Israel strikes kill 8 amid calls for ceasefire implementation in Doha

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

The International Criminal Court’s deputy prosecutor sharply criticised US sanctions on Friday, arguing that they effectively place senior ICC officials in the same category as "terrorists and drug traffickers."

In an extensive interview with AFP news agency, Mame Mandiaye Niang added that it would be “conceivable” for the court to hold an in-absentia hearing for high-profile ICC suspects, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Niang, 65, and several top ICC judges have been targeted by sanctions imposed under former US President Donald Trump.

The measures came in response to the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu in connection with Israel’s war on Gaza.

"You can disagree with what we're doing. That happens all the time," Niang told AFP during a one-on-one interview at the ICC’s headquarters in The Hague.

“But even if we upset you, you should never put us on the same list as terrorists or drug traffickers. That is the message” to Trump, he said.

The Israeli army says its forces have shot and killed two Palestinians in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, during what it called “operational activity”.

In a short statement on Telegram, the military claimed the pair drove their vehicle at speed towards soldiers positioned at a security checkpoint.

“The soldiers fired at the terrorists and eliminated them,” the statement said.

A senior Saudi official has reiterated that a two-state solution remains the only viable path to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Manal Radwan, a Foreign Ministry representative speaking at the Doha Forum 2025, said that US President Trump’s peace plan sets out a clear framework and should not be steered away from.

"We cannot be open to redefinition and renegotiation of what we have already agreed to and also what was issued as a Security Council resolution that was passed and welcomed by all parties," Radwan said.

She continued: "So we cannot go back and redefine what we mean by ceasefire, what we mean even by disarmament, what we mean by a Palestinian-led process in governing Gaza."

"Almost everyone in the international community agrees that the two-state solution is the only solution forward. If that is so, then it is asking people what it is that they are going to do to bring this implementation and make it possible."

Gaza’s Ministry of Health has confirmed that six people have been killed in the past 48 hours- five of whom were recovered- and another 15 injured, all of whom were taken to hospitals across the Strip.

The ministry added that, since the start of the ceasefire, the total number of fatalities has risen to 367, with 953 people injured and 624 bodies recovered.

This brings the overall death toll from the Israeli assault to 70,354, with 171,030 people injured since 7 October 2023.

Supporting Israel is a key part of Germany's policy, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday shortly after arriving on a visit to Jerusalem.

"I consider it a great honour and a truly great distinction to be here and to reaffirm that standing by this country is and will remain the unchanging core principle of the Federal Republic of Germany's policy," he said.

Hamas said Saturday it was ready to hand over its weapons in the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian authority governing the territory on the condition that the Israeli army's occupation ends.

"Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression," Hamas chief negotiator and its Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement, adding: "If the occupation ends, these weapons will be placed under the authority of the state."

Asked by AFP news agency, Hayya's bureau said he was referring to a sovereign and independent Palestnian state.

"We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza," Hayya added, signalling his group's rejection of the deployment of an international force in the Strip whose mission would be to disarm it.

Two groups of pro-Palestinian activists were prevented by authorities from coming into contact with the opening stages of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch relay, Italian police said on Saturday.

Both groups — one of them with about 15 people — were removed before they reached the relay route in Rome, police said.

A third group of about 10 people that was monitored by police waved Palestinian flags when the relay passed by the city’s biggest university, La Sapienza.

There were also three people carrying signs in support of Venezuela near the American embassy.

In October, more than two million demonstrators marched through more than 100 Italian cities to protest the war in Gaza.

Israeli rights organisation B’Tselem has accused the international community of continuing to "neglect its responsibilities" while Israel upholds restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza, including essential winter items such as tents and blankets.

The organisation said that dropping temperatures and heavy rainfall have made the already dire humanitarian situation for displaced Palestinians in the Strip even worse.

B’Tselem reported that approximately 13,000 tents were destroyed last month, with storms impacting more than 740,000 Palestinians.

"Rainwater mixed with raw sewage, creating fertile ground for infection and disease, and leaving hundreds of thousands without basic shelter. Children were documented in summer clothing and barefoot in the cold due to the lack of warm clothes," the group said.

"This is the reality in Gaza today: a winter without shelter, profound hunger, and living conditions that continue to deteriorate. This is a direct result of Israeli policy and international silence."

Due to the complete destruction that the genocidal Israeli attack caused to the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip, as well as to its sewage and drainage systems, the recent November rainfall flooded the displacement camps: approximately 13,000 tents were destroyed, and more than… pic.twitter.com/V74uusPMfK

— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) December 6, 2025

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has submitted a criminal complaint in Spain calling for the "urgent arrest" of Israeli soldier Benayau Nahum, whom it accuses of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

According to HRF, Nahum served with the 97th Netzah Yehuda Battalion of the 900th Kfir Brigade, which it says took part in the destruction of Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza during late 2024 and early 2025.

"The evidence in HRF’s possession places Benayau Nahum directly on the ground during these operations," the organisation stated.

"It shows his participation in systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, including homes and public buildings, at a time when Beit Hanoon was already largely depopulated and defenseless."

The foundation has previously pursued several international arrest warrants targeting Israeli military personnel and political figures for their alleged roles in war crimes in Gaza.

Qatar and Egypt, guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilisation force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement.

"Now we are at the critical moment... A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces (and) there is stability back in Gaza," Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference.

"We need to deploy this force as soon as possible on the ground because one party, which is Israel, is every day violating the ceasefire," Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said at the Doha Forum.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement that Abdelatty and Sheikh Mohammed met on Saturday, with both stressing "the importance of continuing efforts to implement" the peace agreement.

 A United Nations delegation visting Lebanon said Saturday they came to Beirut to explore options for territory along the border with Israel after a UN peacekeeping force's term ends at the end of next year.

The comments by the team representing the 15 members of the UN Security Council came a day after Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told them that his country will need a follow-up force in southern Lebanon to fill the vacuum once the UN peacekeepers’ term expires.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously in August to terminate the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, at the end of 2026 — nearly five decades after the force was deployed. The multinational force has played a significant role in monitoring the security situation in the region, including during the Israel-Hezbollah war last year.

One of UNIFIL’s main missions has been the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701 that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.

The same resolution was used again to end the latest 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war that ended with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in November last year.

“We wanted to use (the) opportunity of this visit to also examine options for implementation of resolution 1701 following UNIFIL’s departure from Lebanon,” said Samuel Žbogar, permanent representative of Slovenia to the U.N. and president of the Security Council.

“We are looking forward to the secretary general recommendations on this one as well,” Žbogar said in a brief statement. “As you can imagine, this is a topic that will deserve a thorough conversation during 2026.”

Israeli forces on Saturday have arrested five Palestinian men from the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya, in the occupied West Bank.

The soldiers stormed the town and arrested two brothers, Ibrahim and Muhammad Khalil Sweidan, said the Wafa news agency, citing local sources.

Mahmoud Tayseer Sweidan, Ahmed Taleb Nassar, and Muhammad Ayman Majd were also detained after troops raided and searched their homes.

A prominent Alawite spiritual leader in Syria on Saturday urged members of his religious minority to boycott celebrations marking the toppling of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in protest of "oppressive" new authorities.

Syrians since late November have been marking the first anniversary since Islamist-led forces pressed a lightning offensive to topple Assad on December 8 after nearly 14 years of war.

Since the ousting of Assad, himself an Alawite, the minority group has been the target of attacks, and hundreds were killed in sectarian massacres in the community's coastal heartland in March.

"Under the slogan of freedom, they want to force the celebration of swapping an oppressive regime with an even more oppressive regime," said Ghazal Ghazal, head of the Islamic Alawite Council in Syria and Abroad, in a video message on Facebook.

Despite "their attempts to break us in the worst ways - carrying out arrests, killing, slaughtering, kidnapping, burning and now threatening our livelihoods... they are forcing us to take part in celebrations built on our blood, our pain, our suffering... and silencing us", he said.

"We will confront their aggression with a clear, peaceful, collective response."

He called for a "general and comprehensive strike", urging people to stay home from December 8 to December 12 to reject "empowering a new oppression that is even more tyrannical, exclusionary and cruel".

A United Nations Security Council delegation on Saturday urged all parties to uphold a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, expressing support for a state weapons monopoly at the end of a Lebanon visit.

A November 2024 ceasefire was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants, but Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon.

Israel has mainly said it is targeting the Iran-backed group, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.

"We came to Beirut at a pivotal time for the implementation of... the cessation of hostilities agreement of November of last year," Slovenian UN ambassador Samuel Zbogar, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the UN body, told reporters.

"All parties must uphold the November 2024 cessation of hostilities agreement, and we recognise progress achieved by Lebanon this year," he said.

"We reaffirm the council's support for Lebanon's territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence."

A Palestinian woman and her son were killed on Saturday evening by Israeli fire in the Al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, raising the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since morning to eight

Israeli settlers on Saturday attacked Palestinian-owned lands in the village of Mekhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, and targeted Bedouin shepherds near Khan al-Ahmar, east of the city.

Settlers, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, released their cows into olive fields in the Wadi al-Baradiya area of Mekhmas before attempting to attack nearby homes. Young residents intervened, forcing them to withdraw.

In a related incident, Israeli forces and settlers assaulted several Palestinian residents east of Hebron, also on Saturday.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip said on Saturday that 367 Palestinians have been killed and 953 injured as a result of Israeli army violations since the ceasefire agreement came into effect nearly two months ago.

Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Saturday that Israel seeking a demilitarised zone in his country's south put Syria in a dangerous position, as Israeli forces keep up operations in the area.

Syria has insisted on respecting a 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel "that has held for over 50 years -- in one way or another it is a successful agreement", Sharaa told the Doha Forum, adding that tampering with the deal "and seeking other agreements such as a demilitarised zone... could lead us to a dangerous place".

Turkey's foreign minister said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are signalling "no intention" of honouring their deal to integrate into Syrian state structures and are instead trying to circumvent it.

Hakan Fidan said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the Doha Forum that Ankara was not giving the Syrian government a "blank cheque" to oppress minorities, adding that everyone in Syria "must feel safe and free".

The minister also said Israel’s "destabilisation policies" in Syria were the main obstacle to efforts to rebuild unity in the country.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Saturday urged the rapid deployment of an international ceasefire monitoring force under the second phase of a peace deal for the Gaza Strip.

"As for the International Stabilisation Force, we need to deploy this force as soon as possible on the ground because one party, which is Israel, is every day violating the ceasefire... so we need monitors," the minister said.

He warned that Egypt's Rafah crossing into Gaza "is not going to be a gateway for displacement. It's only for flooding Gaza with humanitarian and medical care".

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters on Saturday that a credible Palestinian civil administration and a vetted, trained police force should be in place to allow Hamas to disarm, saying the group is prepared to hand over governance of the enclave.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, Fidan said that without those initial steps, expecting Hamas to disarm in the first phase of the ceasefire deal is neither "realistic nor doable."

He said the proposed police force would exclude Hamas members and would be backed by an international stabilisation force. He added that Washington was pressing Israel over Turkey's bid to join the force.

Fidan warned that failure by the international community to advance the ceasefire plan to its next stage would amount to a "huge failure" for the world and for Washington, noting that U.S. President Donald Trump had personally led the push.

The Lebanese army has arrested six people after gunmen attacked UN peacekeepers patrolling in the south of the country, the military said Saturday.

The UN force, known as UNIFIL, had reported that six men riding on three mopeds opened fire on a patrol vehicle Thursday without hurting anyone.

Saturday's statement said the army's intelligence directorate had followed up on the attack and arrested six Lebanese suspects.

The army said it would not tolerate attacks on UNIFIL, which it said carries out an important stabilising role south of the Litani river, near the Israeli border.

UNIFIL peacekeepers have been tasked with acting as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon since March 1978, and with monitoring the November 2024 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for reforms of the Palestinian Authority in a phone call with its leader Mahmud Abbas early Saturday, hours before taking off for Israel.

Speaking from Berlin, Merz urged Abbas to push through "urgently necessary reforms" at the Palestinian Authority so that the organisation could "play a constructive role in a post-war order", according to German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius.

Merz also underscored German support for US President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza and "welcomed the Palestinian Authority's cooperative attitude" toward the deal in the call, the spokesman said.

The fragile ceasefire agreement to end the Gaza war is supposed to be just the first phase of the plan.

Germany is among Israel's closest allies and most outspoken supporters.

The Israeli army has arrested four Palestinians on Saturday during a raid on the village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah, in the West Bank.

Those arrested were identified as Bilal Abdel Salam Tamimi, Manal Abdel Hafeez Tamimi, Samer Bilal Tamimi, and Alaa Muhammad Tamimi.

They were apprehended after forces raided and searched their homes.

Three Palestinians from the West Bank town of Qarawat Bani Hassan were injured on Saturday after being assaulted by Israeli forces near Jericho.

According to local sources, Israeli troops stopped the three men as they were passing through a military checkpoint near the illegal Ma'ale Efraim settlement, north of Jericho.

The three men were brutally beaten and later transferred to Darwish Nazzal Hospital in Qalqilya, where their injuries were described as moderate.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday that negotiations over the Gaza stabilisation force remain ongoing, including its mandate and rules of engagement, and that its main objective should be to separate Israelis and Palestinians along the border.

Fidan was speaking at the Doha Forum conference in Qatar.

A Palestinian infant has suffered from asphyxiation on Friday evening after inhaling tear gas fired by the Israeli army during a raid on the village of Madma, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent stated in a press release that its crews treated a 20-day-old infant who had suffocated from tear gas during the Israeli raid, and that the infant was transferred to the hospital.

No further details were provided regarding the infant's condition.

The nearly two-month-old ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will not be complete until Israeli troops withdraw from the Palestinian territory under a peace plan backed by Washington and the UN, mediator Qatar's prime minister said on Saturday.

"Now we are at the critical moment...we cannot consider it yet a ceasefire, a ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces, (and) there is stability back in Gaza," Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference in the Gulf state's capital.