Hamas launches war on Israel

[Jimbuna]

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza told Reuters 14 people were killed in a blast at al-Mawasi near Khan Younis.

Al-Mawasi, which is about the size of London's Heathrow airport, has been designated a safe zone in Gaza by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on Hamas's claims.

The funeral of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri - who was killed in Lebanon by a suspected Israeli drone strike - is taking place in Beirut.

At least 1,200 people were killed when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October and about 240 others were taken hostage.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 22,000 people have been killed in the territory since Israel started its retaliatory campaign.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Israeli minister outlines plans for Gaza after war

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has outlined proposals for the future governance of Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.

There would, he said, be limited Palestinian rule in the territory.

Hamas would no longer control Gaza and Israel would retain overall security control, he added.

Fighting in Gaza continued alongside the plan's publication, with dozens of people killed in the previous 24 hours, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due back in the region this week. He is expected to hold talks with Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank and Israeli leaders.

His visit comes amid heightened tensions in the region following the assassination of top Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday in Lebanon's capital Beirut. His killing has widely been blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

Under Mr Gallant's now "four corner" plan, Israel would retain overall security control of Gaza.

A multi-national force would take charge of rebuilding the territory after the widespread destruction caused by Israeli bombing.

Neighbouring Egypt would also have an unspecified role to play under the plan.

But the document adds that Palestinians would be responsible for running the territory.

"Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel," Mr Gallant said.

The plan was not discussed in any detail in the cabinet meeting and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly commented on it. The meeting is reported to have broken up amid acrimony with some ministers angrily objecting to names put forward for an investigation into the events surrounding the 7 October attack by Hamas.

Talk of the "day after" in Gaza has led to deep disagreement in Israel.

Some far right-wing members of Mr Netanyahu's government have said that Palestinian citizens should be encouraged to leave Gaza for exile, with the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in the territory - controversial proposals that have been rejected as "extremist" and "unworkable" by other countries in the region and by some of Israel's allies.

While Mr Gallant's proposals may be regarded as more practical than those suggested by some of his cabinet colleagues, they are likely to be rejected by Palestinian leaders who say that Gazans themselves must be allowed to take full control of running the territory once this devastating war is over.

Mr Netanyahu has not publicly talked in any detail about how he thinks Gaza should be governed.

He has suggested that the war in Gaza may yet last several months, with the avowed goal being to completely crush Hamas.

Mr Gallant's plan also outlined how the Israeli military aims to proceed in the next phase of the war in Gaza.

He said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would take a more targeted approach in the north of the Gaza Strip, where operations will include raids, demolishing tunnels and air and ground strikes.

In the south, the Israeli military would continue to try to track down Hamas leaders and rescue Israeli hostages, he said.

On Thursday, the IDF said it had hit areas in Gaza's north and south, including Gaza City and Khan Younis.

It said it had conducted strikes on "terrorist infrastructure" and had killed people who it described as militants, who it said had tried to detonate an explosive next to soldiers.

It also announced that it had killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, Mamdouh Lolo, in an air strike.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 125 people had been killed in the past 24 hours across the Strip.

A health ministry official said 14 people - including nine children - were killed by Israeli air strikes in al-Mawasi, to the west of Khan Younis.

The small town has been designated a "safe space" by Israeli forces for displaced Palestinians. The IDF has not commented on the claims made by Hamas.

"We were sleeping at midnight when a strike hit the camp on the tents, 4x2 tents where people were sleeping, most of them children," eyewitness Jamal Hamad Salah told Reuters news agency. "We found one body there that flew 40 metres away."

"There is nowhere safe in Gaza," aid agency Save the Children's country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jason Lee, said. "Camps, shelters, schools, hospitals, homes and so-called 'safe zones' should not be battlegrounds."

The total number of people killed in Gaza since the start of Israel's retaliatory campaign had reached more than 22,400 by Thursday - comprising almost 1% of the enclave's 2.3 million population, the Hamas-run health ministry said.

Israel's offensive started after Hamas gunmen launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking about 240 people hostage.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67888794

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Exocet25fr]

France and Jordan airdrop aid to Gaza as UN says Strip has become ‘uninhabitable’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/france...uninhabitable/

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Exocet25fr

France airdrops aid to Gaza as UN says Strip has become ‘uninhabitable’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/france...uninhabitable/

Somebody should rock their Kasbah again.

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

Hamas command in north Gaza destroyed, Israel says

The Israeli army says it has "completed the dismantling" of Hamas's command structure in the northern Gaza Strip.

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters that Palestinian militants are now operating in the area only sporadically and "without commanders".

He said Israel had killed around 8,000 militants in north Gaza. The BBC cannot independently verify this number.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are now focused on dismantling Hamas in south and central Gaza, he said.

Israel has killed more than 22,000 people since the war began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. On Sunday, the territory's health ministry said it had recorded more than 113 deaths over the past 24 hours.

Gaza has been devastated during Israel's war with Hamas, and most of the territory's population of 2.3 million has been displaced.

Israel's offensive started after Hamas gunmen launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking about 240 people hostage.

More than 100 remain following some releases in a six-day pause in fighting in November.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was focused on ensuring the Gaza conflict does not spread and turn into "an endless cycle of violence" after Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israeli territory on Saturday, in what it called a preliminary response to the killing of a top Hamas official in Beirut earlier this week.

Mr Blinken was speaking in Greece at the start of a week-long trip to the region. He has since flown to Jordan, meeting King Abdullah on Sunday before heading to Qatar.

"Washington should put pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza," King Abdullah told Mr Blinken, warning him of the "catastrophic repercussions" of the continuation of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, a palace statement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Saturday that Israel would continue its campaign to "eliminate Hamas, return our hostages and ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel".

"We have to put everything aside... until the complete victory is achieved," Mr Netanyahu said in a statement.

In other developments, on Sunday the eldest son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh, Hamza al-Dahdouh, was killed along with another journalist, Mustafa Thuraya, in an Israeli strike in southern Gaza.

Six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid in the city of Jenin in the occupied-West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday. Palestinian media said the raid involved a large deployment of Israeli forces.

In addition to the raid, an Israeli air strike reportedly targeted a gathering in the West Bank, after an Israeli military vehicle struck an explosive device, killing one officer.

Jenin has been a scene of repeated Israeli operations over the past 18 months and they have intensified since the war in Gaza started on 7 October.

On the northern border of Israel, Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israeli territory on Saturday following the killing of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in a suspected Israeli attack in the Lebanese capital.

A statement by the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement says it hit an air traffic control base in Meron with 62 rockets. The Israeli military said it had identified about 40 launches from Lebanon, and that it had responded.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67904259

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

A high ranking Hezbollah commander who was responsible for military operations in Southern Lebanon was killed by an Israeli air strike.

[Jimbuna]