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Summary
Here is where things stand:
An Israeli strike on Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday has killed at least 70 people, Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. “What is happening at the Maghazi camp is a massacre that is being committed on a crowded residential square,” al-Qudra said, adding that the death toll is likely to climb.
“People in Gaza haven’t experienced hunger until this war,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said, warning of a “man-made famine” in Gaza as Israel continues its attacks across the strip. In a tweet on Sunday, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added: “Now it is widespread & WFP warns about a looming famine. That would be nothing less than a man-made famine & a stain in our common humanity. We cannot let it happen.”
Israel’s war on Gaza is enacting a “very heavy price” on Israeli soldiers, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement on Sunday, Agence France-Presse reports. “This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza,” Netanyahu said after the Israeli army announced that 14 soldiers had been killed in Gaza since Friday. Another soldier was killed on Sunday, the army said, bringing the total number of troops killed in Gaza to 154 since Israel’s ground assault that began on October 27. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes have killed over 20,200 Palestinians in Gaza, leaving more than 53,600 injured.
Thousands of Moroccans took to the streets in Rabat on Sunday in opposition against Israel’s war on Gaza and Morocco’s normalization with Israel. The crowd in Rabat of about 10,000 people denounced what protest leaders called a “war of extermination,” Agence France-Presse reports.
A Qatari Armed Forces aircraft carrying 14 tons of aid for Palestinians in Gaza has arrived in El Arish, Egypt on Sunday, the Qatari state news agency QNA announced. Sunday’s aid delivery brings the total number of Qatari aircrafts sent to Gaza to 50, with a total of 1,548 tons of aid.
Four trucks carrying 33 tons of aid from UNRWA and the World Food Programme have made its way into Gaza, UNRWA reported on Sunday. The aid trucks consists of 84 packages of biscuits and 16 pallets of easy-to-open food cans.
Updated
Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza have led to the closure of main roads between several refugee camps including al-Bureij, Maghazi and Neusirat, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced.
The road closures have hindered the work of rescue teams responding to Israel’s attack on Maghazi refugee camp which has killed at least 70 Palestinians on Sunday evening.
🚨 #Urgent | Intense airstrikes by the military occupation have led to the closure of main roads between the camps of Al-Bureij, Al-Maghazi, and Al-Nuseirat, hindering the work of ambulances 🚑and rescue teams.#Gaza
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 24, 2023
Here are some images coming through the newswires of pro-Palestine protests held around the world over the weekend in which thousands of demonstrators demanded for a ceasefire in Gaza where Israeli strikes have killed over 20,200 Palestinians, including over 8,000 children:
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has released video of its teams transporting Palestinians injured by Israel’s strike on the Maghazi refugee camp on Sunday which has killed at least 70 Palestinians:
🚨The Palestine Red Crescent teams transported a large number of martyrs and wounded 🚑 following the targeting of a residential square in the Maghazi refugee camp in the central #Gaza Strip.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 24, 2023
📷Videography by volunteer: Mohammed Suleiman. pic.twitter.com/D1Efsf3PqW
Death toll in Israeli strike on Gaza refugee camp rises to at least 70 Palestinians killed – Palestinian health officials
The death toll in the Israeli strike on Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday has risen to 70 Palestinians killed, Palestinian health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said.
He condemned the attacks as a “massacre” and added that the death toll is likely to climb.
Israel’s military spokesperson’s office said that it is looking into the attack while Hamas issued a statement calling the attack “a horrific massacre” and a “new war crime.”
Israeli strike kills at least 60 Palestinians in central Gaza refugee camp – Palestinian health officials
An Israeli strike on Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday has killed at least 60 people, Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, Reuters reports.
“What is happening at the Maghazi camp is a massacre that is being committed on a crowded residential square,” al-Qudra said, adding that the death toll is likely to climb.
Videos posted onto social media of what appeared to be the aftermath of the strike showed rows of bodies wrapped in white cloth as survivors mourned those killed.
Updated
In a tweet on Sunday, UNRWA said that it is “hard to wish those celebrating ‘Merry Christmas’, with ongoing loss, grief and destruction” across Gaza as the strip faces intense Israeli bombardment.
“Our teams are doing the impossible to help people in need. We mourn the loss of more UNRWA colleagues killed in #Gaza, now 142, the majority with their families,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added.
In this somber moment, it's hard to wish those celebrating “Merry Christmas”, with ongoing loss, grief & destruction
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 24, 2023
Our teams are doing the impossible to help people in need. We mourn the loss of more @UNRWA colleagues killed in #Gaza, now 142, the majority with their families pic.twitter.com/MC2WMBk2jM
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Bethlehem, where Christmas celebrations have been cancelled as the region mourns the war in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 20,000 Palestinians since 7 October:
Updated
At least 16 Palestinians were killed and several houses damaged by an Israeli airstrike on Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian health officials from the Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital said, Reuters reports.
The officials added that the death toll was likely to climb.
UNRWA warns of 'man-made famine' in Gaza
“People in Gaza haven’t experienced hunger until this war,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said, warning of a “man-made famine” in Gaza as Israel continues its attacks across the strip.
In a tweet on Sunday, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added:
“Now it is widespread & WFP warns about a looming famine. That would be nothing less than a man-made famine & a stain in our common humanity. We cannot let it happen.”
People in Gaza haven’t experienced hunger until this war. Now it is widespread & WFP warns about a looming famine. That would be nothing less than a man made famine & a stain in our common humanity. We cannot let it happen https://t.co/hryb3K6bsI
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) December 24, 2023
In a UN-backed report released earlier this week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said that Gaza’s entire population of 2.3 million is facing crisis levels of hunger as the risk of famine increases daily amid Israeli bombardment.
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel war on Gaza exacting 'very heavy price' on Israeli army
Israel’s war on Gaza is enacting a “very heavy price” on Israeli soldiers, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement on Sunday, Agence France-Presse reports.
“This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza,” Netanyahu said after the Israeli army announced that 14 soldiers had been killed in Gaza since Friday.
Another soldier was killed on Sunday, the army said, bringing the total number of troops killed in Gaza to 154 since Israel’s ground assault that began on October 27.
“The war is exacting a very heavy price ... but we have no choice but to keep fighting,” Netanyahu said in a statement, adding: “We are continuing with full force until the end, until victory, until we achieve all of our goals: the destruction of Hamas, the return of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to the state of Israel.”
He went on to add: “This will be a long war ... [until] Hamas is eliminated and we restore security.”
In an announcement on Saturday, the Gaza health ministry reported that 20,258 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October. More than 53,688 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli strikes, the ministry added. Across Gaza’s 2.3 million population, nearly 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced as a result of Israel’s attacks.
Independent UN human rights experts have warned that Palestinians are at “grave risk of genocide”, despite Israel’s claims that it is targeting Hamas, not civilians across the strip.
Updated
Pro-Palestine protestors took to the streets across multiple US cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles in calls for an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
The Guardian’s Ed Helmore reports:
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters waved the pan-Arab colors flag and wore the symbolic Palestinian keffiyeh in a series of coordinated “No Xmas as Usual in a Genocide” rallies and marches across the US on Saturday.
Organizers with Shut It Down for Palestine said the organization had focused its protests on the second-most popular shopping day of the year – the day before Christmas Eve – as part of ongoing civic and commercial disruptions. Organizers said they planned to “organize actions to boycott, disrupt and rally at commercial centers”.
Co-ordinators with Shut It Down for Palestine decried Israel’s assault on Gaza as one of “incredible cruelty”.
“This Christmas, occupation forces are sniping Christians sheltering in their besieged churches in Gaza and Christians in Bethlehem have declared that their celebrations are canceled,” the group posted. “People everywhere must continue to declare that there can be no Christmas as usual during a genocide!”
For the full story, click here:
Thousands of Morrocans took to the streets in Rabat on Sunday in opposition against Israel’s war on Gaza and Morocco’s normalization with Israel.
Agence France-Presse reports:
The crowd in Rabat of about 10,000 people denounced what protest leaders called a “war of extermination” as well as the normalisation of relations between Morocco and Israel.
The protesters were called to the streets by a disparate group of organisations backing the Palestinian cause, including left-wingers and members the Islamist Justice and Charity movement.
They marched along Mohammed V Avenue in the heart of the city, beneath banners declaring “stop the war of extermination in Gaza, stop normalisation”.
In 2020, Morocco joined a number of Arab countries in establishing diplomatic and trade relations with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords. As part of the deal, Rabat received US recognition for its claim to sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
On Mohammed V avenue, numerous protesters wielded banners condemning the “destruction of hospitals” in Gaza and Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Posters called for “free Palestine” and to “save Gaza”.
The crowd chanted slogans lauding the “resistance of the Palestinian people” and directed particular fury at the United States for its support of Israel’s war against Hamas.
“When you bomb massively without distinction between military targets and civilians, including babies - that is a genocide. We must call a spade a spade,” said Jihane, a 27-year old protestor.
Updated
The US Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate appropriations committee, said that he would not “invest 15 cents” in a future Palestinian state that involves Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
Speaking to ABC on Sunday, Graham said:
“I would not invest 15 cents in a future Palestine where Hamas is still standing … Their leaders need to be killed and captured. And I wouldn’t invest 15 cents into the Palestinian Authority regarding a new Palestine. [Mahmoud] Abbas’s Palestinian Authority is dead to me. So, when we get to the day after Israel has ceased military operations because Hamas has been destroyed, the new Palestine cannot have Hamas, and it cannot be governed by the PA.”
Graham’s comments come as Israel’s attacks across Gaza have killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, including more than 8,000 children, since 7 October.
Updated
A Qatari Armed Forces aircraft carrying 14 tons of aid for Palestinians in Gaza has arrived in El Arish, Egypt on Sunday, the Qatari state news agency QNA announced.
Sunday’s aid delivery brings the total number of Qatari aircrafts sent to Gaza to 50, with a total of 1,548 tons of aid.
Qatari Aircraft Carrying Aid to Support Palestinians in #Gaza Arrives in Egypt's #Arish. #QNA#Qatarhttps://t.co/Pob9gLritD pic.twitter.com/351HXHuxOf
— Qatar News Agency (@QNAEnglish) December 24, 2023
Four trucks carrying 33 tons of aid from UNRWA and the World Food Programme have made its way into Gaza, UNRWA reported on Sunday.
The aid trucks consists of 84 packages of biscuits and 16 pallets of easy-to-open food cans.
33 tons en route to Gaza! @UNRWA with @WFP_Jordan, delivering 4 trucks carrying critical food aid to #PalestineRefugees in #Gaza. The aid trucks consist: 84 packages of biscuits and 16 pallets of easy-to-open food cans. #UNRWAWorks #Gaza pic.twitter.com/PWdlfEddNH
— Olaf Becker (@UNRWAJFO) December 24, 2023
Summary of the day so far...
Israeli forces have killed about 8,000 Palestinian fighters in the Gaza war, a military spokesperson said on Sunday, according to Reuters.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, said the “decimation” of the health system in Gaza was “a tragedy” and reiterated his call for a ceasefire.
At least 166 Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours and 384 others injured, the Gaza health ministry said. The ministry said the latest figures raise the death toll to 20,424 Palestinians killed and 54,036 injured since 7 October.
The Israeli army indicated its forces were close to having operational control in north Gaza, after weeks of intense fighting. Now, “we focus our efforts against Hamas in southern Gaza,” military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.
The Israeli military said 14 Israeli soldiers were killed in combat on Friday and Saturday, bringing the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since the ground offensive began in Gaza to 153, the Associated Press reported. “The war exacts a very heavy price from us but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told a meeting of his cabinet on Sunday. “We are continuing with all the force, until the end, until victory, until we reach all our goals.”
Updated
Israeli military says about 8,000 Palestinian fighters killed in Gaza war
Israeli forces have killed about 8,000 Palestinian fighters in the Gaza war, a military spokesperson said on Sunday, according to Reuters.
The spokesperson said the figure, which has not yet been independently verified by the Guardian, was drawn from accounts of targeted strikes and battlefield tallies as well as the interrogations of people being held captive.
WHO chief condemns 'decimation' of Gaza health system
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), has said the “decimation” of the health system in Gaza was “a tragedy” and reiterated his call for a ceasefire.
He also hailed Gaza’s medical workers who continue their work under increasingly dire circumstances.
“The decimation of the Gaza health system is a tragedy,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We persist in calling for CeasefireNow.”
“In the face of constant insecurity and inflows of wounded patients, we see doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and more continue striving to save lives,” Tedros said.
The decimation of the #Gaza health system is a tragedy.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 24, 2023
But in the face of constant insecurity and inflows of wounded patients, we see doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and more continue striving to save lives.@WHO and our health partners will continue working side by side… pic.twitter.com/Lq62KoQI1f
Footage filmed by the Associated Press on Saturday captures the extent of destruction in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second biggest city.
Last week, the Israeli army said it was sending more ground forces, including combat engineers, to the Southern Gaza Strip city to target Hamas militants above ground and in tunnels.
You can watch the footage here:
Updated
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday morning that a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in an Israeli drone attack while inside al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, a part of Gaza where Israel’s military believes Hamas leaders are hiding.
A delegation from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement, a militant group allied with Hamas which is known to be holding some of the Israeli captives in Gaza, has arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian security officials, a member of the group has told Reuters.
The talks will centre on “ways to end the Israeli aggression on our people”, the official said.
PIJ has rejected any new prisoner-swap deals with Israel before the latter ends its military offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
PIJ rejects any political peace process and sees a military victory over Israel as the sole means of attaining its objective of establishing an Islamic state across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
The Israeli army, according to AFP, said it had raided a northern Gaza compound near schools, a mosque and a clinic and found “explosive belts adapted for children, dozens of mortar shells, hundreds of grenades and intelligence documents”.
Hamas rejected those claims as lies meant “to justify their massacring of innocent civilians and their destructive aggression”.
Thousands of protesters staged one of the largest pro-Palestinian marches in Rabat on Sunday since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, demanding an end to Morocco’s ties with Israel.
Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza have repeatedly drawn thousands of people in Morocco since the conflict began more than two months ago, mostly led by pan-Arab and Islamist groups.
Sunday’s march was co-organised by leftist groups and the outlawed but tolerated al-Adl wal-Ihsan Islamists.
Most of the 10,000 protesters appeared to be Islamists with men marching separately from women, waving Palestinian flags and holding placards reading “resistance till victory”, “stop Moroccan government normalization with Israel” and “free Palestine”.
Morocco agreed to strengthen ties with Israel in 2020, under a deal brokered by the U.S. administration under then President Donald Trump that also included Washington recognising Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of western Sahara.
Protesters in Sunday’s march also called for a boycott of brands they accuse of supporting Israel.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, expressed “great concern” about a Catholic parish in Gaza with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, his office said.
Macron spoke with Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa by telephone on Saturday to discuss the “tragic situation” there since the outbreak of war in October.
“Hundreds of civilians of all confessions... have been living under bombs and bullets for more than two months while worshippers and nuns take care of the sick, elderly or disabled,” Macron was quoted as saying.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said on 16 December that an Israeli soldier shot dead “in cold blood” a Christian mother and daughter on the grounds of the Gaza Strip’s only Catholic church.
Macron offered his condolences for the parishioners who he said were killed “shamefully”, AFP reports. The Israeli army told the news agency that a review supported findings that no church was hit and that civilians were not injured or killed.
Updated
Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis have been searching among the rubble for their belongings following a recent airstrike.
Local resident Sami Barees said his house had been destroyed and the airstrike had taken place in what was supposed to be a safe zone.
“This is the security and safety that Israel claims,” he told Reuters.
Updated
The Iranian navy has taken delivery of cruise missiles with a range of 1,000 km, state media has reported.
“The Talaeiyeh cruise missile has a range of over 1,000 km and is a smart missile that can change targets mid-mission,” state media cited the head of Iran’s navy, Shahram Irani, as saying.
Reconnaissance helicopters, drones and marine cruise missiles were among new weapons added to the navy’s arsenal, Irani said, adding that “all of this equipment has been designed and produced by Iran’s military industry”.
The US department of defence said on Saturday that a drone sent from Iran struck a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker in the Indian ocean.
The incident highlighted rising regional tensions and a new risk to shipping lanes in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the war in Gaza was exacting a “very heavy price” as the toll of Israeli soldiers killed in fighting with Hamas mounted.
“This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza... The war is exacting a very heavy price... but we have no choice but to keep fighting,” he said in a statement.
It came after the army announced 14 soldiers had been killed in the Palestinian territory since Friday (see earlier post at 08.36 for more details).
Palestinian death toll in Gaza reaches 20,424, says health ministry
At least 166 Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours and 384 others injured, the Gaza health ministry said on Sunday.
The ministry said the latest figures raise the death toll to 20,424 Palestinians killed and 54,036 injured since 7 October.
Yiftah Ron-Tal, a former commander of the Israeli ground forces, described the Gaza battlefield, in a built-up area, as “the most complicated and fortified” in the world, requiring infantry, tanks, artillery and engineer corps.
Speaking to army radio, he said:
I think what’s happening now is a product of a tough battle in a condensed area and in this kind of battle, sadly, there are many losses.
Updated
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed reports the US had convinced Israel not to expand its military activity during a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“I have seen false publications claiming that the US prevented and is preventing us from operational operations in the region,” Netanyahu was quoted by Reuters as saying.
“This is not true. Israel is a sovereign state. Our decisions in the war are based on our operational considerations, and I will not elaborate on that.”
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Netanyahu was persuaded by Joe Biden not to attack the militant Hezbollah group in Lebanon out of concerns it would launch an attack on Israel.
Updated
Israel bombed areas of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip overnight, with fighting throughout Sunday morning, residents and Palestinian media have said.
Jabaliya residents reported persistent aerial bombardment and shelling from Israeli tanks, which they said had moved further into the town on Saturday, according to Reuters.
Updated
The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, has said a “humanitarian ceasefire” is the only way to ensure aid reaches civilians in Gaza, hostages are released and to stop the “devastating loss of lives”.
For aid to reach people in need, hostages to be released, more displacement to be avoided and above all the devastating loss of lives to stop a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is the only way forward.
— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) December 24, 2023
War defies logic and humanity and prepares a future of more hatred, less peace.
The death toll from Israeli strikes inside Gaza has climbed to 20,258, the majority of them women and children, said the health authorities on Saturday.
On Friday, the UN security council voted for a resolution calling for large-scale delivery of aid to Gaza, but the resolution did not demand a suspension of hostilities.
Instead, it appealed only for the creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that getting more supplies across the border into Gaza is just the first step towards staving off the imminent threat of famine and deadly epidemics.
Updated
Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, according to Reuters.
Many from the north have fled to the south, only to be caught up in the war for a second time.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed the war will continue until Hamas is “destroyed”, defying growing international demands for a ceasefire.
These are now coming even from close allies such as the UK and Germany, which are concerned about the civilian toll of Israel’s offensive.
Updated
Israeli army indicates its forces are close to having operational control in north Gaza
Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesperson, has indicated that forces were close to having operational control in north Gaza, AFP reports.
Now, he said, “we focus our efforts against Hamas in southern Gaza”.
Signalling a pivot after weeks of intensive fighting around Gaza City, the Israeli army said troops were now looking to Khan Younis and elsewhere in the south.
A socially conservative city, Khan Younis – even before the wars that have engulfed Gaza since 2008 – was long regarded as a stronghold of political support for Hamas.
Updated
Israeli military says 14 Israeli soldiers killed in combat in Gaza on Friday and Saturday
The Israeli military has said 14 Israeli soldiers were killed in combat on Friday and Saturday, bringing the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since the ground offensive began in Gaza to 153, the Associated Press reports.
The 14 Israeli soldiers were reported to have been killed on Friday and Saturday in battles in central and southern Gaza.
Updated
The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, who has been monitoring the destruction of civilian housing and infrastructure in Gaza, wrote on X:
What has happened in Gaza is the result of what I call ‘institutionalized impunity’. Impunity for occupation. For a war of extermination. Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
What has happened in Gaza is the result of what I call ‘institutionalized impunity’. Impunity for occupation. For a war of extermination. Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. If the ICC does not act very soon, we need a special tribunal for Gaza and action by States.
— UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing (@adequatehousing) December 23, 2023
Here are some of the latest photos from news agencies coming in:
The United States shot down four drones headed towards a US destroyer in the southern Red Sea and launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Saturday, US Central Command (Centcom) said.
“These attacks represent the 14th and 15th attacks on commercial shipping by Houthi militants since Oct. 17,” Centcom said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of Yemen, have disrupted world trade for weeks with attacks on ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea in what they say is a response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Read our full story here:
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed more than 200 people in 24 hours, Hamas-controlled authorities said earlier Saturday.
Fighting is now centred on Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Yunis, both considered strongholds of the Palestinian militant group that carried out bloody October 7 raids into Israel, according to Agence France-Presse. After reports of heavy Israeli shelling, grey and black smoke rose over the north of the coastal territory and in Khan Yunis.
Updated
Biden says he didn't request a ceasefire in Netanyahu call
Joe Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, calling it a long and private conversation a day after the Biden administration again shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena, news agencies report.
On Friday, the UN security council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a ceasefire.
According to Netanyahu’s office, Netanyahu voiced appreciation towards the US for its stance at the UN security council. Netanyahu’s office also added that he “made clear that Israel will pursue the war until all of its objectives are fully met”.
Biden and Netanyahu talked in detail about Israeli’s military operations in Gaza including “its objectives and phasing”, the need to protect civilian lives and securing the release of hostages being held captive, the White House said, according to Reuters.
“The leaders discussed the importance of securing the release of all remaining hostages,” the White House said.
Biden declined to detail his conversation with Netanyahu, telling reporters it was a “private conversation”.
But, he added: “I did not ask for a ceasefire.”
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. It’s nearing 9am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv on this 24 December. I’m Christine Kearney and here’s an overview of the latest to bring you up to speed.
Joe Biden discussed Gaza with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, the White House said.
Biden declined to detail his conversation with Netanyahu, telling reporters it was a “private conversation”. Israel’s main ally has kept up its support while expressing concern over the growing casualty toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
But, he added: “I did not ask for a ceasefire.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Sunday eight soldiers had been killed in the Gaza Strip, bringing to 154 its published combat losses since ground incursions began on 20 October, Reuters reports.
More on those stories soon, but first a recap of the other key developments.
A shortage in fuel, power, medical supplies and health specialists as a result of Israel’s attacks across Gaza has left al-Ahli hospital’s emergency care and surgical services “paralyzed”, the World Health Organization said. “Al Ahli is a shell of a hospital … There are no operating theaters any more due to the lack of fuel, power, medical supplies and health workers,” Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s Palestine representative, said.
Water and sanitation services in Gaza are at the point of collapse, Unicef said on Saturday. Amid Israel’s deadly attacks across the strip, which have killed more than 20,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly 2 million survivors, Unicef said that the deteriorating humanitarian situation is raising the risk of large-scale disease outbreaks.
The UN secretary general has warned that the scale of death and destruction inside Gaza is blocking delivery of desperately needed aid. On Saturday, Hamas also claimed that an Israeli military airstrike might have killed five hostages.
Two Qatari Armed Forces aircraft carrying aid for Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes in Gaza has headed to El Arish, Egypt. In an announcement on Saturday, Qatar’s foreign ministry said that the two aircraft carrying 33 tons of aid consisting of food and medical supplies are en route to Gaza.
“We are not getting the humanitarian supplies that we need to cater and respond to a humanitarian crisis this size and this scale,” UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma has said. Speaking to CGTN, Touma added: “The more that we have these evacuation orders that the Israeli authorities continue to issue … we will see an exodus of people continue to search for safety, search for shelter.”
The director of UNRWA affairs, Thomas White, reiterated the absence of safety across the Gaza Strip as more than 1.9 million Palestinians remain displaced as a result of Israel’s attacks. In a tweet on Saturday, White wrote: “People in Gaza are people. They are not pieces on a checkerboard - many have already been displaced several times. The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go.”
In response to the UN security council’s passage of a resolution on Gaza aid delivery, Médecins Sans Frontières said that it “falls painfully short of what is required to address the crisis in Gaza”. In a series of tweets on Saturday, MSF said: “The watered-down resolution on #Gaza will not ensure the massive scale-up and rapid flow of humanitarian aid needed, as bombs continue to rain down on Palestinian civilians, force mass displacement, and deny access to vital medical care and humanitarian assistance.”
