Saturday, January 6 2023
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off his latest urgent Middle East diplomatic mission in Turkey, as fears mount that Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza may explode into a broader conflict.
Blinken’s fourth visit in three months comes amid worrying developments outside of Gaza, including in Lebanon, northern Israel, the Red Sea and Iraq, that have put intense strains on what had been a modestly successful US push to prevent a regional conflagration in the weeks after the war began, and growing international criticism of Israel’s military operation.
Blinken met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss what Turkey and others can do to exert influence, particularly on Iran and its proxies, to ease soaring tensions, speed up humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza and begin in earnest to plan for reconstruction and governance of postwar Gaza, much of which has been reduced to rubble by three months of intense Israeli bombardments.
10:25 GMT - Gaza death toll reaches 22,722: Health Ministry
At least 22,722 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel besieged the Palestinian territory and began its brutal bombardment, the Health Ministry in the enclave said.
In a statement released Saturday, the ministry said it has recorded 122 deaths over the past 24 hours alone.,
The ministry added that a total of 58,166 people have been wounded in Gaza in nearly three months of fighting.
07:49 GMT - Hezbollah fires at Israeli army base to 'avenge' Hamas deputy's killing
Lebanon's Hezbollah has fired more than 60 rockets at an Israeli military base, the group said, describing the barrage as a response to the killing of Hamas's deputy leader in Beirut.
"As part of the initial response to the crime of assassinating the great leader Sheikh Saleh Arouri, the Islamic resistance (Hezbollah) targeted the Meron air control base with 62 various types of missiles," the group said in a statement.
Arouri's killing on Tuesday in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, which a US defence official has told AFP was carried out by Israel, has raised fears of further escalation.
07:00 GMT - About 4% of Gaza's population dead, wounded, missing – Euro-Med
More than 90,000 people, about 4 percent of the population in Gaza, are dead, wounded or missing, a human rights monitor has said.
The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor made the assessment and said Israel's continuous air, land and sea attacks have destroyed about 70% of the civilian infrastructure in Gaza since October 7.
The group accused Israel of making the Gaza uninhabitable.
Hundreds of bodies that cannot be recovered remain on roads, according to Euro-Med, particularly in areas where the Israeli army has conducted ground incursions.
The group said Israel's attacks are an "apparent attempt" to expand its territory to include the entire Gaza, uprooting the vast majority of the population in violation of international law, which, it added, "likely amounts to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide."
05:40 GMT - Rwanda denies talks with Israel to receive displaced Palestinians
Rwanda has denied holding negotiations with Israel regarding the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and their settlement in the African country.
The Rwandan Foreign Ministry said "disinformation" published by Israel media alleging talks between Israel and Rwanda on the possibility of exile of Palestinians from Gaza to Rwanda is "completely false."
"No such discussion has taken place either now or in the past, and the disinformation should be ignored," it said.
05:10 - DRC, Chad deny talks with Israel over expulsion of Palestinians
DRC and Chad also denied holding talks with Israel about the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.
Contrary to what is reported in some media, there has "never been any form of negotiation, discussion or initiative" between Kinshasa and the Israeli state on the alleged reception of expelled Palestinians on Congolese soil, the DRC government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said in a statement late on Thursday.
Israel media recently quoted a senior source in the security Cabinet as saying that Netanyahu's far-right coalition is discreetly exploring the possibility of sending thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to Rwanda and DRC.
04:30 GMT - Israel kills more than a dozen Palestinians in new bombardment
At least 15 Palestinians have been killed in the dawn hours of Saturday and many others wounded , some of them seriously, after Israeli occupation aircraft bombed two houses in Al Hakar area in Deir al Balah in central Gaza and in Al Manara neighbourhood east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, WAFA news agency reported.
Citing sources at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, WAFA reported that from Friday morning until midnight, "35 martyrs and more than 60 wounded, most of them children and women, arrived at the hospital."
For our live updates from Friday, January 5, click here.
