Raids continue on Jenin and Kamal Adwan Hospital amid massive protests calling for a ceasefire – here are the main updates.
Here’s how things go on Friday, December 15, 2023:
Latest developments
- A court in the Netherlands will rule today on whether the Dutch government should stop supplying F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, according to media reports.
- In the United States, Jewish demonstrators held demonstrations in favor of a Gaza ceasefire in eight major cities, blocking roads in some places. “On the 8th night of Hanukkah, 8 cities, 8 bridges,” the activist group Jewish Voice for Peace wrote of the protests on social media.
- Benjamin Reese, a 51-year-old American middle school teacher, was arrested last week after threatening to “decapitate” a Muslim child offended by an Israeli flag hanging in the classroom, media reported Thursday.
- German authorities announced Thursday that they had arrested four people suspected of being linked to Hamas and plotting to attack Jewish sites.
- A wartime opinion poll among Palestinians released Wednesday shows an increase in support for Hamas while nearly 90 percent of people want Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to resign.
Human impact and fighting
- Israeli nighttime attacks on Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza caused several casualties, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. At least 10 people have been killed since dawn, while dozens of wounded from Khan Younis are arriving at Nasser Hospital, Tel Aviv Tribune Arabic reported.
- Israeli forces attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza for the third day in a row, forcing 2,500 displaced people to leave, while two patients died due to troops preventing medical staff from providing support, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).
- During a three-day raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers targeted a mosque where they were filmed chanting Jewish prayers and mocking the Islamic call to prayer via a speaker. The Israeli army said Thursday that these soldiers had been “immediately withdrawn from all operational activity”.
- The Israeli army says it has recovered the body of a 28-year-old captive in Gaza.
- Yemen’s Houthi group said Thursday it struck an “Israel-bound” cargo ship in the Red Sea with a drone.
Diplomacy
- Israel canceled a planned trip by Mossad Director David Barnea to Qatar, where he was to resume negotiations on another captive release deal with Hamas, CNN reported Thursday, citing a source close to the negotiations.
- Speaking to reporters on Thursday, US President Joe Biden urged Israel to “focus on saving civilian lives” and “be more careful.”
- At a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, labor leaders joined progressive lawmakers in calling on the Biden administration for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza.
- During a trip to Israel on Thursday, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli war cabinet. Sullivan discussed a possible transition to “lower intensity operations” in the near future, but the administration has not put a “time stamp” on that change, according to White House spokesman John Kirby.
- Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Wednesday that the war on Gaza would continue “with or without international support.”
- In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said Israel would no longer accept a two-state solution.