Netanyahu warns Hezbollah after reports of a civilian killed on Lebanese border
Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah against escalating the fighting after an Israeli man was killed by a guided-missile attack fired from Lebanon on Thursday, according to Israeli reports.
The Israeli military has said the attack was carried out by Hezbollah. It said its fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to repeated attacks on northern Israel today.
Israel’s prime minister, speaking to soldiers during a visit near the border, said:
If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war then it will by its own hand turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis.
Key events
Lauren Gambino
The presidents of three of the nation’s top universities are facing intense backlash, including from the White House, after they appeared to evade questions during a congressional hearing about whether a student calling for the genocide of Jews would constitute harassment under the schools’ codes of conduct.
In a contentious, hours-long debate on Tuesday, the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sought to address the steps they were taking to combat rising antisemitism on campus since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. But it was their careful, indirect response to a question posed by the Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York that drew scathing criticism.
In an exchange that has now gone viral, Stefanik, a graduate of Harvard, pressed Elizabeth Magill, the president of UPenn, on Tuesday to say whether students calling for the genocide of Jews would be disciplined under the university’s code of conduct. In her line of questioning, Stefanik appeared to be conflating chants calling for “intifada” – a word that in Arabic means uprising, and has been used in reference to both peaceful and violent Palestinian protest – with hypothetical calls for genocide.
“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill replied, in a reference to distinctions in first amendment law. “It is a context-dependent decision.” Stefanik pushed her to answer “yes” or “no”, which Magill did not.
The White House has said Israel and Hamas are not close to another deal on a new humanitarian pause.
Discussions are happening “literally every day” on a possible new agreement, the White House’s national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. He added:
I wish I had specific progress to speak to – I don’t. Obviously we’re not close to inking another deal on humanitarian pause, nor do I have any news to break here today about the return of hostages.
Israeli military says two senior Hamas intelligence officials killed in airstrike
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it killed two senior officials in Hamas’s intelligence division in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip this week.
In a statement, the IDF said Abed al-Aziz Rantisi was responsible for Hamas’s observation capabilities, and was involved in the planning of the 7 October attacks on Israel, the Times of Israel reported.
He was killed in a strike on a Hamas intelligence command room, along with Ahmed Ayush, “a few days ago”, it said.
צה”ל ושב״כ חיסלו שני בכירים במערך המודיעין של ארגון הטרור חמאס ברצועת עזה:
מטוסי קרב בהכוונת מודיעינית של אמ”ן ושב״כ חיסלו לפני מספר ימים את עבד אלעזיז רנתיסי, בכיר במודיעין הצבאי של ארגון הטרור חמאס.
רנתיסי היה אחראי על כלל התצפיות של החמאס ולקח חלק בתכנון הטבח האכזרי של ה-7.10 pic.twitter.com/FyGncf7MG7— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) December 7, 2023
Egypt would like to see the Palestinian Authority (PA) govern Gaza after the war comes to an end, Egyptian foreign minster Sameh Shoukry has said.
Shoukry, speaking at an event in Washington on Thursday, said it was too early to discuss details of arrangements for the future of the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.
The PA and Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) are the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people and “should be accorded the ability to govern both the West Bank and Gaza,” Shoukry said, adding:
I think we have to wait and see what is the consequences of this military operation and the conditions that exist in Gaza and then proceed to address the political relationships.
IDF instructions on Gaza refuge zones cruel ‘mirage’, say aid agencies
Instructions from Israeli forces telling Gaza civilians where to seek refuge and humanitarian relief have given contradictory recommendations, while aid agencies and Palestinians who have heeded them describe the offer of safety as a cruel “mirage” amid an intensifying military campaign.
Those who have fled to a “humanitarian zone” declared by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at al-Mawasi, a Bedouin settlement on sand dunes in the south-west corner of the Gaza Strip, have depicted a desperate scene with no shelter and barely any food. The IDF, meanwhile, has not ruled out bombing the area, claiming that rockets were fired from there, most recently on Wednesday.
Al-Mawasi was first touted as a safe zone a few days after the bombardment of Gaza began in response to the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel. However, the IDF has been inconsistent in recommending al-Mawasi.
Maps and instructions distributed recently to the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza show the territory divided into 623 numbered districts, with orange arrows showing how civilians should move from one district to another to get out of the way of planned IDF military operations.
The arrows have changed direction as circumstances have changed in the past few days, but none of them specifically pointed towards al-Mawasi, nor was the 14 sq km coastal area mentioned in the accompanying text.
Al-Mawasi was however shown in a presentation by the IDF to the international press on Thursday. It appeared as a grey area on a map of southern Gaza, and labelled as a “humanitarian zone”.
Read the full story here: IDF instructions on Gaza refuge zones cruel ‘mirage’, say aid agencies
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, has described a decision by UN secretary general António Guterres to invoke a rare UN charter to force security council members to address the situation in Gaza as “the right thing to do”.
Guterres infuriated Israel on Thursday by invoking article 99 of the UN charter to notify the security council that the crisis in Gaza represented a threat to world peace. It was the first time he had invoked the article since he became secretary general in 2017.
In a letter to the council’s 15 members, the UN chief warned of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and urged its members to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
It was a “brave and courageous position” for Guterres to take this step, Mansour told reporters today, Al Jazeera reported.
This indicates how “dangerous” things are in Gaza, the Palestinian UN envoy added.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has described reports of Al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza being besieged as “extremely concerning”.
On Wednesday, a hospital spokesperson said the facility was “besieged” by Israeli forces, adding that 95 employees and 38 patients were still inside the hospital.
Posting to social media today, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the patients and healthcare staff who are still inside the hospital must be protected.
Reports of minimally functioning Al-Awda hospital in northern #Gaza being besieged are extremely concerning.
There are still patients and health personnel inside the facility, who must be protected.
We call for an immediate ceasefire. #NotATarget
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 7, 2023
Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, will travel to Washington tomorrow along with counterparts in a so-called contact group of Muslim countries to discuss the situation in Gaza, according to the Turkish foreign ministry.
A contact group of foreign ministers from the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is expected in Washington to demand that the US ends its support for Israeli actions.
The contact group was set up after a rare joint summit of Arab League and OIC leaders in Riyadh on 11 November. The group has been touring the capitals of the five permanent members of the UN security council.
Israel ‘must behave differently’ in southern Gaza, says David Cameron
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said Israel should “behave differently” in southern Gaza than it has in the north.
Cameron, in an interview with CNN, said he agreed with comments by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that Israel “cannot have a repeat of what happened in the north in the south in terms of harm being done to civilians”.
Cameron said Blinken “made a series of points about how Israel is trying to behave differently in the south of Gaza to the north of Gaza”, adding:
I think that is right, and we should continue to make those points to them.
He added:
Ultimately the long-term security of Israel does depend not only on their own armed strength and fortitude, but also on having Palestinians able to live in peace and security as well.
Netanyahu warns Hezbollah after reports of a civilian killed on Lebanese border
Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah against escalating the fighting after an Israeli man was killed by a guided-missile attack fired from Lebanon on Thursday, according to Israeli reports.
The Israeli military has said the attack was carried out by Hezbollah. It said its fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to repeated attacks on northern Israel today.
Israel’s prime minister, speaking to soldiers during a visit near the border, said:
If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war then it will by its own hand turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis.
A Palestinian man with learning disabilities was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, his brother said.
Amer Abu Aber, 30, told NBC News that his brother, Tariq Ghazawi, was stopped by Israeli soldiers as he tried to pass a checkpoint. He said:
The army stopped him and asked him where is your ID? His ID was at home. He wanted to continue on his way, and the soldiers shot him at the checkpoint. My brother is known to everyone as having special needs.
He said his brother was taken to the hospital and has a bone fracture from the shooting.
The UN has said 1.87 million people – more than 80% of Gaza’s population – have been driven from their homes in the past two months.
Many families have been displaced multiple times to avoid the Israeli advance, and are living in tents and overcrowded makeshift shelters.
The son of Israeli cabinet minister Gadi Eizenkot has been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
The IDF did not provide precise details about the death of Gal Meir Eizenkot, 25, other than to say he was killed in combat in the northern Gaza Strip.
Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity party, to which Eizenkot belongs, said in a statement:
Together with all of Israel I send my support to Gadi and to his entire family, and a big hug. We are all committed to keep fighting for the sacred cause for which Gal died.
The US military has resumed its flights of surveillance drones over Gaza to aid the search for hostages taken by Hamas, the Pentagon said.
The US had paused its drone flights over Gaza during the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which collapsed last week.
The Pentagon spokesperson Lisa Lawrence said in a statement on Thursday:
In support of hostage recovery efforts, the US has resumed unarmed UAV flights over Gaza, and we continue to provide advice and assistance to support our Israeli partner as they work on their hostage recovery efforts.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
