ‘five Iranians, including three IRGC leaders, four Syrians working with the Iranians, one Syrian civilian, two Lebanese, and one Iraqi national’.
Iranian news agency Mehr, quoting an anonymous informed source, said ‘the Revolutionary Guards’ Syria intel chief’ and his deputy were among those ‘martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel’.
The Syrian Observatory said the building targeted belonged to the IRGC and that the area is known to be a high-security zone home to leaders of the IRGC and pro-Iran Palestinian factions.
Updated
Israel’s war on Gaza – which has killed 25,000 Palestinians while forcibly displacing nearly 2 million survivors since 7 October – is not genocide, said UK’s chief rabbi.
The Guardian’s Alexandra Topping reports:
The chief rabbi has said using the word ‘genocide’ to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza is an ‘increasingly frequent, disingenuous misappropriation of the term’.
Sir Ephraim Mirvis said the use of the term was a ‘moral inversion, which undermines the memory of the worst crimes in human history’ and was designed to ‘tear open the still gaping wound of the Holocaust’.
Earlier this month the UN international court of justice in The Hague heard that Israel had shown ‘chilling’ and ‘incontrovertible’ intent to commit genocide in Gaza. South Africa, which has brought the case, alleged ‘grave violence and genocidal acts’ by the country. Israel has described the case as baseless, and accused South Africa of presenting a ‘profoundly distorted’ view of hostilities, ‘barely distinguishable’ from that of Hamas.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Palestine’s foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki met with the head of the Russian delegation to address the “urgent and necessary steps to achieve an immediate ceasefire”, the Palestinian foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Minister Malki discusses with the head of the #Russian_Federation delegation the urgent and necessary steps to achieve an immediate ceasefire 🇷🇺 🇵🇸
— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) January 21, 2024
الوزير المالكي يبحث مع رئيس وفد #روسيا_الاتحادية الخطوات العاجلة والضرورية للتوصل الى وقف فوري لاطلاق النار 🇷🇺 🇵🇸 @mfa_russia… pic.twitter.com/44zA9wSAt3
Israeli strike kills Hezbollah fighter in south Lebanon - reports
An Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah fighter on Sunday in south Lebanon, a source close to the group told Agence France-Presse.
According to a Lebanese security official, the strike on car in south Lebanon “killed a member of Hezbollah’s protection team”, adding that the senior commander he was protecting “escaped death”. The security official added that the Hezbollah commander was in a vehicle with three other people behind the car that was hit.
Another source close to Hezbollah confirmed that a Hezbollah fighter had been killed, but denied that a high-level official had been the target of the strike. The source added that the strike also injured a civilian woman who was in the area of the strike.
According to AFP, Lebanon’s state-run media reported one death in an Israeli drone strike on Kafra, a village near the border.
“The strike that targeted a car in Kafra killed one person while others suffered moderate and minor injuries,” the official National News Agency (NNA) said.
Updated
The US said that it is taking the attack by Iran-backed militants on an Iraq base over the weekend “extremely seriously”.
On Saturday, the US military said that “multiple ballistic missiles and rockets” were fired by Iran-backed militants at al-Asad airbase in western Iraq.
“It was a very serious attack, using a capability of ballistic missiles that posed a genuine threat,” White House deputy national security advisor Jon Finer said Sunday, Agence France-Presse reports.
“We are going to respond ... to establish deterrence in these situations, and to hold these groups accountable that continue to attack us,” Finer said, adding: “You can be assured that we are taking this extremely seriously.”
Most of the projectiles that were fired at the base were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems, he said.
Updated
Scotland first minister: Benjamin Netanyahu's denial of Palestinian statehood 'must be condemned in the strongest possible terms'
Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has condemned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal of Palestinian state, saying:
Netanyahu’s dangerous views, denying Palestinian statehood, are not just ‘disappointing’ but must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. For those who want to see peace in the region, we must see meaningful progress on a two state solution.
Netanyahu's dangerous views, denying Palestinian Statehood, are not just "disappointing" but must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) January 21, 2024
For those who want to see peace in the region, we must see meaningful progress on a two state solution. https://t.co/vp8JgwBJav
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) received 80 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent via the Rafah border crossing over the weekend.
The trucks carried food, water, relief items and medical supplies, the PRCS said, adding that no trucks entered through the Karm Abu Salem crossing.
The aid delivery comes as approximately 2 million people in Gaza remain internally displaced across the strip as a result of Israel’s deadly attacks which have also killed 25,000 Palestinians since 7 October.
📍Yesterday, the Palestine Red Crescent teams received 80 trucks from the @EG_Red_Crescent via the Rafah crossing, carrying essential humanitarian aid, including food, water, relief items, and medical supplies.🚚 Notably, no trucks entered through the Karm Abu Salem crossing.… pic.twitter.com/HRFGXibPgS
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 21, 2024
Updated
UK foreign secretary David Cameron told MPs that he had not made a formal decision to allow UK’s arms sales to Israel to continue, despite written evidence appearing to indicate otherwise.
From the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour:
The chair of the foreign affairs select committee is writing to the foreign secretary, David Cameron, asking him to clarify his claim that he had not taken any formal decision to allow arms sales to Israel to continue amid the Gaza crisis.
Written evidence presented by the UK Department for Business and Trade shows the foreign secretary on 8 December recommended arms sales licences be allowed to continue when presented with three options: stopping arms sales, pausing them in Gaza, or allowing them to continue.
Foreign Office officials, in papers sent by the foreign secretary, had expressed serious concerns about aspects of the Israeli assault against Hamas. They also said the Foreign Office did not agree with Israeli claims that it did not have a legal duty to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, but only to allow others to provide aid, and that this permission could be conditional.
Read the full story here:
Updated
UN chief António Guterres condemned the refusal to accept a two-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis, writing on Twitter/X:
The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable.
The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.
The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 21, 2024
The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.
Guterres’s comments come amid Benjamin Netanyahu’s public remarks about his rejection of a Palestinian state. Additionally, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister claimed that in a phone call with Joe Biden, Netanyahu told the US president that Israel’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
Updated
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said that there can be no normalization with Israel without resolving the Palestinian issue.
Speaking to CNN in a new interview, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud responded to a question on whether there could be no normal ties without a path to a credible and irreversible Palestinian state by saying:
That’s the only way we’re going to get the benefit. So, yes, because we need stability and only stability will come through the resolving the Palestinian issue.
Updated
About 1,000 people from Gaza have been treated in a French field hospital aboard a ship off the coast of Egypt, its captain has said.
The Dixmude, a French helicopter carrier, has been docked in the Egyptian port of al-Arish, 50km (30 miles) west of the Gaza Strip, since November. The vessel is equipped with wards, operating theatres and 70 medical staff, according to Reuters.
Nearly 120 injured people have been hospitalised on board, while hundreds more have been seen for outpatient consultations, including follow-ups on injuries and psychiatric issues, Capt Alexandre Blonce said, calling it an “unprecedented mission”.
Hamas says 7 October attacks were a 'necessary step'
Hamas has reportedly said its 7 October attacks on Israel were a “necessary step” to “confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people”.
According to AFP, the group said in a 16-page report on the attacks that “some faults happened … due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza”.
But the militant group was quoted as saying the attacks were “a necessary step and a normal response to confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people”.
The document was Hamas’ first public report released in English and Arabic justifying the attacks, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
Hamas seized about 250 hostages during the attack. Israel says about 132 remain in Gaza, of whom at least 27 are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
In a statement, Hamas urged “the immediate halt of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the crimes and ethnic cleansing committed against the entire Gaza population”.
“We stress that the Palestinian people have the capacity to decide their future and to arrange their internal affairs,” the statement said, adding that “no party in the world” had the right to decide on their behalf.
A total of 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Updated
Strike targeting Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Syria spy chief in Damascus killed 12 people - war monitor
A strike targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Syria spy chief in Damascus and blamed on Israel killed 12 people, a war monitor said on Sunday in an updated toll.
“The death toll has risen to 12 … five Iranians, including three IRGC leaders, four Syrians working with the Iranians, two Lebanese, and one Iraqi national,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said of Saturday’s strike.
The UK-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria previously reported 10 deaths, according to AFP.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has confirmed it lost five members in the strike it blamed on Israel.
Quoting an informed source, Iran’s Mehr news agency said “the Revolutionary Guards’ Syria intel chief” and his deputy were among those “martyred in the attack on Syria by Israel”.
The monitor said the building targeted belonged to the IRGC and that the neighbourhood is known to be a high-security zone home to leaders of the IRGC and pro-Iran Palestinian factions.
In recent weeks, Israel has been accused of intensifying strikes on senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon, raising fears the war in Gaza could expand into a regional conflict.
Al Jazeera has obtained videos in which Palestinians at the Jabalia refugee camp describe the suffering they are continuing to endure.
“We have no food, only some rice. We do not have flour. There is crowding over the available quantities,” one person said.
“We have been living in suffering for 104 days. Today we are searching for our daily food. There is no flour or wheat. People eat corn, and this is food for birds and animals, not for humans,” another person said.
Updated
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed 25,000 Palestinians, the health ministry in the territory has announced, as the UN chief described the scale of civilian killings as “heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable”.
Read the full story here:
Human rights worker Ayman Lubbad is among the Palestinian prisoners claiming abuse in Israeli custody, where six have died.
The Gaza-based activist has not seen his wife and three children for more than a month, since he was ordered to strip to his underwear in the street outside his home, then driven away with other Palestinian men for a week of abuse and detention.
Read the full story here:
Updated
Two Hezbollah fighters were killed on Sunday in a direct hit by an Israeli drone on their vehicle in southern Lebanon, security sources said.
Their ranks were not revealed following the latest Israeli strike in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel that has targeted dozens of Hezbollah fighters in the area, security sources said.
Earlier, residents and security officials said a drone had killed two people and injured at least four others near the village of Kafra 8km from the border.
Hezbollah has been trading fire across Lebanon’s southern border with Israeli forces in support of the militia group’s Palestinian ally Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
A total of 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, later denounced Israel for the “heartbreaking” killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “Israel’s military operations have spread mass destruction and killed civilians on a scale unprecedented during my time as secretary general,” Guterres said at the opening of a summit of the G77+China in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. “This is heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable. The Middle East is a tinder-box, we must do all we can to prevent conflict from igniting across the region.”
The UK’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, described Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to a Palestinian state as “disappointing”. Netanyahu’s spokesperson claimed that in a phone call with Joe Biden, the Israeli leader told the US president that his country’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief, Ismail Haniyeh, has held a meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, diplomatic sources told AFP, in the first official contact between the two since a phone call on 16 October. One of the sources said the main topics discussed were the establishment of a ceasefire “as quickly as possible” and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
A US official has told Reuters that US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq’s security forces was injured in an attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase. In a statement, the US military’s Central Command said that the base was hit on Saturday by ballistic missiles and rockets fired by Iranian-backed militants from inside Iraq.
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Key event
At least two people were killed and several others injured in a suspected Israeli drone strike on Sunday that targeted a car in southern Lebanon, security sources told Reuters.
Ambulances rushed to the site near a Lebanese army checkpoint, and it was not clear who was targeted in the strike, residents and security sources said. These claims are yet to be independently verified by the Guardian.
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes on southern Lebanon against Palestinian militant groups based there and their Lebanese ally Hezbollah, a powerful armed group, which have fired rockets across the border at Israel.
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Fighting has reportedly continued in the Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas around Gaza City; Palestinians still in the area have described the dire conditions.
“We struggle to survive bombs, but frankly we try to survive hunger more. Finding food for the family, for the children, has become a more challenging adventure than surviving war,” Amer, 32, who lives in northern Gaza, told Reuters.
He messaged via eSIM card, Gaza residents’ only tool to connect with the outside world amid a ninth day of disruptions to communications.
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Here are some of the latest images coming out of the newswires:
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UN secretary general condemns Israel for 'heartbreaking' and 'unprecedented' killings in Gaza
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has denounced Israel for the “heartbreaking” killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Reuters reports.
“Israel’s military operations have spread mass destruction and killed civilians on a scale unprecedented during my time as secretary-general,” Guterres said at the opening of a summit of the G77+China in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
“This is heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable. The Middle East is a tinder-box, we must do all we can to prevent conflict from igniting across the region.”
His comments come after Gaza health authorities said that Israeli strikes have killed over 25,000 Palestinians since 7 October.
Guterres added that the refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians is totally unacceptable, saying denying Palestinians the right to statehood “would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security”.
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Israel’s cabinet has approved a plan for frozen Palestinian tax funds to be held by a third-party country, and reserved the right to decide when the money will be transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Reuters reports.
Under interim peace accords, Israel’s finance ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the PA, which has limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, but there has been disagreement over the arrangement.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the cabinet decision was supported by Norway and the US, which will be a guarantor that the framework holds.
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France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, wrote on Twitter/X that “Palestinians have the right to sovereignty and statehood”.
Les Palestiniens ont le droit à la souveraineté et à un État. La France restera fidèle à son engagement pour atteindre ce but.
— Stéphane Séjourné (@steph_sejourne) January 20, 2024
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The UK’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, has told BBC News he believes there is no other solution to Israel’s war in Gaza other than an eventual two-state solution (see the comments he gave to Sky News on this here).
Shapps told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg:
Palestinians deserve a sovereign state, Israel deserves to have the full ability to defend itself, its own security.
Unless you pursue a two-state solution, I really don’t see that there is another solution.
Now, you’ll get a lot of different views within the Israeli government, of course, it is a rainbow coalition.
So we very much distinguish between the views of individuals and our overall support for Israel as a country.
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Grant Shapps has been asked about the collision between two Royal Navy warships in a Middle East harbour (footage posted on social media appeared to show HMS Chiddingfold reversing into HMS Bangor off the coast of Bahrain).
He told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “Just as in aviation or many other walks of life sometimes accidents and incidents happen, there’s a full investigation under way.”
Asked if it was incompetence, Shapps added:
We don’t say it’s incompetence when we see an aircraft come down, a very rare occasion just as this would be a rare occasion. It’s right to leave the investigators some time to work out exactly what’s gone wrong.
Something clearly did and we need to see what it is.
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Grant Shapps said the UK’s defence spending is below the target of 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
“We’re not at 2.5% yet,” the UK’s defence secretary told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips. “We’re comfortably above 2%,” he said, adding: “But we are pledged to, when conditions allow, get to 2.5%.”
Shapps said in December he wanted to see the UK’s defence budget rise by as much as 50% to 3% of economic output.
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Grant Shapps said the size of the British army will not fall below 73,000 under the Conservatives, disputing projections that it could eventually sink to 50,000.
The UK’s defence secretary told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that the size of the overall armed forces is about 188,000.
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Netanyahu's opposition to two-state solution 'disappointing', says UK's defence secretary
The UK’s defence secretary, Grant Shapps, is answering a series of questions on Sky News about the Middle East.
He described Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to a Palestinian state as “disappointing”.
He told the Sky News programme Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips:
I think it’s disappointing to hear Benjamin Netanyahu saying he doesn’t believe in a two-state solution. In fairness, he’s said that all of his political career, as far as I can tell.
I don’t think we get to a solution unless we have a two-state solution.
Shapps added the UK “certainly remains wedded to” a two-state solution and that there “isn’t another option”.
Over the weekend, Netanyahu’s spokesperson claimed that in a phone call with Joe Biden, the Israeli leader told the US president that his country’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
“In his conversation with President Biden, prime minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that, after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
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Death toll in Gaza reaches 25,105, says health ministry
A total of 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
An estimated 178 Palestinians were killed and 293 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Royal Navy missiles that have been used to shoot down Houthi drones in the Red Sea will be upgraded, the UK government has said.
The Sea Viper air defence system will get more effective missiles featuring a new warhead and a software update that will enable it to defeat ballistic missile threats, PA media reports.
It will help protect the navy’s carrier strike group and allows tracking, targeting and destruction of a variety of air threats more than 70 miles away.
The £405m upgrade was awarded to the missile systems company MBDA UK.
The contracts will make Sea Viper “the most capable naval air defence system ever developed for the Royal Navy”, the government said as Houthi attacks on ships passing through the Red Sea continued.
In the early hours of 12 January, the US and UK armed forces launched a string of military strikes in Yemen.
The strikes saw 60 targets hit across 28 Houthi-held locations in the west of Yemen, and targeted munitions depots and launching systems, in an effort to limit the rebel group’s ability to launch further attacks.
A Houthi campaign targeting shipping in the southern Red Sea area, in support of Hamas in Gaza, began in mid October, using missiles and drones designed in Iran.
The Houthis, who have the support of Tehran, say they are targeting ships linked to Israel although in practice this has not always been the case.
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Hamas chief holds talks with Turkish foreign minister - sources
Hamas’s Qatar-based chief, Ismail Haniyeh, has held a meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, diplomatic sources have told AFP.
The sources said they met in Turkey on Saturday, in the first official contact between the two since a phone call on 16 October.
One of the sources said the main topics discussed were the establishment of a ceasefire “as quickly as possible” and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Israel says about 132 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom at least 27 are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The source said that during the meeting, the two sides also discussed “increasing humanitarian aid … and a two-state solution for a permanent peace”.
Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 24,927 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
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AFP reports Gaza’s health ministry said at least 165 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours – more than double Friday’s toll.
An AFP correspondent reported gunfire, airstrikes and tank shelling that was especially heavy in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city.
Witnesses also told AFP that Israeli boats were bombarding Gaza City and other areas in the north early on Sunday.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, at least five people were killed in a strike that hit what the Gaza health ministry said was a civilian car.
Israel’s military also said on Sunday that its soldiers had killed 15 Palestinian gunmen during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip. All these claims are yet to be independently verified.
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And in case you are looking for some more in-depth analysis connecting the seemingly disparate Middle East conflicts multiplying across the region, make sure to read our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour’s take on whether the long-feared moment of escalation born out of the destabilising war in Gaza has arrived.
Of course, not all the dots can be joined, as he notes:
Not all these conflicts are connected, or have their precise roots in Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, and some will be doused. But they at least blend, in part because they reveal a collective erosion of self-restraint and the rule of law. Iran and Pakistan, for instance, behaved – as has the US – as if they had a unilateral right to pursue counter-terrorism operations across national borders.
You can read the full analysis and accompanying timeline here:
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In case you missed it earlier, don’t miss Jason Burke’s report on Iran accusing Israel of killing Revolutionary Guards spy chief and three other guard member in Damascus on Saturday.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said six people were killed in the Israeli strike on the upmarket Mazzeh neighbourhood in the Syrian capital.
In recent weeks, Israel has been accused of intensifying strikes on senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon, raising fears the war in Gaza could expand into a regional conflict.
You can read the full report here:
Here are some of the latest images from protests held over the weekend around the world:
US personnel suffer minor injuries in Iraq base attack - US official
A US official has told the Reuters news agency that US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq’s security forces was wounded in an attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, the US military’s Central Command said that the base was hit on Saturday by multiple ballistic missiles and rockets fired by Iranian-backed militants from inside Iraq. The statement did not confirm the extent of any US injuries but said personnel were being evaluated for traumatic brain injury.
Reuters reports:
The US military’s assessment was more severe than initial accounts from security sources in Iraq, who, along with an Iraqi government source, had only reported rocket fire against the base.
Offering a sense of the scale of the attack, Central Command said most of the missiles were intercepted though others hit the base.
“Damage assessments are ongoing,” Central Command said, adding the attack took place at 1830 in Iraq (1530 GMT).
“At least one Iraqi service member was wounded.”
Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the U.S. military has come under attack at least 58 times in Iraq and another 83 times in Syria by Iran-backed militants, usually with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.
The militants are seeking to impose a cost on the United States for its support of Israel against Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Netanyahu defies Biden in phone call - spokesman
Over the weekend, Netanyahu has sparred publicly – if indirectly – with US president Joe Biden, who for months has offered Israel almost unconditional support for its war in Gaza, at considerable political cost to his own administration, both in America and beyond.
Netanyahu’s spokesman claimed that in a phone call with Biden, the Israeli leader told the US president that his country’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
“In his conversation with President Biden, prime minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that, after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
It was a barely veiled shot at Biden, who just hours earlier had said the same conversation left him confident an independent Palestine was feasible when Netanyahu was in power.
Read our full story here:
Summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis – this is Christine Kearney with a rundown on all the latest news.
Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his refusal of a Palestinian state. According to a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, he claimed in a call with Joe Biden that Israel’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, US personnel suffered minor injuries after multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants targeting the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, according to the US central command, Reuters reports.
It added that most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems and that damage assessments remained under way.
More on these stories shortly. In other key developments at just past 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
Over the weekend, UNRWA delivered aid to approximately 90 of its shelters, including 33 in Rafah and 25 in Khan Younis. The crucial aid delivery across Gaza comes as nearly 2 million Palestinians grapple with shortages in food, water, medical supplies and fuel as a result of Israel’s attacks across the strip.
Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv in a massive anti-government protest against Netanyahu and his cabinet’s handling of the hostage crisis and Israel’s war on Gaza. Many waved signs that condemned Netanyahu and called for his resignation as family members of hostages currently held by Hamas demanded their release.
Israeli shelling east of the Jabalia refugee camp killed four Palestinians and injured 21 more, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported. Video posted online showed PRCS staff treating injured Palestinians following the strikes. The PRCS added that it had changed the wound dressings of 65 other individuals.
Senator Bernie Sanders has released the following statement in which he criticizes Netanyahu for his refusal of a Palestinian state: “Despite the illegal and inhumane actions of Netanyahu’s government, President Biden has thus far offered unconditional support to Israel. That must change. President Biden must now loudly and clearly say no to the policies of Netanyahu’s rightwing extremist government.”
Palestinian people’s right to statehood “must be recognized by all”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda on Saturday. “The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable,” Guterres said.
