Israel-Hamas war updates: Death toll nears 21,000 in Gaza

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Could Israel’s Gaza war drag Iraq into another conflict? Read our explainer here.

More than 1,000 people gathered in Indonesia’s Medan city to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Read our feature story on this here.

We will soon be closing this live page. Below is a recap of the day’s main developments:

• Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said what is happening in Gaza is greater and more horrific than the 1948 Nakba.
• The UN chief has named Sigrid Kaag as Gaza’s humanitarian relief coordinator to oversee scaled-up aid shipments into the enclave, as called for in the recently passed UNSC resolution.
• Gaza’s Health Ministry said 241 people were killed in the past 24 hours as Israel pounded several parts of the territory overnight.
• Yemen’s Houthis have said they attacked a commercial ship and areas in “occupied Palestine” with drones.
• Netanyahu has said the intensity of the fighting in Gaza would not soften any time soon.

Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi speaking today said that he had just arrived from Gaza to hold a military and situational assessment and that the war is going to last, quote, “many more months”.

This is something that has been echoed by the Israeli prime minister saying that he didn’t want to put any sort of timetable on the war for the Israelis because they have a lot of goals to accomplish on the ground.

The reality on the ground is that they simply haven’t accomplished any of those military objectives they set out to achieve about 81 days ago.

Both of them are seemingly on the same page – and the political and military establishment – saying that the war is going to continue no matter how long it takes.

Additionally, the Israeli army chief of staff mentioned that there have been losses in this war. But the sentiment he is echoing is that of the prime minister – that there is no choice but to keep going.

We’re looking at 162 Israeli soldiers who have been killed since the ground offensive in Gaza began.

Dozens of cargo ships have been stranded at the port of Djibouti for days, with Houthi attacks bringing maritime traffic to a standstill.

Watch our report here:

There has been outrage at recent footage showing Palestinian prisoners rounded up and stripped naked in a sports stadium in Gaza, with the UN sounding the alarm about Israel’s treatment of detainees.

Palestinian men and boys, among the thousands arrested by Israeli forces in recent months, have told Al Jazeera about the torture and humiliation they endured while in custody.

“They treated us like dogs. They forced us to bark, threatening to beat us if we didn’t. We did whatever they asked because if we didn’t they would beat us badly,” one man said.

Watch the full report below:

In his yearly review, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cited some positive developments in 2023, including the end of COVID as a public health emergency of global concern and increased attention to the health impacts of climate change.

He also listed the war Gaza as the source of 2023’s “immense and avoidable suffering” and mentioned fighting in Sudan, Ukraine, Ethiopia and Myanmar.

Sigrid Kaag’s work is cut out for her. Her task now is very difficult, primarily because the UN Security Council resolution that was passed on Friday states that her role or her mandate is to “facilitate, coordinate and monitor a scaling up of aid into Gaza”.

There’s one problem though: Nowhere in this resolution does it call for an immediate ceasefire and that – according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – is what is needed to scale up humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Kaag has a lot of experience and she certainly has the backing of the secretary general. But until there is a ceasefire, or at least some sort of demand for a pause in fighting, it’s very hard to see how she will scale up aid going into an area being bombed almost relentlessly by Israeli forces.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Andrea Dessi, an assistant professor of international relations at the American University of Rome, said the US is working behind the scenes to constrain Israel in a strategy likely to prove ineffective.

“The United States – and the Biden administration – is moving on the same strategy of not criticising Israel or not showing daylight between the US and Israeli positions in public,” Dessi said. “It is moved by this belief that the best way to influence Israel is through back-channel negotiations or back channel pressure.”

“However, the history of the US-Israel relationship has shown repeatedly for many, many decades, that the best way to restrain Israel is indeed through public pressure and public criticism, especially given the considerations of what we have been seeing for the past 80-plus days in Gaza,” he said.

He added the only way towards a diplomatic solution is an “impartial third party stepping in and being the grown-up in the room” and compelling a ceasefire.

Tal Mitnick, an 18-year-old Israeli, has been sentenced to 30 days in military prison for refusing to enlist in the army in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza.

“Violence cannot solve the situation, neither by Hamas, nor by Israel. There is no military solution to a political problem,” he wrote in a statement explaining his decision.

Mitnick was arrested earlier today at the Tel Hashomer military base and immediately sentenced, according to Mesarvot, an organisation that supports Israeli youth who refuse to take part in military service.

Tal Mitnick, an activist in the Mesarvot network showed up today at Tel Hashomer base and was sentenced to 30 days in military prison. Listen to what he had to say before he walked in.

Support him and other refusniks: https://t.co/drRtLjk4U3 pic.twitter.com/zu1XZJqmhG

— Mesarvot מסרבות (@Mesarvot_) December 26, 2023

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has warned that any efforts by Israel to expel and permanently relocate Palestinians within or from Gaza would represent a grave violation of international law.

“The forcible transfer and deportation of a significant population across borders, lacking any guarantees of return, would constitute a serious breach of international law, amounting to an atrocity crime,” said Jan Egeland, the NRC’s secretary general.

“Pushing for the irreversible deportation of hundreds of thousands directly undermines resolving this conflict amid decades of a refugee crisis,” he continued. “The international community must unequivocally condemn any forced displacement of Palestinians, whether within or outside the Gaza Strip.

Israeli military operations in Gaza are driving civilians closer to the southern borders and the NRC said the “alarming prospect” of mass deportations is a consequence of recent media coverage and explicit declarations by Israeli officials supporting such deportations. Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was quoted by media calling for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza.

Two Iraqi security sources confirmed that overnight US strikes targeted the headquarters of the Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah in the city of Hilla, south of Baghdad.

One militiaman was killed and 16 were wounded, the unnamed sources told the Reuters news agency.

Iran-aligned Kataib Hezbollah criticised the Iraqi government’s position for condemning militia attacks against US-led coalition targets.

“We warn those with weak souls, from the highest level to the lowest, not to test our patience,” militia official Abu Ali al-Askari said.

In a clear challenge to the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Askari pledged to continue attacks against US forces.

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) says US warships and planes shot down 12 one-way attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two land attack cruise missiles fired by the Houthis in the Red Sea during a 10-hour period today.

The attacks resulted in no reported injuries and no ships were damaged, CENTCOM wrote on X.

The Iran-backed Houthis have been waging a campaign of missile and drone attacks from Yemen on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel’s war on Gaza.

U.S. assets, to include the USS LABOON (DDG 58) and F/A-18 Super Hornets from the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, shot down twelve one-way attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles, and two land attack cruise missiles in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the… pic.twitter.com/vRQ5e6Au6d

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 26, 2023

Israel’s National Security Council warned its citizens to exercise caution in India following an explosion near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi.

The Level 2 travel advisory cautioned Israelis in the country against displaying Israeli flags or symbols, to avoid crowded gatherings and to maintain a high level of alertness.

Circumstances surrounding the blast, which occurred at 5:20pm (11:50 GMT) near the Israeli embassy in the Indian capital, remain unclear and an investigation is under way. No one was harmed, Israeli authorities said.

The statement from the foreign ministry comes as several of Israel’s allies have called on thee country to move to lower-intensity operations and to better protect civilians.

France was among the first Western countries to appeal for a ceasefire.

Paris “strongly reiterates its call for an immediate truce leading to a ceasefire”, the foreign ministry said.

The French government also condemned the “systematic bombing that has again left many civilian victims in recent days”.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has given a speech. Here are some of his main talking points:

• What is happening in Gaza is greater and more horrific than the 1948 Nakba.
• We want a complete and comprehensive halt to the fighting in Gaza and the delivery of aid.
• The US responds every time with a veto against a vote to stop the aggression against Gaza.
• Netanyahu and his government’s plan is to get rid of the Palestinians. Israel wants to displace Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
• Our efforts towards Palestinian reconciliation have never stopped.
• We value the Egyptian and Jordanian positions that reject displacement.
• Hope is coming and Gaza will return to what it was and better, God willing.
  

  

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed “joint mediation efforts” with US President Joe Biden.

In a phone call, the Qatari Emiri Diwan said the two leaders talked about their role in de-escalating the situation in Gaza and brokering a lasting ceasefire.

They also discussed the “latest developments” in the war-ravaged enclave and the occupied Palestinian territories, it said.

Qatar and Egypt have engaged in intense negotiations to establish a prolonged truce in Gaza.

An Israeli attack hit a home in al-Mawasi, a rural area in Khan Younis governate, that Israel declared “a safe zone”. One woman was killed and at least eight others were wounded.

In response, Israel’s military said it wouldn’t refrain from operating in safe zones, “if it identifies terrorist organization activity threatening the security of Israel”.

Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi later said that “the air force continues to strike non-stop.”

“A building falls when it is an enemy target, a building falls when it poses a danger to our forces,” he added.

“The [Israeli military] is focused and precise in its operations. Wherever our forces attack, they are accompanied by heavy fire from the air, sea and land. In every operation in which our forces require firepower, they receive the required cover at its best.”

Seven ambulances and 83 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected in Nitzana, Israel today before entering Gaza through the Rafah crossing, the Israeli coordination office for affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories (COGAT) has said.

It added that the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing between Gaza and Israel was closed for aid inspections at the UN’s request due to logistical constraints.

UN agencies have repeatedly accused Israel of blocking essential humanitarian aid, fuel and resources from entering Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation inside the besieged enclave.

🚛83 humanitarian aid trucks
🚑7 ambulances
Inspected at Nitzana and transferred to Gaza via the Rafah Crossing today, (Dec. 26).
At the request of the @UN, Kerem Shalom was closed for inspection of aid trucks due to logistic constraints on the Gazan side of the crossing. pic.twitter.com/NMqqlHSwF8

— COGAT (@cogatonline) December 26, 2023