Closing summary
It’s 4.20am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv and we’ll close this blog shortly. Our live coverage will resume later today. Here’s a recap of the latest developments. Thank you for reading.
A United Nations security council vote on a resolution calling for a new ceasefire in Gaza was postponed for a second time as diplomats engaged in “intense negotiations” to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The vote, initially scheduled for Monday afternoon, is now scheduled for Wednesday. Amid reported policy differences inside the Biden administration, the draft resolution was changed on Tuesday in an effort to avoid a third US veto since the conflict began more than two months ago.
The Israeli military attacked a military structure of the Hezbollah militant group after intercepting six rockets launched from Lebanon on Tuesday, the military said. It also attacked a squad that carried out a shooting at a Israeli military post in the Malkia border area which left two reserve soldiers “moderately injured”, Israel Defence Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
Israeli forces bombed a home in southern Gaza, killing 25 people, as the number of Palestinian deaths in the war climbed towards 20,000. At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 75 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Ismail Haniyeh, the most senior political leader of Hamas, is set to travel to Egypt for talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange with Israel, according to reports. Haniyeh will reportedly head a “high-level” Hamas delegation to Cairo on Wednesday, where he will hold talks with Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, and others. Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official said on Tuesday that it rejected holding negotiations over exchanging prisoners while the war was ongoing but it was open to any initiative to end the war.
President Isaac Herzog has signalled Israel’s readiness to enter into another foreign-mediated Gaza truce to recover Hamas-held hostages and enable more aid to reach the besieged Palestinian territory. Meanwhile, a Qatari official described talks between Qatar’s prime minister and the heads of the CIA and Mossad spy agency on Monday as “positive”, but said no imminent deal was expected.
The International Committee of the Red Cross president has insisted on the organisation’s neutrality and said criticism was making it increasingly hard to operate in the Israel-Gaza war. The Swiss-based organisation has been accused by both sides in the conflict of not providing adequate help to those being held hostage. ICRC chief Mirjana Spoljaric Egger said in Geneva: “The pressure we experience now in the context of Gaza and Israel is so much more than what we experienced a year ago on Ukraine and Russia.”
The United States has launched a multinational operation to safeguard commerce in the Red Sea as attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni militants forced major shipping companies to reroute, stoking fears of sustained disruptions to global trade. The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said Britain, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain were among nations involved in the Red Sea security operation, which would conduct joint patrols in the southern Red Sea and the adjacent Gulf of Aden. The Houthi militant group has attacked international vessels sailing through the Red Sea in response to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Israeli forces raided one of the last remaining hospitals in northern Gaza, putting it out of action, according to the hospital’s director. The overnight raid at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City led to the arrest of doctors, medical staff and patients, according to reports. The hospital was also reportedly damaged as a result of the assault. Israeli forces took control of the hospital after surrounding the facility for 12 days, according to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières. The hospital still had dozens of patients inside, including 14 children, it said.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said the Israeli ground operation would “expand to additional areas” of the Gaza Strip. It is thought he was referring to the central Gaza Strip or the southern city of Rafah.
The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has released a video it claimed showed two hostages who were taken to Gaza during the 7 October attack on Israel. The video posted by the al-Quds Brigades comes a day after Hamas’s military wing released video footage it claimed showed three elderly Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
The Israeli army has said it is investigating the deaths of Palestinian detainees who were arrested in military operations across Gaza. At least six Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons or Israel Defense Forces (IDF) detention facilities since the start of the war, according to a report, including “several” held at the Sde Teiman base near the city of Be’er Sheva in southern Israel. Meanwhile, the IDF said it had suspended a group of Israeli soldiers recorded smoking a water pipe and joking in front of Palestinians who were detained and blindfolded in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Nentanyahu, has met with some families of the hostages held captive in Gaza. About 15 family members of hostages were expected to attend the meeting, where Nentanyahu was joined by his wife and Israel’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, Gal Hirsch. The prime minister “reiterated his commitment to bring about the release of all the hostages to their homes,” his office said after the meeting.
UN officials have expressed anger and disbelief about the situation in Gaza hospitals, where injured people do not have basic supplies. “I’m furious that children who are recovering from amputations in hospitals are then killed in those hospitals,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency. He added that Nasser hospital, the largest operational hospital left in the territory, had been shelled twice in the past 48 hours.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told MPs at a liaison committee that too many civilians were dying in Gaza but rebuffed questions on whether Israel had violated international humanitarian law or whether it was responsible for the death toll.
Updated
She was born amid war, in a hospital with no electricity in a southern Gaza city that has been bombarded daily. Her family named her al-Amira Aisha – “Princess Aisha”. She didn’t complete her third week before she died, killed in an Israeli airstrike that crushed her family home on Tuesday, writes Associated Press.
Its report continues:
Her extended family was asleep when the strike levelled their apartment building in Rafah before dawn, said Suzan Zoarab, the infant’s grandmother and survivor of the blast. Hospital officials said 27 people were killed, among them Amira and her two-year old brother, Ahmed.
“Just 2 weeks old. Her name hadn’t even been registered,” Suzan said, her voice quivering as she spoke from the side of her son’s hospital bed, who was also injured in the blast.
The family tragedy comes as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza nears 20,000, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health.
Julian Borger in Washington has filed a full report on the Gaza ceasefire resolution being postponed for a second time at the United Nations security council, amid reported policy differences inside the Biden administration.
His report says:
While diplomatic efforts struggled in New York in the pursuit of a formalised truce, there was a renewed push for a new hostage deal that would involve a short humanitarian pause in the fight to allow an exchange with Palestinian prisoners.
The UN draft resolution, drafted by the United Arab Emirates, had been changed on Tuesday in an effort to avoid a third US veto since the conflict began more than two months ago. Instead of calling for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities”, the amended text referred to “the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
According to diplomatic sources, the US mission in New York believed it had negotiated a text that it could at least abstain on, but when Washington was consulted, new objections were raised, with the White House reportedly taking a more pro-Israel line than the state department.
See the full report here:
Updated
US launches Red Sea protection force after Houthi attacks
The United States has launched a multinational operation to safeguard commerce in the Red Sea as attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni militants forced major shipping companies to reroute, stoking fears of sustained disruptions to global trade.
Reuters reports that the Houthi militant group, which controls vast amounts of territory in Yemen after years of war, has since last month fired drones and missiles at international vessels sailing through the Red Sea, attacks it says are in response to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
The Houthi attacks began to take a toll on global trade this week, disrupting a key trade route that links Europe and North America with Asia via the Suez Canal. The group has threatening to target all ships heading to Israel.
Oil major BP paused all Red Sea transits, and a slew of top shipping firms including Maersk started diverting shipments normally made through Suez around the Cape of Good Hope on Africa’s southern tip, adding days to journey times and raising costs. The list of companies avoiding the Red Sea continued to grow on Tuesday.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, who is on a trip to Bahrain – home to the US Navy’s headquarters in the Middle East – said Britain, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain were among nations involved in the Red Sea security operation.
The group would conduct joint patrols in the southern Red Sea and the adjacent Gulf of Aden.
Austin announced the initiative as “Operation Prosperity Guardian” and condemned the “reckless Houthi actions”, saying in a statement:
This is an international challenge that demands collective action.
But it was unclear how many other countries are willing to do what mostly US warships have done in recent days – shoot down Houthi missiles and drones, and rush to the aid of commercial ships under attack.
Updated
Israel attacks Hezbollah site in Lebanon, says military, after intercepting rockets
The Israeli military has attacked a military structure of the Hezbollah militant group after intercepting six rockets launched from Lebanon, the military said.
Minutes after the launches, an Israeli air force aircraft “attacked the launcher and the terrorist squad” that carried out a shooting in Lebanese territory, according to Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari.
בהמשך להתרעה במרחב יפתח, לוחמי ההגנה האווירית יירטו בהצלחה שישה שיגורים משטח לבנון. דקות ספורות לאחר מכן, כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקף בשטח לבנון את המשגר ואת חוליית המחבלים שביצעה את הירי >> pic.twitter.com/65avA0E4Oa
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) December 19, 2023
Two IDF reserve soldiers were “moderately injured” as a result of the shooting at an IDF post in the Malkia area on the border, Hagari said on X (formerly Twitter).
The fighters were evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital, their families were informed.
Updated
Here’s more on the video released by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group’s armed wing appearing to show two male Israeli hostages in Gaza pleading for their release.
The two men identified were shown in the short video asking for efforts to be intensified so they could reunite with their families, Reuters reports.
“We are dying every moment. We are in an unbearable situation,” one of the men said, looking at the camera against a plain background.
The two men were both unshaven and appeared to have lost weight.
One of them is a farmer aged about 79 who was captured from a kibbutz on 7 October during Hamas’s deadly rampage in southern Israel. The other, 47, was also taken from a kibbutz along with his mother, who was later released. His father was killed, according to media reports.
On Monday, Hamas released a short video showing three elderly Israeli hostages the militant group seized during its attack, when it took about 240 people hostage. Israel denounced it as a “criminal, terrorist video”.
Updated
Embattled Red Cross insists it remains neutral
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has insisted on the organisation’s neutrality and said criticism was making it increasingly hard to operate in the Israel-Gaza war.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Swiss-based organisation, founded 160 years ago to serve as a neutral intermediary between belligerents in conflict and to visit and assist prisoners of war, has been accused by both sides in the conflict of not providing adequate help to those being held hostage.
ICRC chief Mirjana Spoljaric Egger told journalists at a Geneva roundtable event:
The pressure we experience now in the context of Gaza and Israel is so much more than what we experienced a year ago on Ukraine and Russia.
But she said that abandoning neutrality and “adopting a practice of public denunciations is going to make us irrelevant”.
Spoljaric spoke after returning from a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank last week, following a visit to Gaza in early December.
She met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who asked her to “place public pressure on Hamas” in a video of the meeting published on X (formerly Twitter).
“Public denouncements are not a tool that has proven effective,” Spoljaric said, adding that “it exposes us to a lot of criticism all the time”.
After last month’s exchange of Hamas-held hostages for Palestinian prisoners as part of a truce deal, several dozen captives were transported in ICRC vehicles.
But instead of being hailed for its role in bringing out many of the freed hostages, the ICRC has been slammed on social media as a “glorified taxi service” or “Uber”.
Spoljaric called the comparisons “unacceptable and outrageous”.
This is Adam Fulton picking up our live coverage – stay with us for all the latest developments
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli forces have bombed a home in southern Gaza, killing 25 people, as Palestinian casualties in Gaza climbed towards 20,000. At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 75 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, a spokesperson for the territory’s health ministry said on Tuesday. The death toll from airstrikes and grim conditions for nearly 2 million people displaced from their homes with little access to food, clean water or sanitation is fuelling growing international anger. In addition to longstanding concerns about the humanitarian catastrophe inside Gaza, there has been a growing international focus on Israel’s rules of engagement.
A UN security council vote on a resolution calling for a new ceasefire in Gaza was postponed again as diplomats engaged in “intense negotiations” to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The vote, initially scheduled for Monday afternoon, is now scheduled for Wednesday. Under discussion is the language of the resolution – its first draft called for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” but on Tuesday new language circulated calling “for the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
Ismail Haniyeh, the most senior political leader of Hamas, is set to travel to Egypt for talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange with Israel, according to reports. Haniyeh will reportedly head a “high-level” Hamas delegation to Cairo on Wednesday, where he will hold talks with Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, and others. Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official said on Tuesday that Hamas rejected holding negotiations over exchanging prisoners during the war, but it was open to any initiative to end the “continuing Israeli genocidal war”.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has signalled readiness on the part of the country to enter into another foreign-mediated Gaza truce to recover hostages held by Hamas and enable more aid to reach the besieged Palestinian enclave. Meanwhile, a Qatari official described talks between Qatar’s prime minister and the heads of the CIA and Mossad spy agency on Monday as “positive” but said no imminent deal was expected.
Israeli forces raided one of the last remaining hospitals in northern Gaza, putting it out of action, according to the hospital’s director. The overnight raid at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City led to the arrest of doctors, medical staff and patients, according to reports. The hospital was also reportedly damaged as a result of the assault. Israeli forces have taken control of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza after surrounding the facility for 12 days, according to the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). It said males over the age of 16 were taken out of the hospital, stripped, bound and interrogated – among them were six MSF staff. The hospital still has dozens of patients inside, including 14 children, it said.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said the Israeli ground operation would “expand to additional areas” of the Gaza Strip. It is thought that he was referring to the central Gaza Strip or the southern city of Rafah.
The Israeli army has said it is investigating the deaths of Palestinian detainees who were arrested in military operations across the Gaza Strip. At least six Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons or Israel Defense Forces (IDF) detention facilities since the start of the war, according to a report, including “several” held at the Sde Teiman base near the city of Be’er Sheva, in southern Israel. Meanwhile, the IDF said it had suspended a group of Israeli soldiers recorded smoking a water pipe and joking in front of Palestinians who were detained and blindfolded in the occupied West Bank.
The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has released a video that it claimed showed two hostages who were taken to Gaza during the 7 October attacks on Israel. The video posted by the al-Quds Brigades comes a day after Hamas’s military wing released video footage it claimed showed three elderly Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Benjamin Nentanyahu has met with some families of the hostages held captive in Gaza. About 15 family members of hostages were expected to attend the meeting, where the Israeli prime minister was joined by his wife and Israel’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons, Gal Hirsch. Netanyahu “reiterated his commitment to bring about the release of all the hostages to their homes,” his office said in a statement after the meeting.
UN officials have expressed anger and disbelief about the situation in Gaza hospitals, where injured people do not have basic supplies and children recovering from amputations are being killed in the conflict. “I’m furious that children who are recovering from amputations in hospitals are then killed in those hospitals,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency. He added that the Nasser hospital, the largest operational hospital left in the territory, had been shelled twice in the past 48 hours.
The US has announced the creation of an enhanced naval protection force operating in the southern Red Sea in an attempt to ward off mounting attacks from Yemen’s rebel Houthis on merchant shipping. Britain said it would be among the countries participating but notable absentees were Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Houthis said on Tuesday they would press on with attacks in the Red Sea and could mount a naval operation there roughly every 12 hours. The group has stepped up the missile and drone attacks it began last month against international vessels in response to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told MPs at a liaison committee that too many civilians were dying in Gaza but rebuffed questions on whether Israel had violated international humanitarian law or whether it was responsible for the death toll. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran made an impassioned plea in the Commons for the government to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as she told of the desperate plight of relatives who had taken refuge in a church there.
The head of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has deplored the conflict in Gaza as a “moral failure” of the international community.
Mirjana Spoljaric, speaking to journalists in Geneva on Tuesday, urged Israel and Hamas to reach a new deal to halt the fighting. She said:
I have been speaking of moral failure because every day this continues is a day more where the international community hasn’t proven capable of ending such high levels of suffering. This will have an impact on generations not only in Gaza.
The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, has said his country was ready for a humanitarian pause amid growing international pressure to stop fighting in Gaza and a sharply deteriorating humanitarian emergency across the territory.
Herzog told a gathering of ambassadors on Tuesday:
Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid, in order to enable the release of hostages’
His comments came as Israel continued its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, striking targets in the Jabalia refugee camp and the southern Rafah district. Gaza health officials estimate at least 100 people were killed in the strike.
Here’s our video report:
We reported earlier that Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with some of the families of hostages at the Kirya military complex in Tel Aviv today.
The Israeli prime minister, who attended the meeting with his wife, Sara, “reiterated his commitment to bring about the release of all the hostages to their homes,” his office said in a statement after the meeting. The statement said:
Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife listened very attentively to the hardship and pain of the hostages’ families.
The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Quds Brigades, has released a video that it claimed showed two hostages who were taken to Gaza during the 7 October attacks on Israel.
The video, which was published on the group’s Telegram account, shows the two male Israeli hostages pleading for their release.
It comes a day after Hamas’s military wing released footage it claimed showed three Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Israeli officials are considering building a “humanitarian compound” in northern Gaza to house displaced Palestinian civilians, according to a report.
The establishment of such a compound would allow some Palestinians to move to northern Gaza after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) completes its current phase of military operations there, multiple sources told CNN.
The planning for the compound is in its early stages and Israel has informed the US that it is exploring the project, the outlet reported.
Nearly 85% of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war, and many of those displaced from northern Gaza will have no home to return to. About 80% of buildings in that part of the territory had been damaged or destroyed by the end of November, according to UN analysis.
Hamas leader to visit Egypt for Gaza ceasefire talks - report
Ismail Haniyeh, the most senior political leader of Hamas, is set to travel to Egypt tomorrow for talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange with Israel, according to reports.
Haniyeh will head a “high-level” Hamas delegation to Cairo on Wednesday, where he will hold talks with Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, and others, a source told AFP. The BBC has also been told of the visit.
The discussions will be “on stopping the aggression and the war to prepare an agreement for the release of prisoners (and) the end of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip,” the source said.
The talks will focus on “the delivery of humanitarian aid, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip and the return of displaced persons to their towns and villages in the north”, the source said.
The visit would mark Haniyeh’s second trip to Egypt since the start of the war on 7 October, following a trip in early November.
It comes after Qatar’s prime minister held talks with the heads of the CIA and Mossad spy agency on Monday. A Qatari official described the talks as “positive” but said no deal is imminent.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid spoke with Al Majalla, one of the Arab world’s leading magazines in which he said a two-state solution still isn’t dead.
Lapid told Al Majalla that while the idea of a two-state solution faces new obstacles because of the 7 October attacks on Israel, he doesn’t believe the idea is dead. “I think it will be significantly delayed because we need to find ways to ensure the safety of our people,” the Yesh Atid party chair said. He added:
Those of us who support the establishment of a Palestinian state always emphasised the importance of implementing the security measures necessary for Israel to safeguard our people.
Lapid said that Palestinians “want to live with dignity and be respected as people who can govern themselves.” He said he believed politicians today have a responsibility not to pass on the conflict to the next generation of children across the Palestine and Israel. “I am telling you this not just as a political leader but also as a parent”, he said.
When asked about the implications of a peace agreement for the near 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, Lapid responded that the specifics would be discussed at the appropriate time.
I didn’t want to be too specific because everyone understands that compromises are crucial to any peace agreement. But you don’t delve into the details until you have to.
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the newswires from Gaza.
UN security council delays Gaza vote again
The UN security council vote on a resolution calling for a new ceasefire in Gaza has been delayed once again. The vote has now been pushed to Wednesday.
We reported earlier that security council members were engaged in “intense negotiations” on Tuesday afternoon to try to get to a vote on a draft resolution.
The vote, initially scheduled for Monday afternoon, had been expected to take place in New York by early Tuesday afternoon, but diplomats said it was pushed back until later in the day at the request of the US, which vetoed the last one.
Under discussion is the language of the resolution sponsored by the United Arab Emirates. Its first draft called for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” but on Tuesday new language circulated calling “for the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
Updated
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has been talking at an event organised by the Atlantic Council thinktank in Washington.
He confirmed that talks are under way aimed at a new humanitarian pause for the release of more hostages. This is what he said:
Israel is willing to enter another humanitarian pause and bring in additional humanitarian aid in order to bring back the hostages, so the entire responsibility for this issue lies with Sinwar [the Hamas leader in Gaza] and his people.
Prime minister Netanyahu met with families of hostages just last an hour ago and repeated the fact that he had already sent the head of Mossad David Barnea out to Europe already twice in order to reignite a process.
But one has to understand the situation. We don’t intend to stop our attack on Hamas in order to undermine their military capabilities or their ability to rule Gaza. We intend to change the course of history. And if they refuse to go into any negotiations on prisoners, on hostage release and exchange etc, we will continue as such with no limitations.
Updated
UN negotiations over ceasefire resolution 'intense': report
Members of the UN security council were engaged in “intense negotiations” on Tuesday afternoon to try to salvage a vote on a resolution calling for a new ceasefire in Gaza.
The vote, initially scheduled for Monday afternoon, had been expected to take place in New York by early Tuesday afternoon, but diplomats said it was pushed back until later in the day at the request of the US, which vetoed the last one.
Under discussion is the language of the resolution sponsored by the United Arab Emirates. Its first draft called for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” but on Tuesday new language circulated calling “for the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.
The US vetoed an 8 December security council resolution with similar language. The next vote is expected at about 5pm ET Tuesday.
At a lunchtime White House briefing, John Kirby, spokesperson for the US national security council, said:
We’re still working through the modalities of the resolution. It’s important for us that the rest of the world understand what’s at stake here and what Hamas did on 7 October, and how Israel has a right to defend itself against those threats.
Qatar: ceasefire discussions 'positive', but no deal imminent
Discussions over a possible new ceasefire in Gaza to allow the release of more hostages held by Hamas were “positive”, a Qatari official said Tuesday, but no new deal is imminent.
Qatar’s prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met David Barnea, director of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, and Bill Burns, the CIA director, in Warsaw, Poland, on Monday to talk about steps towards a renewal of the pause in hostilities that saw more than 100 hostages released last month.
A Qatari source told Reuters:
The talks were positive with negotiators exploring and discussing different proposals in an attempt to progress on negotiations. An agreement is not expected imminently however.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement he had “sent the head of the Mossad to Europe twice to promote a process for the release of our hostages”, without giving details of what was discussed.
“I will spare no effort on the subject and the demand is to bring everyone [home],” Netanyahu said.
Hamas has resisted efforts so far to reinstate the truce that collapsed on 1 December after a seven-day pause in fighting.
Updated
White House warns over Red Sea attacks
A US official has said “about eight” Americans are still believed to be hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, and issued a warning that more attacks on Red Sea shipping would not be tolerated.
John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council, gave the update at a lunchtime briefing at the White House, in which he also said drone attacks by Iran-backed Yemeni militants on shipping in the Red Sea “must stop”, Reuters reports.
Kirby promised that the US and its partners would respond to further incidents.
Earlier Tuesday, Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, announced the formation of a multinational naval coalition called Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect vessels in the Red Sea.
Read the full story:
Updated
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in a single day in Gaza, the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry says, as an Israeli military official said heavy civilian casualties were the price of battling militants.
Reuters quoted the official, whom it granted anonymity at the Israeli military’s request, speaking at the Palmachim air force base 28 miles from the Gaza border.
The cost in civilian lives was balanced against an evaluation of the military advantage before each strike, the official, a legal advisor to the Israeli Defense Forces, said:
[There are] thousands and thousands of attacks, and often attacks that require heavy firepower. Really tragically that results in a large number of civilian casualties.
Multiple Israeli attacks on Gaza on Tuesday left more than 100 Palestinians dead and hundreds more wounded, Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashral al-Qidra said.
There appears to have been a disconnect between the US permanent mission at the UN on one side and Washington on the other.
The White House and state department seem not have paid proper attention to the UAE’s draft ceasefire resolution until today, and demanded last-minute changes.
One of the issues is a call for the “urgent suspension of hostilities” to allow humanitarian deliveries. The Biden administration prefers language like “humanitarian pauses” in the context of negotiated pauses for the release of hostages by Hamas.
Another sticking point is language giving the UN authority to monitor aid deliveries to make sure arms are not being smuggled in. Washington wants more explicit language that makes clear Israel would still have a role in inspections of aid trucks.
According to one informed source, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, would be prepared to abstain on the UAE text, but Joe Biden has recently talked to Benjamin Netanyahu who insisted the US must cast a veto.
The problem is that Biden has been at the funeral of the late supreme court justice Sandra Day O’Connor this afternoon, so the US mission is playing for time so that the president can have the final say.
Updated
A UN official has said the US is “defending the indefensible” when it comes to Israel’s operation in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, told Sky News that the US continued to post obstacles in defence of Israel.
“This operation has already caused almost 20,000 deaths, 8,000 are still missing and 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced,” she said.
What are the US waiting for to declare a ceasefire? This is unfathomable for me.
Updated
Palestinians who were arrested in IDF operations across the Gaza Strip have said they were beaten and blindfolded while in Israeli detention.
One of the Palestinian men, Mohammed Dawood, told the BBC he was detained for 26 days after he followed Israel’s order to move farther south within the enclave.
He said that while in Israeli detention he was “tied up and my eyes were blindfolded like all the other men,” adding:
They abused us, spat on us and disrespected us. We were all beaten.
Another man, Mahmoud Abu Husein, 62, told the news outlet that Israeli soldiers shot him in the leg. “Afterwards, they amputated my leg,” he said.
An IDF spokesperson told the BBC it detained people “suspected of terrorism”, but did not give specifics for why these men were held. They said Israel respected international law.
Updated
The UN security council vote on resolution calling for a halt in the fighting to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza has been postponed again.
The vote, initially scheduled for Monday afternoon, had been expected to take place in New York by early Tuesday afternoon, but diplomats said it was pushed back until later in the day because the US had asked for more time, AP reported.
The US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said the US was still “engaging constructively” with other security council members on the text, without giving any details.
The draft resolution on the table Monday morning called for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities” but the language is expected to be watered down possibly to a “suspension” of hostilities or even weaker to get US support, according to diplomats.
Speaking at a briefing, Miller said Washington would welcome a resolution that fully supports addressing the humanitarian needs of the people in Gaza but that the details of the text mattered.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It’s nearly 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Israeli forces have bombed a home in southern Gaza, killing 25 people, as Palestinian casualties in Gaza climbed towards 20,000. The death toll from airstrikes and grim conditions for nearly 2 million people displaced from their homes with little access to food, clean water or sanitation is fuelling growing international anger. In addition to longstanding concerns about the humanitarian catastrophe inside Gaza, there has been a growing international focus on Israel’s rules of engagement.
At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 75 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, a spokesperson for the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory said on Tuesday. Jabalia is the largest of eight refugee camps in Gaza.
The UN security council has been meeting in New York ahead of an expected vote on calling for a sustainable cessation of hostilities in Gaza. The vote had been due on Monday but it was postponed to give more time for diplomats to meet US objection over a reference to a “cessation of hostilities” in the draft resolution. Britain’s development minister, Andrew Mitchell, told parliament that he hoped that the UK would be able to support the security council vote.
Israeli forces raided one of the last remaining hospitals in northern Gaza, putting it out of action, according to the hospital’s director. The overnight raid at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City led to the arrest of doctors, medical staff and patients, according to reports. The hospital was also reportedly damaged as a result of the assault.
Israeli forces have taken control of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza after surrounding the facility for 12 days, according to the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). It said males over the age of 16 were taken out of the hospital, stripped, bound and interrogated – among them were six MSF staff. The hospital still has dozens of patients inside, including 14 children, it said, adding that the facility had run out of essentials such as general aesthetic and oxygen.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said the Israeli ground operation would “expand to additional areas” of the Gaza Strip. It is thought that he was referring to the central Gaza Strip or the southern city of Rafah.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has signalled readiness on the part of the country to enter into another foreign-mediated Gaza truce to recover hostages held by Hamas and enable more aid to reach the besieged Palestinian enclave. A senior Hamas official said on Tuesday that Hamas rejected holding negotiations over exchanging prisoners during the war, but it was open to any initiative to end the “continuing Israeli genocidal war”.
The Israeli army has said it is investigating the deaths of Palestinian detainees who were arrested in military operations across the Gaza Strip. At least six Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons or Israel Defense Forces (IDF) detention facilities since the start of the war, according to a report, including “several” held at the Sde Teiman base near the city of Be’er Sheva, in southern Israel. Meanwhile, the IDF said it had suspended a group of Israeli soldiers recorded smoking a water pipe and joking in front of Palestinians who were detained and blindfolded in the occupied West Bank.
Benjamin Nentanyahu has been meeting families of the hostages held captive in Gaza. About 15 family members of hostages were expected to attend the meeting, where the Israeli prime minister was joined by the coordinator for hostages and missing persons, Gal Hirsch.
UN officials have expressed anger and disbelief about the situation in Gaza hospitals, where injured people do not have basic supplies and children recovering from amputations are being killed in the conflict. “I’m furious that children who are recovering from amputations in hospitals are then killed in those hospitals,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency. He added that the Nasser hospital, the largest operational hospital left in the territory, had been shelled twice in the past 48 hours.
The US has announced the creation of an enhanced naval protection force operating in the southern Red Sea in an attempt to ward off mounting attacks from Yemen’s rebel Houthis on merchant shipping. Britain said it would be among the countries participating but notable absentees were Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Houthis said on Tuesday they would press on with attacks in the Red Sea and could mount a naval operation there roughly every 12 hours. The group has stepped up the missile and drone attacks it began last month against international vessels in response to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told MPs at a liaison committee that too many civilians were dying in Gaza but rebuffed questions on whether Israel had violated international humanitarian law or whether it was responsible for the death toll. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran made an impassioned plea in the Commons for the government to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as she told of the desperate plight of relatives who had taken refuge in a church there.
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Israeli forces taken control of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza, says MSF
Israeli forces have taken control of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza after surrounding the facility for 12 days, according to the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
In a series of posts on social media, MSF said males over the age of 16 were taken out of the hospital, stripped, bound and interrogated – among them were six MSF staff.
It said most of them were sent back to the hospital and told not to move after the interrogations.
The hospital still has dozens of patients inside, including 14 children, it said, adding that the facility had run out of essentials such as general aesthetic and oxygen. MSF added:
Over the past 10 weeks, Al Awda has been besieged, damaged in strikes, and medical staff have been killed in blasts. It is the last functioning hospital in the north of Gaza that we know of.
On 17 December, Israeli forces took control of Al Awda hospital, after besieging it for 12 days. Males over 16 years old were taken out of the hospital, stripped, bound and interrogated – six MSF staff were among them...
— MSF International (@MSF) December 19, 2023
Over the past 10 weeks, Al Awda has been besieged, damaged in strikes, and medical staff have been killed in blasts. It is the last functioning hospital in the north of Gaza that we know of.
— MSF International (@MSF) December 19, 2023
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Meta’s oversight board said on Tuesday that the social media company erred in removing two videos depicting hostages and injured people in the Israel-Hamas conflict, saying the videos were valuable to understanding human suffering in the war.
One of the cases concerned a video posted on Instagram that showed the aftermath of an airstrike near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, including children who appeared injured or dead. The second case involved a video on Facebook of the 7 October attack, which showed an Israeli woman begging her kidnappers not to kill her as she was taken hostage.
The board described the videos as important for “informing the world about human suffering on both sides”. Meta’s automatic moderation systems removed the content. In both instances, after the oversight board selected the content takedowns for review, Meta reversed its decision and restored the videos with a screen that warned viewers before viewing, the board said.
The board said it approved of the move to restore the content, but disagreed with Meta’s decision to restrict the videos from being recommended to users, and in a statement urged Meta to “respond more quickly to changing circumstances on the ground, which affect the balance between the values of voice and safety”.
The board said such videos could contain evidence of human rights violations and could be important to the historical record of the war. It advised the company to err on the side of allowing such videos instead of algorithmically removing them, a process that board members said raised the chances of cutting “valuable posts”.
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Benjamin Nentanyahu has been meeting families of the hostages held captive in Gaza.
The meeting is taking place at the Kirya military complex in Tel Aviv, where the Israeli prime minister was joined by Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for hostages and missing persons.
About 15 family members of hostages were expected to attend the meeting after being hand-picked by Hirsch, the Times of Israel reported. The decision to only allow 15 people into the meeting has infuriated families who have been pushing for a meeting for days, it said.
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Israeli forces to expand ground operation to additional areas in Gaza, says defence minister
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has said the Israeli ground operation will “expand to additional areas” of the Gaza Strip.
Gallant, while touring the Gaza border, said in comments reported by the Times of Israel:
Khan Younis has become the new capital of terror. We will not let up in our action there until we get to the senior Hamas officials.
He added that the ground operation would expand to “additional areas”, which the Israeli outlet said referred to the central Gaza Strip or the southern city of Rafah.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says the ground operation will "expand to additional areas" of the Gaza Strip.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 19, 2023
"Khan Younis has become the new capital of terror. We will not let up in our action there until we get to the senior Hamas officials. The ground operation will expand to… pic.twitter.com/b7FOWjFJqN
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Israeli army says it is investigating deaths of Palestinians in Israeli detention
The Israeli army has said it is investigating the deaths of Palestinian detainees who were arrested in military operations across the Gaza Strip.
At least six Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons or Israel Defense Forces (IDF) detention facilities since the start of the war, Haaretz reported.
The Israeli newspaper said several Palestinians had died after being held at the Sde Teiman base near the city of Be’er Sheva, in southern Israel. Hundreds of Palestinians have been held for weeks at the facility, it said, where detainees are “blindfolded and handcuffed for most of the day”.
An Israeli army spokesperson told AFP on Tuesday:
We know of deaths of terrorists in military detention centres and they are under investigation.
Amnesty International has said Palestinian detainees held by Israeli forces have shared testimony of torture and ill-treatment, including severe beatings and humiliation.
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A meeting between Qatar’s prime minister and the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency on a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza was “positive” but no imminent deal is expected.
On Monday the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met with the CIA’s William Burns and the Mossad’s David Barnea in Poland.
The talks were “positive with negotiators exploring and discussing different proposals in an attempt to progress on negotiations”, a source told Reuters, adding:
An agreement is not expected imminently however.
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The UN security council may once again postpone the vote on calling for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza.
The vote had been due on Monday but it was postponed to today after the US said it could not support a reference to a “cessation of hostilities” in the draft resolution.
The vote will now probably be delayed again, Al Jazeera’s Rami Ayari reports. Citing sources, he said the US believed the mention of “cessation” was a “bridge too far”.
Being told another delay of the vote time is likely. Two sources understand that the very tepid call for "urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities" in the text is at least one of the sources of contention in the negotiations. The call for "urgent suspension of… https://t.co/tMoonCY8s5
— Rami Ayari (@Raminho) December 19, 2023
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Here are some of the latest images from the newswires from the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.
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James Kariuki, the UK’s representative to the UN, said a “humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding” in Gaza while Israel was still reckoning with the “brutal horror” of the Hamas terror attacks.
Speaking at the UN security council meeting, he called for a “sustainable ceasefire that breaks the cycle of violence”, and urged Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel, release all hostages, and for aid to be allowed to flow into Gaza.
He said this is “the only way to achieve a sustainable peace based on a two-State solution, in which Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security.”
The UK was focused on three areas, Kariuki said. First, Israel must be “targeted and precise” in its actions as “too many civilians have been killed” in Gaza. Second, work must continue to increase the amount of humanitarian support into Gaza through as many direct routes as possible. Third, the UK will ban those responsible for settler violence against Palestinians from entering the UK, he said.
Sérgio França Danese, representing Brazil at the UN, said the world was watching the human toll of the conflict in Gaza with “astonishment and powerlessness”.
Speaking at the security council meeting, he said Israeli settlement activities had continued and expanded through the occupied Palestinian territory, “in flagrant violation of international law and in defiance to the authority of the security council”.
He said he was “deeply concerned” about the rise in the displacement of Palestinians from their homes as a result of these settlement activities, adding:
State violence has been on the rise, not just in Gaza, demolitions, evictions orders and other types of attacks against Palestinians and their households have further expanded in Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem.
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Robert Wood, who is representing the US at the UN security council, said Israel must be allowed to defend its people and that the Hamas attacks on 7 October “must be condemned”.
Speaking at the meeting in New York, he said the council must work towards a two-state solution, and that Hamas must now be allowed to control Gaza in the future.
Wood noted the deaths and injuries of journalists working on the frontline in Gaza, and urged that “more must be done to protect them”.
He said his mission had met Israelis whose loved ones were still being held captive by Hamas in Gaza, and said they would continue to share every hostage’s story “until they are home”, adding:
We must hold space for the heartbreak on all sides.
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The UN Middle East peace envoy, Tor Wennesland, briefed security council members as they met before a vote on calling for a sustainable cessation of hostilities in Gaza.
He said 2023 would end as “one of the deadliest in the history of this conflict”, and he described the situation as “deteriorating on nearly all fronts”.
The humanitarian situation across Gaza faced “nearly insurmountable challenges” amid displacement on an “unimaginable scale and active hostilities”, he said.
He also voiced “deep concerns” over escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and urged Israeli security forces to “exercise maximum restraint”, noting that Israeli operations had led to exceedingly high levels of fatalities and arrests.
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The UN security council has begun its meeting in New York on Gaza where it is expected to vote in favour of calling for a sustainable cessation of hostilities in Gaza.
The vote had been due on Monday but was postponed to give more time for diplomats to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The US had said it could not support a reference to a “cessation of hostilities” but might accept a call for a “suspension of hostilities”.
The draft resolution, tabled by the United Arab Emirates, also takes note of the reopening of the Karem Abu Salem or Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to speed up delivery of aid, emphasising the need to “expand the delivery and distribution”.
It also “demands” the “immediate and unconditional release” of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical needs.
#UNSC draft text on #Gaza pic.twitter.com/UhKULgr2sv
— PassBlue (@pass_blue) December 19, 2023
The meeting comes after the UN general assembly on 12 December voted by 153 to 10 with 23 abstentions to call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and well as “ensuring humanitarian access”.
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Northern Gaza hospital 'out of action' after Israeli military assault, says hospital director
We reported yesterday on reports that Israeli forces had forced displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City to evacuate the facility and arrested medical staff.
Richard Sewell, the dean of the Anglican-run St George’s College in Jerusalem, said most of the hospital’s staff were detained. Prof Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon who worked at al-Ahli hospital during the first weeks of the war, also said Israeli forces had rounded up staff at the facility.
Israeli forces raided the hospital overnight, destroying a wall at its front entrance and detaining most of its staff, according to the church that operates it.
Don Binder, a pastor at St George’s, said the raid left just two doctors, four nurses and two janitors to tend to more than 100 seriously wounded patients, with no running water or electricity, AP reported. He said an Israeli tank was parked on the rubble at the hospital’s entrance, blocking anyone from entering or leaving.
The hospital’s director, Fadel Naim, told AFP that the facility – one of the last remaining hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip – has stopped operating after Israeli troops attacked the hospital and arrested doctors, medical staff and patients.
The raid has “put the hospital out of action”, he said, adding: “We can’t receive any patients or injured.” At least four people who were wounded by Israeli fire on Monday died on Tuesday after being injured in the assault, he said.
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have suspended a group of soldiers recorded smoking a water pipe and joking in front of Palestinians who were detained and blindfolded in the occupied West Bank.
The video shows Israeli soldiers laughing and eating snacks as at least seven Palestinians are sitting blindfolded in Jenin, AP reported.
An IDF spokesperson said the behaviour of the soldiers was “deplorable and stands in stark contrast to the values of the IDF”, adding that the reserve duty soldiers were suspended after a disciplinary hearing.
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Pope Francis has said Israelis and Palestinians face “pain and mourning” over the Christmas period as the war in Gaza continues.
Posting to social media, he wrote:
For the inhabitants of the Holy Land, a #Christmas of pain and mourning looms. We do not want to leave them alone. May we stand by them in prayer and tangible aid. The suffering of Bethlehem is an open wound for the Middle East and the entire world.
For the inhabitants of the Holy Land, a #Christmas of pain and mourning looms. We do not want to leave them alone. May we stand by them in prayer and tangible aid. The suffering of Bethlehem is an open wound for the Middle East and the entire world.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) December 19, 2023
On Sunday, Francis suggested Israel was using “terrorism” tactics in the Palestinian territory, after the reported killing of a mother and daughter by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City on Saturday.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Jerusalem has filed a petition with the Israeli supreme court seeking immediate access for international media to the Gaza Strip.
The FPA said it had submitted multiple requests to the Israeli government and military to gain access but had received “no substantive response”.
The Palestinian territory has been completely sealed off since 7 October. Some Israeli and international reporters have entered Gaza embedded with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“Freedom of the press is a basic civil right in a democratic society,” the FPA said in a statement.
We also believe it is in the public interest to get a fuller picture of conditions inside Gaza after 10 weeks of extremely limited and highly controlled access.
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian, on searching for everyday treasures, and taking in yet another cat, in their Gaza diary for the Guardian:
9am “Cheese! Congratulations.” Two words written by my friend on a small piece of paper inside a tiny nylon bag that contains two packs of cheese, each 250g.
Recently, my displaced friends and I have started helping each other to find necessary products. The challenge these days is that there is no specific place to find anything. You find underwear at a library; food in an electronics shop; and glue at a spice shop.
10.30am I take the new cat to the vet. Yes, there is a new cat. I found him days ago. He is so tiny he fits into my palm. It was raining heavily. The only reason I realised there was a cat in the middle of the street next to the trash was his shaking. He was lying on his face and breathing fast. I went closer and sat on the pavement. I was like: “Please, stand up and show me that you are a strong healthy cat.” But he wasn’t.
He has been with us for four days. He wakes up every two hours, eats, poops and goes back to sleep. This cat is the first one I’ve seen who eats like the cats on cartoon TV shows. He makes a num num num sound, which is super adorable. I took him to the vet because he got uncontrollable diarrhoea.
The children of our host family asks my sister what name she will give him, but she said this time he will have no name, just the cat. They even suggested to call him Jack, after the other injured cat we got in who died. We both refused. I tell her that I have a name for him but I did not share it with her or anyone else. I am even shocked that I chose that name for him. Out of all the names, I chose that name!
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Hamas says it rejects talks over prisoners during war but open to moves to end conflict
Hamas rejects holding negotiations over exchanging prisoners during the Israeli war, but is open to any initiative to end it, a senior official from the Palestinian movement has said.
“We affirm our position of categorically rejecting to hold any form of negotiations over prisoners exchange under the continuing Israeli genocidal war,” Basem Naem said.
“We are, however, open to any initiative that contributes to ending the aggression on our people and opening the crossings to bring in aid and provide relief to the Palestinian people.”
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The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, signalled readiness on the part of the country on Tuesday to enter another foreign-mediated Gaza truce to recover hostages held by Hamas and enable more aid to reach the besieged Palestinian enclave, Reuters has reported.
“Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages,” Herzog, whose public role is largely ceremonial, told a gathering of ambassadors, according to his office.
“And the responsibility lies fully with [the Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and [other] Hamas leadership,” he said.
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The head of the government-owned Israel Ports Company brushed off on Tuesday any risk of the country coming under a shipping embargo due to attacks by Yemen’s Houthis, saying the bulk of seaborne imports come from the West rather than via the Red Sea.
Addressing a conference hosted by the Globes business newspaper, Uzi Itzhaki said there had yet to be significant price hikes on incoming cargo and that he anticipated no lack of supplies to Israel of essential goods like fuel and food.
Here’s a clip via of the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, discussing the Israel-Gaza conflict before the UK’s parliamentary liaison committee.
He has a tense exchange with Alicia Kearns, foreign affairs select committee chair on whether Israel’s campaign in Gaza has violated international humanitarian law and if it bears responsibility for the high numbers of civilian casualties.
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UK prime minister: Hamas knowingly putting civilians in harm's way
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is appearing before the UK House of Commons liaison committee, where he takes questions on a range of topics from the chairs of specialist scrutiny committees. The PM appears before the liaison committee roughly three times a year.
During today’s hearing, he took questions on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
He said too many civilians had been killed and urged Israel to show restraint – but blamed Hamas’ actions in embedding itself in civilian communities for the high loss of life.
He told MPs: “Too many civilians are dying, of course too many civilians are dying. That is different from saying humanitarian law has been broken.
“Every civilian dying is a tragedy.”
Asked where responsibility for the civilian deaths lay, he told committee: “There are two sides to this. Israel is trying to defend itself. If a terrorist organisation which is perpetrating these attacks is deliberately embedding itself inside civilian populations, then they have to accept responsibility for that.
“Israel, it’s right they should take every precaution to avoid harming civilians, but that will be very difficult if the precise organisation which has caused untold suffering for the Israeli people is hiding among civilians, knowingly doing so, knowingly putting them in harm’s way.”
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People trapped in a church in Gaza City are down to their “last can of corn” and their situation is descending, a UK politician has said.
Layla Moran’s extended Christian Palestinian family members are among those who have been trapped inside the Holy Family church complex in Gaza City for 60 days.
The member of parliament representing Oxford West and Abingdon for the Liberal Democrat party told the UK House of Commons:
I have spoken before in this house about my extended family who are in the Holy Family parish church in Zeitoun in Gaza, and the situation has been desperate for weeks but now it is descending.
There are tanks outside the gates, there are soldiers and snipers pointing into the complex shooting at anyone who ventures out, and the convent was bombed.
On Saturday two women were shot. They were simply trying to get to the toilet. There is no electricity, there is no clean water, and the update that I had last night was that they are down to their last can of corn.
I am told after pressure that food has been delivered, but they have not seen it, and when this began a week ago, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers ordered these civilians to evacuate against their will.
She urged the UK government to support an “immediate bilateral ceasefire” as the violence was “making peace harder, not easier” after the UK Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell had said: “We of course want to see an end to the fighting, but this must be a sustainable ceasefire, meaning Hamas must stop launching rockets into Israel and release the hostages.”
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Afternoon summary
UN officials have expressed anger and disbelief about the situation in Gaza hospitals, where injured people do not have basic supplies and children recovering from amputations are being killed in the ongoing conflict. “I’m furious that children who are recovering from amputations in hospitals are then killed in those hospitals,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency, on Tuesday. He added that the Nasser hospital, the largest operational hospital left in the territory, had been shelled twice in the past 48 hours.
Israeli strikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in southern Gaza and troops raided one of the last functioning hospitals in the north as the country pressed ahead with its offensive against Hamas on Tuesday with renewed backing from the US, despite rising international alarm. The offensive, launched in response to Hamas’s attack in Israel on 7 October, has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians and displaced about 1.9 million, demolished much of northern Gaza and sparked attacks on US and Israeli targets across the region, AP reports.
At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 75 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory said. There was no immediate response from Israeli authorities, Reuters reported.
Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and Hamas says it has launched a salvo of rockets against Israel’s commercial capital. There was no immediate word of casualties or damage in the incident, which appeared to show the Palestinian militant group retained longer-range rocket capabilities, even as Israel presses a Gaza war now in its 11th week.
Europe was losing moral ground with the rest of the world as a result of its stance on Gaza, the EU’s foreign policy chief said on Monday. Speaking at a conference in Aosta organised by Le Grand Continent, Josep Borrell also said the EU had been unable to adopt a united view because some countries in Europe were feeling guilty as a result of the Holocaust and second world war. “Amongst Europeans there are very different sensitivities which can be explained for historic and cultural reasons,” he said. “There are a certain number of countries that are prepared to support Israel to the limit because they have a bad guilt complex about the Holocaust and that is not a sentiment that everyone shares.”
A UK Foreign Office minister said he was “particularly disturbed” by reports of people trapped in a church in Gaza who were running out of food and water. Responding to Lib Dem MP Layla Moran’s reports about her Palestinian family’s situation, Andrew Mitchell told the Commons: “The whole House will be gravely concerned about the desperate situation in Gaza. It cannot continue and we are deploying all our diplomatic resources including in the United Nations to help find a viable solution.”
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday they would press on with attacks in the Red Sea, and could mount a naval operation there roughly every 12 hours. The group has stepped up the missile and drone attacks it began last month against international vessels in response to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
Italy’s navy will send one of its frigates to help protect the Red Sea shipping route against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants, the Italian defence ministry has said. “Italy will do its part, together with the international community, to counter the terrorist destabilisation activity of the Houthis,” the Italian defence minister, Guido Crosetto, said on Tuesday.
The UN security council will convene today to weigh a call for a ceasefire in Gaza, after a previous attempt was vetoed by the United States. The vote was postponed to give more time for diplomats to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The vote in New York had been due on Monday. The US said it could not support a reference to a “cessation of hostilities”, but may accept a call for a “suspension of hostilities”. The Arab countries negotiating the text said they had been encouraged to see that the White House was apparently trying to find wording that it could support – as opposed to simply vetoing resolutions.
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has announced the creation of a multinational operation in the Red Sea after a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. Austin, on a trip to Bahrain after talks in Tel Aviv earlier on Monday, said countries participating in the US-led initiative include the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.
BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after an increase in attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants. The British oil company said it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East. BP becomes the first oil company to directly halt its shipping, after five big shipping firms stopped their vessels passing through the waters between Asia and Africa that connect Asia and Europe.
A UK Foreign Office minister said he was “particularly disturbed” by reports of people trapped in a church in Gaza who were running out of food and water.
Responding to the Liberal Democrats MP Layla Moran’s reports about her Palestinian family’s situation, Andrew Mitchell told the Commons: “The whole House will be gravely concerned about the desperate situation in Gaza. It cannot continue and we are deploying all our diplomatic resources including in the United Nations to help find a viable solution.”
He added: “The scale of civilian deaths and displacement in Gaza is shocking. I was particularly disturbed at the situation of civilians trapped in the Holy Family Church complex in Gaza city, the lack of water and food and reports of sniper fire causing civilian deaths inside the complex.
“Although Israel has the right to defend itself against terror, restore its security and bring the hostages home, it must abide by international law and take all possible measures to protect civilians.”
Mitchell also confirmed David Cameron would visit the region, telling MPs: “The foreign secretary will discuss the situation in Gaza with regional leaders this week in his visit to Egypt and Jordan.”
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Europe was losing moral ground with the rest of the world as a result of its stance on Gaza, the EU’s foreign policy chief said on Monday.
Speaking at a conference in Aosta organised by Le Grand Continent, Josep Borrell also said the EU had been unable to adopt a united view because some countries in Europe were feeling guilty as a result of the Holocaust and second world war.
“Amongst Europeans there are very different sensitivities which can be explained for historic and cultural reasons,” he said. “There are a certain number of countries that are prepared to support Israel to the limit because they have a bad guilt complex about the Holocaust and that is not a sentiment that everyone shares.”
Borrell was attempting to explain why the EU had been left so divided over Gaza and its relations with the global south so damaged. He said “relations with the global south had not been very good before 7 October, now it has become worse”.
He added: “We are losing moral ground with the rest of the world including in the Middle East.” The accusations of double standards seemed massive compared with the EU’s standard in Ukraine, he said.
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Italy’s navy will send one of its frigates to help protect the Red Sea shipping route against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants, the Italian defence ministry has said.
“Italy will do its part, together with the international community, to counter the terrorist destabilisation activity of the Houthis,” the Italian defence minister, Guido Crosetto, said on Tuesday.
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Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Tuesday they would press on with attacks in the Red Sea, and could mount a naval operation there roughly every 12 hours.
The group has stepped up the missile and drone attacks it began last month against international vessels in response to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
“As for naval operations, they are in full swing, and perhaps not 12 hours would pass without an operation,” the group’s spokesperson and top negotiator Mohammed Abdelsalam told al Jazeera TV.
Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and Hamas says it has launched a salvo of rockets against Israel’s commercial capital.
There was no immediate word of casualties or damage in the incident, which appeared to show the Palestinian militant group retained longer-range rocket capabilities, even as Israel presses a Gaza war now in its 11th week.
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UN agencies voice anger at attacks on Gaza hospitals
UN officials have expressed anger and disbelief about the situation in Gaza hospitals, where injured people do not have basic supplies and children recovering from amputations are being killed in the ongoing conflict.
“I’m furious that children who are recovering from amputations in hospitals are then killed in those hospitals,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency, on Tuesday.
He added that the Nasser hospital, the largest operational hospital left in the territory, had been shelled twice in the past 48 hours.
Dr Margaret Harris, a World Health Organization spokesperson, described the situation in Gaza hospitals as “beyond belief” and “unconscionable”, Reuters reported.
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David Cameron has been urged in a letter from foreign policy experts including a former head of the armed forces to back an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza in the run-up to a crucial UN security council vote.
The failure to call for a ceasefire was “strategically ill-advised and morally indefensible”, the British foreign secretary was told in the letter, as senior Conservatives also added to pressure on the government for a shift in its approach to the conflict.
Cameron will call for increased coordination between allies to address the “desperate” humanitarian situation, and use a trip to Paris and Rome on Tuesday to reiterate his call for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, but the spotlight falls on a UN security council meeting after a previous attempt to pass a ceasefire motion was vetoed by the US.
Gaza health ministry: at least 13 killed in Israeli strike on Jabalia refugee camp
At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 75 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory said.
There was no immediate response from Israeli authorities, Reuters reported.
At 1.4-sq km, Jabalia is the largest of eight refugee camps in Gaza and has been home to about 116,000 registered refugees, many of whom are dependent on food, medicine and other aid provided by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
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Israeli strikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in southern Gaza and troops raided one of the last functioning hospitals in the north as the country pressed ahead with its offensive against Hamas on Tuesday with renewed backing from the US, despite rising international alarm.
The offensive, launched in response to Hamas’s attack in Israel on 7 October, has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians and displaced about 1.9 million, demolished much of northern Gaza and sparked attacks on US and Israeli targets across the region, AP reports.
Attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have led large shipping companies – as well as the oil and gas firm BP – to suspend trade through the vital waterway, prompting the US and its allies to launch a new mission to counter the threat.
But after meeting Israeli officials on Monday, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said he was “not here to dictate timelines or terms”.
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At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and 40 others wounded in an Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory has said.
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Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis will not change their stance on the Gaza conflict due to the establishment of a multinational naval alliance to safeguard shipping in the Red Sea, a senior Houthi negotiator has told Reuters.
The naval alliance led by the US was “essentially unnecessary”, Mohammed Abdulsalam said, adding that all the waters adjacent to Yemen were safe except for Israeli ships, or ships heading to Israel, because of the “unjust aggressive war on Palestine”.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, announced the creation of a multinational operation to safeguard commerce in the Red Sea after a series of missile and drone attacks on shipping by the Houthis.
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The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency has received a report of an incident 80 nautical miles north-east of Djibouti, at the mouth of the Red Sea, according to an advisory note.
It added that authorities were investigating, Reuters reported.
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The US defence secretary has invited dozens of countries to take steps to address Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping as he spoke at a defence ministerial to tout a new military operation to secure commerce in the waterway.
“We’re all here because many countries can directly contribute to our common efforts to keep strategic waterways safe,” Lloyd Austin said, according to prepared remarks.
“These reckless Houthi attacks are a serious international problem and they demand a firm international response.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Austin announced the launch of the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, which will include joint patrols of Red Sea shipping.
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Some of Britain’s most heralded playwrights, actors and theatre directors have signed an open letter calling for the release of members of a Palestinian theatre group who have been in Israeli custody since 13 December, while also decrying the destruction of cultural sites in the West Bank and Gaza.
Read the rest of that report by Lanre Bakare and Nadia Khomami:
Summary of the day so far
It’s 9:01am in Gaza and Tel Aviv and here’s a summary of the latest events so far:
The UN security council will convene today to weigh a call for a ceasefire in Gaza, after a previous attempt was vetoed by the United States. The vote was postponed to give more time for diplomats to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The vote in New York had been due on Monday. The US said it could not support a reference to a “cessation of hostilities”, but may accept a call for a “suspension of hostilities”. The Arab countries negotiating the text said they had been encouraged to see that the White House was apparently trying to find wording that it could support – as opposed to simply vetoing resolutions.
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has announced the creation of a multinational operation in the Red Sea after a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. Austin, on a trip to Bahrain after talks in Tel Aviv earlier on Monday, said countries participating in the US-led initiative include the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.
Yemen’s Houthis were behind two more attacks against commercial shipping in the Southern Red Sea, the US Central Command said on Tuesday. Reuters news agency is reporting the cost of shipping goods to Israel by sea has risen in recent days as some container lines pull out while others impose new surcharges.
BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after an increase in attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants. The British oil company said it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East. BP becomes the first oil company to directly halt its shipping, after five big shipping firms stopped their vessels passing through the waters between Asia and Africa that connect Asia and Europe.
Austin has held talks with Israeli officials including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. The discussions focused on Israel shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders, the US official said.
The US defence secretary said Washington was still not imposing a timetable despite international calls for a ceasefire. “This is Israel’s operation. I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms,” Austin said.
Israeli forces have forced displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City to evacuate the facility and arrested medical staff, according to reports. Richard Sewell, the dean of the Anglican-run St George’s College in Jerusalem, said most of the hospital’s staff have been detained, while medical sources told Al Jazeera that the hospital was now out of service.
The British foreign minister, David Cameron, will call for increased coordination between allies to address the “desperate” humanitarian situation in Gaza during a visit to Paris and Rome on Tuesday, his office has said.
In Australia, more than 50 former and current Labor MPs have signed a letter condemning Israel’s “domination” of Palestine and demanding Australia recognise Palestine as a state and examine its relationship with Israel.
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Let’s take a closer look at what’s been happening in the Red Sea. The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has announced the creation of a multinational operation after a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.
The Guardian’s Jonathan Yerushalmy has broken down in an explainer the significance of those attacks and the disruption it’s caused:
Global supply chains are once again under threat, as the impact of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas ripples out across the Middle East.
In recent weeks, Houthi militants based in Yemen have stepped up their attacks on commercial shipping vessels travelling through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, in response to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
Tankers and cargo ships have been targeted by drone and missile attacks launched from Yemen – and although the damage caused has been minimal in most cases, the threat alone has left trade routes through the Red Sea at a near standstill.
Jonathan takes us through what the Houthis are doing and how the disruption will effect shipping. Read the rest of his report here:
The BBC has a report by its south-east Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, on one of the Thai hostages who was released by Hamas and has now returned home.
Wichian Temthong is a 37-year-old farm worker who is now back in Thailand. While he survived, three young Israeli men he met in captivity were those who were mistakenly shot dead by Israeli soldiers on Friday.
Wichian Temthong said:
Every day my foreign friends and I tried to support each other. We would shake hands and do fist bumps. They would cheer me up by hugging me and clapping my shoulder. But we could only communicate by using our hands.
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In Australia, more than 50 former and current Labor MPs have signed a letter condemning Israel’s “domination” of Palestine and demanding Australia recognise Palestine as a state and examine its relationship with Israel.
Read our report here:
Here are some of the latest images of the IDF coming out of Israel:
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Gaza, as the fighting continues.
UN security council to reconsider call for ceasefire
The UN security council is set to convene Tuesday to weigh a call for a ceasefire in Gaza, after a previous bid was vetoed by the United States.
The vote was postponed to give more time for diplomats to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution. The vote in New York had been due on Monday. The US said it could not support a reference to a “cessation of hostilities”, but might accept a call for a “suspension of hostilities”.
The Arab countries negotiating the text said they had been encouraged to see that the White House was apparently trying to find wording that it could support – as opposed to simply vetoing resolutions.
Read the rest of Patrick Wintour’s piece on the postponement here:
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Welcome and opening summary
It’s 6:36am and sunrise in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Welcome to our blog on the Israel-Gaza war. I’m Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.
The UN security council has delayed until Tuesday morning a vote on an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for a halt to hostilities in Gaza to allow for urgently needed aid deliveries. Members have intensified their negotiations to try to avoid another veto by the United States. The pause was to give more time to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution.
More on that in a moment but first, here is a summary of our other main developments:
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has announced the creation of a multinational operation in the Red Sea after a series of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. Austin, on a trip to Bahrain after talks in Tel Aviv earlier on Monday, said countries participating in the US-led initiative include the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.
Yemen’s Houthis were behind two more attacks against commercial shipping in the Southern Red Sea, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Tuesday. Reuters news agency is reporting the cost of shipping goods to Israel by sea has risen in recent days as some container lines pull out while others impose new surcharges.
BP has halted all shipments of oil and gas through the Red Sea after a step-up in attacks on cargo ships by Houthi militants. The British oil company said it had paused shipping in the region indefinitely, citing a “deteriorating security situation” amid tensions in the Middle East. BP becomes the first oil company to directly halt its own shipping, after five big shipping firms stopped their vessels passing through the waters between Asia and Africa that connect Asia and Europe.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. The discussions focused on Israel shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders, the US official said.
The US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington was still not imposing a timetable despite international calls for a ceasefire. “This is Israel’s operation. I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms.”, Austin said.
Israeli forces have forced displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City to evacuate the facility and arrested medical staff, according to reports. Richard Sewell, the dean of the Anglican-run St George’s College in Jerusalem, said most of the hospital’s staff have been detained, while medical sources told Al Jazeera that the hospital is now out of service.
At least 19,453 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the latest tally by the territory’s health ministry on Monday. 52,286 people have been injured, it said. Meanwhile, four Palestinians have been killed on Monday in the Faraa refugee camp, south of the West Bank city of Tubas, in an Israeli military raid, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, has released a video of three elderly Israeli men being held hostage in Gaza. One man said he was being held in harsh conditions with other elderly hostages suffering chronic illnesses. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the video was “atrocious terror” that “shows the cruelty of Hamas against elderly civilians.”
The Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency on Monday to discuss a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to reports. But a Palestinian source familiar with the talks told the BBC that negotiations over a new temporary ceasefire “haven’t begun yet”.
The US has raised concerns with Israel after a mother and daughter were allegedly killed by an Israeli military sniper in a church compound in Gaza City, the White House said. The two women were killed inside the Holy Family parish in Gaza City on Saturday, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Most of Gaza’s Christian families have taken refuge in the compound since the start of the war. The most senior Catholic cleric in England said the shooting was a “cold–blooded killing” that did “nothing to further Israel’s right to defend itself”. The IDF has appeared to deny responsibility for the deaths.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas militants. “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip,” HRW said in a report. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime.”
British foreign minister David Cameron will call for increased coordination between allies to address the “desperate” humanitarian situation in Gaza during a visit to Paris and Rome on Tuesday, his office said.
The UK Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has joined the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as the political rhetoric continued to shift away from unqualified support for Israel’s assault in line with moves from the US and others.
