International calls for accountability are growing after the Israeli attack that killed Tel Aviv Tribune journalist Samer Abudaqa.
Here’s how things go on Saturday, December 16, 2023:
Latest developments
- Tel Aviv Tribune cameraman Samer Abudaqa was killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza. He is the 57th Palestinian journalist and media worker to be killed since the war began on October 7.
- The Tel Aviv Tribune media network condemned the Israeli drone strike on a Gaza school that resulted in Abudaqa’s death and said it held Israel “responsible for the systematic targeting and killing of Tel Aviv Tribune journalists and their families “.
- The Israeli military admitted accidentally killing three Israeli captives held in Gaza, as hundreds of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv to demand new negotiations for the safe return of those held by the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
- Israeli military police are investigating the killing of two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank after a human rights group released a video showing the apparent “executions” of the two men by Israeli forces, the agency reported Associated Press.
- The US military said Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked two ships and threatened a third as tensions in the Red Sea escalated.
Human impact and fighting
- Israeli attacks on Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza continue to rage. According to the United Nations, at least five Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have died following intense fighting in the region.
- Israeli attacks killed Palestinians near a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency. Palestinians were also injured in an airstrike on a house near the al-Raws intersection in the Bureij refugee camp.
- At least 18,787 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7. Israel’s revised death toll stands at around 1,200.
Diplomacy
- White House national security spokesman John Kirby expressed Washington’s “deepest sympathies and condolences” over the killing of Tel Aviv Tribune journalist Samer Abudaqa, amid international calls for accountability, notably from the Tel Aviv Tribune media network, for the murder of journalists by Israel since October 7, are increasing. .
- Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated the urgent need to end Israeli attacks on Gaza during a meeting with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
- The United States wants the Palestinian Authority to be involved in a post-war plan for Gaza, which Israel continues to oppose.
- The director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, is expected to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe this weekend to discuss resuming negotiations on a deal to secure the release of captives held in the Gaza Strip, according to a report from the Axios news site.
- UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has welcomed Israel’s decision to open the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing into Gaza, which will allow aid to enter the besieged enclave.