Summary
Here is where the day stands:
Over the weekend, UNRWA delivered aid to approximately 90 of its shelters, including 33 in Rafah and 25 in Khan Younis. The crucial aid delivery across Gaza comes as nearly 2 million Palestinians grapple with shortages in food, water, medical supplies and fuel as a result of Israel’s attacks across the strip.
Multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants targeting the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, according to the US central command, Reuters reports. It added that most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems and that damage assessments remained under way.
Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on his refusal of a Palestinian state. According to a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, he claimed in a call with Joe Biden that Israel’s security needs left no space for a sovereign Palestinian state.
Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv in a massive anti-government protest against Netanyahu and his cabinet’s handling of the hostage crisis and Israel’s war on Gaza. Many waved signs that condemned Netanyahu and called for his resignation as family members of hostages currently held by Hamas demanded their release.
Israeli shelling east of the Jabalia refugee camp killed four Palestinians and injured 21 more, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported. Video posted online showed PRCS staff treating injured Palestinians following the strikes. The PRCS added that it had changed the wound dressings of 65 other individuals.
Senator Bernie Sanders has released the following statement in which he criticizes Netanyahu for his refusal of a Palestinian state: “Despite the illegal and inhumane actions of Netanyahu’s government, President Biden has thus far offered unconditional support to Israel. That must change. President Biden must now loudly and clearly say no to the policies of Netanyahu’s rightwing extremist government.”
Palestinian people’s right to statehood “must be recognized by all”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda on Saturday. “The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable,” Guterres said.
Updated
Over the weekend, UNRWA delivered aid to approximately 90 of its shelters, including 33 in Rafah and 25 in Khan Younis.
Our heroic team in @UNRWA Supply Department work continuously in our warehouses in southern📍#Gaza
— UNRWA Partners (@UNRWAPartners) January 19, 2024
The process of receiving humanitarian aid begins early in the morning & the aid is distributed to around 90 @UNRWA shelters - including 33 in Rafah & 25 in Khan Younis.#UNRWAworks pic.twitter.com/s63d6e4ure
The crucial aid delivery across Gaza comes as nearly 2 million Palestinians grapple with shortages in food, water, medical supplies and fuel as a result of Israel’s attacks across the strip.
Updated
Multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants targeting the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, according to the US central command, Reuters reports.
It added that most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems and that damage assessments remain under way.
At least one Iraqi service member was wounded in the attacks.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians since 7 October while leaving nearly 2 million survivors displaced:
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu has defied Joe Biden and reaffirmed his opposition to Palestinian statehood, saying that there is “no space” for a Palestinian state.
The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison and Toby Helm report:
Defiant Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on opposition to Palestinian statehood, deepening the divide with Israel’s closest international allies, as cracks in his wartime “unity” government became increasingly evident.
Anger with Netanyahu is also increasingly visible on the streets, even though there is broad public support for the war. On Saturday, protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Caesarea and Kfar Saba, some calling for bolder action to secure the release of hostages, and others demanding the prime minister step down.
One in Jerusalem held a placard that read: “Mothers’ cry: we will not sacrifice our children in the war to save the rightwing.”
Over the weekend, Netanyahu sparred publicly – if indirectly – with US President Joe Biden, who for months has offered Israel almost unconditional support for its war in Gaza, at considerable political cost to his own administration, both in America and beyond.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
WHO: three in four Palestinians in Gaza internally displaced
Three in four Palestinians in Gaza are internally displaced as a result of Israel’s strikes across the strip, the World Health Organization announced on Saturday.
In a video posted to X, Manwa Al Kahwaji, a Palestinian woman who has been internally displaced due to Israeli attacks, said:
We go through the toughest moments at night. We are sleeping on the ground using only this sheet. Every day, early morning we head out to get water and it’s not enough. We haven’t had water since yesterday. My little girl is sick since the day we arrived here because of wastewater that’s all around us.
3 in 4 people in #Gaza are internally displaced. These are the conditions they live in. #CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/vKUiGYCJhP
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) January 19, 2024
Updated
At least a dozen missiles were filed at a military base used by US-led coalition forces in Iraq on Saturday.
Reuters reports:
“Al-Asad airbase was targeted by 15 rockets” fired from Anbar province, which is home to the military base, an Iraqi police official from the region told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said 13 of the projectiles were shot down by anti-air defences but that “two fell on the airbase.”
A US defence official, who also requested anonymity, confirmed that “missiles impacted Al-Asad airbase”, adding that a joint damage assessment was under way with coalition and Iraqi forces.
The American official said that initial reports indicated one member of the Iraqi security forces had been seriously injured.
In a press release, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups that oppose US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict, said it carried out the attack.
Israeli shelling east of the Jabalia refugee camp killed four Palestinians and injured 21 more, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported.
Video posted online showed PRCS staff treating injured Palestinians following the strikes. The PRCS added that it changed the wound dressings of 65 other individuals.
🚨PRCS medical post in #Jabalia, northern #Gaza dealt today with four martyrs and 21 injuries due to the Israeli occupation's shelling east of Jabalia camp.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 20, 2024
📌Additionally, PRCS volunteers changed wound dressing for 65 injured individuals.
📷Videographer: PRCS volunteer, Yusef… pic.twitter.com/X3g6tfpfaL
Updated
Senator Bernie Sanders has released the following statement in which he criticizes the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for his refusal of a Palestinian state:
Despite the illegal and inhumane actions of Netanyahu’s government, president Biden has thus far offered unconditional support to Israel. That must change. President Biden must now loudly and clearly say no to the policies of Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government. This is what a true friend of Israel must do in this moment.
And Congress must act. There must be no more US military aid to Israel to continue Netanyahu’s war. Humanitarian aid must be immediately allowed to reach those in need. A safe release of all remaining hostages must be negotiated. Israel must work towards a lasting peace that allows two states for two peoples.
Netanyahu has made his position clear: He will never allow a Palestinian state, ever. He will continue his devastating war against innocent Palestinians, and block the supplies needed to prevent mass starvation and sickness. Now, we must make our position clear. pic.twitter.com/dOFK02rG8m
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 20, 2024
Updated
Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, vowed on Saturday to punish Israel for a strike which killed five members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, according to Iranian state media.
“The Islamic Republic will not leave the Zionist regime’s crimes unanswered,” Raisi said in a statement condemning the strike, state broadcaster IRIB said on its website.
Updated
Thousands gather in Tel Aviv in anti-government protests over Israel's handling of hostage crisis and Gaza war
Thousands have gathered in Tel Aviv in a massive anti-government protest against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his cabinet’s handling of the hostage crisis and Israel’s war on Gaza.
Here are some images and videos coming through social media of the protest:
💥In Tel Aviv, "Elections now!"
— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي💙 (@NTarnopolsky) January 20, 2024
"Netanyahu - our downfall! Leave!
We will rebuild our country ourselves!"
(Dana Ra'ani) pic.twitter.com/429KczCS5l
💥Masses in Tel Aviv. These rallies are how hovering between "Bring Them Home!" to "Go Home!" pic.twitter.com/ctdNWvKkJ1
— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي💙 (@NTarnopolsky) January 20, 2024
HAPPENING NOW IN TEL AVIV! The largest rally we had against this war and for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Thousands of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel are marching now demanding a ceasefire agreement, the release of the hostages and the end of the killing in Gaza. Wow. pic.twitter.com/mzHAo6AKuL
— Alon-Lee Green - ألون-لي جرين - אלון-לי גרין 🟣 (@AlonLeeGreen) January 18, 2024
Updated
UN chief: denial of Palestinian statehood 'unacceptable'
Palestinian people’s right to statehood “must be recognized by all”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Uganda on Saturday.
“The refusal to accept a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable,” Guterres said.
Such a stance “would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security, exacerbate polarization and embolden extremists everywhere”, he warned.
“The right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.”
Guterres’s comments come as Israeli attacks across Gaza since 7 October have killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians while displacing close to 2 million survivors.
Updated
Joe Biden said a two-state solution is still possible after a call with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who previously publicly said that he rejects a Palestinian state.
The Guardian’s Jason Burke reports:
Joe Biden has said the creation of an independent state for Palestinians was still possible while Benjamin Netanyahu was still in office, following a call with the Israeli prime minister on Friday.
The US president spoke to Netanyahu for the first time in nearly a month about differences over a future Palestinian state, as well as Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, where the Palestinian death toll is approaching 25,000, according to local health authorities.
Early on Saturday, witnesses reported further Israeli bombardment on Khan Younis, the largest city in Gaza’s south, although Palestinian media also reported intense fire around Jabalia in the north.
The leaders’ call came a day after Netanyahu said in a televised press conference in Israel that he had told US officials in plain terms that he will not support a Palestinian state as part of any postwar plan.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
Unicef communication specialist Tess Ingram has released a dispatch from Gaza, saying: “Humanity cannot allow this warped version of normal to persist any longer.”
Speaking from the Emirati hospital in Gaza, Ingram said:
The situation is very desperate. Some of the mother’s haven’t made it through giving birth.
#Gaza: "Humanity cannot allow this warped version of normal to persist any longer"-Tess Ingram, @UNICEF Communication Specialist pic.twitter.com/E7bVg0Yp8n
— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) January 20, 2024
Two mothers are killed every hour, the UN estimates, as Israeli strikes continue to destroy the Gaza strip, leaving nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced.
Updated
US personnel suffered minor injuries and a member of Iraq’s security forces was seriously wounded after an attack on Iraq’s Ain al-Asad airbase on Saturday, Reuters reports a US official saying.
Speaking anonymously, the official said that initial reports indicated that the base was struck by ballistic missiles but left open the possibility that it may have been hit by rockets.
Fifth Iran Revolutionary Guards member killed in Israeli strike in Syria
A fifth member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been killed in an Israeli missile strike in Syria on Saturday, Reuters reports.
According to a Revolutionary Guards statement, Amin Samadi “fell as a martyr after being among those wounded in today’s Zionist terrorist crime in Damascus”.
Earlier on Saturday, the Revolutionary Guards confirmed that four guards were killed in the attack.
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society teams helped evacuate five critically injured individuals from al-Shifa hospital to the European hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on Saturday.
In a post on X, the PRCS added that seven more individuals were transported from Gaza City to the Rafah crossing to reunite with their families on the Egyptian side.
⭕️The Palestine Red Crescent teams, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, evacuated 5 critically injured individuals from Al-Shifa Hospital to the European Hospital in #KhanYounis today.
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 20, 2024
📌Additionally, seven citizens, including four children…
Updated
Summary
It is 6.05pm in Gaza City, Beirut and Tel Aviv, 7.05pm in Damascus and 7.35pm in Tehran. Here are the updates so far on Saturday:
Iran has condemned a missile strike that killed four members of its Revolutionary Guards in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday as a “desperate attempt to spread instability in region”. Iran has blamed Israel for the attack but there was no immediate comment from Israel. Foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Iran “resreserves its right to respond”. Several members of Syrian armed forces were also killed in the airstrike on the Mazzeh neighbourhood.
Senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq on Saturday dismissed comments by the US president, Joe Biden, about the possibility of Israel agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state, reports AFP. “Biden is a full partner in the genocidal war and our people do not expect any good from him,” he said. It comes after Biden and Netanyahu held their first call since 23 December and discussed a postwar future for Palestinians which have suggested a rift between the two allies.
Israel’s president, Benjamin Netanyahu, has appeared to push back against US president Joe Biden’s remarks about Palestinian statehood after the war against Hamas in Gaza ends in a statement published by his office on Saturday. Asked to clarify whether Netanyahu was opposed to any kind of Palestinian statehood, his office did not immediately respond.
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed two members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas as they were traveling in a car, three security sources in Lebanon told Reuters.
Iran’s IRGC commanders and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group are on the ground in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, four regional and two Iranian sources told Reuters. Kanaani had repeatedly denied Tehran is involved in the Red Sea attacks by the Houthis, while the Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam denied any Iranian or Hezbollah involvement in helping to direct the Red Sea attacks.
Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Saturday while its planes dropped leaflets on the southern area of Rafah urging Palestinians seeking refuge there to help locate hostages held by Hamas.
Palestinian fighters battled tanks trying to push back into the eastern suburbs of the Jabalia area in northern Gaza, where Israel had started pulling out troops and shifting to smaller-scale operations.
In the southern area of Khan Younis, where Israel says it has expanded its operations against Hamas, witnesses said tanks shelled areas around Nasser hospital overnight, describing the bombardment as the most intense in many days. The Israeli military said that in Khan Younis, it raided a military compound, neutralised ready-to-use rocket launchers and found explosives stashed underground while an aircraft struck two gunmen there.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the residence of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Friday night, calling for the immediate release of all hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack on 7 October.
At least 22 Palestinians, including a woman and children, were arrested overnight in occupied West Bank by Israeli forces. The Palestinian Prisoners Club said the arrests were carried out in Hebron, Nablus, Tubas, Bethlehem, Jenin and Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza “remains dire”, with people returning to “primitive methods for food preparation and general hygiene”. It also said the situation had been “exacerbated by the continuous Israeli blockade hindering aid delivery”.
Two Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli bombing of the al-Amal neighbourhood in the city of Khan Younis, bringing the number of victims of shelling in several areas in the city since dawn on Friday to 18 dead and dozens wounded.
The Cyprus government is facing growing criticism over British military bases on the island being used by UK and US forces to stage airstrikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The UK’s shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has described Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state when the war in Gaza ends as “unacceptable”. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, he said: “We are committed to the recognition of a Palestinian state. We want to work with international partners to achieve that.”
Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip, told Al Jazeera that Israel had targeted the healthcare system since the very beginning of the war on 7 October and that aid entering the area “does not meet basic health needs”.
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 165 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 280 injured in the past 24 hours.
Updated
Iran condemns deadly strike on Syria and says it 'reserves right to respond'
Iran’s foreign ministry condemned a missile strike that killed four members of its Revolutionary Guards in Syria on Saturday as a “desperate attempt to spread instability in region”, reported Reuters, citing Iranian state media. Iran has blamed Israel for the attack but there was no immediate comment from Israel, reported Reuters.
“Iran … reserves its right to respond to the organised terrorism of the fake Zionist regime at the appropriate time and place,” the foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, was quoted by state media as saying. He also urged foreign countries and international organisations to condemn the attack.
AFP reported that Kanaani decried “frequent violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and an escalation in aggressive and provocative attacks” by Israel.
Updated
Iran’s IRGC commanders and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group are on the ground in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, four regional and two Iranian sources told Reuters.
Iran, which has armed, trained and funded the Houthis, stepped up its weapons supplies to the militia as a result of the war in Gaza, which erupted after the Iranian-backed militants Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, the four regional sources said.
Tehran has provided advanced drones, anti-ship cruise missiles, precision-strike ballistic missiles and medium-range missiles to the Houthis, who started targeting commercial vessels in November in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the sources told Reuters.
IRGC commanders and advisers are also providing knowhow, data and intelligence support to determine which of the dozens of vessels travelling through the Red Sea each day are destined for Israel and constitute Houthi targets, all the sources said.
“The Revolutionary Guards have been helping the Houthis with military training (on advanced weapons),” an Iranian insider told Reuters. “A group of Houthi fighters were in Iran last month and were trained in an IRGC base in central Iran to get familiar with the new technology and the use of missiles.”
The person said Iranian commanders had travelled to Yemen as well and set up a command centre in the capital Sana’a for the Red Sea attacks which is being run by the senior IRGC commander responsible for Yemen.”
Washington said last month that Iran was deeply involved in planning operations against shipping in the Red Sea and that its intelligence was critical to enable the Houthis to target ships.
In response to a request for comment by Reuters, the White House pointed to its previous public comments about how Iran had been supporting the Houthis.
In his weekly news conferences, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, had repeatedly denied Tehran is involved in the Red Sea attacks by the Houthis. The IRGC public relations office did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdulsalam, denied any Iranian or Hezbollah involvement in helping to direct the Red Sea attacks. A Hezbollah spokesperson did not respond to a request by Reuters for comment.
Updated
Aid entering Gaza 'does not meet basic health needs', says health ministry
Ashraf al-Qudra, the spokesperson for the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip, has told Al Jazeera that Israel has targeted the healthcare system since the very beginning of the war on 7 October and that aid entering the area “does not meet basic health needs”.
“The aid entering the Gaza Strip does not meet basic health needs,” he said. “We try to differentiate between cases among the wounded and sick to save who we can.”
He added that Israel controls the mechanism for the exit of patients who urgently require medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, Unicef described the Gaza Strip as “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child”. Its deputy executive director, Ted Chaiban, said in statement released after visiting the area in regards to aid that Unicef was “trying to drip assistance through a straw to meet an ocean of need”. He said:
Before the conflict more than 500 trucks entered the Gaza Strip every day. When I was there in November, about 60 aid trucks a day entered. Now, it is about 130 trucks a day alongside an average of 30 commercial trucks a day. This is with the opening of a second crossing point but it still remains wholly inadequate. We are trying to drip assistance through a straw to meet an ocean of need.
The charity ActionAid UK, on Friday criticised the “confusing and arbitrary rules about the type of aid permitted to enter Gaza”. The charity said this had resulted in thousands of essential items being stopped at border crossings and prevented from reaching those who desperately need it, as well as increasing the time spent on screening trucks, leading to a backlog at the border.
Updated
Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Gaza and Israel:
Updated
Cyprus faces backlash over use of British bases to bomb Houthis
The Cyprus government is facing growing criticism over British military bases on the island being used by UK and US forces to stage airstrikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
President Nicos Christodoulides has been accused by activists of turning a blind eye to the risks the EU’s most easterly state might confront if the strategic facilities on the island continue to be used in military operations.
The Guardian has learned that both the US ambassador and British high commissioner briefed the Cypriot president of imminent military action in Yemen before the first round of airstrikes last week.
“There are ever more war planes taking off every day,” Tassos Costeas, a prominent Greek Cypriot peace activist, said. “The dangers of Cyprus becoming a target are evident.”
Updated
The UK’s shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has described Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state when the war in Gaza ends as “unacceptable”.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, he echoed Keir Starmer’s reaction to the Israeli prime minister’s stance. Lammy said: “We are committed to the recognition of a Palestinian state. We want to work with international partners to achieve that.”
He said the US president, Joe Biden, was right to have committed to working towards helping the Palestinians move towards statehood.
“And I have to say, I think Netanyahu’s words were unacceptable,” he added. “Of course, the Palestinian people deserve a state, and if they don’t, the consequence of that is either one state in which Benjamin Netanyahu would have to explain how Palestinians and Israelis live side by-side with equal rights, or no state, in which what he is really saying is occupation, and siege continues.”
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared to push back against Joe Biden’s remarks about Palestinian statehood after the war against Hamas in Gaza ends.
The US president said on Friday he had spoken with the Israeli prime minister about possible solutions for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, suggesting one path could involve a non-militarised government.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office on Saturday said:
In his conversation with President Biden, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that after Hamas is destroyed Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty.
Asked to clarify whether Netanyahu was opposed to any kind of Palestinian statehood, his office did not immediately respond.
Biden’s call with Netanyahu was the first in nearly a month, the White House said. Asked if a two-state solution was “impossible” while Netanyahu was in office, Biden said: “No, it’s not.”
He said Netanyahu was not opposed to all two-state solutions, and there were a number of types possible.
Netanyahu has stopped short of outright and explicit rejection of Palestinian statehood. But on Thursday he said that in the foreseeable future:
With an accord or without an accord, Israel must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River. That’s a necessary condition. It clashes with the principle of sovereignty but what can you do.”
US-backed peace talks towards the two-state solution, which would involve Israel existing next to a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, collapsed a decade ago.
Updated
Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have protested overnight outside the home of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The protesters said in a statement that after begging the government for 105 days to show leadership, families are now demanding bold steps to free the more than 100 remaining captives, AP reports.
In Gaza, residents reported heavy bombardment and fighting between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops around the southern city of Khan Younis and the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya in the territory’s north.
Netanyahu is under pressure to appease his rightwing governing coalition by intensifying the war. He also faces growing calls for restraint from the United States and the families of hostages.
Updated
Hamas dismisses Biden comments on Palestinian state
A senior Hamas official on Saturday dismissed comments by the US president, Joe Biden, about the possibility of Israel agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state, reports AFP.
On Friday Biden said it was still possible that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, could agree to some form of Palestinian state after the two leaders spoke by phone for the first time in nearly a month.
“The illusion that Biden is preaching about a state of Palestine and its characteristics does not fool our people,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a statement. “Biden is a full partner in the genocidal war and our people do not expect any good from him.”
Biden said after the call that it was possible that Netanyahu could become open to some form of two-state solution, one of them involving a non-militarised Palestinian government. “There are a number of types of two-state solutions. There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that … don’t have their own militaries,” Biden told reporters after an event at the White House.
The call between Biden and Netanyahu came a day after the Israeli leader said he opposes allowing Palestinian sovereignty as the war in Gaza shows no signs of letting up.
Updated
Israeli tank shelling around Nasser hospital is the 'most intense in many days', say witnesses
Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Saturday while its planes dropped leaflets on the southern area of Rafah urging Palestinians seeking refuge there to help locate hostages held by Hamas, reports Reuters.
The leaflets showed photos of 33 hostages, their names written in Arabic, urging the displaced to make contact. “Do you want to return home? Please make the call if you recognise one of them,” the leaflets read.
More than 100 of the hostages seized by Hamas were freed during a short-lived November truce. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, 27 of whom have been killed in captivity.
Palestinian fighters battled tanks trying to push back into the eastern suburbs of the Jabalia area in northern Gaza, where Israel had started pulling out troops and shifting to smaller-scale operations, witnesses and militants told Reuters.
The Israeli military said aircraft struck militant squads trying to plant explosives near troops and fire missiles at tanks in northern Gaza and said it was striking targets throughout Gaza.
In the southern area of Khan Younis, where Israel says it has expanded its operations against Hamas, witnesses said tanks shelled areas around Nasser hospital overnight, describing the bombardment as the most intense in many days.
Israel says Hamas fighters operate from in and around hospitals, including Nasser, which Hamas and medical staff deny, though Israel has presented some footage and photos backing its claims. Nasser is the biggest hospital still partly working in Gaza.
According to Reuters, the Israeli military said that in Khan Younis, it raided a military compound, neutralised ready-to-use rocket launchers and found explosives stashed underground while an aircraft struck two gunmen there.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, Syria and Spain.
Updated
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed two Hamas members, says security source
An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed two members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas as they were traveling in a car, three security sources in Lebanon told Reuters.
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes on southern Lebanon against Palestinian militant groups based there and on their Lebanese ally Hezbollah, a powerful armed group, which have fired rockets across the border at Israel.
Updated
The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has described Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state when the war in the Middle East ends as “unacceptable”.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he echoed Keir Starmer’s reaction to Netanyahu’s stance. Lammy said: “We are committed to the recognition of a Palestinian state. We want to work with international partners to achieve that.”
He said the US president, Joe Biden, was right to have committed to working towards helping the Palestinians move towards statehood.
At least 22 Palestinians arrested in occupied West Bank overnight
At least 22 Palestinians, including a woman and children, were arrested overnight in occupied West Bank by Israeli forces, Al Jazeera reports citing information from the Palestinian Prisoners Club. This brings the total number of arrested Palestinians since 7 October to at least 6,115.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents former and current prisoners, said the arrests were carried out in Hebron, Nablus, Tubas, Bethlehem, Jenin and Jerusalem and “were accompanied by widespread raids and abuse, in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction of citizens’ homes, the destruction of infrastructure, and the confiscation of money and vehicles”.
Updated
Dozens of protesters gather outside Netanyahu's residence calling for immediate release of all hostages
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the residence of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Friday night, calling for the immediate release of all hostages kidnapped during the Hamas attack on 7 October, reports Israel’s left-leaning daily newspaper, Haaretz.
Protesters stood or sat in silence, while several held up pictures of relatives held in Gaza. According to Haaretz, police let the protesters approach within 100 metres of Netanyahu’s house, up to the security booth at the entrance.
Updated
Four Iranian Revolutionary Guards confirmed killed in Damascus airstrike
Iran has confirmed that four members of its Revolutionary Guards have been killed in Saturday’s missile strike on Damascus. Several members of Syrian armed forces were also killed, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement, reported by Al Jazeera:
Once more the criminal Zionist regime has moved to violate the city of Damascus, the Syrian capital, and during an airstrike by the fighter jets of the invading and occupying regime a number of Syrian forces and four military advisers of the Islamic Republic of Iran were martyred.”
Al Jazeera added that Iranian state television had called it a “terrorist” attack by Israel. The news organisation also reports that one of the IRGC killed was believed to be the head of the intelligence department of the Quds force, the most elite unit of the IRGC.
The Iranian state-owned news network, Press TV, published footage that it said showed the “extensive devastation” caused by the strike in the Mazzeh neighbourhood on Saturday:
New footage shows the extensive devastation caused by an Israeli attack in the Western Mezzeh Villas suburb in Damascus pic.twitter.com/BueiMQbI2V
— Press TV (@PressTV) January 20, 2024
Updated
Five killed in Damascus building strike where 'Iran-aligned leaders were meeting', says war monitor
A likely Israeli strike on Damascus killed five people in a building where “Iran-aligned leaders” were meeting on Saturday, a war monitor said, according to a report from the international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“An Israeli missile strike targeted a four-storey building, killing five people … and destroying the whole building where Iran-aligned leaders were meeting,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
The British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria said the targeted Mazzeh neighbourhood is known to be a high-security zone home to leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards and pro-Iran Palestinian factions. The area is also home to the UN’s headquarters, embassies and restaurants.
“They were for sure targeting senior members,” of those groups, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of SOHR.
In preliminary toll | Five persons kil-led by Israeli missile targeting building in Damascus#SOHRhttps://t.co/LIDiROtYHk
— المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان (@syriahr) January 20, 2024
The mid-morning strike on Saturday, which caused a large plume of smoke to billow into the sky, was also reported by Syrian state media.
“An attack targeted a residential building in the Mazzeh neighbourhood in Damascus, resulting from an Israeli aggression,” the Syrian state news agency Sana reported. It did not say if there were any casualties.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off with ambulances, firefighters and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site. Civil defence were busy searching for survivors under the rubble of the totally collapsed building, he added.
“I heard the explosion clearly in the western Mazzeh area, and I saw a large cloud of smoke,” a resident told AFP. “The sound was similar to a missile explosion and minutes later I heard the sound of ambulances.”
In December, an Israeli airstrike killed Razi Moussavi, a high-ranking Iranian general.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes targeting Syria, reports AFP, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, which backs the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government, to expand its presence there.
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The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has said the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza “remains dire”, with people returning to “primitive methods for food preparation and general hygiene”. It also said the situation had been “exacerbated by the continuous Israeli blockade hindering aid delivery”.
⭕️ The humanitarian crisis in #Gaza and the northern governorates remains dire, exacerbated by the continuous Israeli blockade hindering aid delivery. 📍With 800,000 Palestinians grappling with a severe scarcity of essential supplies. 📌Colleague Mohammed Abu Msabeh sheds light… pic.twitter.com/RF5f0GbJWI
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 20, 2024
In a post on X, the PRCS quoted Mohammed Abu Msbeh, its director of ambulances and emergency centres in the Gaza Strip, as saying:
People have returned to primitive methods for food preparation and general hygiene, to make bread.
The daily struggle for water is a daily torment for Gaza residents to secure life-sustaining droplets, who stand in large crowds for hours with containers.
The level of pollution in Gaza and the north raises alarming concerns about consecutive and serious health threats, as well as the potential spread of epidemics.”
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Further updates on the news of a likely Israeli missile strike that destroyed a building in Damascus and reportedly killed a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have come in on Reuters.
Essam al-Amin, head of the al-Mowasat hospital in Damascus, told the local Syrian outlet al-Watan that his hospital had received one corpse and three wounded people, including a woman, after Saturday’s attack.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) told Reuters that no members of their group were wounded in the strike, after reports that some were at the bombed-out building.
Reuters earlier reported that a security source in the regional pro-Syria alliance told the news agency that the strike on Saturday killed a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and wounded others. The security source, part of a network of groups close to Syria’s government and its major ally Iran, said the multistorey building struck was used by Iranian advisers supporting the government of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. The source said it had been entirely flattened by “precision-targeted Israeli missiles” on Saturday.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, reported Reuters.
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165 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, says health ministry
The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 165 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 280 injured in the past 24 hours.
Reuters reported that a total of 24,927 Palestinians had been killed and 62,388 had been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.
The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
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Iranian Guards official killed in Damascus strike, says regional pro-Syria alliance
We have another update from Reuters on the breaking news that a likely Israeli attack had targeted a residential building in Damascus on Saturday.
A source in the regional pro-Syria alliance told Reuters that the strike had killed a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and wounded others.
The source said the multi storey building was used by Iranian advisers supporting Syria’s government and that it was entirely flattened. Citing Syrian state media, Reuters report it taking place in the Mazzeh neighbourhood. Other local media in Syria reported explosions heard across the capital.
At least 18 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombings since dawn
Al Jazeera reports that at least 18 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombings since dawn. The information has come in via its journalists in the area – Al Jazeera is one of the few news organisations with a functioning bureau in Gaza.
The news organisation said two Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli bombing on al-Amal neighbourhood in the city of Khan Younis, bringing the number of victims of shelling on several areas in the city since dawn on Friday to 18 dead and dozens wounded.
An Al Jazeera correspondent reported that the vicinity of al-Shifa hospital, including residential complexes where a large number of civilians live, was subjected to Israeli air and artillery bombardment. They added that a number of the injured have not yet been recovered from the scene.
Al Jazeera also reported that Israeli forces blew up a residential square in the al-Balad area in the centre of Khan Younis city and that houses and facilities were also blown up in the Bani Suheila area in the east of the city. The news organisation cited footage that showed smoke rising from those areas as a result of the bombings carried out by the Israeli occupying forces.
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Reuters has posted a breaking news snap on Syrian state media saying there has been a likely Israeli attack on a residential building in Damascus.
We’ll have more details as they emerge.
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Health services in Gaza are “decimated”, with medical staff exhausted after three months of war forced to extract shrapnel without adequate pain relief, conduct amputations without anaesthetics and watch children die of cancers because of a lack of facilities and medicine.
Dozens of interviews with doctors and medical administrators in Gaza reveal a catastrophic and deteriorating situation as health services struggle to cope with tens of thousands of casualties of the continuing Israeli offensive in the territory and the effects of the acute humanitarian crisis.
Attention has focused on the direct casualties of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, but medical specialists are increasingly concerned about indirect victims of the war.
Tens of thousands in Gaza with chronic life-threatening illnesses have gone without treatment for months, and are now “without defences”, their bodies’ weakened by malnutrition, cold and fatigue, doctors say. In one incident described to the Guardian, a child with a brain condition died hours before a UN team arrived with vital medicine.
Cancer specialists said they had been unable to treat patients in desperate need, including children with leukaemia or tumours requiring immediate life-saving surgery.
Dr Subhi Sukeyk, the director general of oncology for Gaza, said:
We have nothing to give them. We cannot operate and we have no drugs at all.
Of the 36 hospitals in Gaza only 15 remain open, and only three are undamaged.
See the full story here:
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On Thursday morning the Iranian news website Entekhab ran, without irony, the headline: “Taliban call on Pakistan and Iran to show restraint and urge both sides to settle differences through diplomatic means”.
If proof were needed that a new, more dangerous world order may be upon us, the Taliban cast in the role of advocates for restraint seems conclusive.
Each day this week evidence mounted that the long-feared moment of escalation born out of the destabilising war in Gaza had arrived. The scenes in Gaza were too raw, and the geopolitical consequences for the conflict too vast, to remain confined within its borders.
Last weekend, four waves of US missile strikes, some involving the UK, hit the ports and inland strongholds of the Houthis in Yemen. On Monday, Iran fired 24 missiles at an alleged Israeli spy centre in Erbil, in Kurdish northern Iraq, and at the same time struck Islamic State sites in Idlib, northern Syria. By Tuesday, Iran had broken new ground by striking Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni separatist group operating in Pakistan close to Iran’s border.
Within 48 hours Pakistani forces said they “successfully struck hideouts used by terrorist organisations, namely Balochistan Liberation Army and Balochistan Liberation Front in Iran itself”.
All the while, Hezbollah and Israel exchanged now familiar rocket fire on the southern Lebanese border, so much so that the Israeli chief of staff admitted the possibility of all-out war was increasing.
For all of this analysis on pockets of war multiplying across the region and increasing the risk of the conflict becoming more intractable, see here:
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Biden voices hope for two-state solution as Israel pounds southern Gaza
Israel continued its strikes in the south of the Gaza Strip on Saturday after the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the US president, Joe Biden, discussed their differences over a post-war future for Palestinians which have suggested a rift between the two allies.
Agence France-Presse reports that witnesses said the Israeli bombardment was again focused overnight on Khan Younis, the largest city in Hamas-controlled Gaza’s south, although Palestinian media also reported intense fire around Jabalia in the north early on Saturday.
Biden and Netanyahu held their first call since 23 December, a day after the Israeli leader reiterated his rejection of any form of Palestinian sovereignty, deepening divisions with Israel’s key backer over the war.
While the two leaders spoke of what might come next, the reality of the war was all too clear in Khan Younis and elsewhere in the Hamas-controlled territory. A child with a bloodied face cried on a gurney at al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, while ambulances carrying the wounded and the dead arrived to the sound of automatic weapons in the distance.
However, Biden said after Friday’s call with Netanyahu that it was possible the Israeli leader might still come around, telling reporters:
There are a number of types of two-state solutions. There’s a number of countries that are members of the UN that ... don’t have their own militaries. And so, I think there’s ways in which this could work.
Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel “must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River”, which “contradicts the idea of [Palestinian] sovereignty”.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had said in Davos a day earlier that Israel could not achieve “genuine security” without a “pathway to a Palestinian state”.
Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis – this is Adam Fulton with a rundown on all the latest news.
Israel continued its attacks in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday after the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the US president, Joe Biden, discussed their differences over a post-war future for Palestinians which have suggested a rift between the two allies.
Witnesses said the Israeli bombardment was again focused overnight on Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s largest city, while Palestinian media also reported intense fire around Jabalia in the north early on Saturday.
Biden and Netanyahu held their first call in nearly a month, a day after the Israeli leader reiterated his rejection of any form of Palestinian sovereignty.
But Biden said after Friday’s call that the creation of an independent state for Palestinians was not impossible while Netanyahu was still in office, saying he spoke with the Israeli prime minister about possible solutions for the creation of such a state, noting that not all countries have their own militaries.
“And so I think there’s ways in which this could work,” Biden said.
More on that story shortly. In other key developments as its turns 8.40am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
As Israeli forces have moved further into southern Gaza, airstrikes and close-combat fighting are approaching areas crowded with more than a million people seeking refuge from the destruction across the rest of the territory. The prospect of major operations taking place in territory with such a dense and vulnerable population is “deeply concerning”, say aid officials, who fear Gaza’s largest remaining hospital may have to be closed or evacuated.
The US central command said its forces conducted strikes against three Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch. The US has been launching strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, and this week returned the Iran-backed Yemen-based group to a list of “terrorist” groups. The Houthis said on Friday they did not intend to expand their attacks on shipping in and around the Red Sea, beyond their stated aims of blockading Israel and retaliating against the US and Britain for airstrikes.
Gaza’s main internet provider, Paltel, said communication services across the Palestinian territory were gradually returning after a nearly eight-day outage, the longest blackout since the war began. Paltel said two of its technical team members lost their lives as a result of “direct shelling” during recent repair operations, bringing the number of its employees killed to 14 since the start of the conflict.
A senior minister in the Israeli war cabinet has said that only a ceasefire deal can win the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, and that Israel is unlikely to achieve its aim of “total victory” over the militant Islamist group. Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces, launched a blistering attack on Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the campaign against Hamas and failure to take responsibility for the failures that led to the Palestinian militant group’s bloody attack on Israel in October.
Health services in Gaza are “decimated”, with medical staff exhausted after three months of war forced to extract shrapnel without adequate pain relief, conduct amputations without anaesthetics and watch children die of cancers due to a lack of facilities and medicine, doctors say.
Pakistan’s political and military leaders have moved to de-escalate tensions with Iran after trading deadly airstrikes on militant targets in each other’s territory. Pakistan’s foreign minister, Jalil Abbas Jilani, spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and they agreed that “close coordination on counter-terrorism and other aspects of mutual concern should be strengthened”, according to a readout from Islamabad’s foreign ministry.
Hezbollah’s number two leader has warned Israel against expanding the conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border, where there have been near daily exchanges of cross-border fire between the Israeli army and the Iran-backed militant group. Naim Qassem said in a statement on Friday: “If Israel decides to expand its aggression, it will receive a real slap in the face in response.” Any restoration of stability on the border was contingent on “the end of the aggression in Gaza”, he added.
Leading progressive and Jewish members of Congress have criticised the US’s “unconditional support” for Israel after Benjamin Netanyahu declared bluntly that he was opposed to a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza and directly rejected American policy. Meanwhile, 60 of President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats have signed a letter urging his administration to reaffirm that the US strongly opposes “the forced and permanent displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza.
The White House said it was “seriously concerned” about reports that a Palestinian-American teenager had been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank. US-born Tawfiq Ajaq, 17, was killed by Israeli security forces in Al-Mazraa Al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, according to reports.
Swiss prosecutors have confirmed that the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, is the subject of “criminal complaints” filed during his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. A statement allegedly issued by the people behind the complaint said the plaintiffs were seeking a criminal prosecution in parallel to a case brought before the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) by South Africa, which accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza.
The European Union has added six individuals to an asset freeze and visa ban blacklist for financing Hamas. The new EU sanctions framework targets “any individual or entity who supports, facilitates or enables violent actions by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad”, a statement said.
EU foreign ministers will hold a series of meetings on Monday with counterparts from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and key Arab nations about the war in Gaza and prospects for a future peace settlement. The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, and his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, are not expected to meet each other.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has accused the Israeli government of financing Hamas in an effort to weaken the Palestinian Authority. Benjamin Netanyahu has denied accusations by his opponents in Israel and some global media who have accused his government of spending years actively boosting Hamas, including by allowing Qatari financing of Gaza.
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