As Netanyahu attempts to prolong war on Gaza, Israeli forces and tanks bomb Khan Yunis and lay siege around the city’s major hospitals. Meanwhile, Gazans are turning to animal fodder for food as starvation sets in.
Casualties
- 25,700+ killed* and at least 63,740 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 387+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
- 556 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 32,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** This figure is released by the Israeli military.
Key Developments
- UNRWA says 570,000 Palestinians in Gaza are now facing “catastrophic hunger”.
- UNRWA says it delivered protein-based flour, dairy items, and high-energy biscuits to 320,000 Palestinian families in Gaza, leaving thousands others without food.
- ActionAid UK appeals that “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is still catastrophic. As winter sets in, people are struggling without proper shelters, food, water and warm clothes.”
- Israeli military says it encircled Khan Yunis, second-largest city in Gaza Strip, and one of the major southern cities where Gazans fled to from the north earlier on in the war upon Israeli army instruction.
- Wafa reports Israeli forces fired directly at buildings in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. In December, Israeli shells directly hit the maternity ward in Nasser, killing a baby girl and wounding seven others.
- WHO says its teams managed to resupply 19,000 liters of fuel to Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza.
- Wafa reports Israel killed at least 50 Palestinians and injured 120 others in bombings of Khan Yunis.
- The Al-Khair and Nasser Hospitals are minimally operating and totally inaccessible following Israeli siege of Khan Yunis.
- Reuters reports Hamas and Israel broadly agreed in principle during mediated talks on month-long ceasefire and exchange of prisoners and captives.
- Palestinian Authority condemns Israeli PM Netanyahu’s attempts to prolong war in Gaza for six months.
- Israeli forces blow up house of Basil Shehadeh, Palestinian prisoner detained in June 2023, in his hometown of Urif, south of Nablus in the West Bank.
- The Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee records 120 Israeli settler attacks in West Bank since January, 35 carried out by settlers dressed in military attire and 23 attacks happened under watch of Israeli soldiers.
Israel’s Genocide War in Gaza Continues
Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants today near the main hospital in Gaza’s second-largest city of Khan Younis. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said its staff were trapped inside the Nasser hospital with about 850 patients and thousands of displaced people because the surrounding roads are too dangerous or inaccessible. The hospital is one of only two hospitals in southern Gaza that can still treat critically ill patients, the group said. Najib Jobain and Melanie Lidman report for AP News.
Israel was trying to demolish part of a Palestinian neighborhood as part of a plan to create a buffer zone between Gaza and Israel when around 20 of its soldiers were killed Monday in an explosion, according to three Israeli officials and an Israeli officer involved in the demolitions. Israel wants to demolish many Palestinian buildings along the border to create a “security zone” which would make it harder for militants to repeat a raid similar to the Oct. 7 attacks, the officials said. Patrick Kingsley, Ronen Bergman, and Natan Odenheimer report for the New York Times.
Gaza Crisis Update: Israel Scrambles for Solutions, Fear and loathing of Netanyahu’s fragile coalition Israel’s 16th week of war began with turbulence both on the home front and in the Gaza Strip, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s emergency coalition facing growing international and domestic criticism.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday it had lost 24 soldiers in a single day—including 21 in fighting around the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis—marking the IDF’s costliest 24 hours to date in the months-long incursion.
Israeli forces have killed more than 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7—per figures published by The Associated Press—following the surprise Hamas infiltration attack that killed 1,200 and saw hundreds of people taken back into the Palestinian territory as hostages.
Militants are thought to still hold more than 130 people spread across Gaza. Negotiations for a new ceasefire to facilitate their release have so far proved fruitless, prompting major demonstrations within Israel. On Monday, relatives of the hostages stormed a session in the Israeli parliament demanding lawmakers do more to secure their freedom.
Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank in the U.K., told Newsweek there is “anger” and “disappointment with the government” in Israel. He added: “It’s a terrible pain, the sense that the government is doing nothing about it.”Contacted by Newsweek, a Netanyahu spokesperson saidthe prime minister’s office was not offering comment.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and more than half of the buildings there damaged or destroyed in Israel’s withering offensive. The IDF has reported killing more than 8,000 militants in the fighting, which U.S. officials believe represents some 20 to 30 percent of the group’s personnel.
But for all the carnage, Israel is yet to “eradicate” the Islamist group, with officials and experts suggesting such a goal is unrealistic. Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar and military commander Mohammed Deif have so far evaded Israel, and Israeli leaders appear to have little plan for the future of the devastated coastal region.
Jonathan Schanzer, the senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)—a think tank that describes itself as non-partisan, but is considered close to Israel—told Newsweekearlier this month that different elements of the Israeli state have different visions of Gaza’s future.
“I don’t know how the Israelis are going to square this,” he explained. “The IDF seems to have one, the political echelons they seem to have one. And by the way, left and right have different ‘day after’ scenarios.” Newsweek
Whenever it ends, Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza will leave behind a wasteland of poisoned soils and destroyed water infrastructure.In the first month alone of the war, Israel dropped 25,000 metric tons of bombs on Gaza, a weight equal to the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in World War II. Some 97 percent of Gaza’s water is unsuitable for human consumption. The environmental status quo in Gaza and the rest of Palestine was already precarious, but the territories are now dangerously vulnerable. Century International fellow Zeinab Shuker argues in her Ecocide in Gazacommentary that environmental justice must be part of any long-term peace in Palestine.
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron will travel to Israel today where he is expected to raise concerns over the rising Palestinian civilian death toll, push for a “sustainable” ceasefire, and urge Israel to open more crossing points to allow aid deliveries into Gaza.“No one wants to see this conflict go on a moment longer than necessary,” Cameron said. “An immediate pause is now necessary to get aid in and hostages out. The situation is desperate.” Cameron will also meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to emphasize Britain’s long-term support for a peace deal establishing a Palestinian state co-existing alongside Israel. Reuters reports.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres UN chief blasts Israel’s ‘unacceptable’ rejection of two-state solution warned yesterday that Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of a two-state solution will indefinitely prolong the war. In his strongest language yet, Guterres told a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council that “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own fully independent state must be recognized by all, and a refusal to accept the two-state solution by any party must be firmly rejected.” He also warned that the risks of regional escalation of the war “are now becoming a reality,” referring to Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan. Edith M. Lederer reports for AP News.
Policy Errors of the key Powers Enabled Gaza War. In the lead-up to October 7, many of the key powers shaping the Middle East mistakenly believed they had found a formula for stability in the region, based on four principles: realpolitik, economic interests, authoritarianism, and managing rather than resolving wars. The Hamas attack and the bloody war in Gaza have revealed the deep flaws in this formula, which merely papered over festering problems.
In a new commentary, Cambanis joins SIPA professor Peter Salisbury to argue that, if the United States wants to shape different outcomes in the next phase, it will need to reprioritize values and tackle the root causes of conflict. The Century Foundation
U.S. RESPONSE
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby repeated objections yesterday to Israel’s moves to create a buffer zone, saying, “We do not want to see the territory of Gaza reduced in any way.” However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States was open to a temporary buffer zone solely to enable Israelis who had fled after Oct. 7 to return to their homes. “If there need to be transitional arrangements to enable that to happen, that’s one thing to happen,” Blinken said. “But when it comes to the permanent status of Gaza going forward, we’ve been clear, we remain clear about not encroaching on its territory.”
The top Middle East mediator for the United States Brett McGurk is traveling to Qatar and Egypt as discussions ratchet up over the release of Hamas-held hostages, although U.S. officials emphasize there has been little progress so far. “Certainly, one of the things he’s in the region talking about is the potential for another hostage deal, which would require a humanitarian pause of some length to get that done,” Kirby told reportersyesterday. “I wouldn’t even classify them as ‘negotiations’ quite at this point, but ‘ongoing discussions with counterparts’ about what’s in the realm of the possible here.” Karen DeYoung and Shira Rubin report for the Washington Post.
Israel and Hamas broadly agree in principle that an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners could take place during a month-long ceasefire, but the framework plan is being held up by the two sides’ differences over how to bring a permanent end to the Gaza war, three sources said. Intense mediation efforts led by Qatar, Washington and Egypt in recent weeks have focused on a phased approach to release different categories of Israeli hostages – starting with civilians and ending with soldiers – in return for a break in hostilities, the release of Palestinian prisoners and more aid to Gaza. The latest round of shuttle diplomacy started on Dec. 28 and has narrowed disagreements about the length of an initial ceasefire to around 30 days, after Hamas had first proposed a pause of several months, said one of the sources, an official briefed on the negotiations. However, Hamas has since refused to move forward with the plans until the future conditions of a permanent ceasefire are agreed, according to six sources.Reuter
Qatar says it is in serious discussions with Israel and Hamas for a potential ceasefire and the release of hostages from the Gaza Strip. Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari revealed that Qatar is actively engaging with both Israel and Hamas, presenting ideas and receiving responses from both parties, fostering cautious optimism for progress in the mediation process. While negotiations remain in flux, Israel has maintained a resolute stance, emphasizing the necessity of dismantling Hamas’ governing and military capabilities in Gaza and ensuring the safe return of all hostages. The Israeli government has unequivocally stated that any ceasefire must not leave hostages stranded in Gaza while allowing Hamas to retain power. I24 News
US Supreme Court Rejects ‘Attempt to Silence’ Palestinian Advocacy Group
The US Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and several US citizens who live in Israel against a Palestinian human rights organization based in the US.
Citing the speech and expressive activities of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), including its support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the lawsuit argued that the group provided “material support” for terrorism.
The dismissal by the district court had been unanimously affirmed by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This lawsuit is just one example of a long line of efforts to silence Palestinians for advocating for their freedom – in this case, by wielding the accusation of support for terrorism to discredit and dehumanize Palestinians for their advocacy, including their support for boycotts,” the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said in a statement on Monday. The CCR is a non-profit legal advocacy group based in New York.The Palestine Chronicle
IRAN-BACKED MILITANTS
The United States launched airstrikes yesterday against Iran-backed militias in Iraq in response to ballistic missiles fired against Al-Assad airbase on Sunday that left four U.S. personnel with traumatic brain injuries, according to two U.S. officials. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, “At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq. These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against U.S. and Coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias.” Austin added, “We do not seek to escalate conflict in the region. We are fully prepared to take further measures to protect our people and our facilities. We call on these groups and their Iranian sponsors to immediately cease these attacks.” Luis Martinez and Anne Flaherty report for ABC News.
The Kataib Hezbollah militia group in Iraq said one fighter was killed and two injured following U.S. strikes earlier today. Dan Lamothe reports for the Washington Post.
MILITARY CONFLICT WITH HOUTHIS
The United States struck two Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen yesterday, the U.S. Central Command confirmed. The strikes are the ninth attack in two weeks and came a day after the U.S.-led coalition carried out much larger strikes against nine sites in Yemen controlled by the Houthis. Eric Schmitt reports for the New York Times.