It’s now just after 3am in Gaza and Israel and this blog is closing. We’ll be back soon to bring you all the latest breaking news. In the meantime, here are the key developments:
The Israeli military claims to have killed Adil Mismah, a regional commander of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, in the central city of Deir al-Balah. The Israel Defense Forces said Mismah had taken part in Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel.
A total of 21,978 Palestinians have been killed and 56,697 injured in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Monday. The figures include 156 Palestinians killed and 246 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added. Thousands more people are believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been wounded.
Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official told Reuters. The official said the withdrawal was focused on reservists – of which Israel drafted 300,000 for the war – and designed to “re-energise the Israeli economy”.
Not all of those returned from Gaza will go home, a senior Israeli official told Reuters, with some prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, where Israel is expanding its preparations for war. “The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment,” the official said.
Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and set alight dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the “most violent” year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog has said. Numerous West Bank attacks were carried out by a large group of Israeli settlers and the violence rose after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, said Yesh Din, a human rights group.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has collaborated with the Egyptian Red Crescent to establish the first organized camp in Khan Younis for Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes across Gaza. The camp is initially set to hold 300 families from PRCS medical, ambulance and relief teams, with its capacity set to expand later to 1,000 tents, the PRCS said.
Some of the Israeli communities north of the Gaza Strip that were evacuated in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas will be able to go back in the near future as military operations progress, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Monday. According to published remarks from a briefing, Gallant said that some of the evacuated communities in areas within a range of 4-7km north of the territory would be able to return soon.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said that four of its fighters had been killed in southern Lebanon, updating the toll from three in a statement made earlier, without giving any further detail. Security sources said the first three were killed in an Israeli raid on two houses in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila near the border where Hezbollah maintains security control.
The US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, deployed to the eastern Mediterranean after the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas in October to deter other regional actors from escalating the conflict, will return to the US “in the coming days,” the Navy said Monday. It will be replaced by the amphibious assault ship the USS Bataan and its accompanying warships, the USS Mesa Verde and the USS Carter Hall.
Israel’s supreme court has ruled against a key component of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s judicial overhaul, which challenged the powers of the judiciary. A supreme court statement said eight of 15 justices had ruled against an amendment passed by parliament in July which scraps the “reasonableness” clause, used by the court to overturn government decisions which are deemed unconstitutional.
Updated
Israel will appear before the international court of justice (ICJ) in the Hague to defend itself against accusations of genocide lodged against it by South Africa last week in relation to its attack on Gaza, the newspaper Haaretz reports.
The decision was made during a meeting chaired by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and followed consultations with the justice ministry, the military and the national security council, the Israeli paper reported. Israel will now try to prevent the court from issuing an interim order seeking to halt its campaign in Gaza.
At the end of a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and following a series of consultations between the Justice Ministry, the IDF and the National Security Council – it was decided that Israel would try to prevent the court from issuing an interim order that would seek to halt the campaign in Gaza.
In its application, South Africa said:
The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.
In response, Israel’s foreign ministry accused Pretoria of spreading a “blood libel” and said its accusations lacked “both a factual and a legal basis”.
Updated
Access to a busy terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy international airport was restricted on Monday as pro-Palestinian protesters converged on the airport for the second time in a week.
Videos posted online show heavy traffic and a slow-moving line of cars, some flying Palestinian flags and featuring text on the windows such as “Stop the genocide.”
Police directed a line of cars around a checkpoint, AP reported. Protesters also had planned to arrive at the airport in Queens, New York, by public transportation.
A caravan of cars carrying Palestinian flags flooded the Belt Parkway on Monday, heading to Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport for a demonstration. @JennaMDeAngelis reports. https://t.co/u7d8wYA30G
— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) January 1, 2024
HAPPENING NOW: The NYPD is warning of possible delays for passengers at JFK airport on New Year's Day as a result of planned protests https://t.co/nJSnwox1NC pic.twitter.com/JBnMUrJtTL
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) January 1, 2024
A 23-year-old Palestinian prisoner has died in an Israeli jail, the prison service has said, adding it was looking into the circumstances of the inmate’s death.
The prison service in a statement said the man from Nablus in the occupied West Bank had died in Meggido prison, in Israel’s north, AFP reports.
He was arrested in June 2022 and later sentenced to jail time for “security offences”, the statement said without naming the prisoner. “As in all such incidents, the circumstances (of his death) will be examined,” it said.
The Palestinian Authority’s detainees commission confirmed a prisoner had died but was unable to verify further information.
The prison service said the inmate was affiliated with Fatah, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s movement.
Last month Israeli police said they had questioned 19 prison guards as part of an investigation into the death of another Palestinian inmate following allegations of torture.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, 38-year-old Thaer Abu Assab, from Qalqilya in the West Bank, died in November after being beaten by Israeli prison guards.
Israel has intensified its arrest of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank since the 7 October Hamas attack, and there are now more than 8,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, an historic high, the Guardian’s Jason Burke and Sufian Taha reported last month.
Pictures have also been leaked of Israeli troops overseeing dozens of Palestinian men detained in Gaza, stripped to their underwear and in some cases blindfolded and handcuffed. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that hundreds of the men were held at a military base in the south of Israel, and that several had died in unclear circumstances.
The US aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, deployed to the eastern Mediterranean after the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas in October, will return to the United States “in the coming days,” the Navy said Monday.
Sent to “contribute to our regional deterrence and defense posture,” the carrier will “redeploy to its home port as scheduled to prepare for future deployments,” the Navy said in a statement according to AFP.
After Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel on 7 October, Washington provided military support to Israel and reinforced its forces in the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford and other warships, in order to deter countries like Iran from escalating the conflict.
“The Department of Defense continually evaluates force posture globally and will retain extensive capability both in the Mediterranean and across the Middle East,” the statement added.
The Navy said it was “collaborating with Allies and partners to bolster maritime security in the region.”
It noted that the Defense Department would continue to rely on the presence of its forces in the region – including the USS Dwight D Eisenhower carrier strike group – “to deter any state or non-state actor from escalating this crisis beyond Gaza.”
An Israeli man who never served in the military has been charged with impersonating a soldier and stealing weapons after sneaking into an army unit and joining the fighting against Hamas. Associated Press reports:
According to an indictment filed on Sunday, Roi Yifrach, 35, took advantage of the chaotic situation in the aftermath of Hamas’ 7 October attack to join combat operations and steal large amounts of military gear, including weapons, munitions, and sensitive communications equipment.
Israeli media said he spent time fighting in Gaza and even appeared in a photo next to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during one of his visits to soldiers in the field.
Yifrach went to southern Israel on 7 October and presented himself alternately as a combat soldier from elite anti-terrorism units, a bomb dispersal expert, and a member of the Shin Bet internal security service, the indictment said.
Police arrested Yifrach on 17 December and found large amounts of weapons, grenades, magazines, walkie-talkies, a drone, uniforms, and other military equipment in his possession.
Eitan Sabag, Yifrach’s lawyer, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV that Yifrach went down to the south to help as a paramedic with a first responder organisation, and fought bravely to defend Israel for more than two months. “He was helping people and helping rescue people, all under fire, while also fighting against terrorists,” Sabag said.
Police also detained four other people, including a police officer, in connection with the weapons theft.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has said on its Telegram account that three of its fighters have been killed in southern Lebanon.
The statement gave no detail about how the three were killed, Agence France-Presse reports, but said they “were martyred on the road to (liberate) Jerusalem”.
Security sources said they were killed in an Israeli raid on two houses in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila near the border where Hezbollah maintains security control.
Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern frontier since the eruption of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza in early October.
The Israeli military said on Monday it struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including “military sites” where Hezbollah was operating.
Israeli air strikes and shelling have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians, including children, elderly and several journalists, according to Hezbollah and security sources.
Monday’s raid comes after a senior Israeli official told Reuters that the country was expanding preparations for a Lebanon war.
“The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment,” the official said according to the news agency.
This is Helen Livingstone, taking over from my colleague, Maya Yang.
Summary
Here is where things stand:
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has collaborated with the Egyptian Red Crescent to establish the first organized camp in Khan Younis for Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes across Gaza. The camp is initially set to hold 300 families from PRCS medical, ambulance and relief teams, with its capacity set to expand later to 1,000 tents, the PRCS said.
Some of the Israeli communities north of the Gaza Strip that were evacuated in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas will be able to go back in the near future as military operations progress, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Monday. According to published remarks from a briefing, Gallant said that some of the evacuated communities in areas within a range of 4-7km north of the territory would be able to return soon.
Israel’s supreme court has ruled against a key component of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s judicial overhaul, which challenged the powers of the judiciary. A supreme court statement said eight of 15 justices had ruled against an amendment passed by parliament in July which scraps the “reasonableness” clause, used by the court to overturn government decisions which are deemed unconstitutional, Reuters reports.
The Israeli military claims to have killed Adil Mismah, a regional commander of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, in the central city of Deir al-Balah. The Israel Defense Forces said Mismah had taken part in Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel.
Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and set alight dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the “most violent” year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog has said. Numerous West Bank attacks were carried out by a large group of Israeli settlers and the violence rose after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, said Yesh Din, a human rights group.
Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official told Reuters. The official said the withdrawal was focused on reservists – of which Israel drafted 300,000 for the war – and designed to “re-energise the Israeli economy”.
Updated
Satellite images of Gaza City and Khan Younis City show the scale of devastation caused by Israeli bombardment of the besieged Palestinian enclave. At least 70% of the homes in Gaza are believed to have been destroyed by the air campaign.
The images, downloaded from Sentinel Hub, show that the colour of Gaza City and Khan Younis appears completely different from space. The before-and-after images depict both cities as of 3 August this year and 31 December.
“Gaza City is now a different colour from space. It’s a different texture,” said Corey Scher, a specialist in the use of satellite imagery to assess political conflict at the CUNY Graduate Center, told the Associated Press.
Gaza City:
Khan Younis City:
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza where Israeli forces have killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians since 7 October while survivors grapple with shortages in food, water, fuel and medical supplies.
Updated
The family of Maya Puder, a 25-year old aspiring actor and film-maker who was found dead four days after Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, continues to mourn her loss.
The Guardian’s Emine Sinmaz reports:
When Maya Puder went missing from the Supernova music festival in Israel on 7 October, her family prayed she was in hiding somewhere or had been kidnapped.
The 25-year-old aspiring actor and film-maker last messaged her parents at 8.01am to say she was sheltering from Hamas rockets.
But her family’s hopes were shattered four days later when they were told Maya had been found dead 20 metres away from a shelter.
“It was devastating, all our hopes were crushed,” said Maya’s mother, Ayala Puder. “I’d never in my worst imagination thought about a situation where I’d have to bury my daughter, and to bury her under those circumstances of her being murdered so brutally. It’s beyond devastating.”
For the full story, click here:
Updated
Palestine Red Crescent Society establishes first organized camp in Khan Younis for displaced Palestinians
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has collaborated with the Egyptian Red Crescent to establish the first organized camp in Khan Younis for Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes across Gaza.
The camp is initially set to hold 300 families from PRCS medical, ambulance and relief teams, with its capacity set to expand later to 1,000 tents, the PRCS said.
📍PRCS, in collaboration with @EG_Red_Crescent, establishes the first organized camp in #KhanYounis for displaced individuals. Initially hosting 300 families from PRCS medical, ambulance, and relief teams, the capacity will later expand to 1000 tents, providing shelter for… pic.twitter.com/wIKhzBxDB7
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 1, 2024
Since October 7, 1.9 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced by Israeli strikes across Gaza which have killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians.
A displaced Palestinian woman gave birth to quadruplets in Gaza amid Israeli bombardment and severe shortages in fuel and medical supplies.
Eman al-Masri was pregnant when she had to move from northern Gaza to Jabalia refugee camp before finally sheltering in central Gaza, where she gave birth to quadruplets.
Her young family now resides in a former school classroom with 50 other families.
She said: “The entire place is not suitable for children, and there is no money even to buy diapers, milk, or anything.” She added: ‘All of this had an impact on me, on the children who were in my womb, and on my young children.”
Updated
Israel is withdrawing some of its troops from Gaza as a senior Israeli official said it plans to continue its war across the strip – which has killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians – for “six months at least”.
The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison reports:
There is growing international pressure to curb an offensive that has so far killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children. Even Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, which rejects calls for a ceasefire, has started pushing the government to scale back the ferocity of its attacks.
Plans to send some reservists home from Gaza, confirmed on New Year’s Eve, mark the start of a new stage in the war, a senior official told Reuters, and may be presented as a partial response to those demands.
But Israel still expects heavy fighting in Gaza for much of 2024 as it hunts for senior Hamas leaders, even if there are fewer troops on the ground.
“This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shejaiya,” the official said, referring to a Gaza district that has been the scene of heavy battles. Reuters did not identify him by name.
Not all of those returned from Gaza will go home. Some would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, amid fears of a wider escalation of the conflict, the official told Reuters.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires of pro-Palestine rallies held around the world in recent days, in which thousands of protesters called for a ceasefire in Gaza, where nearly 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes:
Updated
Israeli defense minister: Some of evacuated Israeli communities north of Gaza strip can return soon
Some of the Israeli communities north of the Gaza Strip that were evacuated in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas will be able to go back in the near future as military operations progress, the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Monday.
According to published remarks from a briefing, Gallant said that some of the evacuated communities in areas within a range of four to seven kilometers north of the territory would be able to return soon.
Updated
Israel’s supreme court has ruled against a key component of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s judicial overhaul, which challenged the powers of the judiciary.
Reuters reports:
A supreme court statement said eight of 15 justices had ruled against an amendment passed by parliament in July which scraps the “reasonableness” clause, used by the court to overturn government decisions which are deemed unconstitutional.
“This is due to the severe and unprecedented damage to the basic characteristics of the State of Israel as a democratic state,” the statement said.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had argued the sweeping judicial reform package presented a year ago was necessary to rebalance powers between judges and politicians.
But his detractors warn the multi-pronged package paved the way for authoritarian rule and could be used by Netanyahu to quash possible convictions against him, an accusation the premier denies.
Updated
Disabled Palestinians are facing life-threatening challenges across the Gaza strip amid deadly Israeli bombardment.
In a video posted onto X on Monday by the World Health Organization, Muhammad Muharram, an internally displaced Palestinian and wheelchair user, speaks of his experiences navigating the war:
The war started and the area where we are staying at got bombed, my house too. We fled to schools like everyone else but the school we fled to was also bombed. During this time, I was terrified because I couldn’t flee like everyone else. I am in a wheelchair. Everyone fled the school and I did too. It was extremely tough for me …
When we got displaced and had to go from Gaza city to the south, [it] was extremely difficult. I almost had a mental breakdown because of the fear I had. I sleep and wake up in the wheelchair. Bathrooms are unusable, pure disaster. The same goes for food and drinking water, it’s a misery. The same goes for treatment. Everything we are going through here is a life of misery.”
Muhammad Muharram is a wheelchair user living in #Gaza. He speaks about the terrors of daily life.
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) January 1, 2024
During conflict, people with disabilities face life-threatening challenges—difficulty in evacuating, shelters out of reach, and little access to healthcare and even food, water,… pic.twitter.com/rJ8ZFokXzo
Updated
Unicef has repeated its calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed nearly 22,000 Palestinians since 7 October, including more than 8,000 children.
In a post on X on Monday, Unicef wrote: “Unicef continues to call for a humanitarian ceasefire,” citing a 12-year old boy in Gaza who said: “I miss life before the war, when I would go to school and meet my friends, and when I would play football in the neighbourhood.”
"I miss life before the war, when I would go to school and meet my friends, and when I would play football in the neighbourhood.”
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) January 1, 2024
Salem, 12, in Gaza.
UNICEF continues to call for a humanitarian ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/Qmn4rXS9rx
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society announced the birth of a baby on New Year’s Day at the PRCS medical point in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
“The birth process was successful, utilising minimal available resources. Both the mother and the child are in good health,” the PRCS announced.
🫶This baby was born this morning at the PRCS medical point in #Jabalia, northern #Gaza Strip. The birth process was successful, utilizing minimal available resources.👏Both the mother and the child are in good health.🙏
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 1, 2024
Photography by: PRCS volunteer, Yousef Khader… pic.twitter.com/q38cKWMBuO
In November, the World Health Organization said women and newborns were bearing the brunt of Israel’s war with Gaza, which is severely hindering women’s access to emergency obstetric services. Shortages in fuel as a result of Israel’s attacks on the strip have also threatened the lives of premature babies who rely on neonatal and intensive care services.
Updated
The Bank of Israel has lowered its short-term borrowing rates for the first time in nearly four years due to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and a weakening economy.
Reuters reports:
Before the decision, analysts were split, with seven expecting no move and seven projecting a 25 basis point reduction, the first reduction since April 2020.
The central bank lowered its benchmark rate by a quarter-point from 4.75% to 4.50%.
It had raised rates 10 straight times in an aggressive tightening cycle that has taken the rate from 0.1% last April before pausing in July and again in August, October and November.
The inflation rate eased to 3.3% in November from 3.7% in October but remained above an annual target range of 1%-3%. The economy is expected to contract in the fourth quarter and end 2023 with growth of 2%.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
The Israeli military claims to have killed Adil Mismah, a regional commander of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, in the central city of Deir al-Balah. The Israel Defense Forces said Mismah had taken part in Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel, in which the militant group killed 1,140 people and seized up to another 250 as hostages.
A total of 21,978 Palestinians have been killed and 56,697 injured in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza has said. The figures include 156 Palestinians killed and 246 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and set alight dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the “most violent” year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog has said. Numerous West Bank attacks were carried out by a large group of Israeli settlers and the violence rose after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, said Yesh Din, a human rights group.
Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official told Reuters. The official said the withdrawal was focused on reservists – of which Israel drafted 300,000 for the war – and designed to “re-energise the Israeli economy”. The official also said the military was pivoting to the third stage of the war, as Israeli tanks and soldiers have now overrun much of the Gaza Strip. “This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shajaia,” the official said, referring to a Gaza district devastated by fighting.
Updated
The Qatari foreign ministry says it has evacuated 284 Palestinians who were holders of residency cards of Qatar or neighbouring countries, Al Jazeera reports.
Updated
IDF says its troops have killed Hamas commander
The Israeli military claims to have killed Adil Mismah, a regional commander of Hamas’ elite Nukhba forces, in the central city of Deir al-Balah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Mismah had taken part in Hamas’s 7 October attack against Israel, in which the militant group killed 1,140 people and seized up to another 250 as hostages.
In its post on X, the IDF also wrote that its soldiers had struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza city area of Shejaiya, claiming to have “located large amounts of weapons” there.
IDF troops continue operating in Gaza:
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 1, 2024
🔺ELIMINATED: Adil Mismah, the Nukhba Company Commander of Deir al-Balah who took part in Hamas’ October 7 invasion and massacre and attack on other communities surrounding Gaza.
🔺In Shejaiya, troops struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror…
Updated
Reuters has more on Iran’s Alborz warship reportedly entering the Red Sea (see post at 11.56 for more details).
There were unconfirmed reports on social media that the warship entered the Red Sea via the Bab al-Mandab Strait late on Saturday.
The Alvand class destroyer had been a part of the Iranian navy’s 34th fleet, alongside the Bushehr support vessel, and patrolled the Gulf of Aden, the north of the Indian Ocean and the Bab Al-Mandab Strait as far back as 2015, according to Iran’s Press TV.
Iran’s defence minister has recently said in reference to the Red Sea that “nobody can make a move in a region where we have predominance”.
Updated
Fighting will continue throughout 2024, Israel warns, as unrelenting strikes killed dozens in Gaza and Hamas fired a rocket barrage at the stroke of midnight.
An Israeli official said earlier on Monday the third stage of the war, which appears now to be opening, will take at least six months. Now, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quotes the country’s military spokesman Daniel Hagari as saying the conflict will not be drawn to a close this year. He says some of the 300,000 army reservists will get a break, but only to prepare for the “prolonged fighting” ahead.
The army “must plan ahead, understanding that we will be required for additional tasks and warfare throughout this year”, AFP quotes Hagari as saying.
Citing officials from the Hamas-run health ministry, the agency reports that heavy artillery fire has again pounded Gaza, killing at least 24 people, with attacks reported across the length of the territory.
A Gaza resident, 20-year-old Hamdan Abu Arab, told the agency he hoped “2024 will be better”. He said:
We used to go out and enjoy our time on the last day of the year. But this New Year’s Eve, there are only missiles and the remains of people.
According to the health ministry, 15 dead bodies from the same family were recovered on Monday from the rubble of a bombed house in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, AFP says. Sami Hamouda, 64, told AFP:
It’s the worst year of our lives. They have killed our sons. Every new day is like the previous one: bombings, death and mass killings.
According to the agency, Hamas marked the start of the year by firing a rocket barrage at Israel in what it called a “response to the massacres of civilians”. Its journalists in Tel Aviv witnessed missile defence systems intercept rockets overhead as some revellers ran for cover and others kept up the party with a shrug. Gabriel Zemelman, 26, told AFP reporters:
My heart was pounding. It’s terrifying. You just saw the life we live, it’s crazy.
Updated
Death toll in Gaza reaches 21,978, says health ministry
A total of 21,978 Palestinians have been killed and 56,697 injured in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza says. The figures include 156 Palestinians killed and 246 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry adds.
Watchdog says 2023 was worst year for Israeli settler violence
Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and set alight dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the “most violent” year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog has said.
Numerous West Bank attacks were carried out by a large group of Israeli settlers and the violence spiked after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, Yesh Din, a human rights group, said.
“At least 10 Palestinians were killed by settlers and dozens of homes and vehicles were set on fire” last year, said Yesh Din, which began monitoring settler violence against Palestinians in 2006.
“2023 was the most violent year in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in both the number of incidents and their severity.”
The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since the 1967 six-day war, with about 490,000 settlers now living among approximately 3 million Palestinians, in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.
Updated
Iran’s foreign ministry has called on the UN security council to take action after an Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighbourhood was reported to have killed a high-ranking Iranian general in December.
“Through Iran’s representative office, we communicated with the UN secretary-general [António Guterres] and called on the security council to commit to its duty of maintaining international peace and preventing regional peace from being compromised,” spokesperson Nasser Kanani was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying in his weekly news conference.
Kanani described the killing of Razi Mousavi as a “blatant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and said both countries have the right to respond, Al Jazeera reports.
Updated
Iran’s Alborz warship has passed through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and entered the Red Sea, the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.
Iranian warships have been operating in the region “to secure shipping lanes since 2009”, Tasnim said, according to Reuters.
The Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, have targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Several shipping lines have suspended operations through the Red Sea in response to the attacks, instead taking the longer journey around Africa.
The Yemeni rebels have said they are targeting Israel and Israeli-linked vessels.
Updated
Residents of Sheikh Radwan district in Gaza City, in the northern part of the strip that Israel’s offensive focused on first, said tanks had withdrawn after what they described as the most intense 10 days of warfare since the conflict began.
Tanks also pulled out of Gaza City’s al-Mina district and parts of Tel al-Hawa district, while retaining some positions in the suburb controlling the enclave’s main coastal road, according to residents.
However, tanks remained in other parts of northern Gaza, Reuters reports.
Fighting in central parts of the territory continued on Monday, residents there said, with tanks pushing into al-Bureij and airstrikes targeting al-Nusseirat, al-Maghazi and the southern city of Khan Younis.
Updated
Israel’s military chief, Herzi Halevi, has been speaking to troops.
He was quoted by Reuters as saying:
From the first moments of this war, we said it would take long.
Will we ultimately be able to say there are no more foes around the state of Israel?
I think that is overly ambitious. But we will deliver a different security situation – safe and, as much as possible, stable too.
Israel has listed 174 soldiers – many of them reservists – as having been killed in fighting in Gaza and nine on the Lebanese border.
Updated
Thousands of doses of vaccines against childhood diseases including polio and measles have begun entering the Gaza Strip to help deal with a growing health emergency there, the Palestinian health ministry has said.
Israel’s ground offensive has effectively stopped normal health services in Gaza, including vaccinations against highly contagious childhood diseases that had been brought under control by mass immunisation programmes.
The ministry said supplies, estimated to be sufficient to cover vaccinations for between eight and 14 months, had entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt with the aid of Egyptian government cold storage facilities, Reuters reports.
Yasser Bouzia, head of international relations in the health ministry in Ramallah, said there were estimated to be about 60,000 newborn babies in Gaza, who would normally receive vaccination but who have been largely cut off from medical services.
He said administering the vaccines would be difficult because most of Gaza’s population had been driven from their homes, with hundreds of thousands living in tents or other temporary accommodation.
The vaccines against diseases including rubella, polio, measles and mumps come from supplies bought by the Palestinian health ministry and also donated by Unicef, the UN children’s fund, the ministry said.
Updated
In Khan Younis, where Israel is believed to have thousands of troops, residents have reported airstrikes and shelling in the west and centre of the city, according to the Associated Press.
The military and the militant group Islamic Jihad reported clashes in the area.
Updated
Third stage of war to take 'at least six months' - official
Since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, in which the militant group killed 1,140 people and seized up to another 250 as hostages, Israeli officials have said they planned to wage the war in three stages.
The first was intense shelling to clear access routes for ground forces and encourage civilians to evacuate; the second was the invasion that began on 27 October.
The official, who spoke earlier, told Reuters that the military was now pivoting to the third stage as Israeli tanks and soldiers have now overrun much of the Gaza Strip.
“This will take six months at least, and involve intense mopping-up missions against the terrorists. No one is talking about doves of peace being flown from Shajaia,” the official said, referring to a Gaza district devastated by fighting.
Updated
Israel to withdraw some troops from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations - official
Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official has said.
The official said the withdrawal was focused on reservists – of which Israel drafted 300,000 for the war – and designed to “re-energise the Israeli economy”.
But the official told Reuters that some of the troops pulled out of Gaza in the south would be prepared for rotation to the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah militants have been exchanging fire with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel has warned that if Hezbollah does not back down a full-on Lebanon war looms.
Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran, whose militant allies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have also been carrying out longer-range attacks against Israel.
“The situation on the Lebanese front will not be allowed to continue. This coming six-month period is a critical moment,” the official said.
Updated
Tens of thousands of people marched in Istanbul on Monday to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza and the killing of Turkish soldiers by outlawed Kurdish militants in Iraq.
The demonstration, called by a foundation which counts Bilal Erdoğan, the son of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, among its members, started after crowds performed morning prayers, Agence France-Presse reports.
Protesters waving Turkish and Palestinian flags rallied to the Galata Bridge on the Bosphorus, chanting: “Murderer Israel, get out of Palestine”, and “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest).
Updated
At the Vatican, Pope Francis recalled 2023 as a year marked by wartime suffering.
During his traditional Sunday blessing from a window overlooking St Peter’s Square, he offered prayers for “the tormented Ukrainian people and the Palestinian and Israeli populations, the Sudanese people and many others”.
The pontiff said:
At the end of the year, we will have the courage to ask ourselves how many human lives have been shattered by armed conflict, how many dead and how much destruction, how much suffering, how much poverty?
Updated
Britain is reportedly considering airstrikes on Houthi rebels after the US said its navy sank three boats that had been targeting a container ship in the Red Sea.
Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, said the government would not hesitate to take “direct action” to prevent further attacks amid reports the UK and US are preparing a joint statement to issue a final warning to the Yemeni group.
It comes after the US military said four boats from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen fired at the Maersk Hangzhou and came within metres of the vessel as US helicopters fired back.
Several people on the armed Houthi boats were killed, the US Central Command (Centcom) said. No one was injured on the ship.
Writing in the Telegraph, Shapps said the UK “won’t hesitate to take further action to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea”.
“The Houthis should be under no misunderstanding: we are committed to holding malign actors accountable for unlawful seizures and attacks,” he said.
Updated
Summary of the latest events so far
It’s 10:01am in Gaza and Tel Aviv, here is a summary of the latest:
In a press briefing on New Year’s Eve, Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari indicated that the conflict could go on through 2024, saying that “The objectives of the war require prolonged fighting,” and that management of the defence forces “are designed to ensure planning and preparation for the continuation of 2024… understanding that we will be required for additional tasks and warfare throughout this year.”
Just after midnight on New Year’s Day, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets, setting off air raid sirens in southern and central Israel. No injuries were reported. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video published on social media, saying they had fired M90 rockets in “response to the massacres of civilians” carried out by Israel.
At least 100 people have been killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours, as the three-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas rolls into the new year.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war and said Gaza’s Palestinian population should be encouraged to emigrate, according to AFP. “To have security, we must control the territory,” Smotrich told Israel’s Army Radio in response to a question about the prospect of re-establishing settlements in Gaza. “In order to control the territory militarily for a long time, we need a civilian presence.” The Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to the territory since the war broke out on 7 October.
US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats used by Iranian-backed Houthi militants to attack a merchant vessel in the southern Red Sea on Sunday, US central command said. The Houthis have targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
A former member of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet has offered a rare public apology, Associated Press reports. The news agency says Galit Distel Atbaryan, a lawmaker from Netanyahu’s Likud Party, appeared to accept responsibility for the polarised atmosphere ahead of the 7 October attack. “I’m here sitting and telling you, the democratic, secular public: I sinned against you, I caused pain for you, I caused you to fear for your lives here, and I am sorry for this,” she told Channel 13 TV.
World Health Organization representatives visited Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on Sunday to assess the needs of the overwhelmed health facility, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said. In a tweet on Sunday, Tedros added that the Nasser Medical Complex is one of only two key functioning hospitals in southern Gaza that is able to provide medical care for wounded and other patients.
Cori Bush, a US Democratic senator representing Missouri, has joined a handful of Democrats in criticizing the Joe Biden’s administration for bypassing congressional review in its transfer of weapons to Israel. Over the weekend, Bush tweeted: “The White House cannot have it both ways: calling on the Israeli government to uphold international law while bypassing Congress to send weapons that are leading to violations of international law. How many innocent people must die before @POTUS will demand a ceasefire?”
Palestine’s ambassador to the UK said that the world wants to discuss the “day after Israel’s aggression on Gaza but it’s the day before we need to understand”. In an interview with Democracy Now, Husam Zomlot said: “Everybody now is wanting us to discuss the day after. No. The day before. The day before 7 October. The occupation, the colonisation, the racism, the supremacy, the murders all over the West Bank, the provocations in Jerusalem, the rounding and arresting of our children without trial, without charge, without access to their parents or lawyers, this is what needs to be discussed.”
The Palestinian foreign minister has released a statement before the new year in which he condemned what he called the “Israeli war machine’s persistence in the war of genocide”. In a statement on X, Riad Malki wrote: “We welcome the new year and the 59th anniversary of the start of the Palestinian revolution, yet the wounds of our people are bleeding due to Israeli war machine’s persistence in the war of genocide, destruction, and displacement.”
Approximately 1.4 million Palestinians who have been displaced by Israeli strikes are living in UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip, the UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said. She told the BBC: “The facilities in the north are becoming crowded by the hour, people continue to come in. They are absolutely full and so people have started taking refuge in areas outside these facilities including in parks, in the open. Many are sleeping in their cars.”
More than 21,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 56,000 wounded, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
These are some of the latest images coming out of Israel. In these pictures, family and friends attend a funeral on New Year’s Eve for a soldier who has died in the fighting.
These are some of the latest images coming out of Rafah in Gaza on New Year’s Eve. People have fled to the area to escape the fighting.
Let’s take a quick look on what we know about any ceasefire or hostage release negotiations that may be taking place.
International mediators are continuing efforts towards a new pause in fighting.
A Hamas delegation from Qatar visited Cairo on Friday to discuss an Egyptian three-phase plan proposing renewable ceasefires, a staggered release of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and ultimately an end to the war, sources close to Hamas told Agence France-Presse.
Their allies Islamic Jihad said on Saturday that Palestinian factions were “in the process” of evaluating the proposal and would give a response “within days”, according to AFP.
At least 129 hostages are still believed held in Gaza after more than 100 were released in a prisoner swap and week-long truce in late November. Families and friends of the remaining captives have rallied to keep up pressure on the government to bring them home. “I hope there’s going to be another deal, even a partial deal, or that some will be released,” Nir Shafran told AFP.
US news outlet Axios and Israeli website Ynet, both citing unnamed Israeli officials, reported that Qatari mediators had told Israel that Hamas was prepared to resume talks on new hostage releases in exchange for a ceasefire.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about the process on Saturday and said Hamas had been “giving all kinds of ultimatums that we didn’t accept”.
“We are seeing a certain shift (but) I don’t want to create an expectation,” he said without elaborating.
The new year was marked in Ramallah in the West Bank with demonstrations in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Here are some of the images from overnight:
Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at Israel just as the clock struck midnight, Agence France-Presse reports.
Air alert sirens sounded across Israel as 2024 began, and AFP journalists in Tel Aviv witnessed missile defence systems intercepting rockets overhead, with some revellers in the streets below rushing for cover while others kept up the party.
“We were all afraid on the corners … my heart was pounding,” Gabriel Zemelman, 26, told AFP after the rocket fire. “It’s terrifying. You just saw the life we live, it’s crazy.”
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video published on social media, saying they had fired M90 rockets in “response to the massacres of civilians” carried out by Israel.
The Israeli army confirmed the attack, without initially reporting any casualties or damage.
In Gaza, overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, with attacks reported across the length of the territory, AFP reports.
Updated
Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari has indicated that the conflict could go on throughout 2024. He said:
Tonight, the year of 2024 begins. The objectives of the war require prolonged fighting, and we are preparing accordingly. We are wisely planning the management of the forces operating in the field, looking at the reserve system, the economy, refreshing forces, and continuing the combat training processes in the IDF.
After announcing that some reservists who were called to join Israel’s war in Gaza would return to their families and jobs this week – Hagari went on to say:
These adaptations are designed to ensure planning and preparation for the continuation of 2024, as the IDF must plan ahead, understanding that we will be required for additional tasks and warfare throughout this year.
Hagari made the comments during a press briefing on New Year’s Eve.
It’s after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the war would continue for “many more months” and that Israel would assume control of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt.
Welcome and opening summary
It’s 8:13am in Gaza and Tel Aviv on New Year’s Day, welcome to our latest blog on the Israel-Gaza war. My name is Reged Ahmad and I’ll be with you for the next while.
In a press briefing on New Year’s Eve, Israel Defence Forces Rear Adm Daniel Hagari has indicated that the conflict could go on through 2024, saying that “The objectives of the war require prolonged fighting,” and that management of the defence forces “are designed to ensure planning and preparation for the continuation of 2024… understanding that we will be required for additional tasks and warfare throughout this year.”
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest:
Just after midnight on New Year’s Day, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets, setting off air raid sirens in southern and central Israel. No injuries were reported.
At least 100 people have been killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours, as the three-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas rolls into the new year.
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war and said Gaza’s Palestinian population should be encouraged to emigrate, according to AFP. “To have security, we must control the territory,” Smotrich told Israel’s Army Radio in response to a question about the prospect of re-establishing settlements in Gaza. “In order to control the territory militarily for a long time, we need a civilian presence.” The Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to the territory since the war broke out on 7 October.
US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats used by Iranian-backed Houthi militants to attack a merchant vessel in the southern Red Sea on Sunday, US central command said. The Houthis have targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
A former member of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet has offered a rare public apology, Associated Press reports. The news agency says Galit Distel Atbaryan, a lawmaker from Netanyahu’s Likud Party, appeared to accept responsibility for the polarised atmosphere ahead of the 7 October attack. “I’m here sitting and telling you, the democratic, secular public: I sinned against you, I caused pain for you, I caused you to fear for your lives here, and I am sorry for this,” she told Channel 13 TV.
World Health Organization representatives visited Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on Sunday to assess the needs of the overwhelmed health facility, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said. In a tweet on Sunday, Tedros added that the Nasser Medical Complex is one of only two key functioning hospitals in southern Gaza that is able to provide medical care for wounded and other patients.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the war would continue for “many more months” and that Israel would assume control of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt. He made the comments at a news conference Saturday.
Cori Bush, a US Democratic senator representing Missouri, has joined a handful of Democrats in criticizing the Joe Biden’s administration for bypassing congressional review in its transfer of weapons to Israel. Over the weekend, Bush tweeted: “The White House cannot have it both ways: calling on the Israeli government to uphold international law while bypassing Congress to send weapons that are leading to violations of international law. How many innocent people must die before @POTUS will demand a ceasefire?”
Palestine’s ambassador to the UK said that the world wants to discuss the “day after Israel’s aggression on Gaza but it’s the day before we need to understand”. In an interview with Democracy Now, Husam Zomlot said: “Everybody now is wanting us to discuss the day after. No. The day before. The day before 7 October. The occupation, the colonisation, the racism, the supremacy, the murders all over the West Bank, the provocations in Jerusalem, the rounding and arresting of our children without trial, without charge, without access to their parents or lawyers, this is what needs to be discussed.”
The Palestinian foreign minister has released a statement before the new year in which he condemned what he called the “Israeli war machine’s persistence in the war of genocide”. In a statement on X, Riad Malki wrote: “We welcome the new year and the 59th anniversary of the start of the Palestinian revolution, yet the wounds of our people are bleeding due to Israeli war machine’s persistence in the war of genocide, destruction, and displacement.”
Approximately 1.4 million Palestinians who have been displaced by Israeli strikes are living in UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip, the UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said. She told the BBC: “The facilities in the north are becoming crowded by the hour, people continue to come in. They are absolutely full and so people have started taking refuge in areas outside these facilities including in parks, in the open. Many are sleeping in their cars.”
More than 21,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 56,000 wounded, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
