Israel launches deadly Gaza strikes as Middle East tensions rise

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.

US Republican senator Lindsey Graham has taken a visit to Israel, where he met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the war on Gaza.

"We're going to do everything we can... to push forward to make Iran's worst nightmare real," Lindsey said.

"The Arabs and the Israelis move towards the light," Graham said, which he may have cited the Arab countries that have normalised ties with Israel.

Khaled Meshal, the ex-chief of Hamas who currently leads its office abroad, has addressed the death of his senior Hamas officials including Saleh al-Arouri,

He emphasised that the recent assassinations will not halt the ongoing resistance against the Israeli occupation.

“Israel has assassinated dozens – hundreds and thousands – from our people’s leaders throughout the past decades, from all the groups,” Meshal said, in reference to the killing of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin in 2004.

“And what was the result? Every time a leader fell, another leader rose up. The martyrdom of one leader produces other leaders on the same road and with the same conviction and the same persistence. This is a great people that does not break.”

Here is what he also said in his speech:

"This arrogant, criminal Zionist enemy, despite its failure and disappointment after months of its barbaric aggression against Gaza, this Holocaust and the war of extermination that it commits everyday... wants to annihilate the people of Gaza in light of its failure, confusion and the double loss of its soldiers today."

رئيس حركة حماس في الخارج خالد مشعل: الشهيد صالح العاروري شارك في تأسيس كتائب القسام وبذل كل جهد في طريق المقاومة pic.twitter.com/d9BSoubcGd

— التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) January 4, 2024

Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that Israeli forces' latest attacks on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis has led to a rise in the death toll to 32.

The recent attacks include an air strike on a residential apartment in the al-Amal area, which has killed one Palestinian, according to local sources  that told the Palestinian outlet.

Another person was also reportedly killed in an Israeli air attack on a home in al-Qararah.

 Israeli forces have raided the occupied West Bank towns of Beit Rima, near Ramallah, and Azzun, near Qalqilya.

According to Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli forces have driven through the towns in military vehicles and also stormed several civilian homes.

Following US senator Bernie Sanders calling for the US to halt military aid to Israel amid its war on Gaza, fellow lawmaker Elizabeth Warren also said that Washington should limit its military aid to Israel on working towards a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

"When it comes to military aid to Israel, the US cannot write a blank check for a right-wing government that's demonstrated an appalling disregard for Palestinian lives," Warren said.

"The US should use all the tools at its disposal to condition aid & move the parties toward a lasting peace."

Citing gun violence in the US, the deaths of families in Ukraine and Gaza from war, and threats from artificial intelligence, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter said Thursday the world urgently needs to study and adopt her father's philosophy of nonviolence to avoid self-destruction.

The Rev. Bernice King used an address to announce events for the upcoming holiday in honor of her father to warn that humanity was at a critical juncture.

“We are witnessing unprecedented loss of human life and especially among the Black, brown and indigenous people throughout the world," she said.

She also mentioned conflicts in Yemen, Congo and Ethiopia and cited racism against Black people as another threat to humans, saying it remained a “blight” more than 50 years after her father was assassinated.

Overall, humanity was dangerously close to fulfilling her father's prophecy that it could destroy itself through the misuse of its own instruments, she warned. But she also offered a solution.

The study and practice of her father's philosophy of nonviolence could teach people how to live together peacefully, she said. 

Local Palestinian media and The New Arab's Arabic language sister site Al Araby Jadeed have reported relentless Israeli attacks emerging in northern and central Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Meanwhile in Rafah, Gaza-based journalist Maha Husseini said that at least five Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a residential home.

Rafah has been where Palestinians have fled to recently, following having been forcibly displaced by Israeli forces.

Breaking: At least 5 Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential home belonging to Abu Sanjar family in Rafah in the southern #Gaza Strip, where Israel is currently pushing hundreds of thousands of displaced people to take refuge in.

— Maha Hussaini (@MahaGaza) January 4, 2024

Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich has said that Gallant’s 'day after the war' plan is a repetition of the plans for Gaza prior to October 7.

Smotrich has instead supported what is referred to as “voluntary migration”- which has been firmly condemned by many rights groups and Palestinians as forced displacement- that calls for the return of illegal settlements in the Strip.

Denmark's Maersk said on Thursday it has rerouted four out of five container vessels that were stuck in the Red Sea back towards the Suez Canal and the long journey around Africa to avoid the risk of attack.

Maersk, which had last week briefly sought to restart Red Sea voyages after a pause, said on Tuesday its container ships would again avoid the route that gives access to the Suez Canal, a shortcut between Asia and Europe.

But five Maersk ships headed towards Asia had already traversed the canal from the north and were poised to travel south past Yemen when the pause was announced, leaving the crews and tens of thousands of containers in limbo.

The Maersk Genoa, Maersk Londrina, Ebba Maersk and Gjertrud Maersk container vessels, which had been sitting in the Red Sea just south of Saudi Arabia's port of Jeddah in recent days, were on Thursday rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope, a Maersk schedule showed.

A fifth vessel, Maersk Utah, that had also been stuck in the area, had not yet been rerouted, but a Maersk spokesperson said it would not sail past Yemen.

Sending the ships back via the Suez Canal would incur fresh fees to pay for the passage through the canal and add significant delays and extra fuel costs for a journey around the Cape of Good Hope.

Yemen-based Houthis recently attacked a number of vessels in the southern Red Sea, including a Maersk ship on Saturday, disrupting global trade and raising fears of a fresh bout of global inflation as shipping rates soared.

Three Israelis who were considered missing since the October 7 attacks by Hamas are being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces announced Thursday.

"Three citizens who were considered missing are now recognised as hostages and their families have been informed," military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday outlined Israel's plans for the next stage of its war in Gaza, with a new more targeted approach in the northern section of the enclave, which has been severely devastated.

In southern Gaza, which is currently undergoing intense Israeli bombings that has targeted civilian homes and refugee camps that were deemed as “safe zones”, is said to be continually pursued by Israeli forces. 

He said operations would include raids, demolishing tunnels, air and ground strikes, and special forces operations.

The south of the besieged enclave is where most of Gaza's 2.3 million population is now living, many in tents and other temporary shelters.

"It will continue for as long as is deemed necessary," Gallant's office said in a statement.

According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israel aimed to prevent the return of Palestinians in northern Gaza in order for a deal to be reached that sees the the remaining captives returned.

The newspaper said that it was an attempt to “leverage the return of residents in order to pressure Hamas to agree” to a deal.

Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant has said Israel would not “not exercise civil control” over Gaza but reiterated his stance that the besieged enclave would not be governed by Gaza.

“It’s Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip, which is why Palestinian players will be responsible for it, on the condition that they are not hostile towards Israel and will not operate against it,” Gallant said in a discussion with military correspondents, according to the Israeli news publication Haaretz.

He added that a multi-national force that includes Arab countries should lead efforts to help rebuild Gaza that has been destroyed by Israeli attacks.

The defence minister also said that there would be no Israeli “civil presence” in the Strip after the war- which has contradicted other far-right ministers and Israeli soldiers who have called for the renewal of illegal Jewish settlements to Gaza.

An American strike killed a pro-Iran commander in Iraq who was involved in attacks on Washington's troops, a US defense official said Thursday.

"This strike was taken in self-defense. No civilians were harmed. No infrastructure or facilities were struck," the official said in a statement.

It targeted a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba -- a pro-Iran armed organization in Iraq -- who was "actively involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American personnel," the official said, adding that it also killed another of the group's members.

The strike comes amid heightened regional tensions linked to the war of US ally Israel on Gaza.

Israel's top diplomat said Thursday he was sending back the country's envoy to Madrid after his predecessor recalled her after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez questioned the legality of Israel's war in Gaza.

Rodica Radian-Gordon had been recalled in November by then Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen following what he said were "outrageous remarks" made by Sanchez in an interview.

In an interview with Spanish public television, Sanchez said the world had to tell Israel "it needs to base its actions on international humanitarian law, and with the images we are seeing and the growing number of people dying, especially boys and girls, I have serious doubts".

But on Thursday Cohen's successor, Israel Katz, said he had decided to send the envoy back to Madrid.

Katz said the decision was taken as there "was a change in the messages for the better" from the government of Spain.

The White House has said that the US is “in no position to doubt” the Islamic State's claim that it was responsible for the attack in Iran's Kerman that killed at least 103 people on Wednesday.

The White House’s national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters at a press briefing that the US has “long said and maintained” that IS “remains a viable terror threat”.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has issued a statement, sharing their worries amid Israeli attacks on the El Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, following another strike that killed five people- including a five day old baby on Wednesday.

PRCS said that Israeli forces have once again targeted the hospital on Thursday- where thousands of displaced people have sought shelter.

“The Palestine Red Crescent Society appeals to the international community, to partners in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and to the UN system, to intervene immediately and to urgently protect PRCS Al-Amal Hospital Compound; and the medical staff, wounded, sick and around 14,000 displaced people,” PRCS said.

🚨PRCS Expresses Deep Concern over the Repeated Targeting of Al-Amal Hospital Compound by Israeli Occupation Forces, and Calls on the International Community to Provide Urgent Protection.👇#AlAmalHospital #Gaza#NotATarget ❌#IHL pic.twitter.com/5j2vode3AK

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 4, 2024

Britain's foreign minister David Cameron said that if Houthi-led attacks continue in Red Sea shipping lanes, international action will be taken as a result.

According to a report by Reuters, Cameron spoke to reporters during his visit to Kosovo on the response by Britain- to which the foreign minister declined to provide details.

However, he called the latest attacks "illegal" and said that the Houthis' action was not in response to Israel's ongoing aggression in Gaza.
"This is illegal. It's not to do with Gaza, it's not to do with Israel. This is about the freedom of navigation. This is about the ability of ships to carry their cargo," Cameron said.

"The world economy, every economy, will suffer if ships keep coming under attack in this illegal and unacceptable way. And these attacks need to stop or actions will be taken."

The number of tourists visiting Israel rose in 2023 compared with 2022, although it plunged in October after Israel's war on Gaza broke out- which remained low for the rest of the year, the Israeli tourism ministry said on Thursday.

Up until October, the tourism industry was recovering from the collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but after October 7, the number of foreign visitors dropped.

Overall in 2023, 3 million tourists entered Israel, up from 2.7 million in 2022. December was the worst month of the year with just 52,800 tourists, while the number was above 300,000 per month for several months earlier in the year.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit five Arab countries - Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt - the occupied West Bank, in addition to Israel, the State Dept. said.

He will also visit Turkey and Greece.

The United Nations Security Council in a statement on Thursday condemned the attack in Iran that killed at least 84 people on Wednesday, claimed by the Islamic State group.

"The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers, and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice," the Security Council said in a statement.

An Israeli strike flattened a home Thursday in an area of southern Gaza that the military had declared a safe zone as Israeli troops pressed their assault in the nearby city of Khan Younis.

Palestinian hospital officials said the blast killed at least 12 people, almost all of them children.

The Islamic State group on Thursday claimed responsibility for twin bombings that killed 84 people in Iran.

In a statement on Telegram, the group said two of its members "activated their explosives vests" at a gathering near the grave in the southern city of Kerman of slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani.

📍 ISIS says that the attackers were two brothers named Omar al-Muwahhid and Saifullah al-Mujahid. pic.twitter.com/5vHjChLf7l

— Çağatay Cebe (@Mucagcebe) January 4, 2024

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched an explosives-laden sea drone that detonated in international shipping lanes on Thursday, their first use of such a weapon in recent months, a senior US military officer said.

"A Houthi one-way attack unmanned surface vessel, or USV, detonated in international shipping lanes. Fortunately, there were no casualties and no ships were hit," Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of US naval forces in the Middle East, told journalists.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna agreed to seek steps to avoid a wider Middle East war following strikes in Lebanon and Iran, the State Department said Thursday.

In a telephone call the day before, the two top diplomats "discussed the importance of measures to prevent the conflict in Gaza from expanding, including affirmative steps to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank and to avoid escalation in Lebanon and Iran," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in Al-Nusseirat refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, health officials told Reuters on Thursday.

More than 326 medical staff have been killed since Israel began its war on Gaza on October 7, Gaza's health ministry spokesman said.

Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra said Israeli bombing destroyed 121 ambulance vans and targeted 150 medical facilities, resulting in the shut down of 30 hospitals and 53 health centres across the territory.

He added that Israeli forces were still detaining 99 medical staff, including the directors of hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas' deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri who was killed in an Israeli strike on a southern suburb of Beirut Tuesday night were laid to rest in the Lebanese capital on Thursday.

He was buried alongside two other Hamas officials killed in that attack.

Gunfire was heard at one point during the ceremony in Beirut's Tariq al-Jdideh neighbourhood.

حركة حماس تشيّع الشهيد الشيخ صالح العاروري ورفيقيه عزام الأقرع ومحمد الريس في طريق الجديدة https://t.co/zkoEX8EtYt

— Al Jadeed News (@ALJADEEDNEWS) January 4, 2024

Gaza's health ministry said the death toll from Israel's bombardment reached 22,438, with more than 57,600 wounded.

An earlier toll given by the government's media office said over 29,000 have been registered dead or missing.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday he was "very disturbed" after comments by senior Israeli officials calling for Palestinians to leave Gaza.

"Very disturbed by high-level Israeli officials' statements on plans to transfer civilians from Gaza to third countries," Turk wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Iraq said that the U.S.-led international coalition bears responsibility for an "unjustified" attack on Thursday on an Iraqi security force, according to the prime minister's office.

"The attack is a dangerous escalation and a violation of Iraq's sovereignty," the office said.

The airstrike killed senior commanders in pro-Iran factions, formerly paramilitaries which integrated into Iraqi security forces.

The Gaza government's media office said a total of 29,313 people have been killed and are reported missing in the territory since October 7.

It said 16,000 were women and children.

"Gaza is Occupied Palestinian Territory and will be part of a future Palestinian state," a spokesperson for the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office said on Wednesday.

"The UK firmly rejects any suggestion of the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. We share the concerns of our allies and partners that Gazans should not be subject to forcible displacement or relocation from Gaza."

Iranian authorities on Thursday said twin blasts in the country's south killed 84 people the previous day, revising down an earlier toll from the explosions at a top general's commemoration.

Tehran's official news agency IRNA quoted Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying that "according to forensic statistics, the number of martyrs from this incident has been announced as 84 so far".

The revised death toll was also confirmed by the head of Iran's emergency services, Jafar Miadfar, who said the earlier tally of 95 killed was due to the fact that some bodies had been dismembered and counted "several times".

Saudi Arabia rejects "extremist remarks" by two Israeli ministers who called for the displacement of Gaza's population, the reoccupation of the enclave and the construction of settlements, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Three senior members of pro-Iranian factions in Iraq have been killed in a drone strike in the Iraqi capital, sources said.

Smoke billowing from the Hashd al-Shaabi headquarters near the interior ministry in Baghdad was shared on social media. The coalition blamed the US for the strike.

مشاهد من القصف الذي استهدف #بغداد وادى الى استشهاد القيادي في الحشد الشعبي ابو تقوى pic.twitter.com/9FbT7KyVc5

— حسين مرتضى Hussein Mortada (@HoseinMortada) January 4, 2024

The Iran-backed coalition of militias has been targeting military bases housing US and other foreign troops in Iraq since the Gaza war began.

An Israeli airstrike landed close to a Lebanese army post in the southern area of Nabatiyeh on Thursday, local media reported.

Four Hezbollah fighters were killed overnight in Israeli airstrikes on the south Lebanon coastal border town of Naqoura, the Iran-backed militant group announced Thursday.

One of them killed was the group's Naqoura chief, Hussein Yazbek, according to local media.

Lebanon's official National News Agency said Israeli aircraft "carried out raids on the centre of Naqoura, which destroyed a home and damaged surrounding houses".

A video of the aftermath of the strike was shared on social media.

الأضرار في المنازل والممتلكات المحيطة بمنزل أحمد حمزة، الذي استهدفته غارة جوية في #الناقورة أمس pic.twitter.com/VuPiEQJf7I

— Hassan Rkain (@hassan_rkain) January 4, 2024

Clashes were reported on Thursday between Palestinian factions and Israeli forces in Sir, a village south of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

An Israeli army raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank continued for a second day on Thursday.

Al Araby TV reported that Israeli forces blew up a number of homes and a vehicle in the camp, located near Tulkarm.

تغطية صحفية: الاحتلال يواصل اقتحام منشأة قرب مخيم نور شمس والتحقيق مع الأهالي فيها pic.twitter.com/LrVzBXqrBd

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 4, 2024

The Israeli army reportedly dropped phosphorus bombs on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning.

The us of phosphorus is banned in densely populated areas under international law, but Israel has used them numerous times in Gaza and southern Lebanon since October 7.

تغطية صحفية: الاحتلال يطلق قنابل فسفورية على مخيم النصيرات pic.twitter.com/9fRIM6QiO4

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 4, 2024

At least 14 Palestinians were killed on Thursday, including nine children, in Israeli strikes on Al- Mawasi west of Gaza's Khan Younis, a health ministry official told Reuters.

تغطية صحفية: الاحتلال يشن غارات على خانيونس قبل قليل pic.twitter.com/bxYFiSVlaU

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 4, 2024