Tuesday, January 2, 2024
17:44 GMT — Six people, including the deputy leader of Hamas, Saleh Al Arouri, were killed in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, state media said, giving a new toll.
"The number of martyrs... has risen to six," in a drone strike that targeted a meeting of Palestinian factions at a Hamas office in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) said.
18:45 GMT — Iran urges UN to take 'urgent, effective response'
Iran said the assassination of Hamas deputy chief Arouri in Beirut is a violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and urged the UN to take an "urgent, effective response".
18:36 GMT — Top UK and US diplomats discuss Houthi attacks, humanitarian situation in Gaza
The top British and American diplomats held a phone call on the rising number of attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on vessels in the Red Sea as well as worsening food insecurity in the besieged Gaza.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the international community’s "shared condemnation of the illegal and unjustified attacks" on commercial shipping in the Red Sea by Houthi militants, said a UK Foreign Office spokesperson in a statement.
"They made clear that the UK and US will work with our partners to hold the Houthis accountable for these unlawful seizures and attacks," said the statement.
The spokesperson said Cameron raised the issue of "worsening food insecurity" in Gaza and the “urgent need for significantly more aid to reach civilians through as many routes as possible."
18:28 GMT — Hamas pulls back from possible deal
Hamas has frozen any discussions on possible truces and exchanges of hostages with Israel, a Palestinian source told Anadolu.
1821 GMT — Lebanon to file complaint against Israel over Beirut attack
Lebanon will file an urgent complaint with the UN Security Council against Israel over the Beirut attack, Prime Minister Najib Mikati says.
19:45 GMT – Gaza death toll climbs to 22,185
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said on Tuesday that at least 22,185 people have been killed in nearly three months of war with Israel.
A ministry statement said Israeli forces had "committed 15 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip" over the past 24 hours, killing 207 people and wounding 338 others.
17:24 GMT — Lebanon PM condemns Israel killing of Hamas deputy leader
Lebanon's prime minister condemned Israel's killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al Arouri in Beirut, saying the attack "aims to draw Lebanon" further into the Israel-Hamas war.
"Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the explosion in the southern suburbs of Beirut that killed and injured many," his office said in a statement.
The attack "aims to draw Lebanon into a new phase of confrontations" with Israel at a time when Hezbollah has been exchanging daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
17:05 GMT – Hamas deputy commander killed in Lebanon
Hamas deputy chief Saleh Arouri was killed in an explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, according to Lebanon's official National News Agency.
The broadcaster said an Israeli drone struck a Hamas office in Mecherfeh in southern Beirut, killing at least three people. A parked car in the area was seen in flames.
There was no comment yet from Lebanese authorities or Hamas on the attack.
16:09 GMT — Israel’s 'arrogance' allowed Oct. 7 Hamas attack, says former premier
Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said Israel’s "arrogance" allowed for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in an interview published today.
"I am certain that Israel had all the intelligence it needed to know what was happening. There were even concrete warnings from friendly intelligence services," Olmert told Spanish daily El Pais. "This was a psychological and intellectual failure, not an intelligence failure."
Olmert explained his theory that Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and alleged mastermind of the attack, understood from his time in an Israeli prison that “Israelis are very arrogant, and they didn’t believe that the Palestinians could have done what they did; that they weren’t sophisticated or wise enough.”
Olmert, who served as Israeli prime minister from 2006 to 2009, and has had past spats with Netanyahu, told El Pais that it seems like the country’s current leader has “lost touch with reality.”
“He lives in a bubble… He has got to go. There is growing distrust of Netanyahu. Every day, more Israelis understand that he is not the solution. He is the problem,” Olmert said.
16:03 GMT — Israel holds bodies of 450 Palestinians: NGO
Israel holds the bodies of 450 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza, according to a local non-governmental organisation.
Among the withheld bodies are 18 belonging to Palestinian detainees, who died inside Israeli jails, the National Campaign for Retrieval of Bodies of Palestinians said in a statement.
The victims “include the bodies of 21 minors, five women and 52 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.
“Israel withheld 101 bodies of Palestinians in 2023, the largest to have been recorded in a year,” it added.
The NGO said the figure does not include the bodies of Palestinians held by Israeli forces in Gaza due to the lack of precise data.
15:10 GMT — Hamas 'open' to one national govt in Gaza, West Bank — Haniya
Hamas chief Ismail Haniya said he is open to a single Palestinian administration to govern Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, and the occupied West Bank.
"We have received numerous initiatives concerning the internal (Palestinian) situation, and we are open to the idea of a national government for the West Bank and Gaza," Haniya said in a televised address.
He also said that hostages abducted from Israel would only be freed from Gaza under conditions set by Hamas.
"The enemy's prisoners will only be released on terms set by the resistance," Haniya added.
13:56 GMT — Israeli army says 31 soldiers injured in Gaza fighting in last 24 hours
The Israeli army said that 31 soldiers were injured in the besieged Gaza over the past 24 hours.
Figures released by the army showed that 983 soldiers had been injured since Israel expanded its ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave on Oct. 27.
According to the figures, 507 soldiers died and 2,265 others injured since the outbreak of the war in October.7
13:14 GMT — Several killed in Israeli bombardment of HQ in Khan Younis: Palestinian Red Crescent
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that "several" people were killed and wounded in the renewed Israeli bombardment of its headquarters in Gaza's Khan Younis.
Israeli fighter jets struck the eighth floor of the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquarters in southern Gaza.
“Several people were killed and injured in the attack that targeted our premises in Khan Younis,” the society said in a statement, without giving an exact figure.
Hundreds of displaced Palestinians had taken shelter at the premises of the humanitarian aid organisation in Khan Younis amid relentless Israeli attacks on the city.
12:35 GMT — 1,600 Israeli soldiers suffer shell-shock symptoms from Gaza war: Report
At least 1,600 Israeli soldiers have developed shell-shock symptoms since Israel expanded its ground offensive in the besieged Gaza on Oct. 27, according to local media.
Data obtained by the Walla news website showed that 76 percent of these soldiers returned to the battlefield after initial treatment in the field.
Nearly 1,000 soldiers, however, did not improve and required further rehabilitation at military centres, data showed. Some 250 Israeli soldiers were discharged from service as they continued to suffer shell-shock symptoms from the war, Walla said.
12:16 GMT — Israel will appear before ICJ to counter South Africa's Gaza case, spokesperson says
Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague to contest South Africa's genocide accusations over the war with Hamas in Gaza, an Israeli government spokesman said.
"The State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at The Hague to dispel South Africa's absurd blood libel," spokesman Eylon Levy said in an online briefing. "We assure South Africa's leaders, history will judge you, and it will judge you without mercy," Levy said.
11:29 GMT — Palestine calls Israeli soldier taking infant girl from Gaza 'heinous crime'
Palestinian officials called an Israeli soldier taking an infant girl from Gaza "a heinous crime," saying she should be handed back immediately.
"The kidnapping of the infant girl from the Gaza Strip is evidence that the (Israeli) occupation army is committing the most heinous crimes against civilians without oversight or accountability," the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said in a statement.
It called on Israeli authorities "to immediately hand over the infant to the Palestinian National Authority."
The ministry added that the commission of such an act indicates that it was not the first or the last to be committed in Gaza at the hands of Israeli soldiers.
11:01 GMT - Israel will not boycott ICJ genocide case
Israel's National Security Council Chairman, Tzachi Hanegbi, stated that Israel will not boycott the genocide case filed against it at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa for causing the deaths of over 21,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, in besieged Gaza.
Speaking to Yediot Ahronot newspaper, Hanegbi stated that Israel, as a signatory to the Genocide Convention, will participate in the case.
He denied the genocide accusation, labelling it as "false" .
10:26 GMT - Overnight Israeli air strikes across Gaza kill over 30
At least 31 Palestinians have been killed in overnight Israeli air strikes on areas across besieged Gaza.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said on Tuesday that a series of Israeli airstrikes on residential areas in the city of Deir al Balah, central Gaza, killed 22 Palestinian civilians, most of them women and children.
Another Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza also left several casualties among the civilians.
09:36 GMT - Israel raids town in occupied West Bank, kills at least four
Israeli forces have reportedly killed four youths and injured six others after invading the town of Azoun, situated east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank.
Local sources say that a substantial military presence infiltrated the town from various directions, resulting in heightened clashes and confrontations.
Israeli forces conducted extensive raids and searches of both residential homes and commercial establishments, seizing surveillance camera recordings during the operation, according to local sources.
08:50 GMT - Israel is pulling thousands of troops from Gaza
The Israeli military has confirmed that it was pulling thousands of troops out of Gaza, a step that could clear the way for a new long-term phase of lower-intensity fighting in the Palestinian enclave.
The confirmation of the planned troop drawdown came the same day that Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul plan.
While the plan is not directly connected to the war effort, it was the source of deep divisions inside Israel and had threatened the military’s readiness before October 7.
08:00 GMT - More strikes after Israel warns war will last through 2024
Shelling and missile strikes rocked the length of the enclave overnight into Tuesday, after Israel's army warned its war on Gaza will last through 2024.
On Monday night into Tuesday morning, eyewitnesses reported missiles fired towards the city of Rafah in the south and shelling around the Jabalia refugee camp in the north.
Fighting was also reported around the central areas of Maghazi and Bureij, as well as the main southern city of Khan Younis.
07:16 GMT - Israel assassinates jailed Palestinian man: prisoner affairs groups
Palestinian prisoner affairs groups have accused Israel of assassinating an incarcerated Palestinian man in an Israeli jail, seventh such death since October 7.
In a joint statement cited by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society said Israel assassinated Abdul Rahman Bassem Al Bahsh, 23, from the city of Nablus.
The statement said Al Bahsh was siezed on May 31, 2022 and sentenced to jail for 35 months. It added that the number of Palestinians who have been killed in Israeli prisons since October 7 has risen to seven.
04:55 GMT - Hamas urges ICRC to document rights abuses against Palestinians
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has called on the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] to document human rights violations against Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, especially incarcerated females.
In a statement, Hamas urged the ICRC and rights groups "to fulfill their obligations in addressing the brutalities and deprivations of the rights of female Palestinian prisoners within Zionist occupation prisons."
The statement noted that "Palestinian women prisoners are encountering systematic and arbitrary malnutrition and neglect of their medical needs."
04:00 GMT - Israel assassinates jailed Palestinian man: prisoner affairs groups
Palestinian prisoner affairs groups have accused Israel of assassinating an incarcerated Palestinian man in an Israeli jail, seventh such death since October 7.
In a joint statement cited by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society said Israel assassinated Abdul Rahman Bassem Al Bahsh, 23, from the city of Nablus.
For our live updates from Monday, January 1, click here.
