Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 81
EXPLAINER Netanyahu says the war is not over and Israeli forces arrest a Palestinian politician – here are the key updates. Here’s how things stand on Tuesday, December 26, 2023: Latest developments Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the war is far from over, during his visit to Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Monday. He added that the remaining captives taken by Hamas during its October 7 attack on southern Israel cannot be freed without military pressure. Families of captives heckled Netanyahu during an address to parliament earlier on Monday. Both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have denounced Netanyahu’s statements in Gaza. Human impact and fighting Over 100 people were killed overnight in the Israeli air strike on the Maghazi refugee camp as some families are still trapped under the rubble. Palestinian authorities have reported that 250 people were killed in waves of Israeli bombardment over 24 hours on Christmas. The attacks have taken place in the al-Amal neighbourhood in the southern city of Khan Younis, as well as the Bureij and Nuseirat camps and Juhor ad-Dik in central Gaza. An Israeli air attack outside Syria killed a top Iranian military advisor, Sayyed Razi Mousavi, on Monday. WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Gaza’s health system is under “unbearable strain” in a post on X on Monday. Diplomacy Israel will not renew the visa of a United Nations staff member in the country and will also deny the visa request of another UN employee. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said “We will stop working with those who cooperate” with Hamas, in a post on X on Monday. As a response to Cohen’s criticism of the UN the recent visa denials, Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur to the occupied Palestinian territories, said Israel’s “baseless attacks” on the “UN only proves moral cowardice”. 1/2. Baseless attacks agst the UN only proves moral cowardice. The UN has been weakened by decades of ISR impunity for breaches of Intl Law,incl colonisation of occup.territory & Pal. forced displacement.The UN must hold ISR to account if it is to salvage its reputation/purpose. https://t.co/Tk2qTcsBgl — Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) December 25, 2023 US acknowledged strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq as US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the “proportionate strikes” hit three sites used by the Iraqi group Kata’ib Hezbollah and other affiliated groups on Monday. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hosted a Christmas day lunch with the latest group of Palestinian-Brazilians to be repatriated from Gaza. Protestors in New York also held Christmas Day rallies in solidarity with Palestine. Escalation in the West Bank The Al Jazeera team in the occupied West Bank reports that Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the political group, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been arrested in Ramallah. Israeli forces have raided different areas across the occupied West Bank, including the Tulkarem, Nablus and Hebron governorates. Israel’s ongoing attacks in Nur Shams, Tulkarem, have been described by locals as one of the largest since the war began, reported Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut from occupied East Jerusalem. At least one house was blown up by the Israeli military. In Nablus, a young man was injured after settlers attacked his vehicle near the Taneeb Junction, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Adblock test (Why?)
India’s navy deploys warships to Arabian Sea after tanker attack
Guided missile destroyers to ‘maintain deterrent presence’ after Israel-linked vessel hit off Indian coast. The Indian Navy has dispatched guided missile destroyers to the Arabian Sea after an attack on an Israel-linked chemical tanker off its coast, the Ministry of Defence said. Three stealth-guided destroyers were deployed “in various areas of the sea” to “maintain a deterrent presence” considering the “recent spate of attacks in the Arabian Sea”, the ministry said in a statement late on Monday. It was also using long-range maritime patrol aircraft for “domain awareness”, it said. The United States claimed that the December 23 strike on MV Chem Pluto in the Indian Ocean was “fired from Iran”, an accusation that Tehran has dismissed as baseless. The attack came as a US-led task force sought to counter similar threats to maritime shipping in the Red Sea posed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. Amid the uptick in maritime strikes, this was the first that the US has sought to directly pin on Iran. It was also the first on a vessel outside the Red Sea. “We can see that militarisation is increasing, not only in the Red Sea, but also in the Arabian Peninsula,” said Al Jazeera’s Resul Sardar, reporting from Djibouti. “These are the regional ramifications of the war on Gaza,” he reported on Tuesday. The Indian Navy said it was investigating the nature of the attack on MV Chem Puto, which “anchored safely” in the financial capital, Mumbai, on Monday. An initial assessment “pointed to a drone attack”, the ministry said. But “further forensic and technical analysis will be required to establish the vector of attack, including type and amount of explosive used”. The vessel had been “cleared for further operation” by its company, according to the ministry. Shipping under threat MV Chem Pluto, a Japanese-owned tanker carrying 21 Indians and one Vietnamese citizen, was hit on Saturday while travelling 200 nautical miles (370km) off the coast of India, according to the Pentagon. The attack sparked a fire, which was put out, but caused no casualties. The Houthis have pledged to target any Israel-linked vessel in the Red Sea, through which some 12 percent of all global trade passes, in solidarity with Gaza which has been bombarded by land, sea and air by the Israeli military. Sardar said that despite the new US-led task force, there still hasn’t been an increase in ships trying to pass through the Red Sea, adding that dozens of cargo ships remain stranded in Djibouti. Since October, the Houthis have waged attacks on more than a dozen vessels, pushing some of the world’s largest firms to abandon the route. The attack in the Indian Ocean, far away from the Red Sea, has raised concerns about even broader risks to maritime shipping amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Washington has accused Tehran of being “deeply involved” in the Houthi operations. But Iran insists that it is not coordinating with the Houthis and plays no role in the attacks. “The resistance [Houthis] has its own tools … and acts in accordance with its own decisions and capabilities,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri told the Mehr news agency on Saturday. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 671
As the war enters its 671st day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, December 26, 2023. Fighting Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed Russian troops had gained full control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Marinka in what would be their first major breakthrough since the capture of Bakhmut back in May. Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun denied the Russian claims. “It’s not correct to talk about seizing Marinka,” he told national television. “Our forces are within the city.” Five people were killed after Russian shelling of Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson and towns elsewhere in the region hit an apartment block and residential homes. Nine other people, including a 15-year-old, were wounded while gas and water supplies were partially cut off in the attacks. Russian-installed authorities, meanwhile, said one person had been killed and six wounded in Ukrainian shelling of the Russian-occupied eastern town of Horlivka. Ukraine said it shot down 28 of 31 drones launched by Russia overnight as well as two missiles mostly targeting the south of the country. Russian and Ukrainian military officials both reported bringing down enemy aircraft in different areas of the 1,000km-long (621-mile) front line. Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, said Ukrainian anti-aircraft units had hit a Russian Su-34 fighter bomber near the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said its air defence systems shot down four Ukrainian military aircraft over the previous 24 hours. Ukraine is proposing lowering the age of those who can be mobilised for combat duty from 27 to 25, according to the draft text of a new law on conscription. Politics and diplomacy Ukraine celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the first time in part of an ongoing effort to distance itself from Russian influence. Russia marks the holiday in January. Ukraine received $1.34bn in funds from the World Bank. The money will be used to support non-security related financial and economic stability, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance said. Hundreds of supporters of Igor Girkin, a jailed former commander of Russian-backed fighters in Ukraine who is better known by his alias Igor Strelkov, rallied in Moscow to back his bid to stand for president. Girkin was a key leader of fighters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and has criticised Russia’s military strategy in Ukraine for being “too kind”. He was detained in July. Weapons Denis Manturov, the Russian deputy prime minister who oversees arms production, told the RIA news agency that Russia had the upper hand in weapons production over Western countries and intended to grow its arms industry. Manturov said that the volume of state defence orders in 2023 had doubled compared with the previous year, with production of “certain weapons” rising ten-fold. Adblock test (Why?)
Plane held in France over trafficking concerns lands in India
Airbus A340 carrying 276 Indian passengers arrives in Mumbai early on Tuesday. A plane carrying hundreds of Indian passengers that was grounded in France for four days amid a probe into possible human trafficking has arrived in India. The Airbus A340 carrying 276 Indian passengers landed in Mumbai early on Tuesday morning, flight tracking data showed. The flight, operated by Romania-based Legend Airlines, had been en route from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua when it was detained at a regional airport on Thursday following a tip-off that its passengers may be victims of trafficking. Passengers on the flight were confined at Vatry airport, about 150km east of Paris, while authorities turned the terminal into a makeshift courtroom to carry out emergency hearings. Among the 303 original passengers who stayed behind in France, 25, including five minors, requested asylum in the country and two others were initially detained as part of the trafficking probe before being released, local authorities said. The plane’s departure on Monday came after a French court ruled that authorities did not have legal authority to detain several of the passengers further. French authorities have said they did not find evidence of human trafficking but are continuing to investigate potential breaches of immigration laws. The Indian Embassy expressed thanks to French officials for the “quick resolution of the situation enabling Indian passengers to return home” in a post on X. Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine proposes lowering age for military conscription from 27 to 25
Draft bill proposed as military looks for hundreds of thousands of new recruits in its fight to eject Russia. Ukraine has proposed reducing the age of those who can be mobilised into the armed forces from 27 to 25 after the military said it needed as many as 500,000 more soldiers in its now 22-month-long war against Russia. The age reduction was in the text of a draft law posted on the website of Ukraine’s parliament late on Monday. The text detailed which Ukrainian citizens would be subject to enrolment for military registration of conscripts and said it would apply to those “who have reached the age of 25”. An explanatory note signed by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov summarised key provisions of the draft law, saying they included the “change of conscription age from 27 to 25 years”. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed earlier this month that the military had proposed mobilising between 450,000 and 500,000 more Ukrainians but that it was a “highly sensitive” issue that the military and government would discuss before deciding whether to send the proposal to parliament. Zelenskyy, who has yet to back the proposal publicly, said on December 19 that he wanted to hear more arguments for mobilising additional people. “This is a very serious number,” he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not yet backed the proposal publicly [Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Reuters] Ukraine’s troop numbers are not known but in the past, it has been said the country has about 1 million people under arms. US officials estimate that hundreds of thousands have been killed and wounded since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Neither Ukraine nor Russia publishes its casualty figures. David Arakhamia, the head of Zelenskyy’s party in parliament, said the government was working on the bill at the request of the military and that it was due to be introduced on Monday. “The military needs a solution to its problems,” he said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. “Society wants to hear answers to all sensitive questions.” Adblock test (Why?)
Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp in ruins after deadly Israeli attack
Residents of Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp have returned to their neighbourhood to find only blocks of concrete lying where their homes had stood. “These houses are destroyed. Our house was bombed,” Abu Rami Abu al-Ais said on Monday, standing in the debris. “There’s no safe place in the Gaza Strip.” Late on Sunday, at least three houses in the camp were hit by Israeli air strikes, which killed more than 100 people, according to Al Jazeera correspondents. Officials in Gaza said seven families were among the casualties. Israel says it issues evacuation orders and warnings so civilians can get to safety before military attacks, but Zeyad Awad said there was no advisory before the strike. “What should we do? We are civilians, living peacefully and wanting only safety and security, yet we are suddenly struck by Israeli warplanes without any warning,” he said. The Israeli military said it was “reviewing the incident”. The Maghazi refugee camp is one of several in Gaza and was established in 1949, according to the United Nations, to shelter refugees who were forced to flee occupied Palestinian territories during the creation of Israel the year before. Many who fled Maghazi after Sunday’s strikes were displaced again after already escaping attacks in northern Gaza. Adblock test (Why?)
Armed groups kill 113 people in series of attacks across central Nigeria
Nigerian authorities say armed groups known as ‘bandits’ hit 20 communities and injure more than 300 people. Armed groups have killed more than 100 people in a string of attacks targeting towns across central Nigeria, another deadly episode in a region with persistent religious and ethnic tensions. Local officials on Monday said the toll of the weekend attacks by armed groups, sometimes called “bandits”, has risen to 113, increasing sharply from the government’s initial count of 16. “As many as 113 persons have been confirmed killed as Saturday hostilities persisted to early hours of Monday,” Monday Kassah, head of the local government in Bokkos in Plateau State, told the Agence France-Presse news agency. Kassah said the “well-coordinated” attacks, which also injured more than 300 people, targeted at least 20 communities across the region. “Proactive measures will be taken by the government to curb ongoing attacks against innocent civilians,” said Gyang Bere, a spokesperson for Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang. Kassah did not say who was responsible for the attacks but noted that the injured were taken to hospital. Plateau is one of several states that make up the ethnically and religiously diverse Middle Belt in Nigeria, where climate change and expanding agriculture has strained communities and increased tensions between Muslim herders and Christian farmers. Hundreds of people have been killed in cases of intercommunal violence in recent years. After the weekend attacks, the rights group Amnesty International said authorities in the West African nation “have been failing to end frequent deadly attacks on rural communities of Plateau state”. Conflict has continued to roil the country’s northern and central regions, where armed groups are active and government forces have been accused of committing abuses. This month, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu ordered an investigation after a military drone strike killed 85 civilians gathered for a religious celebration. Tinubu lamented what he called the “bombing mishap”. Kaduna Governor Uba Sani said at the time that the civilians were mistakenly killed by a drone targeting “terrorists and bandits”. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel intensifies Gaza strikes, killing 250 Palestinians in 24 hours
More than 100 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on the Maghazi refugee camp with families still trapped in rubble. Israel has intensified its assault on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 100 people at the Maghazi refugee camp, with Palestinian authorities reporting that 250 people have been killed in a wave of strikes over 24 hours. “My entire family is gone. All five of my brothers are gone. They didn’t leave me any brothers. … All of them!” a wailing woman said on Monday at the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Palestinians lined up to touch the shrouded bodies of those killed in Israeli strikes on the camp in a funeral on Monday, commemorating dozens of people who were killed, many of them women and children. An Al Jazeera reporter in Gaza said the figure has now reached more than 100. The Government Media Office in Gaza said seven families were wiped out in the Israeli attack on a residential square in the camp. “The Israeli army doesn’t spare civilians,” Zeyad Awad, a resident of Maghazi, told Al Jazeera. “My child said to me, ‘Help me! What’s happening? I can’t breathe,’” he added. The night before Christmas in Gaza was marked by some of the most intense bombardments in the current round of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas with Israeli strikes levelling buildings and leaving families trapped beneath piles of rubble. “This is a three-story building that was targeted, and another house here and another house here. According to the family, he told me that five of his family members are still under the rubble,” Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary reported from Maghazi, adding that one of those trapped is a baby. “He also told me that there has been no ambulances or civil defence since yesterday and he can’t do anything about it. He’s trying to dig with his own bare hands,” she added. Israeli strikes also killed scores of people in areas such as Khan Younis, Bureij and Nuseirat. About 500 people have been injured by Israeli strikes over the past day. Reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the death toll in the Maghazi strike had risen to 106. In Christmas remarks on Monday, Pope Francis said children being killed in wars, including those in Gaza, are “little Jesuses of today” and Israel’s assault has reaped an “appalling harvest” of innocent civilians. More than 20,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in relentless Israeli bombardment of Gaza since October 7. In the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, where the Bible says Jesus Christ was born, the normally jubilant Christmas celebrations have turned solemn, and Israeli forces have carried out raids. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia says it seizes Ukrainian town of Maryinka; Kyiv denies the claim
Putin hails Moscow’s biggest military success since the capture of Bakhmut in May. Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu says Russian troops have gained full control of the eastern Ukrainian town of Maryinka, registering their first major success since the capture of the strategic city of Bakhmut in May. Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Monday about the capture of what has now become a ghost town just southwest of the Russian-held regional capital of Donetsk during a video exchange shared by a Kremlin journalist. “I want to congratulate you. This is a success,” Putin is seen telling Shoigu in the video, saying it gives Russian troops “the opportunity to move into a wider operational area”. Piles of rubble and gutted apartment buildings could be seen in drone images shown on Russian television that were said to be of Maryinka, which was once home to 10,000 people. Putin had offered to award soldiers who had distinguished themselves in the battle for Maryinka, The Moscow Times reported. Ukraine denies claims The Ukrainian military denied Russia’s claims of Maryinka’s capture, which came at a difficult time for Kyiv. It has been struggling to make gains in recent months, and waning Western support, particularly critical US funding, threatens its fight against Russia. “It’s not correct to talk about seizing Maryinka,” Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun told Ukrainian national television. “Our forces are within the city,” he said. Russia’s last major success, the capture of Bakhmut, spurred Ukraine to launch a counteroffensive in June. But Kyiv’s forces have made little progress against what is now entrenched Russian resistance in the 22-month-old conflict. Russian troops have been intensifying ground and air attacks on the nearby town of Avdiivka since mid-October as they focus on expanding their slow-moving push through eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force on Monday reported that it had shot down two Russian fighter jets during the night along with two cruise missiles and 28 Shahed-type kamikaze drones. The report said the attacks were aimed at southern and central regions of Ukraine but that no casualties were immediately known. It said 31 drones were launched in all, but details of what the three that weren’t intercepted may have struck weren’t given. Adblock test (Why?)
What message do Palestinian Christians send by cancelling Christmas?
Celebrations are muted in the occupied territories as Israel’s war on Gaza rages. Usually bustling with visitors from around the world this time of year, Bethlehem is empty this Christmas. Festivities are muted in the occupied West Bank as Israel shows no sign of ending its onslaught in Gaza. Israeli bombs do not discriminate. Everything and everyone in the strip is a target: from hospitals to schools, mosques to churches. So what is the significance of cancelling this year’s festivities in Bethlehem? Presenter: Dareen Abughaida Guests: Riham Jafari – ActionAid’s communications and advocacy coordinator Frank Bosman – associate professor of cultural theology at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology Sami El-Yousef – CEO of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem Adblock test (Why?)