Middle East crisis live: mediators push on with Gaza ceasefire talks amid fresh strikes | Gaza
Opening summary
Welcome to our coverage of the Middle East crisis.
US and Arab mediators are working around the clock to prepare a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, sources close to the talks have told Reuters, as strikes continued in Gaza, with medics there saying 44 Palestinians were killed on Thursday.
Mediators at talks in Egypt and Qatar are trying to forge a deal to pause the 14-month-old war that would include a release of hostages seized by Hamas from Israel during the attacks of 7 October 2023, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Mediators had managed to narrow some gaps on previous sticking points but differences remained, the sources said.
Medics reported that dozens had died in strikes on houses, shelters and refugee camps in Gaza City, a camp in central Gaza, and a housing project near Beit Lahiya in the north.
The Israeli military commented on a strike in the eastern Gaza City’s suburb of Tuffah, saying it struck Hamas militants operating in command and control complexes in areas that were previously used as the Al-Karama and Sha’ban Schools in that suburb. It said Hamas used the complexes to plan and execute attacks against its forces.
Here is a selection of the latest developments:
Israel has launched widespread airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, killing at least nine people in the port city of Hodeidah, and threatened more attacks against the group, which has launched hundreds of missiles at Israel over the past year. There had been reports beforehand that Israel was planning to hit Yemen with force after a recent increase in Houthi attacks, including two in the past week.
All references to Syria’s former ruling Ba’ath party will be removed from the country’s education system, the country’s new education minister said. Speaking to Reuters, Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri added that the country’s new leaders will not otherwise change school curricula or restrict the right of girls to learn, saying, “Education is a red line for the Syrian people, more important than food and water … The right to education is not limited to one specific gender. There may be more girls in our schools than boys.”
The UK government has said any new Syrian government needs to build a “secure and peaceful” Syria weeks after its president Bashar al-Assad fled the country. Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds said British officials had met with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus and the UK was giving Syria £61m in aid.
Thousands of people demonstrated on Thursday in north-east Syria in support of a US-backed, Kurdish-led force that for weeks has been pushing back against Turkey-backed fighters, an AFP correspondent said. The show of support for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) comes after Islamist-led rebels toppled Syria’s longtime strongman Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip in a report documenting the 14-month conflict published on Thursday. The report documents 41 attacks on MSF staff including airstrikes on health facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys, AFP reported. The NGO said it was forced to evacuate hospitals and health centres on 17 occasions.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus over Russia’s military bases there. Putin said he had not yet met with Bashar al-Assad but planned to meet him and said he would ask about the fate of missing US reporter Austin Tice.
Key events
UK independent MP accuses government of supporting ‘war crimes’ in Gaza
“I’m afraid that the British government, when these war criminals are brought to justice, will also be indicted for being complicit in these war crimes,” Iqbal Mohamed told the Anadolu news agency.
Mohamed, one of the Independent Alliance group of five MPs, which includes former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, condemned Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.
It’s very simple. We need to stop the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, north, south, across the region, in the West Bank, the settlements.
How much more killing should there be before the British government will stop in its direct and indirect support of Israel committing war crimes? They don’t want to call it a genocide. It is a genocide.
They don’t want to call it ethnic cleansing. It is ethnic cleansing. They don’t want to call it mass murder. It is mass murder.
Mohamed demanded that the government to take action against Israel.
We want the government to stop with the talking and start acting. Thirty [arms] licences banned out of 350 is not enough. The parts that go to supply the repair of the F-35s must stop. They are the biggest, most common killing machine.
What will these decision-makers, the prime minister, the foreign secretary, the whole cabinet and the people across the House supporting Israel’s right to commit genocide, what will their children and their grandchildren say when they grow up?”
The day so far
Israel has launched widespread airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, killing at least nine people in the port city of Hodeidah, and threatened more attacks against the group, which has launched hundreds of missiles at Israel over the past year. There had been reports beforehand that Israel was planning to hit Yemen with force after a recent increase in Houthi attacks, including two in the past week.
All references to Syria’s former ruling Ba’ath party will be removed from the country’s education system, the country’s new education minister said. Speaking to Reuters, Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri added that the country’s new leaders will not otherwise change school curricula or restrict the right of girls to learn, saying, “Education is a red line for the Syrian people, more important than food and water … The right to education is not limited to one specific gender. There may be more girls in our schools than boys.”
The UK government has said any new Syrian government needs to build a “secure and peaceful” Syria weeks after its president Bashar al-Assad fled the country. Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds said British officials had met with the Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Damascus and the UK was giving Syria £61m in aid.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus over Russia’s military bases there. Putin said he had not yet met with Bashar al-Assad but planned to meet him and said he would ask about the fate of missing US reporter Austin Tice
‘Turkish drone’ kills two Turkish journalists in north Syria . A Turkish drone has killed two journalists from Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast while covering the fighting between Ankara-backed militia and US-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria,
Sweden will stop funding UN refugee agency says minister. Sweden announces it will cease its funding of the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), opting instead to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via alternative means, the Scandinavian country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, told Swedish broadcaster TV4 on Friday. Israel, which will ban UNRWA’s operations in the country in January, has repeatedly accused the agency of being involved in Hamas’ terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, which precipitated the 13-month-long war in Gaza.
Gaza death toll reaches at least 45,206 45,206 Palestinians have been killed and 107,512 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023 according to the Gaza Health Ministry
The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said it was time to destroy “terrorist” groups that threaten Syria, including the Islamic State group jihadists and Kurdish fighters. “Daesh, the PKK and their affiliates – which threaten the survival of Syria – must be eradicated,” he told journalists after attending a Cairo summit. “It’s time to neutralise the existing terrorist organisations in Syria.”
A report in Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, accuses IDF troops of randomly killing Gaza civilians. The popular newspaper, citing testimony from anonymous soldiers in Gaza, described indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians in the territory’s Netzarim Corridor. Soldiers told Haaretz they received orders to fire on “anyone who enters” Netzarim.
Israeli attacks killed at least 77 Palestinians and wounded 174 others across Gaza, according to the latest daily update by the Gaza Health Ministry.
Jonathan Freedland
It’s a season brimming with tradition and, as longtime readers may know, my own custom has been to try, in the last column before Christmas, to find a few reasons to be hopeful. I was planning on doing that anyway, but my resolve was sharpened by a conversation with a reader who called in to last weekend’s Guardian and Observer charity telethon. Tammy, who is 75, made her donation but she also had a simple, if fathomless question: “How do we live in this terrible world?” …
IDF troops open fire on demonstrators in southern Syria according to local press.
The Syrian Daraa 24 news site, reports that residents of towns in the Yarmouk River basin gathered close to a former Syrian army post to voice opposition to the IDF occupation in Syria.
According to the news agency, one person was wounded in the incident.
The IDF has yet to comment on the allegations.
Of the 45,206 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the war began last October, 644 athletes, including 359 football players, have died according to the Palestinian Football Association. Ninety One of them were children, it said.
US delegation press conference in Damascus cancelled for “security concerns,” reports AFP.
More to follow.
Aluf Benn
Wars are remembered by their iconic images, and finding a triumphal photograph has been a key goal for belligerents striving to leave their mark on history. On 8 December, after fighting ceaselessly for 14 months, Israel finally got its image of victory. It shows three soldiers in full combat gear posing with Israel’s Star of David-and-stripes flag on a mountaintop against the cloudy sky. The IDF’s special forces captured the highest peak of Mount Hermon in Syria, explained the caption, overlooking Damascus and the Golan Heights…
A report in Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, accuses IDF troops of randomly killing Gaza civilians.
The popular newspaper, citing testimony from anonymous soldiers in Gaza, described indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians in the territory’s Netzarim Corridor.
Soldiers told Haaretz they received orders to fire on “anyone who enters” Netzarim.
“Anyone crossing the line is a terrorist – no exceptions, no civilians. Everyone’s a terrorist,” a soldier quoted a battalion commander as saying.
In a statement to AFP, the military rejected the accusations: “All activities and operations conducted by (Israeli army) forces in the Gaza Strip, including in the Netzarim Corridor, are carried out in accordance with structured combat procedures, plans and operational orders approved by the highest ranks in the (army).
“All strikes in the area (of Netzarim) are conducted in accordance with the mandatory procedures and protocols, including targets that are struck in an urgent time frame due to essential operational circumstances where ground forces face immediate threats.
“Incidents that give rise to concerns of deviations from IDF’s orders or ethical standards are thoroughly examined and addressed.”
Many of the soldiers quoted by Haaretz referred to Brig Gen Yehuda Vach, who last summer took charge of Division 252, based in Netzarim.
One of the soldiers said of Vach that “his worldview and political positions were clearly driving his operational decisions”.
Another claimed Vach said “there are no innocents in Gaza”.
The military told AFP that the “statements attributed to him … were not made by him”.
“Any claim asserting otherwise is entirely baseless.”
Syrians returning to their homeland would disrupt “fragile peace process” in the country, says UN chief
The head of the UN migration agency says that large-scale returns of Syrians to their homeland at this stage would “overwhelm” the country.
Syria’s civil cause millions to seek refuge in foreign countries since 2011. The defeat of Bashar Assad’s government at the beginning of December has led to calls for refugees to return to their homes.
On Friday, Amy Pope, the director-general of the International Organization for Migration, said: “This is not the moment to talk about large-scale returns.”
Pope said that communities “are just not ready to absorb the people who are displaced and would come back”. She argued that if “overwhelming numbers” of people return, “it will overwhelm the country and it could risk more disruptive impact on a very fragile peace process”.
A family of four were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday morning, which targeted the Al-Azza neighbourhood in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza the Wafa news agency reports.
An airstrike on the area killed one woman, her husband and two daughters. Several others were reported to have sustained injuries in the attack.
Japan intends to take an “active role” in the reconstruction of Gaza, says minister
Speaking after a meeting with Mohammad Shtayyeh, the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Takeshi Iwaya, the foreign minister of Japan, stressed the importance of a ceasefire in Gaza.
Iwaya emphasised the “strong sense of urgency regarding the prolonged and serious humanitarian situation” in the territory, adding that Japan aims to “play an active role” in the reconstruction of Gaza.
Shtayyeh expressed his appreciation for Japan’s support for Palestine.
Alice Speri
A pair of reports published this month by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch mark a significant contribution to the raging debate over how to characterize a war that has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians and decimated Gaza.
But the reports – the first found that Israel is committing genocide, the second acts of genocide – are unlikely to quell deep divisions in the academic field of Holocaust and genocide studies, whose scholars study mass violence…
President of Turkey says time to destroy terrorist groups threatening Syria
The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said it was time to destroy “terrorist” groups that threaten Syria, including the Islamic State group jihadists and Kurdish fighters.
“Daesh, the PKK and their affiliates – which threaten the survival of Syria – must be eradicated,” he told journalists after attending a Cairo summit.
“It’s time to neutralise the existing terrorist organisations in Syria.”
Erdogan said his government was taking “preventive measures” against groups that posed a threat to Turkey.
“It is impossible for us to accept such a risk,” he said, expressing hope Syria’s new leaders would not opt to work with them.
“We do not think any power will continue to work with terrorist organisations in the upcoming period,” he said.
“The heads of terrorist organisations such as IS and PKK-YPG … will be crushed in the shortest time possible,” he warned.
Philippe Lazzarini
The UN agency entrusted with the protection and welfare of Palestine refugees for three-quarters of a century, Unrwa, which I lead, was always meant to be temporary. The conclusion of its mandate was foreseen at its establishment. The choice before us today is whether to jettison a decades-long investment in human development and human rights by chaotically dismantling the agency overnight, or pursue an orderly political process in which Unrwa continues to provide millions of Palestine refugees with education and healthcare until empowered Palestinian institutions take over these services…
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