- Health ministry says at least six Palestinians killed and many wounded in Israeli raids across occupied West Bank overnight and this morning.
- Israel continues intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip, as health facilities and humanitarian aid efforts are crumbling due to intense fighting.
- White House aide says US has “not given a firm deadline to Israel” to end military operations in the besieged enclave.
- UN Security Council expected to discuss situation in Gaza on Friday as countries press for a ceasefire amid continued opposition from veto-holding US.
- At least 17,177 Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the revised official death toll stands at about 1,147.
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Israeli military claim to have hit targets in Syria
The Israeli military announced that they had, overnight, struck what they described as an “armed terrorist cell” in the vicinity of the occupied Golan Heights.
They said they had also hit several targets in Syria in response to attacks on the occupied Golan Heights yesterday.
The Golan Heights is a 1,200 square kilometre (463 square miles) plateau in Syrian territory that was occupied by Israel in 1967 after capturing the area in the Six-Day War. It was annexed by Israel in 1981.
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At least five Palestinians killed in Far’a refugee camp
At least five Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces in a raid on the Far’a refugee camp in occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Overnight and early this morning, raids have been reported in several areas across the occupied Palestinian territory:
- Ramallah, where Israeli soldiers fired sound grenades and tear gas
- Al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of Hebron
- Villages of Kafr Qaddum and Jinsafut, east of Qalqilya
- Occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli forces have also arrested two Palestinian men, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa
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Palestinian Authority working with US for post-war Gaza: Report
Bloomberg News is reporting that the Palestinian Authority is working with US officials on a plan to run Gaza once the war is over.
The preferred outcome of the conflict would be for Hamas to become a junior partner under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), helping to build a new independent state that includes the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the report said, citing Palestinian PM Shtayyeh.
“If they [Hamas] are ready to come to an agreement and accept the political platform of the PLO, then there will be room for talk. Palestinians should not be divided,” he said, adding that Israel’s aim to fully defeat Hamas is unrealistic.
Smoke rises over Gaza [Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters] -
US officials voice concern over Israel’s military ambitions: Report
The HuffPost has reported that US officials are concerned that Israel is looking to secure US weapons for a war in Lebanon.
“This is a pivotal moment in history, and we should feel angry about how Netanyahu has literally put our reputation on fire to advance his personal political agenda. The collateral effects to American security are extremely consequential,” the news website quoted a State Department official as saying,
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Men kidnapped from schools under heavy gunfire
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah in the Gaza Strip, said that dozens of men taken from UN-affiliated schools in northern Gaza on Thursday were rounded up under “heavy gunfire” with snipers also positioned around the school.
“Those men were ordered to leave the school and then they were blindfolded. They were stripped of their clothes, and there were signs of beatings and torture as we’ve seen in one of the videos and the pictures circulating,” he said.
Footage aired by Israeli media showed at least 100 Palestinian men sitting in their underwear on the street in Jabalia before being taken to an unknown location. Among the men were doctors, academics, journalists and the elderly, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
We are getting reports of casualties in Far’a refugee camp near Tubas, northeast of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, following an Israeli raid.
At least three people have been killed and three others were wounded, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Videos from earlier this morning show Israeli forces entering the site with tanks while sounds of explosions could be heard across the camp.
We will add more information as we get it.
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Will Netanyahu risk a tunnel conflict to ‘eradicate Hamas’, stay in power?
Al Jazeera spoke to experts on the challenges the Israeli army would face if they entered the sophisticated, sprawling network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip.
Fighting in the narrow tunnels would be a risky move for the Israelis, who would be without the aerial support they rely on overground.
However, some believe that a politically embattled Netanyahu may still choose to engage Hamas in the tunnels to fulfil his ambitions of eradicating the group.
Read the full article here.
An Israeli soldier secures a tunnel underneath Gaza City, on November 22, 2023 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters] -
Renewed Israeli air strikes across Gaza
Israeli forces struck a number of areas across the Gaza Strip earlier today, including in the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza.
Additionally, an Israeli air attack on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza, killed five people.
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Ben-Gvir requests Hamas prisoners be moved to underground prison wing
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has ordered the country’s prison service commissioner to reopen an underground prison wing to hold jailed members of Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.
The Times of Israel, citing Hebrew media, reported that the wing was part of the Nitzan prison in central Israel and is reported to have been unused for years.
Ben-Gvir also wrote to Israel’s police commissioner describing the conditions in the underground wing as “not among the best”, but that the conditions “comply with the provisions of the law and the relevant regulations, and it has housed prisoners in the past”.
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US has ‘enabled a monster’
The Israeli government is “trying to do as much destruction as they can” in order to drive people out of Gaza, according to Ahmed Bedier, president of civil society group United Voices for America.
“They initially had this plan to force people out into Egypt and the Sinai, but that’s not happening. So, to try to get people to leave in different ways and cause as much destruction to the infrastructure as possible, infrastructure that sustains life, we saw simultaneous attacks on hospitals, food and schools,” he told Al Jazeera.
Bedier also criticised the US’s role in emboldening Netanyahu, saying they’ve put themselves “in a difficult situation”.
“The Biden administration at the beginning of this gave full support, full throttle support for the Netanyahu government, what they’re doing, and now they’re trying to rein it in,” he said. “In a way, they enabled a monster and they can’t pull them back.”
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Latest casualty figures
Gaza
Killed: 17,177
Wounded: 46,000Occupied West Bank
Killed: 266
Wounded: 3,365Israel
Killed in Oct 7 attack: 1,147 (revised from 1,400)
Wounded: 8,730
Soldiers killed since Oct 7: 418*Figures as reported by Palestinian health ministry and Israeli army
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US defence secretary offers ‘enduring support’ to Israel to ‘defend itself’
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered his “enduring support for Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism” in a call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday, according to a White House press release.
Austin also urged “increased efforts to protect civilians in Gaza”, it added, while he also called for the Israeli government to “curb extremist settler violence in the West Bank”.
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US ‘always vetoes’ UN efforts to constrain Israel: Academic
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ invocation of Article 99 of the UN Charter is unlikely to yield results when the UN Security Council meets later today, said Ian Wilson, a lecturer in politics and security studies at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.
The United Arab Emirates has called on the UN Security Council to vote for a draft resolution that demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
“The US will veto any resolution calling for a ceasefire, no matter how carefully it’s worded,” Wilson told Al Jazeera.
The UNSC can act on Guterres’ advice and consider a ceasefire resolution in Gaza, but the five permanent members – China, Russia, the US, the UK and France – have the power to veto any such decision.
“The US has vetoed 46 resolutions, including those condemning Israel’s illegal annexation of Golan Heights. They are utterly contemptuous of the rules-based order they claim to espouse,” Wilson said.
“The US always vetoes anything that seeks to constrain Israel. It is absolutely counterproductive as the whole world sees them condoning and providing the arms for wholesale massacre.”
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21 hospitals in Gaza now out of service: Government media
At least 110 health centres have ceased operations alongside 21 hospitals since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, according to the latest data from Gaza’s government media department.
The report also states that 287 medical personnel have been killed in Israeli attacks during the same period and the destruction of at least 58 ambulances has severely hampered the transport of injured people to where treatment is still available in Gaza.
A Palestinian injured in an Israeli air strike arrive at Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Thursday [Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images] -
A recap of the latest developments
It’s 7am on Friday (05:00 GMT) in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel.
If you are just joining us, here’s a recap of developments in the last few hours:
- The United Arab Emirates urges the UN Security Council to vote for Gaza ceasefire.
- Israeli warplanes launch overnight bombing raids across the Gaza Strip
- Israel’s military announces two more soldiers killed in Gaza, bringing the total to at least 93 killed since the ground offensive began.
- Injuries and arrests reported as the Israeli military makes raids across several areas in the occupied West Bank
- Alarm sirens, explosions heard in the vicinity of the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
Palestinian rescue volunteers assist a survivor of an Israeli strike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Thursday [Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images] -
Photos: US Jewish community gathers in New York to demand Gaza ceasefire
Rabbis and members of the Jewish community gathered in the US city to mark the first day of Hanukkah and to call for a ceasefire and an end to genocide in Gaza.
The two-hour event in Columbus Circle in Manhattan – featuring songs, speeches and prayers – was organised by Jewish groups to mark the first night of the holiday of Hanukkah on December 7, 2023 [Andres Kudacki/AP Photo] 
Carrying placards calling for an end to genocide and cessation of fighting in Gaza, the protesters said traditional Hanukkah blessings and sang about peace at the event [Andres Kudacki/AP Photo] 
Activists who attended the event denounced Israel’s offensive in Gaza [Andres Kudacki/AP Photo] 
[Andres Kudacki/AP Photo] -
Casualties reported as Israeli fighter jets pound Gaza
Israeli warplanes have launched a series of raids across the Gaza Strip, according to the Al Jazeera team in Gaza, with reports of casualties, specifically in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area of the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
An Al Jazeera video shows civil defence and civilian volunteers carrying injured Palestinians out of a building destroyed in the attack.
Air strikes were also launched in the early morning hours in several areas of Khan Younis in the south, including Maan, Jourat al-Aqqad, and around al-Mahatta Street, as well as in the neighbouring city of Rafah.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported several deaths and injuries from an Israeli bombing that targeted the Shujayea neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.
Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/12/8/israel-hamas-war-live-palestinians-demand-end-to-israels-gaza-onslaught
