Israeli forces approach Khan Younis as the destruction of north Gaza continues. Despite Israeli hopes of neutralizing Palestinian rocket capability in the early days of the war, resistance fighters are still launching rockets on Tel Aviv.
Casualties
- 15,899+ killed*, including 6,150 children, and 42,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 262 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.
*This figure was confirmed by the Gaza Ministry of Health on December 5. However, due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza), the Gaza Ministry of Health has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to or above 20,000.
Key Developments
- Israeli bombed Jabalia’s center and Block 2 residential neighborhood with a barrage of white phosphorous and smoke shells.
- Israeli forces block the burial of 100 bodies inside Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia as they shoot at people in the area, according to the Ministry of Health’s director general.
- A number of medical staff in Gaza were arrested when they tried to flee to the south from Gaza, Kan news reported.
- The PA’s Minister of Health said that only four hospitals in north Gaza are partially operating and are in dire condition under Israeli fire and bombardment, with no ability to perform surgeries.
- Some 117,000 cases of acute respiratory infection were recorded by the Ministry of Health; 50,000 cases of skin disease, 86,000 cases of diarrhoea and severe dehydration in children under the age of five.
- U.S. officials told CNN that it would take until the end of January before Israeli forces transition to “lower-intensity, hyper-localized strategy” to target Hamas in southern Gaza.
- Qatar’s Emir: “It is a disgrace on the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue for more than two months.”
- A UN official confirmed that there is no single safe place in the Gaza Strip from Israeli bombardment, including facilities carrying the UN flag.
- Two Palestinian were killed, and a third succumbed to his wounds in the past 24 hours in the occupied West Bank.
- A Palestinian was shot from a close range by Israeli soldiers, an incident filmed by Palestinians in the town of Khirbet Qalqas, south of Hebron.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israeli troops and Hamas militants are locked in fierce ground combat in Gazaafter the Israelis, fighting their way through the devastated enclave, reached the heart of the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli warplanes also bombarded targets in one of the heaviest phases of warfare since the war began.
The Israeli military (IDF) said yesterday its ground operation had its “most intense day,” as Israel’s offensive continues into all of Gaza. IDF Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said it was a “third phase” that targeted what he said were Hamas strongholds in southern Gaza. Meanwhile, at a briefing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the only way to end the war is to use “overwhelming force.” NBC News reports.
Netanyahu called yesterday on the international community to “stand with Israel,” but added that “Gaza must be demilitarized, for Gaza to be demilitarized there is only one force that can take care of this demilitarization and that force is Israel’s steering army. No international power can be responsible for this. I am not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement.” NBC News reports.
Netanyahu alleged international indifference to the reports of sexual crimes by Hamas and commented that “I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation — where the hell are you?” Israeli police say they are analyzing 60,000 videos seized by body cameras worn by Hamas attackers, as well as going through 1,000 testimonies, to bring the perpetrators to justice. Hamas has rejected allegations that its gunmen committed any sexual crimes. Meanwhile, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Israel has not responded to its request for access to Israel and Palestinian territories which would enable it to collect requisite information. Israel claims the U.N. Office has pre existing biases against Jerusalem, and said it will not cooperate with the body. Sam Mednick reports for AP News.
The IDF said its air force has struck around 250 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours. “IDF ground troops directed an IDF fighter jet to strike two rocket launchers from which terrorists fired a barrage of rockets toward central Israel yesterday,” it said today. “During these strikes, terrorists from the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations were eliminated, and a number of terrorist infrastructure were destroyed.”Troops also struck an “armed terrorist cell” operating next to a school in northern Gaza, the IDF said. Amir Tal reports for CNN.
Fifty trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing yesterday, including two trucks specifically carrying fuel, according to an Egyptian official. Meanwhile, seven injured Palestinians entered Egypt to receive medical treatment. Asma Khalil and Eyad Kourdi report for CNN.
The IDF said there are 138 hostages being held in Gaza and called on the international community to “take action” to assist in their release. A total of 110 hostages taken on the Oct. 7 attacks have been released, 78 of which were freed during the six-day ceasefire. BBC News reports.
The IDF said today its forces were advancing around the southern city of Khan Younis, following a comment yesterday by the head of Israel’s southern command who said that its forces were battling in “the heart” of the city. Hamas said it killed 10 soldiers in the city and injured several more. Liam Stack reports for the New York Times.
REGIONAL RESPONSE
The Israeli military (IDF) said in a post on X it is reviewing a strike that harmed Lebanese troops in south Lebanon, following reports that an Israeli shelling killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded three people on Monday. It said IDF soldiers yesterday “operated in self defense to eliminate an imminent threat that had been identified from Lebanon. The threat was identified within a known launch area and observation point of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, near al-Awadi.” “The IDF was notified that soldiers from the Lebanese Armed Forces were harmed during the strike. The Lebanese Armed Forces were not the target of the strike. The IDF expresses regret over the incident. The incident is under review.”
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Europe faces a “huge risk of terrorist attacks” over the Christmas vacation period due to the Israel-Hamas war “and the polarization it causes in our society,” the E.U. home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johnansson, warned yesterday. “We saw (it happening) recently in Paris, unfortunately we have seen it earlier as well,” Johnansson said, referencing the attack last weekend in the French capital. Some reports have said the perpetrator in Paris swore allegiance to the self-styled Islamic state militant group. Johnansson said the European Commission will provide an additional $32.5 million to bolster security in vulnerable areas, particularly places of worship. Lorne Cook reports for AP News.
US RESPONSE
The U.S. military airlifted 36,000 pounds of critical supplies to Gaza yesterday, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder confirmed. “At the request of USAID (United States Agency for International Development), the Department of Defense airlifted another 16.3 metric tons, or 36,000 pounds, of vital supplies to the people of Gaza today, providing more vitally needed medical supplies, warm clothing, and food and nutrition,” Ryder said. He added that the previous airlifts “delivered via a U.S. Air Force C-17 to Egypt [were] subsequently transported via ground into Gaza and then distributed by U.N. agencies.” More flights are expected in “the coming days,” he said. Haley Britzky reports for CNN.
The current phase of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza could end by January, with Israel turning to lower-intensity strategies with narrow targets on specific Hamas leaders, according to senior Biden administration officials. One official said the US has warned Israel in “hard” and “direct” conversations that the IDF cannot repeat the tactics it used in northern Gaza and it must do more to limit civilian casualties. The official added they did not feel comfortable using the word “receptive” to describe Israel’s response to the administration’s warnings. Current U.S. assessments show Israel cannot sustain its high-intensity operations indefinitely, and officials hope Israel will move to a targeted approach come early next year, in a mirror pattern of how the US transitioned away from high-intensity combat in Afghanistan and Iraq to a more narrow campaign. Natasha Bertrand, MJ Lee, Alex Marquardt, and Oren Liebermann report for CNN.
The US is unlikely to stop weapons production to Israel despite the soaring civilian death toll, according to U.S. officials. “You start lessening aid to Israel, you start encouraging other parties to come into the conflict, you weaken the deterrence effect and you encourage Israel’s other enemies,” one official said. U.S. support and advice to Israel has recently focused on limiting civilian deaths, and yesterday, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said, “we are going to continue with our campaign to destroy Hamas, a campaign that the United States sees eye to eye with us about.” Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Washington expects Israel to not attack areas marked “safe” on the grid-based maps Israel posted urging Palestinians to leave parts of southern Gaza. Humeyra Pamuk, Jonathan Saul, and Maggie Fick report for Reuters.
Israel “is not doing enough” and needs to “allow more humanitarian assistance in,” spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, Matthew Miller, said today. The 100 trucks of aid and 70,000 liters of fuel entering Gaza is insufficient, Miller added. “They need more humanitarian assistance. They need more food and water.” Abigail Williams reports for NBC News.
The State Department announced yesterday it has imposed visa ban sanctions on Israeli settlers believed to be involved in attacks against Palestinians, demonstrating rising concern in the Biden administration about the escalating attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. The travel ban will also apply to several dozen Palestinians believed to be involved in attacks against Israelis. Officials say this is the first time the US is sanctioning extremist settlers since the Clinton administration. President Biden referenced his visa ban plan two weeks ago in a Washington Post op-ed, and today, U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he raised the issue of settler violence with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior IDF Minister Yoav Gallant during his visit to Israel last week. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
| Facing a soaring death toll from Israel’s renewed offensive in southern Gaza, the Biden administration is trying to pressure its ally to minimize civilian deaths while stopping well short of the kind of measures that might force it to listen, such as threatening to restrict military aid. Scholars Who Study the Middle East Are Afraid to Speak Out Polling data indicate widespread self-censorship.https://www.chronicle.com/article/scholars-who-study-the-middle-east-are-afraid-to-speak-out“Eighty-two percent of all U.S.-based respondents, including almost all assistant professors (98 percent), said that they self-censor when they speak professionally about the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Just over 81 percent of those self-censoring said they primarily held back their criticism of Israel, while 11 percent said they held back from criticizing Palestinians. Only 2 percent said criticizing U.S. policy was the biggest issue.” Shibli Telhami |
Israel-Palestine war: For Netanyahu and his political allies, peace is more dangerous than war
Israeli public opinion has turned against both Israel’s prime minister and Bezalel Smotrich, his main coalition partner on the extreme right. But they won’t give up on their dream of a new Nakba easily.
This is a decisive moment in Israel’s war with Hamas. It’s also a hugely dangerous one for both sides. The resumption of a brutal bombing campaign on the south of Gaza was impelled by an overwhelming feeling in the war cabinet, the media, and among the majority of Israelis that the war should go on, that Hamas should be dealt a final blow.The Israeli public wants vengeance, and they still do not feel that they have had it.Faced with the blunt choice of a further exchange of hostages and prisoners and returning to the ground offensive, the war cabinet decisively chose war.If the war cabinet is a long way from recognising what everyone outside Israel is telling them – that Hamas cannot be fully defeated – there is now a growing new realisation in Israel, maybe even within the army and certainly among commentators, that Hamas is far from being beaten.
The IDF can hand Hamas either a Pyrrhic victory or a real one
To no one’s surprise, Israel and Hamas have resumed fighting in Gaza after almost a week of temporary truces and prisoner exchanges. Despite American and other entreaties to limit civilian casualties, Israel appears determined to push into the south of Gaza, but its strategic thinking seems to end there, and to hold no plausible endgame in sight. As a consequence, the next phase of this vicious conflict will almost certainly lead Israel to an unenviable dilemma: whether to grant Hamas a small and ultimately hollow victory or a much larger and all-too-real one.
The next stages of the fighting seem clear. Israel will likely seize all of the significant aboveground urban areas in Gaza’s south, just as it did in the north. After that will come a major battle for control of Hamas’s extensive underground tunnel network, where most of the group’s fighters, leaders, equipment, and remaining hostages are presumed to be located. Ultimately, Israel may seek to destroy the tunnels themselves, perhaps by flooding them with seawater. In
doing so, Israel will expect to have inflicted irreparable harm on Hamas, rendering it unable to govern Gaza or pose a threat to southern Israel for the foreseeable future.