This blog has now closed. You can read our full report on the latest developments in the Middle East here and all our coverage of the Israel-Gaza war here.
Several McDonald’s markets in the Middle East and some outside the region were experiencing a “meaningful business impact” due to the Israel-Hamas conflict as well as “associated misinformation” about the brand, CEO Chris Kempczinski has said.
Major Western fast-food chains including McDonald’s and Starbucks have seen largely spontaneous, grassroots boycott campaigns over their perceived pro-Israeli stance and alleged financial ties to Israel, Reuters reported.
Kempczinski said the misinformation surrounding brands like McDonald’s was “disheartening and ill-founded.” In a LinkedIn post he said:
In every country where we operate, including in Muslim countries, McDonald’s is proudly represented by local owner operators who work tirelessly to serve and support their communities while employing thousands of their fellow citizens.
In October, McDonald’s Israel said on its social media accounts that it had given thousands of free meals to Israel Defense Forces personnel.
This was later renounced by McDonald’s franchises in some Muslim countries, highlighting the polarized regional politics that global corporations navigate during war.
Some of the Western brands are feeling the impact of boycotts in Egypt and Jordan that have now caught on in some countries outside the Arab region including Muslim-majority Malaysia.
As of fiscal 2022, the company franchised and operated about 40,275 McDonald’s restaurants across more than 100 countries. The fast-food chain reported total annual revenue of $23.18 billion in the year.
Jordan has launched several aerial raids inside Syria along its border with its northern neighbour against suspected warehouses and hideouts of Iranian-backed drug smugglers, local and regional intelligence sources have said according to Reuters.
The army has stepped up a campaign against drug dealers after protracted clashes last month with dozens of infiltrators from Syria linked to pro-Iranian militias, carrying large hauls who crossed its border with weapons and explosives, the news wire reported.
This is Helen Livingstone taking over from my colleague, Léonie Chao-Fong.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza City, Tel Aviv and Beirut. Here’s a recap of the latest 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. His comments came as 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. 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.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for two explosions at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate commander Qassem Suleimani. More than 95 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.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will depart later today to the Middle East for the fourth time since the Israel-Hamas war began in October. 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.
A US airstrike in Baghdad on Thursday killed the commander of an Iranian-backed Shia militia that Washington blames for attacks on US forces in the region, according to US officials. One official said that a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, whom the official did not name, was killed in his car as he was about to enter the garage at his group’s Baghdad headquarters.
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.
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”.
Updated
Palestine Red Crescent Society has 'deep concerns' for safety of team as Gaza hospital under 'repeated direct targeting' for three days
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 posted to social media, the PRCS said the hospital compound has been subject to “repeated direct targeting” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for the past three days.
Seven internally displaced people, including a five-year-old baby, were killed during the three days of bombardment, it said. It accused the Israel Defense Forces of targeting several floors of the PRCS compound.
Dozens of others were killed or injured as residential buildings and “gatherings of citizens” at the entrance of the hospital were targeted, it said.
It said the vicinity of al-Amal hospital has been subjected to “intense” shelling for the past two weeks, endangering the lives of thousands of internally displaced people who are “living in an atmosphere of horror and panic”. These displaced people took refuge in the hospital compound “as a safe place protected by international humanitarian law”, it said.
Updated
The head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has begun the process of appointing a team to investigate the events leading up to the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.
IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi has formed a team of former military officials to investigate the army’s failures that led to the Hamas attacks.
The team includes Israel’s former defence minister and IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Shaul Mofaz, former IDF intelligence chief Maj Gen Aharon Zeevi Farkash, former IDF southern command chief Sami Turgeman, and former IDF operations directorate chief Yoav Har-Even, the Times of Israel reported.
The IDF told the paper that it has not yet begun the investigation but that the process “is being formulated”.
Top IDF officials are expected to resign at some point this year over the failure to prevent Hamas’s invasion, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Updated
Thousands mourn senior Hamas figure Saleh al-Arouri at Beirut funeral
Thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut on Thursday 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 coffins of Arouri along with those of two leaders from Al Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, Mohammad al-Rais and Azzam al-Aqraa Abu Ammar, were draped in Palestinian and Hamas flags, Agence France-Presse reported. They were first taken to a mosque for prayers before being carried to the Palestine martyrs cemetery in Beirut, Associated Press reported.
The funeral was attended by Palestinian officials, including top Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, as well as representatives of some Lebanese political groups.
Arouri and the six other Hamas members were killed in a strike on an apartment in Beirut’s southern Musharafieh district, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. Arouri is the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since the war broke out on 7 October after Hamas attacked Israel.
He was a key figure in the group and seen as close to Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza. Regarded as the principal interlocutor between Hamas and Hezbollah, not least with Hezbollah’s secretary general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, he was also an important figure in the group’s financial network.
Arouri’s assassination is likely to complicate negotiations between Hamas and Israel over the hostages Hamas holds in Gaza, with Arouri described as playing a key role in negotiations for the captives’ release.
He had also been implicated in directing a number of attacks against Israel. In 2014 Israel accused him of being behind the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers, which led to that year’s conflict in the coastal strip, and he was designated by the US for his role in terrorism in September 2015.
Updated
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, has said Israel’s ambassador to Spain will be sent back to Madrid after she was recalled in November in a diplomatic spat between Tel Aviv and Madrid.
Rodica Radian-Gordon had been recalled by Israel’s then foreign minister, Eli Cohen, after comments made by Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. In an interview, Sánchez said he had “serious doubts” over the legality of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
But Katz, Cohen’s successor, said today he had decided to send her back to Madrid because there “was a change in the messages for the better” from the Spanish government.
The aim was also to garner support “for the right of the state of Israel to protect its citizens against the terrorist organisation Hamas” and to secure more “international pressure for the release of hostages”, he said.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
Updated
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.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters:
Three citizens who were considered missing are now recognised as hostages and their families have been informed.
Netanyahu says he seeks 'fundamental change' on Israel-Lebanon border
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, did not specify what his plans entailed, the Associated Press reported.
He said he was committed to resettling evacuated residents from Israel’s north back in their homes safely, adding that he hoped to resolve the conflict with Lebanon diplomatically. He said:
Israel, after the murderous attack on Saturday of October 7, is determined, bolder and more united than ever before. Those of our neighbours who have not yet understood this will understand this very well in the future.
Netanyahu’s comments came days after an audacious Israeli drone strike in Beirut killed a senior Hamas official in a move that threatened a significant and dangerous escalation of Israel’s war against Hamas and its related conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Updated
In a statement released by his office on Thursday, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant outlined Israel’s new phase in its war on Gaza, saying:
“In the northern region of the Gaza strip, we will transition to a new combat approach in accordance with military achievements on the ground.”
Gallant added that Israel’s operations would include raids, demolishing tunnels, air and ground strikes, and special forces operations, Reuters reports.
He added that Israel’s military operation in the south “will continue for as long as is deemed necessary”.
Since 7 October, Israeli strikes have killed more than 22,400 Palestinians while leaving 1.9 million survivors internally displaced amid severe shortages in food, water, fuel and medical supplies.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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 said Hamas would no longer control Gaza and Israel would reserve its operational freedom of action.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for two explosions at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate commander Qassem Suleimani. More than 95 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.
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 US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will depart later today to the Middle East for the fourth time since the Israel-Hamas war began in October. 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.
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, according to US officials. One official said that a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, whom the official did not name, was killed in his car as he was about to enter the garage at his group’s Baghdad headquarters.
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.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had 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 by Hamas to manufacture weapons.
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has warned Israel it must allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza to avoid starvation and large outbreaks of disease. Speaking during a trip in Kosovo, Cameron also said attacks in Red Sea shipping lanes must stop, otherwise international action will be taken.
Israel has accused the UN of “stalling” the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the territory which Israel has held under a virtual siege and continual aerial bombardment since 7 October. The Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs said it was equipped to inspect up to 200 trucks a day passing through the Kerem Shalom crossing, but the UN was “not scraping 100”.
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 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had detained hundreds of people suspected of militant activities.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said there must be a “new reality” that would allow Israelis who have evacuated from northern areas of the country to return. He was referring to the repeated exchanges of fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.
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”.
Updated
Palestinians to be 'in charge' of Gaza after war ends, says Israeli defence minister
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, reported by Reuters, Gallant said Hamas would no longer control Gaza and Israel would reserve its operational freedom of action. He was quoted as saying:
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.”
Updated
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it raided and destroyed a Hamas military compound along the central coast of the Gaza Strip, including an underground tunnel system that stretched for hundreds of metres.
According to the IDF, one of the tunnels led to a facility that was used by Hamas to manufacture weapons. The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the facility had been used to create long-range rockets and was stocked with explosives, adding:
The damage to the production sites and Hamas’s rocket launch capability and its reduction, as is carried out throughout the war, continues to be one of the main objectives of the military operation.”
Updated
US 'in no position to doubt' Islamic State claim for attack in Iran, says White House
The US is “in no position to doubt” a claim by Islamic State that it was responsible for an attack in southern Iran that killed dozens on Wednesday, the White House has said.
The White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters at a briefing today that the US has “long said and maintained” that IS “remains a viable terror threat”.
The head of the UN interim forces in Lebanon said he has met with Lebanese officials to discuss the situation in southern Lebanon.
Posting to social media, Aroldo Lázaro said he met with the Lebanese speaker, Nabih Berri, the caretaker prime minister, Najib Miqati, and army commander Joseph Aoun. He wrote:
I expressed my concern about the situation and breaches in the cessation of hostilities, including potential miscalculation, which could have devastating consequences. Our priorities are to prevent escalation, protect civilian lives, and ensure peacekeepers’ safety and security.”
Today, I met separately with Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri, Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, and Lebanese Army Commander General Aoun. We discussed the situation in southern Lebanon and the Blue Line and full implementation of Resolution 1701. pic.twitter.com/PIipwrphzj
— Aroldo Lázaro (@aroldo_lazaro) January 4, 2024
Updated
Gulf states condemn Israeli ministers' call for Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza
Several Gulf Arab states have strongly condemned remarks by two Israeli government ministers this week calling for Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza.
We reported earlier that the UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said he was “very disturbed” by the statements made earlier this week by Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
On Monday, 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. A day earlier, Smotrich had said Palestinians should leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could “make the desert bloom”.
In a statement today, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said it “categorically condemns and rejects the comments of the two ministers”. It called on the international community to act in the face of the Israeli government’s “persistence” in violating international law “through its statements and actions”.
Qatar also “condemned in the strongest terms” the comments by the two Israeli ministers, its foreign ministry said, adding:
The policy of collective punishment and forced displacement practised by the occupation authorities against the inhabitants of Gaza will not change the fact that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian.”
Kuwait warned against “Israeli plans to displace Gaza residents in particular, and the Palestinian people in general”.
The United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020, also “condemned in the strongest terms the extremist statements” of the two ministers, AFP reported.
The UAE voiced its “categorical rejection of such offensive statements and of all practices ... which threaten further escalation and instability in the region”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The US, France and the EU have also denounced the comments.
Updated
The UN security council has condemned the “cowardly” attack in southern Iran that killed at least dozens at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of the senior Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani.
In a statement, the council condemned “in the strongest terms” the attack in the city of Kerman on Wednesday.
It said members of the council “expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences” to the families of the victims of the “reprehensible” attack.
The members of the security council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers, and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.”
The statement reiterated that “any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed”.
Updated
While Antony Blinken heads to the Middle East later today, another senior US official is already on the ground as the US intensifies its diplomatic engagement in a bid to calm tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
Joe Biden has dispatched the special envoy Amos Hochstein, who arrived in Israel earlier today where he met with the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Hochstein was heavily involved in shepherding talks that led to the establishment of a maritime border between Israel and Lebanon in 2022.
During their meeting in Tel Aviv, Gallant said Israel preferred a diplomatic solution but that there was “a short window of time” to find one, according to remarks provided by his office. He said:
We find ourselves at a junction – there is a short window of time for diplomatic understandings. We will not tolerate the threats posed by the Iranian proxy, Hezbollah and we will ensure the security of our citizens.”
Updated
US secretary of state to tour Middle East amid fears of tensions escalating
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will depart later today to the Middle East for the fourth time since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.
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.
Updated
We reported earlier that an Israeli strike had destroyed a home in Mawasi in southern Gaza, an area that the Israeli military had declared a safe zone.
At least 12 people were killed, almost all of them children, according to Palestinian hospital officials.
The blast killed a man and his wife, seven of their children and three other children ranging in age from five to 14, according to a list of the dead who were taken to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
There was no immediate response from Israel’s military.
Updated
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”.
Vice Adm Brad Cooper, the commander of US naval forces in the Middle East, told journalists:
A Houthi one-way attack unmanned surface vessel, or USV, detonated in international shipping lanes. Fortunately, there were no casualties and no ships were hit.
He said the uncrewed boat “came within a couple of miles of ships operating in the area – merchant ships and US Navy ships – and we all watched as it exploded”.
He added it was the first time the Houthis had used a USV in recent months, since their harassment of commercial ships in the Red Sea began after the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war.
The incident marked the 25th attack by the Houthis targeting merchant vessels sailing in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since 18 November, he said, adding that “there are no signs that their irresponsible behaviour is abating.”
The incident came a day after 12 nations, led by the US, warned the Houthis of consequences unless they immediately halted firing on commercial vessels.
Updated
Here’s more on Wednesday’s attack on a crowd in southern Iran at a memorial for senior Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Suleimani, for which Islamic State has now claimed responsibility.
At least 84 people died when two blasts ripped through the crowd near Suleimani’s tomb in the city of Kerman, four years after he was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad.
In a statement posted on its affiliate Telegram channels today, Islamic State said two of its members had detonated their explosive belts in the crowd.
Early today, Iran had said it was bolstering security along its borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the first tangible sign that it suspected that the attack was work of an Islamic State affiliate.
Attention has focused on Islamic State Khorasan Province, a Sunni group operating primarily in Afghanistan that resents the damage done to Islamic State’s cause by Suleimani in Iraq and Syria.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
If you’re just joining us, here’s a recap of the latest 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 14 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on the al-Mawasi evacuation zone, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Thursday. Al Jazeera reported that the youngest was five years old and most were aged under 10.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had 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, Shin Bet.
The UN’s top human rights official, Volker Türk, has said he is “very disturbed” by statements by high-level Israeli officials calling for Palestinians in Gaza to be moved to neighbouring Arab countries. His comments came days after Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, called on Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could “make the desert bloom”.
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has warned Israel it must allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza to avoid starvation and large outbreaks of disease. Speaking during a trip in Kosovo, Cameron also said attacks in Red Sea shipping lanes must stop, otherwise international action will be taken.
Israel has accused the UN of “stalling” the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the territory which Israel has held under a virtual siege and continual aerial bombardment since 7 October. The Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs said it was equipped to inspect up to 200 trucks a day passing through the Kerem Shalom crossing, but the UN was “not scraping 100”.
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 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had detained hundreds of people suspected of militant activities.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said there must be a “new reality” that would allow Israelis who have evacuated from northern areas of the country to return. He was referring to the repeated exchanges of fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for two explosions at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate commander Qassem Suleimani. More than 95 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 military has carried out an airstrike in Baghdad against a high-ranking Iraqi militia commander whom it blames for attacks against US forces in the country, killing him and another person, a US official said. The strike on Thursday, which hit a vehicle in the capital, targeted a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, the official said.
Four Hezbollah fighters were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, the movement announced on Thursday, in what Lebanese state media said were Israeli strikes on the border town of Naqura. The deaths, according to a source close to Hezbollah, included a local leader.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will depart on Thursday for the Middle East, including a stop in Israel, an unnamed senior US official said. Blinken will leave Thursday night “for stops in a number of capitals, including Israel”, the official said. It would be his fourth crisis trip to the Middle East.
Updated
The UN’s top human rights official has said he is “very disturbed” by statements by “high-level Israeli officials” calling for Palestinians in Gaza to be moved to neighbouring Arab countries.
In a social media post, Volker Türk said 85% of people in Gaza are already internally displaced, and that they “have the right to return to their homes”.
He warned that international law “prohibits forcible transfer of protected persons within or deportation from occupied territory”.
His comments came days after Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, called for Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could “make the desert bloom”.
“What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration,” Smotrich told Army Radio on Sunday. “If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not 2 million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after will be totally different.”
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said on Monday that the war presented an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza”.
Updated
Islamic State claims responsibility for attacks at Iran memorial for assassinated commander
Islamic State has claimed responsibility on its Telegram platform for two explosions at a ceremony in Iran to commemorate commander Qassem Suleimani, Reuters reported.
At least 84 people were killed and scores injured during the blasts, which struck minutes apart on Wednesday, shaking the city of Kerman, about 820km (510 miles) south-east of the capital, Tehran.
The explosions occurred during a memorial ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of Suleimani, the head of Iran’s al-Quds force.
Updated
Israel military says it killed senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad member in northern Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, said they have killed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) northern Gaza operations chief, Mamdouh Lolo, in an airstrike in northern Gaza.
According to the IDF, Lolo was an assistant to the leaders of the militant group in northern Gaza and a “central figure” in the PIJ.
ממדוח לולו, שימש כסייענם של ראשי מרחב צפון הרצועה בארגון הג'יהאד האסלאמי הפלסטיני, ועמד בקשר עם בכירי מפקדת הארגון בחו״ל. לולו חוסל בתקיפת כלי טיס של צה״ל, בהובלת מרכז האש והמודיעין בפיקוד הדרום ובהכוונה של שב״כ ואגף המודיעין >> pic.twitter.com/lN3yB4OXbG
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) January 4, 2024
Updated
The UK is politically invested in the UN resolution on humanitarian aid passed before Christmas, since the UK claimed its passage would lead to a step change in the amount of aid entering Gaza, despite criticism by the UN and numerous NGOs that the resolution would have little impact in the absence of a ceasefire or the handover of the responsibility for checking aid truck contents from Israel to the UN.
The UK, along with the US, was instrumental in persuading Israel to open the Kerem Shalom crossing to ensure there was a second access point beyond the Rafah crossing with Egypt that had largely been built for pedestrians.
The UN on Wednesday said it and other humanitarian partners “have been unable to deliver urgently needed life-saving humanitarian assistance north of Wadi Gaza for three days due to access delays and denials, as well as active conflict.”
This includes medicines that would have provided vital support to more than 100,000 people for 30 days, as well as eight trucks of food for people who currently face catastrophic and life-threatening food insecurity.
On Wednesday only 105 trucks with food, medicine and other supplies entered the Gaza Strip via Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings, the UN said. There has been no substantive increase in the number of trucks entering Gaza since the UN resolution was passed on 22 December.
Israel insists thorough checks are necessary to ensure the UN trucks are not being used to smuggle weapons to Hamas inside Gaza. Others claim it is a policy of deliberate starvation, and will be cited in the legal claim to be made by South Africa at the international court of justice in The Hague next week that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
There are already signs that some wings of the Israeli government know they need to be more explicit that they are not seeking to starve Palestinians or forcibly deport them, or else risk losing the case.
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David Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, has warned about starvation and disease spreading in Gaza if Israel does not allow more aid into the territory.
It is the most dire warning he has given about the humanitarian crisis inside Gaza. Speaking on a visit to Kosovo, he said:
The first thing I am worried about is getting more aid into Gaza. I’m worried about people going hungry in Gaza and that potentially leading to starvation. I’m worried about people getting ill in Gaza and that leading to large-scale disease outbreaks, so we need more trucks with more aid getting into Gaza.
On Wednesday he spoke with the new Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, and said afterwards on X: “More must be done to get humanitarian aid into Gaza – Israel must allow significantly more supplies in to reduce the risk of hunger and disease.”
On his Kosovo visit, he said:
Israel, of course, has a right to combat Hamas and to stop the October 7 event happening again. It was an appalling slaughter – and we support them as they do that. But we must have more aid in Gaza to stop starvation, to stop disease.
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Associated Press reports that the state-run Irna news agency in Iran says suicide bombers probably carried out the attack in Kerman, which killed at least 84 people.
Citing an unnamed “informed source”, Irna quoted the official as saying that surveillance footage from the route to the commemoration at the city’s Matryrs cemetery clearly showed a male suicide bomber detonating explosives. The official said the second blast “probably” came from another suicide bomber, though it had not been determined beyond doubt.
The official also gave new distances for how far apart the blasts happened, describing them as occurring 1.5km (about a mile) and 2.7km (1.68 miles) away from the crypt of Qassem Suleimani. The official said the bombers probably chose the locations because they were outside the security perimeter for the commemoration.
On the day some eyewitness accounts implied that exploding gas canisters had been the source of the blast, but the scene on the ground was confused due to large crowds.
An earlier death toll of 103 was twice revised lower after officials realised that some names had been repeated on a list of victims and due to the severity of wounds suffered by some of the dead, health authorities said. Many of the wounded were in critical condition, however, so the death toll could rise.
AP reports that no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Lebanon and Israel.
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Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has said there must be a “new reality” that would allow Israelis who have evacuated from northern areas of the country to return. He was referring to the repeated exchanges of fire over the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon.
“We will not tolerate the threats posed by the Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, and we will ensure the security of our citizens,” he was quoted in a ministry statement as saying, Reuters reports.
Israel evacuated multiple communities for security reasons in the north of the country after the surprise Hamas attack inside southern Israel on 7 October.
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125 Palestinians killed by Israeli military action in Gaza in last 24 hours – ministry
Gaza’s health ministry reports that 125 Palestinians were killed and 318 wounded in the past 24 hours by Israeli military action inside the Gaza Strip. The number raises the overall death toll to 22,438, with at least 57,614, with the ministry adding the majority of them are women and children.
The Hamas-led health ministry has previously said the figures are likely and undercount, as there remain Palestinians missing who are presumed to be under the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli airstrikes on the tightly congested territory.
An estimated 85% of Gaza’s population have been displaced from their homes, and many are living in makeshift shelters in the south of the Gaza Strip. The government media office in Gaza has accused Israel of repeatedly forcing Palestinian residents to flee their homes and move to areas that Israel has then subsequently bombed.
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Attacks in Red Sea shipping lanes have to stop otherwise international action will be taken, British foreign secretary David Cameron warned Yemen’s Houthis on Thursday.
“This is illegal. It’s not to do with Gaza, it’s not to do with Israel. This is about the freedom of navigation. This is about the ability of ships to carry their cargo,” Reuters reports he told the media during a trip to Kosovo.
“The world economy, every economy, will suffer if ships keep coming under attack in this illegal and unacceptable way. And these attacks need to stop or actions will be taken.”
When asked, Cameron declined to specify what action the UK would take.
Crowds gathered in Beirut in Lebanon for the funeral of senior Hamas figure Saleh al-Arouri, who was killed on Tuesday in what has been widely attributed to an Israeli strike.
US military says it carried out strike in Baghdad
The US military has carried out a strike in Baghdad against an Iraqi militia leader it blames for attacks against U.S. forces in the country, killing him and another person, a US official told Reuters on Thursday.
The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the strike hit a vehicle in Baghdad. It targeted a leader of Harakat al Nujaba, the official said, without naming the person.
Police sources and eyewitnesses had said a drone had fired at least two rockets at a building in eastern Baghdad used by the Iraqi militia group.
“We will retaliate and make the Americans regret carrying out this aggression,” Reuters reports a local Iraqi militia commander said.
The US has 900 troops deployed in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq which it claims are there to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State militants.
In recent days the US has also attacked Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, after the Yemeni’s forces carried out attacks on shipping near the Red Sea which they claimed had links to Israel.
Tensions across the region are increasing, with violence in recent days in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, northern Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, the Red Sea and Iraq.
Updated
Israel detains 'at least 120 people' in the Nur Shams refugee camp in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces searched houses in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem on Thursday, detaining hundreds of people suspected of militant activities, its military said.
According to residents, Israeli forces detained at least 120 people and demolished three houses, including one belonging to a member of the Tulkarem Brigades, an armed militant group linked to the Palestinian faction Fatah.
“IDF forces continue to operate, alongside other Israeli security forces, in a broad divisional operation to suppress terrorism in the Nour al-Shams refugee camp in Menashe,” Reuters reports the military said in a statement.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the official spokesperson for the president of the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel’s operation. It reported the spokesperson said the operations will not achieve security and stability and will push matters to an uncontrollable situation.
Summary of the day so far …
It is 2pm in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines …
An airstrike on the logistical support headquarters of an Iran-backed militia in central Baghdad Thursday killed a high-ranking militia commander, militia officials said, as tension continued to rise across the region. The prime minister’s office in Iraq said that the US-led international coalition bore responsibility for an “unjustified” attack on an Iraqi security force. Reuters reports the office said: “The attack is a dangerous escalation and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.”
Four Hezbollah fighters were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, the movement announced on Thursday, in what Lebanese state media said were Israeli strikes on the border town of Naqura. The deaths, according to a source close to Hezbollah, included a local leader.
Israel’s air force has released new video footage which it claims shows it attacking Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon. It claimed to have attacked an observation post and terrorist infrastructure of Hezbollah in the Marun al-Ras area in southern Lebanon.
At least 14 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on the al-Mawasi evacuation zone. Al Jazeera reported that the youngest was five years old and most were aged under 10, with rubble from the attack injuring displaced people sheltering in tents. The government media office in Gaza on Thursday accused Israel of repeatedly forcing Palestinians to flee their homes and move to areas that Israel then bombed.
The IDF has claimed in its latest operational update that it has “thwarted Hamas anti-tank missile terrorist cells throughout the Gaza Strip”. It said it was active in Khan Younis, and Bureij, among other locations.
Israel has accused the UN of “stalling” the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the territory which Israel has held under a virtual siege and continual aerial bombardment since 7 October. In a message, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs said it was equipped to inspect up to 200 trucks a day passing through the Kerem Shalom crossing, but the UN was “not scraping 100”. Prior to 7 October, 500 aid trucks were crossing into Gaza daily. Israel insists on inspecting everything that enters the territory.
The US said that it is “not seeing any acts that constitute genocide” in Gaza, referring to South Africa’s case against Israel in the international court of justice in which South Africa accused Israel of “genocidal” acts across Gaza. In a news briefing on Wednesday, the US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “Those are allegations that should not be made lightly … we are not seeing any acts that constitute genocide … That is a determination by the state department.”
A total of 22,313 Palestinians have been killed and 57,296 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday. At least 85% of the population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced from their homes by Israel’s military actions. The UN has previously said that 40% of the population in the territory is at risk of starvation.
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Airstrike in central Baghdad kills Iran-backed militia leader as regional tensions escalate
An airstrike on the logistical support headquarters of an Iran-backed militia in central Baghdad on Thursday killed a high-ranking militia commander, militia officials said, as tension continued to rise across the region.
The Popular Mobilization Force, a coalition of militias that is nominally under the control of the Iraqi military, announced in a statement that its deputy head of operations in Baghdad, Mushtaq Taleb al-Saidi, or “Abu Taqwa”, had been killed “as a result of brutal American aggression”.
The prime minister’s office in Iraq said that the US-led international coalition bore responsibility for an “unjustified” attack on an Iraqi security force. Reuters reports the office said: “The attack is a dangerous escalation and a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.”
Associated Press reports it was not immediately clear who had carried out the strike.
The strike killed two people and wounded five, according to two militia officials, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly. One of the officials said al-Saidi was driving into the garage of the headquarters affiliated with the al-Nujaba militia, one of the members of the PMF, along with another militia official when the car was hit, killing both.
The attack in Baghdad comes amid Israel’s continuing aerial bombardment and ground operation in Gaza, repeated exchanges of fire between Israel and anti-Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, and Yemen Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
The killing on Tuesday of a senior Hamas figure in Beirut, the deaths yesterday in Iran of almost 100 people in explosions at a Kerman ceremony marking the anniversary of the killing of Qassem Suleimani, and Israeli strikes inside Syria have all added to widening regional fears of escalation.
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Israel’s air force has released video footage which it claims shows it attacking Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon.
The message accompanying the footage states:
This morning the air force attacked an observation post and terrorist infrastructure of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, in the Marun al-Ras area in southern Lebanon. A short time later, the IDF force attacked an anti-tank squad in the area. Also, a number of launches from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory were detected this morning.
The Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency has also posted footage in the last few moments which it claims shows Israeli forces targeting Khiam in southern Lebanon.
There have been repeated exchanges of fire across the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon since 7 October.
Israel has accused the UN of “stalling” the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the territory which Israel has held under a virtual siege and continual aerial bombardment since 7 October.
In a post to social media, Cogat, the Israeli defence ministry body, which is responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said that it was ready to inspect up to 200 aid trucks a day, but that the UN was not delivering that many.
It said: “You can’t keep avoiding the facts: There is no collective punishment. Two crossings are open. You said you can transfer 200 trucks a day in Kerem Shalom, yet you’re not scraping 100. Over the last 80 days, we’ve adjusted ourselves, all you’ve been doing is stalling.”
At least an estimated 85% of Gaza’s population has been displaced from their homes since 7 October, and UN agencies have previously warned that 40% of the population there is at risk of starvation. Israel has peridocally cut off utilities and communications inside Gaza.
Prior to 7 October, about 500 aid trucks were crossing into Gaza daily. Following the 7 October attack inside southern Gaza by Hamas, Israel closed the Kerem Shalom. Israel insists on inspecting all deliveries into the territory before aid can be distributed.
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AFP has spoken to residents in Gaza who have survived Israeli strikes overnight while members of their families and people sheltering nearby did not.
Baha Abu Hatab said his nephews were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza’s south which killed displaced Palestinians living in tents.
They had been living in “a tent to protect them from the cold weather, but Israeli airstrikes hit them in their sleep”, he added.
“Why?” he asked. “Because they threaten Israel and the US?”
AFP reports that fires sparked by bombing raged in Gaza’s central Deir al-Balah area and the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
“People were safe in their homes, the house was full of children,” resident Ibrahim al-Ghimri told AFP. “There were around 30 people. All of a sudden their houses fell on them … what have these children done?”
The government media office in Gaza has accused Israel of repeatedly forcing Palestinian residents to flee their homes and move to areas which Israel has then bombed.
In a statement reported by Al Jazeera it said:
During the past three days, the occupation army has committed six massacres by forcing civilians to flee their homes to other areas it claimed were safe in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, and then bombed them, resulting in the death of 31 people.
The Israeli occupation army has repeated the crime of forcing civilians, under threat of weapons and death, to flee from their safe homes and residential neighbourhoods to other areas that it claimed were safe, but it bombed them.
Hezbollah says four fighters killed in south Lebanon including a local leader
Four Hezbollah fighters were killed overnight in southern Lebanon, the movement announced on Thursday, in what Lebanese state media said were Israeli strikes on the border town of Naqura.
The deaths, which according to a source close to Hezbollah, included a local leader. It said in a statement the four fighters had been killed “on the road to Jerusalem” – a phrase it has been using to announce deaths of its members due to Israeli fire since the Israel-Hamas conflict started on 7 October.
The group did not elaborate, but a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that the four were killed in Naqura near the Israeli border, adding that one of them was the movement’s local leader.
Lebanon’s official National news agency said Israeli aircraft “carried out raids on the centre of Naqura, which destroyed a home and damaged surrounding houses”.
The Lebanese group had on Wednesday announced the deaths of five other Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us from inside Gaza.
The IDF has claimed in its latest operational update that it has “thwarted Hamas anti-tank missile terrorist cells throughout the Gaza Strip”.
In a post to the Telegram messaging app, it said:
In the city of Khan Younis, three terrorists attempted to plant an explosive device next to IDF troops. In response, an IAF aircraft directed by the troops targeted and killed the terrorists. Furthermore, the troops eliminated two additional terrorists who were hiding in a nearby building and a fighter jet struck a Hamas weapons storage facility.
It also lists other activity it carried out in Khan Younis and claimed to have “located long-range rocket launchers” in Bureij.
The claims have not been independently verified.
At least two killed in drone strike on an Iran-backed militia HQ in Baghdad – reports
Reuters has a quick snap that at least two militia fighters have been killed, and five wounded in a drone strike against an Iran-backed militia headquarters in eastern Baghdad.
More details soon …
The Times of Israel is carrying some quotes from a relative of one of the hostages seized from Israel by Hamas who later died during a failed resuce attempt by the Israeli military. Merav Barkai described the situation as “incredibly sad and difficult”.
Citing her appearance on 103 FM radio, it reports the aunt of Sahar Baruch said:
When we received the notification that he had been killed, it could have been a different notification. This was a rescue attempt; we were so close to being there. We were scared from the beginning that there would be a military attempt to rescue him and it would end this way. It’s incredibly sad and difficult. Hostages were freed, people left there alive, we felt like we were close, just a step away from that embrace.
Baruch’s body is still believed to be in Gaza. An estimated 240 people were abducted from Israel and seized as hostages held captive in Gaza on 7 October. Just over 100 of them have subsequently been freed.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that, in addition to 14 people killed in the al-Mawasi evacuation zone, “the number of dead after the occupation aircraft bombed agricultural land housing displaced people west of Khan Younis rose to six.”
Images from southern Israel show the continued bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces.
Updated
Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Rafah in souther Gaza has written for the news network that 14 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on the al-Mawasi evacuation zone.
He writes:
There was constant overnight bombardment focusing on areas near al-Mawasi evacuation zone, an area where the Israeli military has instructed people to shelter.
A home near that area was destroyed. The two families sheltering there were all killed, that’s a total of 14 people. The youngest victim was five years old. The vast majority were under 10. Since the strike hit near al-Mawasi evacuation zone, all the rubble and debris fell on people inside their tents, injuring dozens.
The IDF has reported that warning sirens have sounded in the city of Ashkelon, which is directly to the north of the Gaza Strip.
Seventeen Joe Biden re-election campaign staffers have issued a warning in an anonymous letter that the US president could lose voters over his stance in the Israel-Gaza war, Reuters is reporting.
In their letter, published on Medium, they urge Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. They write:
Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict.
Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
In November, more than 1,000 officials in the US Agency for International Development (USaid), part of the state department, signed an open letter urging the Biden administration to call for an immediate ceasefire.
At least three cables criticising the administration’s policy have previously filed with the state department’s internal “dissent channel,” with the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, acknowledging the disagreements in a November letter.
In December, some staff in the Biden administration held a vigil near the White House to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
Updated
Local media outlets in the US are reporting on a protest on Wednesday that took place inside California’s assembly chambers in Sacramento.
CBS says a large group of protesters, dressed mostly in black and red T-shirts, gathered inside the Capitol on Wednesday, hanging banners and chanting. Here’s a picture of the scene:
Updated
South Africa’s request for an interim measure by the international court of justice to prevent Israel from committing acts of potential genocide – primarily by calling for a halt to combat operations – has suddenly taken on an urgency and relevance that seemed implausible a fortnight ago.
Crack legal teams are being assembled, countries are issuing statements in support of South Africa, and Israel has said it will defend itself in court, reversing a decades-old policy of boycotting the UN’s top court and its 15 elected judges.
The first hearing in The Hague is set for 11 and 12 January. If precedent is any guide, it is possible the ICJ will issue a provisional ruling within weeks, and certainly while the Israeli attacks on Gaza are likely to be still under way.
The wheels of global justice – at least interim justice – do not always grind slowly.
Read the rest of our Diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour’s piece in the wake of the international court of justice’s announcement that it’s due to hold public hearings on the matter.
A Jewish-owned delicatessen in Toronto was set alight Wednesday in what police are investigating as a hate crime, Agence France-Presse reports.
Early on Wednesday, firefighters were alerted to a blaze inside International Delicatessen Foods, located in the north of Canada’s largest city. No one was injured, according to Toronto media reports.
Graffiti reading “Free Palestine” had been painted on the doors of the establishment. Toronto police staff Supt Pauline Gray said the arson attack could not be considered a lawful protest:
It’s criminal. It’s violent, targeted and organised. We’ll use all resources available to investigate, arrest and prosecute those who are responsible for this
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow posted on social media site X that “acts of antisemitism, hate and violence are not welcome here.”
At the end of November, Toronto police said they were facing a significant increase in hate crimes in the city since the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October.
My statement on the suspected hate-motivated arson at International Delicatessen Foods. pic.twitter.com/aBe5PEcgHG
— Mayor Olivia Chow (@MayorOliviaChow) January 3, 2024
Antony Blinken to travel to Israel Thursday evening
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken will depart on Thursday for the Middle East, including a stop in Israel, an unnamed senior US official has told the Reuters and Agence France-Presse news agencies on Wednesday.
The official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said U.S. diplomatic envoy Amos Hochstein will also travel to Israel in an effort to calm tensions between the country and Hezbollah.
Blinken leaves Thursday night “for stops in a number of capitals, including Israel,” the official said, but didn’t provide any further details.
It would be the US secretary of state’s fourth crisis trip to the Middle East, the US official told Agence France-Presse.
The trip comes after a suspected Israeli strike killed a top Hamas leader in the suburbs of Beirut, raising fears of a wider conflict. “It is in no one’s interest – not in the interest of any country in the region, not in the interest of any country in the world – to see this conflict escalated any further than it already is,” state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said earlier on Wednesday.
It’s also after almost 100 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in Iran by twin explosions near the grave of a slain Revolutionary Guards general. Tehran is blaming the United States and Israel for the attack but Washington has rejected suggestions of either nation’s involvement.
Updated
Welcome and opening summary
Hello and welcome to our latest blog on the Israel-Gaza war. It’s currently 7:56am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and my name is Reged Ahmad. I’ll be with you for the next while.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken will leave Thursday evening on his fourth crisis trip to the Middle East, a US official says. The trip will include Israel, but no other details have been provided.
More on that shortly but first, here’s a summary of the latest events so far:
Israel carried out the strike that killed Hamas’s deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, Lebanon, a US defense department official told Agence France-Presse anonymously on Wednesday. “The strike was an Israeli strike,” said the official, without providing further details. On Tuesday, al-Arouri was killed in Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. Both Hamas and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for al-Arouri’s killing.
The international court of justice will hold public hearings on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by South Africa in its case against Israel over “genocidal” acts in Gaza next week. In a press release on Wednesday, the ICJ said that it will hold public hearings at the Peace Palace in The Hague next Thursday and Friday. It added: “The hearings will be devoted to the request for the indication for provisional measures contained in South Africa’s application.”
The US said that it is “not seeing any acts that constitute genocide” in Gaza, referring to South Africa’s case against Israel in the international court of justice in which it accused Israel of “genocidal” acts across Gaza. In a news briefing on Wednesday, US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “Those are allegations that should not be made lightly ... we are not seeing any acts that constitute genocide … That is a determination by the state department.” Miller’s comments come as Israeli strikes have killed over 22,300 Palestinians across Gaza – which human rights organisations have described as an “open air prison” – since 7 October.
A local Hezbollah official and two other members were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon, Reuters reports two security sources saying. Wednesday’s strike bring the death toll in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon to nine Hezbollah members since the Iran-backed group began exchanging fire with Israeli forces at the start of October.
The United States sees no “clear desire” by either Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement or Israel to go to war with the other, a senior Biden administration official has told Reuters. The official was briefing reporters on condition of anonymity and referring to a speech earlier in the day by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on the assassination on Tuesday of a senior Hamas official in Beirut.
Twelve nations led by the United States on Wednesday have jointly warned Yemen’s Houthi rebels of consequences unless they immediately halt sea attacks that have been disrupting global commerce. President Joe Biden’s administration described the statement – joined by Britain, Germany and Japan – as a final warning, as Biden weighs possible military strikes against the Houthis if attacks persist, Agence France-Presse reports.
Members of the UN security council on Wednesday also called on Yemen’s Houthis to halt their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Addressing the council’s first formal meeting of 2024, members also demanded that the Houthis release the Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated cargo ship linked to an Israeli company, and its crew, which the group seized on 19 November
The United States remains “incredibly concerned” about the risk of the Israel-Gaza war spreading to other fronts, according to the US state department. The state department also said the US was not involved and had no reason to believe that Israel was involved in the explosions in central Iran earlier on Wednesday.
The US coordinated with Israel, Egypt and others in rescuing the mother of a US serviceman and her American brother-in-law in Gaza, the Associated Press (AP) is reporting. The news agency says it’s the only known operation of its kind to extract American citizens and their close family members during the months of fighting and Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
A senior official in the US Education Department has stepped down, citing President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict in Gaza, Reuters is reporting, in the latest sign of dissent in the administration over the war.
Meanwhile, 17 Biden re-election campaign staffers have issued a warning in an anonymous letter that Biden could lose voters over the issue, according to the Reuters news agency. Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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