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Here’s how things go on Sunday, December 24, 2023:
Latest developments
- The United States said Iran launched a drone from its soil that struck a Liberian-flagged Japanese chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) also said it had shot down several drones launched at ships from Yemen by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. The Houthis also fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the southern Red Sea, but no ships were hit.
- Pro-Palestinian marches have continued in cities around the world, with some of the latest demonstrations in Australia, Germany and Turkey.
- Intensive Israeli army raids continued in the occupied West Bank. A convoy led by bulldozers entered Tulkarem in the early hours of Sunday, and raids were also reported in Bethlehem, the town of Beita, just south of Nablus, and the towns of Sa’ir and Karma, near from Hebron.
- Hamas’ representative in Beirut, Osama Hamdan, said Israel had failed in its stated goal of “destroying” the group and will have to stop the war if it wants the captives freed.
Human impact and fighting
- Thousands of Palestinians have once again been forced to flee their homes, this time after the Israeli army issued new evacuation orders in the central Gaza Strip. Since a United Nations Security Council resolution was adopted on Friday without a clear call for a ceasefire, aerial bombardments have increased in central Gaza.
- Israeli air raids have killed more than 400 people in Gaza in the past 48 hours. The Gaza government media office said more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7. The death toll from the Hamas attack on Israel stands at nearly 1,140, up from 1,400.
- At least 101 journalists have been killed since October 7, according to the government Media Office, which also said that more than 50 media offices have been totally or partially destroyed by Israeli attacks. Tel Aviv Tribune Arab cameraman Samer Abudaqa was among those killed in the Israeli strikes.
- The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it continues to operate at its medical center in Jabalia, northern Gaza, despite continued bombardment of the area. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said on X: “As the conflict intensifies and the horror grows, we will continue to do our part. We will not give up.
Diplomacy
- Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, respectively the current and former Israeli defense ministers, who, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, make up the Israeli war cabinet, visited northern Gaza and promised that more attacks would take place despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire.
- US President Joe Biden had a “private” telephone conversation with Netanyahu. He later told reporters that he “did not ask for a ceasefire.”
- Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said the UN Security Council resolution on humanitarian aid would only add “a drop in the ocean of suffering” in Gaza. She said the White House “holds the key” to ending the carnage.
- At a meeting in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi discussed the war in Gaza and called for an end to Israeli attacks.
- The leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, is preparing to deliver in the coming days his third speech since the start of the war, on the occasion of the assassination, on January 3, of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, by the States -United.
