Monday, December 11, 2023
18:07 GMT –– The situation in Gaza is "catastrophic, apocalyptic", with destruction proportionally "even greater" than that which Germany experienced in World War II, the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell has said.
Israel's military response to Hamas's October 7 attacks has resulted in "an incredible number of civilian casualties", Borrell said after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
He said the EU was also "alarmed by the violence in the West Bank by extremist settlers" and condemned the Israeli government's decision to approve 1,700 more housing units in Jerusalem, in what Brussels considers a violation of international law.
19:29 GMT –– ‘Bloodshed in Gaza will continue,’ says Russia on US veto of UNSC resolution
The US veto last week of a United Nations Security Council resolution requesting an urgent humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza means that "bloodshed will continue,” Russia has said.
More than 17,000 people have so far lost their lives in Israel's attacks on Gaza, and last Friday the US vetoed a resolution requesting an urgent humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, said a Russian Foreign Ministry statement.
"This means that horrific bloodshed and catastrophic destruction will continue to occur by one country's decision," the statement added.
18:53 GMT –– Israel has no intention on staying permanently in Gaza: defence minister
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said that Israel had no intention of staying permanently in Gaza and that it was open to discussing alternatives about who would control the territory, as long as it was not a group hostile to Israel.
"Israel will take any measures in order to destroy Hamas, but we have no intention to stay permanently in the Gaza Strip. We only take care of our security and the security of our citizens alongside the border with Gaza," Gallant told reporters.
Gallant also said that Israel was open to possibly reaching an agreement with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, on condition any agreement included a safe zone along the border and proper guarantees.
He also called for keeping the West Bank quiet until the end of the Gaza war.
18:50 GMT –– White House 'concerned' at reports Israel used white phosphorus in Lebanon attack
The United States is concerned about reports Israel used US-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon, White House spokesperson John Kirby has said.
"We've seen the reports. Certainly concerned about that. We'll be asking questions to try to learn a little bit more," Kirby told reporters on Air Force One.
Kirby said white phosphorus has a "legitimate military utility" for illumination and producing smoke to conceal movements.
"Obviously any time that we provide items like white phosphorous to another military, it is with the full expectation that it will be used in keeping with those legitimate purposes ... and in keeping with the law of armed conflict," he said.
18:01 GMT –– UN refugee agency calls for ‘uninterrupted’ assistance to Gaza
The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency has called for bringing “uninterrupted” assistance to Gaza.
"In Gaza, we have to bring assistance at scale, it needs to be uninterrupted and meaningful, and until now it hasn’t been,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in statements ahead of entering Gaza via the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
15:23 GMT –– Gaza death toll from Israeli attacks climbs to 18,205
The Health Ministry in Gaza has said the death toll from Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territory has risen to at least 18,205.
Some 49,645 people have been wounded since October 7, ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qudra said in a statement.
15:23 GMT –– Netanyahu lost confidence of Israeli public: Opposition leader
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lost the confidence of the Israeli public.
“We are two months into the war and the State of Israel still has no plans for the day after the war,” Lapid said during a meeting of his Yesh Atid Party cited by The Times of Israel newspaper.
“There is no organised diplomatic effort during the war, there is no united public diplomacy system, there is no organised economic plan to cope with the damage to the economy. There is no one who is dealing with reservist soldiers. In short: there is no government,” Lapid said.
“We have a prime minister who has lost the trust of the security establishment, the economic system and the majority of the people, and the world,” he added.
15:20 GMT –– Israeli move to cut Gaza funds from tax revenues ‘collective punishment’: Palestine
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has decried an Israeli decision to withhold the funds allocated for Gaza from the tax revenues as an act of piracy and collective punishment against the Palestinian people.
In a statement, PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Israeli move will have “serious consequences on the services provided by the government to all sectors, especially the health sector.”
“The withholding of Palestinian tax revenues allocated to the Gaza Strip is a war crime,” the spokesman said.
14:20 GMT –– Israeli army says five soldiers killed in southern Gaza
Five Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush set up by the Hamas group in Khan Younis city in southern Gaza, the army has said.
A military statement said the soldiers belonging to the 5th Brigade’s 8111st Battalion were killed when an explosive device was detonated near a school in the city.
According to the army, helicopter gunships and fighter jets were called in to carry out strikes against Palestinian gunmen who had opened fire from the school.
14:03 GMT –– Video shows Israeli soldiers executing injured Palestinian in West Bank
Palestinians have shared footage showing Israeli soldiers executing an injured young man during a military raid in the occupied West Bank.
The video clip shows a group of unarmed Palestinians coming under Israeli fire in Al Far’a refugee camp near the city of Tubas in the northeastern West Bank on Friday.
An injured young man appears lying on the ground as Israeli soldiers advanced towards him before he was shot dead from close range.
12:17 GMT –– France, Belgium ‘concerned’ over high number of casualties in Israeli attacks on Gaza
France and Belgium have expressed concern over a high number of casualties in the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza due to Israeli attacks.
"We are concerned over the ways how military operations are conducted by Israel in Gaza, with a very high number of casualties, and we are also very concerned over the humanitarian situation that becomes very critical," French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said at the doorstep of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.
She stressed the need for a "long-term, durable truce that would lead to a ceasefire."
Colonna also expressed concern over the Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
12:13 GMT –– Neither Iran nor Israel believe in a two-state solution: Iranian FM
The only thing Iran and Israel share is that both do not believe in a two-state solution, Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said via translation at an international forum in Doha.
During the forum, Amirabdollahian reiterated Iran's proposal that a referendum be held to determine the fate of Palestine, with only descendants of those who lived there prior to 1948 being permitted to vote.
Most countries publicly support the creation of a separate Palestinian state alongside Israel. Critics of Israeli policy say its actions are intended to make this impossible.
12:11 GMT –– Russia demands release of hostages in talks with Hamas and other Palestinian groups
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza in telephone calls with Hamas and other Palestinian factions, the Russian foreign ministry has said.
The statement followed a series of meetings and calls between President Vladimir Putin and Middle East leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
12:08 GMT –– Israel airdrops supplies to its forces in southern Gaza
The Israeli army has said it airdropped logistical military supplies to its forces in Khan Younis city in southern Gaza amid fighting with Palestinian resistance fighters.
“During the past few days, a logistical supply operation was carried out, which included dropping about seven tons of logistical supplies for hundreds of soldiers currently fighting in Khan Younis,” the army said in a statement.
“This was the first airdrop operation since the Second Lebanon War" in 2006, the statement said.
11:54 GMT –– 2 Hezbollah members killed in clashes with Israeli forces on Lebanon border
Lebanese group Hezbollah has said that two of its members had been killed in clashes with Israeli forces near the border between Lebanon and Israel.
The group, however, did not provide any details about the circumstances leading to the death of its two members.
Separately, Hezbollah fired six missiles towards Israeli outposts in the occupied Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
According to the broadcaster, the Israeli army shelled the outskirts of the towns of Habbaniyah and al Faradis in response to the missile attack.
11:29 GMT –– EU Diplomats push for new sanctions against Hamas
The French, German and Italian foreign ministers are pushing for speedy adoption of new EU sanctions against Hamas for its “atrocious and indiscriminate terror attacks” against Israel on Oct. 7.
“The swift adoption of this sanctions regime will allow us to send a strong political message about the European Union’s commitment against Hamas and our solidarity with Israel," the three ministers wrote in a letter to Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs.
The letter does not detail possible sanctions but said it should enable the targeting of Hamas members, affiliated groups and supporters. The ministers said they broadly support a framework that Borrell outlined last week.
07:09 GMT –– Strike to protest Israel's war on Gaza paralyses West Bank
A comprehensive strike in the occupied West Bank in protest of Israel's ongoing war on Gaza has paralysed all aspects of life in the occupied territory.
Transportation was disrupted in all provinces of the West Bank, while institutions, banks, schools, ministries and shops shut their doors, and the local stock market was suspended as well, according to an Anadolu correspondent.
The strike coincides with a global call for a strike in solidarity with Gaza.
06:59 GMT — Israel continues to forcibly displace hundreds of Palestinians in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, which is under intense air and ground attacks by Israeli forces.
Following threats from the Israeli army to target civilian settlements, many Palestinians from the eastern areas of Khan Younis were forcibly displaced to a "humanitarian zone" in the Al Mawasi area close to the city.
Areas in the east such as Cura al Lut, Ash-Sheikh Nasir, Al Ketibeh and Jalal Street along with the western region of 5th Street in Khan Younis have been subjected to intense Israeli bombardment in recent days.
06:29 GMT — Israeli attacks in Gaza claim 11 lives
The Israeli army attacked the southern city of Rafah and the Nuseirat refugee camp in the blockaded Gaza, killing 11 civilians and wounding dozens of others.
Israeli warplanes bombed a house in the Tel al Sultan neighborhood of Rafah. Six Palestinians were killed, most of them children, and many others were wounded, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
In an attack on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, five Palestinians lost their lives, including three children. There were also many wounded in an attack on the Al Bassa neighbourhood of Deir al Balah.
06:23 GMT — Gaza's southern city under intense Israeli bombing
Israeli tanks were trying to push further west in and around Khan Younis and bombed the city, as they met resistance amid intense combat in a war that has now entered its third month and with no end in sight.
Khan Younis, the main city in the southern Gaza has a population of around 626,000 including people displaced by Israeli bombing in the north, comes as Israel refocused its war effort to the south.
06:16 GMT — International Union of Muslim Scholars calls for global strike in solidarity with Gaza
The International Union of Muslim Scholars has called for a global strike on Monday to demand an immediate ceasefire as Israel continues its attacks in Gaza.
The statement called on people worldwide, especially in the Islamic world, to take part and urged institutions, parties, movements and influential figures globally to continue the strike until its objectives are achieved, aiming to stop the "unjust" war and save innocent lives.
It noted the success of boycotts and humanitarian efforts but highlighted the UN Security Council's failure to stop Israel's war on Gaza. It suggested a review of the Security Council's veto system, proposing that decisions be based on a simple majority vote.
06:10 GMT — Fighters killed 40 Israeli soldiers in last 48 hours: Hamas
The armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, announced that they killed 40 Israeli soldiers and destroyed 44 military vehicles in the past 48 hours.
"During the last 48 hours, the Qassam fighters managed to completely or partially destroy 44 military vehicles on all fronts of the fighting in Gaza," they said on their Telegram account. "Our fighters confirmed that 40 soldiers were killed and dozens of other Zionist soldiers were wounded," they added.
The statement reported the use of booby traps to destroy buildings, targeting an Israeli field command center, and using mortar shells and short-range rockets against areas where soldiers gathered. Israel has not yet issued a statement regarding the announcement.
06:00 GMT — Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians 'unacceptable': Russia
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that it is "unacceptable" for Israel to use the October 7 attack by Hamas as a pretext for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Addressing the 21st Doha Forum in Qatar, he called for an international observation mission for Gaza.
He suggested that Hamas's attack on Israel was not unfounded, highlighting that it followed years of blockade and unfulfilled promises for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
