Hamas’s acting Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya has said in broadcasted remarks that there would be no hostages-for-prisoners swap deal with Israel unless the offensive in the Palestinian enclave ended, Reuters reports.
“Without an end to the war, there can be no prisoner swap,” Hayya said in a televised interview with the group’s Al-Aqsa television channel, reiterating the group’s position on how to bring the conflict to an end.
“If the aggression is not ended, why would the resistance and in particular Hamas, return the prisoners (hostages)?” he said. “How would a sane or an insane person lose a strong card he owns while the war is continuing?”
Hayya, who led the group’s negotiating team in talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, blamed the lack of progress on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in turn holds the group responsible for the stalled talks.
A boy reacts during the funeral of Palestinian Anas Al-Masri, who succumbed to wounds sustained from an Israeli strike, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Nov 19, 2024. — Reuters
“There are contacts under way with some countries and mediators to revive this file (negotiation). We are ready to continue with those efforts but it is more important to see a real will on the side of the occupation to end the aggression,” said Hayya. “The reality proves that Netanyahu is the one who undermines it (negotiations),” he added.
Hamas wants a deal that ends the operation and sees the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held captive in Gaza as well as Palestinians jailed by Israel, while Netanyahu vowed the conflict can only end once Hamas is eradicated.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reports that Israeli warplanes bombarded several towns and villages in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon overnight.
One person was killed in an attack on the town of Rumin, while a young man was killed in an attack on the village of Kfarchouba, NNA reported.
Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee has ordered the residents of the Burj al-Shamali, Mashouq and al-Hawsh villages in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district to flee their homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali River, Al Jazeera reports.
In a statement on X, he said that the Israeli army was planning to hit the areas.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) says Israeli forces launched three raids on Haret Hreik in the capital’s southern suburbs overnight, destroying a number of buildings.
According to Al Jazeera, the predawn attacks came as Israel’s military continued its bombardment of southern Lebanon, with raids reported in Khiam, Jdeidat Marjayoun, al-Qalaa and Burj al-Muluk.
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN, told reporters that several bakeries in Gaza have shut down due to a lack of flour and fuel, while the remaining are at risk of imminent closure, Al Jazeera reports.
Just seven of the 19 bakeries supported by humanitarian organisations in Gaza are still running, he said, but they are “on the verge of shutting down” because they are running out of flour and fuel.
“This comes at a time when parts of northern Gaza are at imminent risk of famine” while there has been a “stark increase” in severe hunger in central and southern Gaza, Dujarric said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) says more than one million Palestinians in Gaza do not have sufficient shelter as winter approaches and brings cold and rainy weather, Al Jazeera reports.
This winter, fewer buildings remain standing in Gaza.
This means most Palestinians, who have been forced to flee Israeli attacks over and over, are being forced to live in tents and makeshift shelters that provide considerably less protection against the cold wind and the rain.
“Some have sewn together old rice sacks to ensure they have something, at least, between them and the sky,” said Alison Ely, the NRC’s shelter specialist in Gaza.
“When winter comes, these shelters will not keep them safe from strong winds, heavy rains and cold temperatures.”
The NRC noted that temperatures in Gaza can fall to 6 degrees Celsius during the winter.
The Israeli military said three soldiers, including a 70-year-old, were killed in south Lebanon, where its troops have battled Hezbollah since late September after a year of cross-border exchanges of fire.
According to AFP, the army announced two soldiers were killed in the same incident including 70-year-old reservist Ze’ev ‘Jabo’ Hanoch Erlich, after it had said that a 22-year-old soldier from Jerusalem “fell during combat in southern Lebanon”.
The deaths bring to 52 the army’s losses in Lebanon since the start of ground operations.
Another soldier was heavily injured during the same incident that killed the two soldiers including Erlich, the military said, adding he had been taken to hospital.
The Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, described Erlich as a “pioneer of research in geography, archaeology and Jewish history of Judea and Samaria” — as Israel calls the West Bank.
He lived in Ofra, one of the first settlements in the area.
The US Senate blocked legislation that would have halted the sale of some US weapons to Israel, which had been introduced out of concern about the human rights catastrophe faced by Palestinians in Gaza.
According to Reuters, 79 of the 100 senators opposed a resolution that would have blocked sales of tank rounds to Israel, while 18 approved it and one voted present.
The Senate was due to vote later on two other resolutions that would stop shipments of two other types of offensive military equipment.
All of the votes in favour of the measure came from Democrats, while “no” votes came from both Democrats and Republicans. Approval would have been a marked departure from decades of US congressional support for Israel, which for years was the biggest recipient of US military assistance.
The “resolutions of disapproval” were filed by Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and co-sponsored by a handful of Democrats.
Backers hoped that forcing a vote would encourage Israel’s government and President Joe Biden’s administration to do more to protect civilians in Gaza.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a ceasefire in Gaza, as he visited Brazil’s capital, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Xi expressed concerns about the spread of the conflict in Gaza, and “called for a ceasefire and an end to the war at an early date,” the agency said according to AFP, as he met with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The Chinese president’s appeal for a halt to fighting in Gaza echoed one he and other G20 leaders made during a summit held in Rio.
That summit’s joint statement called for a “comprehensive” ceasefire in both Gaza and Lebanon, where Israel is also waging an offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
The Palestinian Authority has condemned the United States for vetoing a call for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN Security Council, saying it “emboldens Israel to continue its crimes”, AFP reports.
“The US decision to exercise its veto for the fourth time emboldens Israel to continue its crimes against innocent civilians in Palestine and Lebanon,” it said in comments carried by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Jordan’s army says it has sent eight helicopters loaded with more than 7 tonnes of aid to Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
The helicopters carrying food, medicine and supplies for children took off from Jordan, the army said in a statement. It is the first time Jordanian aircraft have landed in Gaza with aid since Israel launched their offensive in October last year.
The army said the aid was being delivered to al-Qarara, an area near Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, where it would be handed over to the UN World Food Programme.
“The total amount of aid sent from the kingdom to the Gaza Strip is about 56,573 tonnes,” it added, noting the aid had been delivered through Egypt by plane, truck and dozens of airdrops.
Hamas has accused the United States of being “directly responsible” for Israel’s “genocidal war” in Gaza after it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, AFP reports.
“Again, the United States demonstrates that it is a direct partner in the aggression against our people, that it is a criminal, kills children and women and destroys civilian life in Gaza, and that it is directly responsible for the genocidal war and ethnic cleansing, just like the occupation (Israel),” Hamas said in a statement.
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Majed Bamya, has said that there was “no justification” for Washington’s veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, AFP reports.
“There’s no justification, no justification whatsoever for vetoing a resolution trying to stop atrocities,” he said after the vote.
The United States has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, accusing council members of cynically rejecting attempts at reaching a compromise, Reuters reports.
The 15-member council voted on a resolution put forward by its 10 non-permanent members in a meeting that called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” and separately demanded the release of hostages.
Only the US voted against it, using its veto as a permanent council member to block the resolution.
Health officials have said that Israeli forces have killed at least 33 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including a rescue worker, as troops deepened an incursion along the territory’s northern edge, bombarding a hospital and blowing up homes, Reuters reports.
Medics said at least 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the area of Jabalia in northern Gaza and at least 10 people remained missing as rescue operations continued. Another man was killed in tank shelling nearby, they said.
Later, an Israeli airstrike killed seven Palestinians, including a girl, in Al-Mawasi, a humanitarian-designated area in western Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Gaza medics said. Palestinian and UN officials say no place in the enclave is safe.
Another air strike on a house in the Remal neighbourhood in Gaza City killed four people, while a strike killed three Palestinians and wounded at least 20 others at a school sheltering displaced families in central Gaza Strip, medics said
A senior United States official has said that the country will veto a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza if it is brought to a vote in its current form, accusing council members of cynically rejecting attempts at reaching a compromise, Reuters reports.
The American official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the US would only support a resolution that explicitly calls for the immediate release of hostages as part of a ceasefire.
“As we stated many times before, we just can’t support an unconditional ceasefire that does not call for the immediate release of hostages,” the official said.
The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, has used the occasion of World Children’s Day to make a plea on X for Palestinian children, Al Jazeera reports.
“Today, the rights of Palestinian children are violated day in, day out,” Lazzarini writes. “[In Gaza,] they are being killed, injured, forced to flee and deprived of safety, learning and play.”
“In the occupied West Bank, children live in fear and anxiety,” he continues. “Since October last year, more than 170 were killed there while others are losing their childhood in Israeli detention centres.”
US envoy Amos Hochstein, speaking from Beirut, said he would travel to Israel to Israel as he seeks a truce in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, AFP reports.
“The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday and made additional progress, so I will travel from here in a couple [of] hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can,” Hochstein told reporters after meeting with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has led mediation efforts on behalf of the group.
The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 43,985 people have been killed in more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.
The toll includes 13 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 104,092 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since fighting broke out on October 7, 2023.
A UN peacekeeping patrol in Lebanon comprising French troops came under fire yesterday, France’s foreign ministry has said, adding that none of its forces were wounded in the incident, Reuters reports.
“France reiterates that it is imperative that Unifil be able to exercise its freedom of movement so that it can fully implement its mandate,” the foreign ministry said in a statement today.
It did not say who was responsible for the shots but stressed that the safety and security of United Nations personnel, property and premises must be ensured.
Earlier, France expressed its deep concern after Israeli forces had fired on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) and condemned any threats to Unifil’s security.
A Lebanese soldier has been killed after an Israeli attack on an army vehicle in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese army, Al Jazeerareports.
The soldier was first injured by this morning’s attack, which occurred on a road between the villages of Burj al-Muluk and Qlayaa, the army said, but later died of his wounds.
The soldier’s death follows an earlier Israeli attack in the southern town of Sarafand that killed three Lebanese soldiers.
The recent deaths have brought the number of Lebanese soldiers killed since the Gaza conflict erupted last year to 41, according to the army.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that at least 17 people, including a baby, were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian territory, AFP reports.
The Israeli military said one of its soldiers was killed and another seriously wounded during combat in the north of the Gaza Strip.
The baby was killed in nighttime shelling of the Nuseirat refugee camp, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, adding a shell killed two other people west of the camp in central Gaza.
A drone strike killed two people, including a 15-year-old girl, at a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in the northern city of Beit Lahia, he said.
Two civilians were killed and others were injured in the shelling of the occupation warplanes in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, Wafa news agencyreports.
Medical sources reported that one civilian was killed in the occupation artillery shelling of Jabalia al-Nazla in the north.
They added that another citizen was killed in the shelling of the occupation warplanes in the Khirbet al-Adas area north of Rafah.
They indicated that shrapnel injuries were recorded as a result of an occupation drone dropping a bomb on citizens near the entrance to al-Nuseirat.
