Middle East crisis live: Israel and Hamas wrangle over potential ceasefire and hostage deal | Israel
Israel and Hamas wrangle over potential ceasefire deal as deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza continue
Israel and Hamas are wrangling over the details of a potential deal to halt Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip and return hostages home, as Palestinian officials said intensified Israeli bombardments had killed more than 100 people over the weekend.
A Hamas official said the group had approved a list of 34 Israeli hostages to be returned as part of a deal that could eventually lead to a ceasefire, Reuters reported. But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office swiftly issued a statement on Sunday saying Hamas had not provided such a list.
A renewed push is under way to reach a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office on 20 January.
“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” outgoing US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told a press conference in South Korea earlier today when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.
Displaced children in the southern city of Khan Younis, which has been repeatedly hit by Israeli airstrikes. Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA
In other developments:
Israeli military airstrikes continued throughout the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with an airstrike killing five people in a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza and another killing four in Jabalia in the territory’s north, Gaza health officials said. Later in the day, an airstrike hit a police station in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing five people, medics said. It was not immediately clear if all the people who were killed were police officers. At nightfall, medics said an Israeli airstrike had killed three people in Bureij camp in central Gaza, bringing Sunday’s death toll to 17.
Two Palestinians, including a 17-year-old boy, were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Fatah party and the Palestinian health ministry. Palestinian media said Israeli forces opened fire on the home of a 37-year-old man in a town south of Jenin. The health ministry said the 17-year-old was killed in an Israeli raid in Askar camp in Nablus. The Israeli military said its forces killed an armed militant in the West Bank, confiscated weapons and dismantled an explosives manufacturing laboratory. Separately, it said it was looking into reports that a 17-year-old was killed.
Social order in Gaza is likely to collapse further if Israel goes ahead with its threat this month to end all cooperationwith the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (Unrwa), Louise Wateridge, its senior emergency officer, has warned.
Gunmen opened fire on vehicles, including a passenger bus, on Monday near a village in the occupied West Bank, killing three people and injuring at least seven others, the Israeli military and emergency services said. “Paramedics have confirmed the deaths of three victims, including two women and a man,” emergency service provider Magen David Adom said, while the military reported that troops were “pursuing the terrorists” who carried out the attack near the village of Al-Funduq.
Antony Blinken will meet his European counterparts Thursday in Rome on Syria, as the west looks to engage the new Islamist-led leadership. Blinken would “meet with European counterparts to advocate for a peaceful, inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition”, a state department statement said as he visited Seoul on Monday.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year while inside the militant group’s war operations room, according to new details on Sunday disclosed by a senior Hezbollah security official, the Associated Press reports. “His eminence [Nasrallah] used to lead the battle and war from this location,” Wafiq Safa told a news conference on Sunday near the site where Nasrallah was killed. A series of Israeli airstrikes flattened several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on 27 September last year, killing Nasrallah.
Key events
France’s president Emmanuel Macron has said that his country will not abandon Kurdish fighters. “We must regard the regime change in Syria without naivety,” Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors, adding that France would not abandon “freedom fighters, like the Kurds” who are fighting extremist groups in Syria.
Turkey says it is 'only a matter of time' before Syrian Kurdish fighters are 'eliminated'
Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, has told a news conference that it was “only a matter of time” before Syrian Kurdish fighters - seen by the west as essential in the fight against Islamic State jihadists - will be wiped out.
He told journalists:
Conditions in Syria have changed. We believe it’s only a matter of time before PKK/YPG is eliminated.
Fidan went on to warn against any western support for Kurdish fighters in Syria. “If you (the west) have different aims in the region, if you want to serve another policy by using Daesh as an excuse to embolden the PKK, then there is no way for that either,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS group.
The Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) has been fighting for autonomy in south-east Turkey in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and the country’s western allies.
Syria is home to tens of thousands of Kurdish fighters who lead the the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Ankara considers an extension of the PKK. The SDF, which holds a vast swathe of territory in north-east Syria and includes some Arab fighters, was founded in 2015 and did much of the hardest fighting against IS.
Al Jazeera has cited Gaza’s health ministry as saying that the Israeli military has committed three “massacres” in Gaza over the past day, killing nearly 50 people and injuring 75 others who arrived at hospitals. There have been reports of deadly Israeli attacks on on a residential building in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza and in the southern city of Rafah. We will give you more details on these attacks when we get them.
Death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza reaches 45,854, says health ministry
At least 45,854 Palestinian people have been killed and 109,139 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Gaza’s health ministry has said in the past that thousands of other dead people are most likely lost in the rubble of the territory.
Syria’s new foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, landed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today on his first visit to the country since rebels toppled president Bashar al-Assad last month in a surprise offensive.
“Shaibani, accompanied by defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab arrive in the United Arab Emirates,” official news agency Sana reported, a day after they visited its Gulf neighbour Qatar.
Syria is eager for investment from wealthy Gulf states to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure and boost the economy, after years of crippling sanctions from the west.
#Syria’s new foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani landed in the United Arab Emirates on his first visit to the country since armed opposition forces toppled president Bashar al-Assad last month, official news agency SANA says. https://t.co/qFpkcinEVb
Three Israelis killed in northern West Bank shooting
In the opening summary, we reported that three Israelis were killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank. We now have a bit more information about what happened.
“Paramedics have confirmed the deaths of three victims, including two women and a man,” emergency service provider Magen David Adom said. The two women killed in the shooting were in their 60s, while the man was around 40.
The military says troops are “pursuing the terrorists” who carried out the attack near the village of al-Funduq, which left 8 people injured, according to reports.
“We will reach the despicable murderers and hold them, as well as anyone who assisted them, accountable,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement from his office. “No one will be spared.”
🚨BREAKING: 3 killed, 8 injured in shooting attack on Route 55 near Al-Funduq (between Karnei Shomron & Kedumim). Bus driver seriously wounded, 2 moderate, 5 mild injuries. pic.twitter.com/DbKLOZAO4j
The Israeli parliament decided in late October to pass a law banning the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, from operating in the country. Two bills were passed by the Knesset – the Israeli parliament - in late October to ban Unrwa from “any activity” and to declare it a terror group after allegations by Israel that members of the Unrwa staff in Gaza were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks, in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 abducted. The UN launched an investigation into the Israeli claims and fired nine Unrwa staff as a result. Unrwa denies any wider involvement with Hamas.
Unrwa has said the new laws – due to come into effect this month – will cause the supply chain of aid to Gaza to “fall apart”, excepting an already dire humanitarian crisis, with widespread shortages of food, medicine and clean water across the Strip. Unrwa operates in Gaza, the West Bank and in surrounding countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, where large numbers of Palestinian refugees live. It provides schools, mental health support, hospitals and waste disposal services, among other things, as well as being the central organisation for the distribution of aid.
The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has said the number of babies in Gaza who have died from the cold weather and a “lack of shelter” has risen to 7.
“Cold weather and lack of shelter are causing the deaths of newborns in Gaza. 7,700 newborns lack lifesaving care. To date, at least seven babies have reportedly died,” Unrwa wrote in a post on X.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, displaced from their homes by Israeli bombardments, are packed into tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood. Aid groups have accused the Israeli military of hindering and even blocking shipments in Gaza.
A displaced Palestinian child stands in front of his tent in a makeshift camp in Deir al-Balah. Photograph: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
Israel says Hamas has not given 'status' of the 34 hostages the group says it is ready to free
Israel said on Monday that Hamas had so far not provided the status of the 34 hostages the Palestinian militant group declared it was ready to release in the first phase of a potential exchange deal.
“As yet, Israel has not received any confirmation or comment by Hamas regarding the status of the hostages appearing on the list,” Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
“The list of hostages... was not provided to Israel by Hamas but was originally given by Israel to the mediators in July 2024.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group for relatives of those abducted by Hamas during the 7 October attack on southern Israel last year, has reacted to reports of a Saudi Arabian news outlet publishing a list of the 34 hostages who will potentially be freed in the first phase of a potential deal with Hamas. The list does not detail who is alive. Hamas militants seized 251 hostages during the 2023 attack, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.
The forum said:
The families of the hostages are shaken and upset by the list published this morning.
We call on the media and the public to show sensitivity and responsibility regarding the publication of this and other such things until a deal is signed, and also during it.
The time is ripe for a comprehensive agreement that will return all the hostages – the living for healing, and the murdered and fallen for a proper burial. We are leaving no one behind.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under growing pressure from hostages’ families to reach a deal that will free their loved ones, with weekly demonstrations organised by the hostages forum. His critics accuse him of stalling on a deal, with a key obstacle to a truce being Israel’s reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.
Israelis take part in a protest in Tel Aviv on January 4 demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock
Israel and Hamas wrangle over potential ceasefire deal as deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza continue
Israel and Hamas are wrangling over the details of a potential deal to halt Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip and return hostages home, as Palestinian officials said intensified Israeli bombardments had killed more than 100 people over the weekend.
A Hamas official said the group had approved a list of 34 Israeli hostages to be returned as part of a deal that could eventually lead to a ceasefire, Reuters reported. But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office swiftly issued a statement on Sunday saying Hamas had not provided such a list.
A renewed push is under way to reach a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office on 20 January.
“We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining,” outgoing US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told a press conference in South Korea earlier today when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.
Displaced children in the southern city of Khan Younis, which has been repeatedly hit by Israeli airstrikes. Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA
In other developments:
Israeli military airstrikes continued throughout the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with an airstrike killing five people in a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza and another killing four in Jabalia in the territory’s north, Gaza health officials said. Later in the day, an airstrike hit a police station in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing five people, medics said. It was not immediately clear if all the people who were killed were police officers. At nightfall, medics said an Israeli airstrike had killed three people in Bureij camp in central Gaza, bringing Sunday’s death toll to 17.
Two Palestinians, including a 17-year-old boy, were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Fatah party and the Palestinian health ministry. Palestinian media said Israeli forces opened fire on the home of a 37-year-old man in a town south of Jenin. The health ministry said the 17-year-old was killed in an Israeli raid in Askar camp in Nablus. The Israeli military said its forces killed an armed militant in the West Bank, confiscated weapons and dismantled an explosives manufacturing laboratory. Separately, it said it was looking into reports that a 17-year-old was killed.
Social order in Gaza is likely to collapse further if Israel goes ahead with its threat this month to end all cooperationwith the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (Unrwa), Louise Wateridge, its senior emergency officer, has warned.
Gunmen opened fire on vehicles, including a passenger bus, on Monday near a village in the occupied West Bank, killing three people and injuring at least seven others, the Israeli military and emergency services said. “Paramedics have confirmed the deaths of three victims, including two women and a man,” emergency service provider Magen David Adom said, while the military reported that troops were “pursuing the terrorists” who carried out the attack near the village of Al-Funduq.
Antony Blinken will meet his European counterparts Thursday in Rome on Syria, as the west looks to engage the new Islamist-led leadership. Blinken would “meet with European counterparts to advocate for a peaceful, inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition”, a state department statement said as he visited Seoul on Monday.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year while inside the militant group’s war operations room, according to new details on Sunday disclosed by a senior Hezbollah security official, the Associated Press reports. “His eminence [Nasrallah] used to lead the battle and war from this location,” Wafiq Safa told a news conference on Sunday near the site where Nasrallah was killed. A series of Israeli airstrikes flattened several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on 27 September last year, killing Nasrallah.
