At least 21 killed, dozens wounded in deadly Israel strike on Gaza's Khan Younis

The New Arab's blog on Israel's war in Gaza has now ended, and will resume at 0900am GMT. Thank you for following.

Israel’s military has reportedly launched a "violent bombing campaign" in northern Gaza City in the early hours of Thursday morning, according to Al-Aqsa TV, a Gaza-based outlet.

It said the neighbourhoods of Sabra and Tal al-Hawa were targeted.

Israeli air raids are also reportedly taking place in north Gaza, according to Al Jazeera Arabic,  as well as shelling in Beit Lahiya and Jabalia in the north and the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area.

The Israeli military has launched three air raids on southern Lebanon in recent hours, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, citing local sources.

Israeli fighter jets launched an air strike in the early hours of Thursday morning in the Zawtar area near the Litani River, south Lebanon.

Two separate air strikes on homes were carried out before that in the town of Yaroun near Lebanon’s border with Israel.

A new investigation carried out by the leading rights group Amnesty International has concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which it has been bombarding for over a year.

A report published by the group, entitled 'You Feel Like You Are Subhuman: Israel's Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza', uses evidence compiled to document how Israel was committing grave atrocities in the besieged enclave.

It notes that acts in violation of international laws include killing, mental or bodily harm and intentionally inflicting Palestinians with conditions that would ensure their destruction.

"Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them," Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International said in a statement.

Read more here:
 

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said there "may now be an opportunity" for the remaining captives in Gaza to be taken out, in conversation with the EU foreign policy chief on Wednesday, the Times of Israel reported.

Speaking at the OSCE Foreign Ministers’ Conference in Malta, Sa’ar stresses that Israel’s government “is serious” about reaching a deal to get them out, and asks for the EU’s help in attaining an agreement.

Donald Trump's incoming Middle East envoy has met the prime ministers of Qatar and Israel to kick-start the U.S. president-elect's diplomatic push to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal before he takes office on Jan. 20, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters on Wednesday.

Steve Witkoff, the incoming envoy, traveled to Qatar and Israel in late November, the source said.

The meetings signal that the Gulf state of Qatar has resumed its role as a key mediator after suspending that role last month, the source said, adding that negotiators from militant group Hamas would likely return to the Qatari capital Doha to facilitate a fresh round of talks soon.

Qatar has reportedly resumed its role as mediator between Hamas and Israel in Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Hamas teams expected to return to Doha to facilitate talks, Reuters has reported.

The Palestinian health ministry in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday accused Israeli forces of raiding a hospital in Nablus and arresting a patient.

The ministry in a statement called it "a flagrant violation of all international laws and conventions that stipulate the protection of treatment centres and patients".

Israeli opposition leaders and media figures have warned that government reform proposals were threatening press freedoms.

"In the years since this government was formed, Israel has fallen 15 places in the freedom of speech index," opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said.

A former journalist, Lapid said the current government did not want a balanced media landscape but media "like in Hungary, like in Russia – restrained, frightened, submissive, shallow".

Israel is ranked 101 out of 180 countries, compared with 86 in 2022 before Netanyahu formed his coalition government.

An Israeli airstrike on the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City o Wednesday evening killed at least 10 Palestinians, local sources said told the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

They said that Israeli fighter jets pounded a house belonging to the Dalu family in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.

Opposition rebels on Wednesday surrounded Syria's key central city of Hama "from three sides" as they pressed on with a lightening offensive on government-held territory, a war monitor said.

The rebels "have surrounded Hama city from three sides, and are now present at a distance of three to four kilometres (1.9 to 2.5 miles) from it, following violent clashes with the government forces which are left with only one exit towards Homs to the south," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A Palestinian detainee has died in Israeli custody, the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission (PAC) and the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said.

The detainee was identified as 45-year-old Mohammad Walid Hussein Ali, a resident of the Nur Shams refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the prisoner advocacy groups said, as cited by Wafa.

Ali was a former prisoner who spent some 20 years in Israeli prisons and detention centers, and was rearrested on 28 November 2024.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in a statement Wednesday that the body of a hostage had been recovered from the Gaza Strip.

"In a special operation, the body of hostage Itay Svirsky, who was kidnapped on October 7 (2023) from kibbutz Beeri and murdered in captivity by Hamas terrorists in June 2024, was brought back," Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.

The deaths of six Israeli captives whose bodies were recovered from Gaza in August were probably linked to an Israeli strike near where they were being held, the Israeli military said on Wednesday.

"At the time of the strike, the military had no information, not even a suspicion, that the hostages were in the underground compound or its vicinity," the military said in a statement about the investigation into the hostages' deaths.

"Had such information been available, the strike would not have been carried out."

The statement said it was "highly probable that their deaths were related to the strike near the location where they were held," although the precise circumstances were still not clear.

Gaza's civil defence agency said the Israeli military issued evacuation calls Wednesday as it heavily bombarded the northern town of Beit Lahia as part of an intensive two-month operation.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Basal said the military used loudspeakers on drones to tell displaced people sheltering in a school to leave, while also firing tank shells at the area.

The army's "aerial and artillery" fire forced thousands to flee Beit Lahia via Salah al-Din road, Gaza's main north-south axis, he told AFP.

On Tuesday, the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said an emergency medical team was successfully deployed to Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia for the first time in 60 days.

It said 65,000-75,000 people had been left "without access to food, water, electricity or reliable health care" by the Israeli operation in northern Gaza, "as mass casualty incidents continue".

World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, in a post on X, that Kamal Adwan hospital was "attacked again last night", adding that such actions were "depriving people of lifesaving care".

Israeli airstrikes on al-Mawasi in southern Gaza killed at least 10 Palestinians, with multiple makeshift tents set on fire from the attacks.

According to Palestinian outlets, civil defence teams are working to extinguish the flames and carry out life-saving efforts amidst the devastation.

الجيش الإسرائيلي يحرق النازحين أحياء.
قصف الجيش الإسرائيلي المنطقة التي وصفها بأنها “إنسانية” بشكل وحشي، وهي المنطقة التي طلب من النازحين التوجه إليها.

مجزرة دموية تحدث الآن في مواصي خانيونس، والتقارير الأولية تشير إلى سقوط 17 شهيداً. pic.twitter.com/jbBWrauf1N

— Tamer | تامر (@tamerqdh) December 4, 2024

At least 10 people were killed and a dozen others were injured in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, medics said on Wednesday.

Israel's army said it had struck a launcher in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, one week after the start of a ceasefire with Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah.

"A launcher that was identified in Majdal Zoun in southern Lebanon, violating the agreements between Israel and Lebanon and posing a threat to the State of Israel, was struck by the (Israeli Air Force)," the military said in a statement, adding it had also "dismantled weapons" in three locations of southern Lebanon.

Massad Boulous, Donald Trump's incoming senior Middle East advisor, argued in an interview with right-wing French magazine Le Point that the Gaza war is "practically over" with minimal military activity remaining.

He added that the main issue is the release of hostages, which he said that President-elect Donald Trump believes should happen without delay or being linked to post-conflict plans for Gaza.

Regarding Israel’s violations of the Lebanon ceasefire, Boulous explained that the agreement allows each side the right to defend itself during a 60-day test period.

He also highlighted that US-Saudi discussions on Israel-Saudi normalisation include the need for a clear vision and roadmap for a Palestinian state, though Saudi Arabia is not currently demanding its immediate creation.

The head of militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led a rebel offensive that captured Syria's second city Aleppo last weekend, visited its landmark citadel on Wednesday.

Images posted on the rebels' Telegram channel showed Abu Mohammed al-Jolani waving to supporters from an open-top car as he visited the historic fortress.

US President-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Adam Boehler would be his special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

Trump said Boehler was a lead negotiator for him on his team that worked the Abraham Accords in 2020, a series of normalization agreements between Israel and Arab nations.

"He has negotiated with some of the toughest people in the World, including the Taliban, but Adam knows that NO ONE is tougher than the United States of America, at least when President Trump is its Leader. Adam will work tirelessly to bring our Great American Citizens HOME," Trump said.

Boehler is a former chief executive officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corp, a new federal agency created during Trump's first administration ending in 2021.

During a visit to Israel's Tel Nof airbase, Defence Minister Israel Katz expressed optimism about advancing a captive deal with Hamas.

"There is a chance that this time we can truly make progress," Katz stated, adding that returning the hostages remains Israel's "supreme goal" in the ongoing conflict.

He noted increasing pressure on Hamas, describing it as a "monstrous organisation," as efforts to secure a resolution continue.

Hamas has condemned the bombing of homes in Beit Lahia and the targeting of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, describing these actions as evidence of an ongoing war and acts of "genocide."

In a statement, Hamas accused Israel of continuing to violate international law, enabled by what it termed "the shameful failure of the international system" to stop such "horrific crimes."

The group further alleged that these actions are conducted "are carried out under the full cover and protection of the American administration and some Western capitals."

The Israeli military has stated that troops from its 401st Armoured Brigade are continuing operations "in the heart of Jabalia" in northern Gaza, which has faced weeks of intense siege.

According to the military, forces have targeted "terrorist infrastructure" and conducted airstrikes alongside close combat, claiming to have killed numerous militants.

The army also reported discovering an explosives laboratory within a residential property.

Jabalia has suffered devastating civilian casualties, with hundreds killed and tens of thousands displaced, many left to endure severe hunger and harsh conditions on the streets.

US President-elect Donald Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, will meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer on Wednesday, Axios reported.

Waltz and Dermer are expected to discuss the efforts to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal and Iran, an Axios reporter said on X, citing a source familiar with the meeting.

🚨President-elect Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, will meet today with the Israeli minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, according to a source familiar with the meeting
🚨Waltz and Dermer are expected to discuss the efforts to reach a Gaza hostage and…

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) December 4, 2024

Israel's war on Gaza has killed 44,532 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded over 105,538 others in the same time frame, the enclave's health ministry said in a statement. 

Lebanon's speaker of parliament Nabih Berri met his deputy, Elias Bou Saab, to discuss key developments in the region.

Following the meeting, Bou Saab said: "We addressed the hostile actions and blatant violations of the ceasefire agreement by the Israeli enemy. These violations are unjustified and baseless. They expose the falsehoods of the Israeli enemy, which claims its actions are in self-defense."

"The agreement does not permit such behavior, and Israel is trying to justify itself to the international community under the pretext of self-defense. In reality, these are hostile actions and clear breaches of the agreement" he continued.

Recent advances by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces in Syria show that the backers of the country's President President Bashar al-Assad, namely Russia and Iran, are distracted, U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken said during a NATO meeting on Wednesday.

Assad's refusal to engage in any meaningful way on a process to solve the war-torn country's years-long political crisis is also what opened the door to the recent push by rebel forces, Blinken added.

Award-winning Syrian photographer Anas Alkharboutli, who worked for German press agency DPA, was killed in an air strike near the Syrian city of Hama, his employer said on Wednesday.

"Our photographer Anas Alkharboutli, who documented the civil war in Syria in a unique visual language, has been killed in an air strike near the Syrian city of Hama. Anas was just 32 years old," DPA said in a statement, adding he had been laid to rest in Idlib, in the country's northwest.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the ceasefire in Lebanon was "holding" despite a series of incidents between Israel and Hezbollah.

"The ceasefire is holding, and we're using the mechanism that was established when any concerns have arisen about any alleged or purported violations," Blinken told journalists on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels.

 Lebanese families displaced in Iraq by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah have begun returning to their homes in southern Lebanon following a recently brokered ceasefire.

The cessation of hostilities has allowed many to make the journey back, despite widespread destruction.

More than 20,000 Lebanese have sought refuge in Iraq since the outbreak of the war, according to official figures.

Najaf airport officials said around 800 Lebanese were leaving for Beirut every week, while others were using government-provided buses to travel to the Qaim border crossing with Syria and then on to Lebanon.

Iraqi local officials said at least 1,000 Lebanese had been crossing into Syria daily for three days. But then an escalation of hostilities in Syria following a rebel offensive against Syrian government forces led many to shun the land route, fearing for their safety. They now prefer to wait for flights.

Iraq's government, along with Shi’ite institutions in Najaf and Kerbala, has provided essential support, including free accommodation, healthcare, and meals, ensuring that displaced families have a safe, supportive environment during their stay.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has requested a district court in Jerusalem to reduce his expected testimony in his corruption trial from three days a week to two, citing his demanding schedule, which includes security meetings and necessary communication with international officials, according to  Israel's Kan public broadcaster.

The prime minister has also asked to meet with the judges privately before starting his testimony, Kan reports.

Netanyahu is scheduled to testify on December 10 in an underground courtroom in Tel Aviv, as the Jerusalem courtroom was deemed too insecure, according to Israeli news site Times of Israel.

According to the publication, various Israeli media outlets have requested to broadcast the trial live.

The Jerusalem District Court has since partially granted a delay to accommodate Netanyahu’s schedule, acknowledging arguments put forth from his defense team about insufficient preparation time due to ongoing wars in Gaza and other fronts.

Netanyahu faces accusations of fraud, breach of trust, and bribery in three separate cases, all of which he denies.

Lebanese officials aim to restore international flights by Christmas, according to discussions between Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh.

Hamieh stated that operations at Beirut's Rafic Hariri Airport are proceeding smoothly, with efforts underway to reinstate most international flight routes before the holiday season, as reported by the National News Agency.

"We are working at full speed" to resume all cancelled operations at Lebanese ports, Hamieh said, highlighting ongoing progress in reopening roads damaged by Israeli attacks.

While nearly all of Lebanon's roads are now passable, he noted that bombed bridges would require significant time, effort, and financial resources to fully repair.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad on Wednesday said the toll in more than a year of war between Israel and Hezbollah had reached 4,047 dead, most of them since September.

"Until now... we have recorded 4,047 dead and 16,638 wounded," Abiad told reporters a week after a ceasefire took effect.

Most of the deaths occurred after September 15, he said, adding that "we believe the real number may be higher" due to unrecorded deaths.

Two children were among 22 Palestinians arrested across the occupied West Bank since last evening, according to the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

The arrests also included a woman and several former prisoners.

The majority of the arrests occurred in the Qalqilya and Tubas governorates, with others reported in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Hebron, and Nablus.

The total number of Palestinians detained since the war on Gaza began has now risen to at least 11,900, the organisations noted.

Israeli raids and "field investigations" have intensified across the occupied West Bank, with soldiers reportedly using civilian homes as temporary military bases, according to Wafa news agency.

A Syria war monitor said on Wednesday that the Syrian regime forces repelled an attack by US-backed fighters in Deir Ezzor province, a day after deadly clashes in the eastern region bordering Iraq.

The flare-up comes amid a major offensive launched last week by rebels and allied factions on government-controlled areas in the country's north.

The renewed violence in conflict-wracked Syria has killed hundreds and seen second city Aleppo slip from the government's hands.

In the area of clashes in Deir Ezzor, partially controlled by the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a "cautious calm" prevailed on Wednesday after regime forces staved off the advance of SDF-allied fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

The clashes since Tuesday morning, accompanied by US air strikes, were in a cluster of seven government-controlled villages located east of the Euphrates -- the only ones outside SDF control on the river's eastern bank in the area, the Observatory told news agency AFP.

The Britain-based Observatory reported "16 dead including two civilians" since the SDF-allied Deir Ezzor Military Council launched the attack on government forces and allied pro-Iran fighters.

The toll includes 11 soldiers and pro-government fighters, and three from the Deir Ezzor Military Council, which is mostly composed of local Arab fighters, the Observatory added.

Control of Deir Ezzor province is split between the SDF to the east of the Euphrates river, and Syrian government forces and Iran-backed fighters to the west.

According to the Observatory, the small cluster of villages where fighting took place on Tuesday is strategically important, being a direct point of contact with SDF-held areas.

The villages are also located near a US military base in the Conoco gas field.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that "the seven villages are the first line of defence for the city of Deir Ezzor, which has been the centre of gravity for Iranian influence since IS was expelled."

Controlling the villages also reduces the threat posed by pro-Iran groups to the Conoco base, he added.

The SDF spearheaded the offensive that defeated the Islamic State (IS) group's self-declared caliphate in Syria in 2019.

The Observatory said US forces, who lead an international anti-IS coalition, also carried out air strikes in Deir Ezzor province on Tuesday.

The Pentagon said US forces destroyed truck-mounted rocket launchers, a tank and mortars in eastern Syria, without specifying where or saying who the weapons belonged to.

Iran-backed groups have repeatedly targeted US forces in Iraq and Syria in response to Washington's support for Israel in the Gaza war since October 2023.

Following failure attacks by “Deir Ezzor Military Council” | Tense calm prevails in “seven villages” area in Deir Ezzor countryside#SOHRhttps://t.co/4PB8WNd6nv

— المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان (@syriahr) December 4, 2024

Israel’s military said Wednesday it had returned the bodies of two operatives who crossed into Israel from Jordan in October and shot two soldiers.

The militants entered Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea on October 18, shooting and wounding two soldiers before being shot dead by Israeli troops.

Hamas praised the incursion but not claim responsibility for it.

The Israeli military did not release the names of the operatives who carried out the attack.

Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip killed at least five people, including four children, on Wednesday.

The Awda Hospital, which received the bodies, said the five were gathered outside of shelters in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The hospital said another 15 people, mostly children, were wounded in the strike.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israeli forces detained at least seven Palestinians at the Deir Sharaf checkpoint near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to the Wafa news agency.

In a separate incident, another Palestinian was arrested in Hebron.

Security and local sources reported to the agency that Israeli forces had established multiple military checkpoints at the city's entrances and surrounding areas.

The West Bank has seen a sharp rise in mass detentions, military raids, and killings by Israeli forces since the onset of the Gaza war.

According to the human rights organisation Addameer, over 10,100 Palestinians are currently imprisoned in Israel as of November this year—a figure that more than doubles the total from the previous year.

The United States voiced opposition Tuesday to any Israeli permanent base-building in the Gaza Strip after The New York Times reported an acceleration of construction by the Israeli military.

The State Department said it could not confirm the report in the newspaper, which said that its analysis of satellite imagery showed stepped-up base construction accompanied by the demolition of more than 600 buildings in central Gaza, indicating a longer-term presence.

The State Department noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the start of the war voiced opposition to a permanent Israeli presence in Gaza.

Asked about the accounts, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said: "If they are true, certainly they would be inconsistent with a number of the principles that Secretary Blinken laid out."

"There cannot be any reduction in the territory of Gaza. Beyond that, there can also be no forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes," he told reporters.

The New York Times quoted an Israeli military spokesman who said that the expanded ground work was for operational reasons and that buildings could be quickly taken down.

President Joe Biden has supported Israel in its relentless war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attack but has also voiced concerns about the plight of civilians.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed overwhelming support for Israel once he takes over next month.

 Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, has divested from Israel's Bezeq because it provides telecoms services to the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, it said late on Tuesday.

The decision comes after the fund's ethics watchdog adopted a new, tougher interpretation of ethics standards for businesses that aid Israel's operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The fund has sold all its stock in the company.