Israel continues attacks in Gaza as negotiators head to Cairo

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Gaza Civil Defense teams carried out a total of 294 missions over the past week, the Civil Defense Media Office reported on Telegram on Friday.

Of these operations, at least 115 were rescue missions, while 108 involved ambulance services.

The missions come amid continued Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, despite the ceasefire agreement reached in October.

On 27 November, Amnesty International reported that Israeli attacks have killed more than 347 people in Gaza since the truce was established.

The Trump administration has released a new “security strategy” setting out Washington’s foreign policy priorities, with a noticeably reduced focus on the Middle East, though it acknowledges the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a major source of regional tension.

The document voiced confidence in expanding commercial and trade partnerships and criticised what it described as "America’s misguided experiment with hectoring” Middle Eastern states. It argued that the US should "encourage and applaud reform when and where it emerges organically, without trying to impose it".

Although Trump has often attacked the legacy of US intervention and nation-building efforts in the region, his administration has continued supplying significant quantities of weaponry to countries including Israel, while brushing aside concerns over human rights abuses by allied governments as barriers to investment and arms deals.

The strategy paper concluded that the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains thorny” and continues to be a "troublesome dynamic" within the Middle East.

A number of Palestinians were injured in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, following Israeli artillery shelling, according to the Wafa news agency.

Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip have continued since October, despite the ceasefire agreement.

One of the suspects involved in a violent assault on two Palestinian public employees in Jerusalem this morning will remain in custody until tomorrow night, the Times of Israel reported, citing a police statement issued after a ruling by a Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court judge.

His detention has been extended by one day, despite police having sought several additional days due to the "severity of his actions and extreme violence he used earlier this morning."

He was arrested along with an 18-year-old accomplice for attacking a bus driver and a sanitation worker in the city’s Ramot neighbourhood. The two had been riding a motorised bicycle in the northern district when they encountered a Palestinian sanitation worker sweeping the pavement.

They got off the bike and forced him to the ground- one suspect repeatedly struck him in the face while the other kicked him multiple times. According to police, the assault left the worker with broken teeth and a fractured rib.

At least 570 Palestinians, including 41 children, were detained across the occupied West Bank in November, the Palestine Centre for Prisoner Studies said earlier today.

This raises the total number of arrests in the West Bank to 21,000 since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.

Local sources noted that these figures exclude the mass detentions carried out by Israeli forces during their routine raids on Palestinian towns and cities.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli forces killed a man in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday.

"Bahaa Abdel-Rahman Rashid (38 years old) was killed by Israeli fire in the town of Odala, south of Nablus," the health ministry said in a statement.

Shortly before, the Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams handled the case of a man "who suffered a critical head injury during clashes in the town of Odala near Nablus, and CPR is currently being performed on him".

The Israeli military told AFP news agency it was looking into the incident.

Witness and Odala resident Muhammad al-Kharouf told AFP that Israeli troops were patrolling in Odala and threw tear gas canisters at men who were exiting the local mosque for Friday prayer.

Rashid was killed by live fire in the clashes that followed, added Kharouf, who had been inside the mosque with him.

A notorious Palestinian armed group opposed to Hamas in Gaza and suspected of being backed by Israel has announced that its leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, has been killed.

Abu Shabab's Popular Forces originally started operating in Gaza's southern Rafah governorate and was accused of aid looting.

Israeli authorities acknowledged in June that they had armed Palestinian gangs opposed to Hamas, without directly naming the one led by Abu Shabab.

"With great pride and honour, the Popular Forces mourn their heroic martyr, Yasser Abu Shabab, the founder of the Popular Forces in the Gaza Strip," the group said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

It said he was shot while "attempting to resolve a dispute between members of the Abu Sanima family" and rejected "misleading reports" that he was killed by Hamas.

In a statement, Hamas said Abu Shabab's killing was "the inevitable outcome for anyone who betrays his people and homeland and chooses to become a tool in the hands of the occupation".

It did not claim to have been involved in his killing.

The Abu Sanima family said in a statement that some of its members had been killed in a clash involving Abu Shabab and his group, "bringing him down and thereby writing a new chapter of Palestinian pride and honour".

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday said his group supported the Lebanese state's pursuit of diplomacy to end Israeli attacks, while also criticising the inclusion of a civilian representative in recent talks with Israel.

The state has chosen "diplomacy to end the aggression and implement" the ceasefire deal "and we support it continuing in this direction", Qassem said in a televised address, but added it was a "misstep" to have appointed a civilian to a ceasefire monitoring committee.

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades on Wednesday under the auspices of the year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism, a move Lebanon's president said was to avoid prospects of another war in Lebanon.

A ship traveling Friday through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait came under attack by suspected pirates, officials said.

The incident saw a ship chased by smaller vessels that opened fire on it, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

The private security firm Diaplous Group said the vessel twice came under attack and armed guards aboard it opened fire in response. It said the crew was safe and described the ship as a bulk carrier.

The Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, separating the African continent from the Arabian Peninsula.

The area had seen attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over the Gaza war, as well as a rise in piracy from Somalia as well. The Houthis have halted their attacks, however, as an uneasy ceasefire holds in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday told a United Nations Security Council delegation his country does not want war with Israel, days after civilian representatives from both sides held their first talks in decades.

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.

During his meeting with UN Security Council ambassadors, Aoun said the Lebanese "do not want war again, the Lebanese people have suffered enough and there will be no going back", according to a statement from the presidency.

Aoun called on the envoys to support the Lebanese army's efforts to disarm non-government groups. The army expects to complete the first phase of its government-approved plan by the end of the year.

"The Lebanese army will play its full role... The international community must support and assist it."

Aoun called there was "no going back" on the decision, "even if it requires some time, because the Lebanese are tired of military confrontations".

Following "a new round of negotiations" that began on Wednesday, Aoun stressed "the need to pressure the Israeli side to implement the ceasefire and withdraw, and expressed his hope for pressure from the delegation".

Aoun said that any outcome from these talks "depends primarily on Israel's position, upon which the negotiations will either reach practical results or fail".

The committee tasked with overseeing the ceasefire will hold new sessions with the participation of Lebanese and Israeli civilian delegates starting December 19.

On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Gaza is witnessing a severe humanitarian disaster, with some 6,000 people having undergone amputations as a result of Israel’s ongoing assault on the territory.

A significant proportion of those affected are children whose lives had barely begun.

Former Israeli army officer Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi has been discharged from hospital a month after being admitted following an overdose on sleeping pills, according to Israeli media.

Yerushalmi has been embroiled in a legal controversy since admitting to leaking a video purportedly showing Israeli soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman facility.

After resigning from her military post, she was arrested on suspicion of misconduct and obstructing justice, before being released to 10 days of house arrest. On 9 November, she was taken to hospital after the reported overdose.

The Times of Israel, citing a police document, said she is expected to be called in for questioning in the coming days.

Some 35 countries are expected to participate in next year's Eurovision Song Contest after Israel was cleared to compete, while "about five" plan to boycott it, the event's director said in an interview.

Broadcasters in Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia all announced they were boycotting Eurovision -- the world's largest live music competition -- over Thursday's decision to allow Israel's participation.

Iceland said it was considering its position and would make a decision on December 10.

Widespread opposition to the war in Gaza had led to mounting calls for Israel to be excluded from the annual contest. There were suspicions, too, about the manipulation of the voting system to favour Israel at last year's event.

"We estimate there'll be about 35 broadcasters participating" in the May 2026 contest, the contest's director Martin Green told public broadcaster Swedish Television late Thursday after the decision.

He said "about five" countries felt "very passionately" that Israel should not be allowed to participate, "and I have full respect for that."

"I very much hope that those few broadcasters who feel they can't be there next year will return back to us in 2027," he added.

He stressed that the event should be apolitical, recalling: "It is not governments that participate in Eurovision, it is public service broadcasters and artists."

At Thursday's meeting, members of the European Broadcasting Union had a "full, frank, honest, and quite moving debate", and "what they really came together on is a belief that Eurovision Song Contest shouldn't be used as a political theatre," he said.

"It must retain some sense of neutrality."

Amid bombed-out buildings, Palestinian circus performers juggled and cartwheel and tried to spread joy despite war and famine, as shown in a documentary screened at the Cairo International Film Festival.

Shot during the summer of 2024, as war raged in Gaza, "One More Show", co-directed by Egyptian Mai Saad and Palestinian Ahmed el-Danaf, followed the daily life of the Free Gaza Circus.

Danaf, 26 -- who is still in the devastated Palestinian enclave -- recorded footage of the clowns, jugglers and stilt walkers to bring Saad's idea to life.

"It was the first time I heard someone want to make a film about daily life, not just the bombing and the suffering," he told AFP news agency, in a text message.

"The obstacles in front of me were quite clear: communications down, difficulties moving around, constant danger and the lack of equipment. But I felt we had to see it through."

Slowly but surely, the footage was fed to Saad in Cairo, who put the film together over the course of a year.

"Everything we see in the news is from above -- you only see people as these numbers, numbers, numbers... I wanted to make a film from below, from among the people," the 41-year-old director told AFP.

The result is a heartfelt film in which humour, fatigue and the innocence of childhood are woven together, all under the incessant fear of Israeli air strikes.

ran launched massive missiles in the Sea of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz during the second day of a naval drill, state TV reported Friday.

The report said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched the missiles from the depth of Iran’s mainland, hitting targets in the Oman Sea and neighboring area near Strait of Hormuz in a drill that began on Thursday.

It identified the missiles as cruise Qadr-110, Qadr-380 and Ghadir that have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles.) It said the Guard also launch a ballistic missile identified as 303, without elaborating.

TV footage showed the missiles' launch and hitting their targets.

The drill is the second one following the Israel-Iran war in June that killed nearly 1,100 people in Iran, including military commanders and nuclear scientists. Missile attacks by Iran killed 28 in Israel.

Since the end of the war, Iran has increasingly insisted that it is ready to counter any future Israeli attack. Iran launched its first naval drill in the area in August.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is mainly in charge of operations in the Persian Gulf and its narrow mouth, the Strait of Hormuz. The national navy is in charge of Sea of Oman and beyond.

Iran long has threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of all global oil traded passes. The U.S. Navy has long patrolled the Mideast through its Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep the waterways open.

Israel's defence budget for 2026 has been set at 112 billion shekels ($34.63 billion), the defence minister's office said on Friday, up from 90 billion shekels budgeted in an earlier draft.

Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed on the defense spending framework as the cabinet has begun debating next year's budget, which needs to be approved by March or could lead to new elections.

Ministers began what is usually a marathon session on Thursday ahead of a vote that could come early on Friday. If it passes, it heads to parliament for its initial vote.

Katz said the military will continue its to address the needs of its fighters and reduce the burden on reservists.

"We will continue to act decisively to reinforce the IDF and to fully address the needs of the fighters and to reduce the burden on reservists - in order to ensure the security of the State of Israel on every front," his office quoted him as saying.

The Gaza war has been costly for Israel, which spent $31 billion in 2024 on its military conflicts with Hamas and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has since entered ceasefire deals with both groups.

Smotrich's office said that the 2026 defence budget has seen an increase of 47 billion shekels compared to 2023 on the eve of the war.

A vessel sailing 15 nautical miles west of Yemen reported an exchange of fire after spotting around 15 small craft at a distance of 1–2 cables, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

The vessel said the boats later withdrew and that it remains on heightened alert.

The ship’s master confirmed the crew were unharmed and that the vessel is continuing towards its next port of call.

With the body of one remaining captive yet to have been returned from Gaza, Israelis are set to spearhead more than a dozen events this weekend to call for the return of the remains of Ran Gvili.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum- which has organised Saturday night demonstrations for nearly two years since the start of the brutal Gaza war- has adjusted its plans after the burial of Dror Or and the handover of the body of Thai national Sundthisak Rinthalak on Wednesday.

According to the Times of Israel, the family of Gvili chose to pause the main weekly protest and instead support a series of smaller gatherings.

Sit-ins and flag marches are also set to take place in Israel during the weekend.

Hamas has said the killing of Yasser Abu Shabab- who was reportedly leading an Israel-backed militia opposing Hamas- should serve as a warning to Palestinians not to cooperate with Israel.

In its statement, the group said: "The fate that befell the late agent and collaborator with the occupation, Yasser Abu Shabab, is the inevitable fate of anyone who betrays his people and homeland and is content to be a tool in the hands of the occupation."

Hamas added that Israel had been unable to safeguard those working with it, saying: "We affirm that the occupation, which has failed to protect its agents, will not be able to protect any of its servants.

"The fate of anyone who harms the security of its people and serves its enemy is to fall into the dustbin of history and lose any honor or status in society."

Unifil has criticised Israeli airstrikes carried out yesterday in southern Lebanon, saying the strikes occurred within its area of operations and amounted to a "clear violation" of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem said it "firmly opposed" another delay to the Israeli supreme court's decision on its petition demanding independent access to the Gaza Strip.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.

Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the Palestinian territory under Israeli blockade.

On November 24, the supreme court granted the state a further 10 days to respond to the appeal, but on Thursday extended the deadline again to December 21, giving Israel time to present a plan on foreign media access to Gaza.

"This is an urgent appeal. Continuously preventing coverage -- every minute, every hour, every day -- seriously undermines the ability of international media to carry out their mission, and infringes on the fundamental rights of billions of users," the FPA said in a statement.

The association said it was the ninth time the court agreed to grant an extension, and believed it was "clear that the state's goal is to delay filing their preliminary response as much as possible".

The FPA represents hundreds of foreign journalists working for international news organisations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.