Israel bombards central Gaza as 2024 begins

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Access to a busy terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was restricted Monday as pro-Palestinian protesters converged on the airport for the second time in a week.

Videos posted online show heavy traffic and a slow-moving line of cars, some flying Palestinian flags and featuring text on the windows such as "top the genocide." Police directed a line of cars around a checkpoint. Protesters also had planned to arrive at the airport in Queens, New York, by public transportation.

An Israeli man who never served in the military was charged with impersonating a soldier and stealing weapons after sneaking into an army unit and joining the fighting against Hamas.

According to an indictment filed Sunday, Roi Yifrach, 35, took advantage of the chaotic situation in the aftermath of Hamas' October 7 attack to join combat operations and steal large amounts of military gear, including weapons, munitions, and sensitive communications equipment.

Israeli media said he spent time fighting in Gaza and even appeared in a photo next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during one of his visits to soldiers in the field.

في فضيحة مدوّية..
مصادر عبرية: الإسرائيلي "روعي يفراخ" من تل أبيب تقمص شخصية ضابط في الشاباك وضابط في وحدة "يمام" الخاصة ودخل قطاع غزة مع الجيش خلال الهجوم البري وحضر اجتماعات مع قائد الأركان في غرفة العمليات والتقط الصور مع نتنياهو قبل أن يسرق كميات كبيرة من الأسلحة. pic.twitter.com/5Q3nl8LqUw

— Newpress | نيو برس (@NewpressPs) December 31, 2023

A 23-year-old Palestinian prisoner has died in an Israeli jail, the prison service said Monday.

The prison service in a statement said the man from Nablus in the occupied West Bank had died in Meggido prison, in Israel's north.

He was arrested in June 2022 and later sentenced to jail time for "security offences", the statement said without naming the prisoner.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on its Telegram account on Monday that four of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon.

The statement gave no detail about how the four were killed but said they "were martyred on the road to (liberate) Jerusalem".

Hezbollah initially said three were killed before updating the number to four later in the day.

Security sources said the first three were killed in an Israeli raid on two houses in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila near the border where Hezbollah maintains security control.

The Israeli military claimed on Monday it struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including 'military sites' where Hezbollah was allegedly operating.

It said that earlier five soldiers were wounded by cross-border fire from Lebanon.

The military said that its troops and aircraft "struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including terrorist infrastructure, military sites in which Hezbollah terrorists were operating, and launch posts."

Some of the Israeli communities north of the Gaza Strip that were evacuated in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas will be able to go back in the near future as military operations progress, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday.

Gallant said some of the evacuated communities in areas within a range of four to seven kilometres north of the enclave would be able to return home soon, according to published remarks from a briefing.

An Israeli minister on Monday called for the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza and said Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate, a day after similar remarks by another far-right politician.

"We must promote a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents," Israel's firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said as war with the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers rages on.

Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers in 2005, ending a presence inside Gaza that began in 1967 but maintaining near complete control over the territory's borders.

The government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested it has any plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to the territory since the current war broke out on October 7.

But Ben Gvir argued that the departure of Palestinians and re-establishment of Israeli settlements "is a correct, just, moral and humane solution".

"This is an opportunity to develop a project to encourage Gaza's residents to emigrate to countries around the world," he told a meeting of his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit, or "Jewish Power", party.

Husam Zomlot has urged the United Kingdom’s government “to ensure that no British figure will in any way take part in Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity”.

Zomlot’s comments came following an Israeli report that former British PM Tony Blair is taking on a role to implement the mass expulsion of Palestinians “under the guise of ‘voluntary migration'”.

“We are adamant that any who do will have to bear the legal consequences of such immoral and criminal acts against the Palestinian people,” the ambassador said.

Israeli media has reported that former British PM Tony Blair visited Israel last week, met several Israeli officials including Netanyahu and is taking on a role aiding Israel to implement the mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland under the guise… pic.twitter.com/2cgE2hAJM6

— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) January 1, 2024

The group that governs Gaza says Israeli officials, who have been openly calling for removing Palestinians from the enclave, will fail in executing their plans in the face of the Palestinian people’s “steadfastness” and resistance, as reported by Al Jazeera.

“The international community and the United Nations must activate the tools of international law against these fascist positions that are considered a war crime,” Hamas said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the war is an “opportunity” to encourage Palestinians to leave Gaza.

Rights advocates have warned that Israel’s plans for so-called “voluntary migration” out of Gaza amount to ethnic cleansing, especially because the Israeli military is making the territory unlivable by obliterating its civilian infrastructure

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says on X that a baby has been born on New Year’s Day at its medical point in the besieged Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

“The birth process was successful, utilising minimal available resources. Both the mother and the child are in good health,” the PRCS said.

🫶This baby was born this morning at the PRCS medical point in #Jabalia, northern #Gaza Strip. The birth process was successful, utilizing minimal available resources.👏Both the mother and the child are in good health.🙏
Photography by: PRCS volunteer, Yousef Khader… pic.twitter.com/q38cKWMBuO

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) January 1, 2024

The Bank of Israel has lowered its short-term borrowing rates for the first time in nearly four years due to Israel’s war in Gaza and a weakening economy.

The central bank lowered its benchmark rate from 4.75 percent to 4.5 percent – the first reduction since April 2020.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, says one of its snipers has killed an Israeli soldier east of the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera.

It also said its fighters have attacked Israeli vehicles east of the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, killing an unidentified number of soldiers.

Three Israeli soldiers were also killed in the Qarara area, north of Khan Younis, the Qassam Brigades said.

Israel is withdrawing troops from its invasion force in Gaza to shift to more targeted operations, as well as partially returning reservists to civilian life to help the economy as the war on the Palestinian enclave looks set to last well into the new year, an Israeli official said.

The official said toppling Hamas remained an objective of the offensive, and that some of the five brigades withdrawn will prepare for a potential second front against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Since launching the war on Gaza, Israeli officials have said they would wage it in three main stages. The first was intense shelling of civilian areas to clear access routes for ground forces and force civilians from their homes. The second was the invasion that began on October 27.

Israeli tanks and troops have now overrun much of the Gaza Strip but Palestinian fighters are continuing their ambushes from hidden tunnels and bunkers. The official, who withheld his name, said that the Israeli military was now ready to move to the is moving to the third stage.

Read the full report here.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that “the right solution in the Gaza Strip is to encourage the migration of Gaza residents to countries that agree to receive them”, according to a report by Ynet, an Israeli news outlet.

“We will permanently control the Gaza Strip to ensure security and establish an Israeli settlement there, and those who think that the solutions in the Gaza Strip will be similar to those tried in the past are mistaken,” he said at a meeting of the Religious Zionist Party, which he heads.

Smotrich’s comments come two days after he told Channel 12 that he was “for completely changing the reality in Gaza… We’ll need to rule there for a long time… If we want to be there militarily, we need to be there in a civilian fashion.”

A total of 21,978 Palestinians have been killed and 56,697 have been wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza since Oct. 7, the health ministry in Gaza said on Monday.

The figures include 156 Palestinians killed and 246 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

The ministry added that 70% of the casualties were women and children. 

Israeli settlers killed at least 10 Palestinians and torched dozens of homes in the occupied West Bank in 2023, making it the "most violent" year on record for settler attacks, an Israeli watchdog said Monday.

Numerous West Bank attacks were carried out by a large group of Israeli settlers, and the violence spiked after Israel's attack on Gaza on October 7, said Yesh Din, a human rights group.

"At least 10 Palestinians were killed by settlers and dozens of homes and vehicles were set on fire" last year, it said.

"2023 was the most violent year in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in both the number of incidents and their severity."

The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since the 1967 Six-Day War, and tensions have escalated since Israel launched a war on Gaza, with members of Israel's far-right government using genocidal rhetoric and supporting the settlers. 

Read the full report here.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) foreign ministry has said that it hopes that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is “not involved in this crime that falls under the Israeli government plan to deepen genocide and forced displacement among Palestinians”.

On Sunday, an Israeli news channel reported that Blair was going to be the point person to find European countries that would take in Palestinian refugees from Gaza.

A spokesperson for Blair denied he would be taking on this role.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates// closely following the news of #Blair undertaking the alleged voluntary #evacuation mission of our people from the Gaza Strip#Gaza_under_attack#CeasefireNow#Palestine#Israeliwarcrimes pic.twitter.com/x8IQFNRCtN

— State of Palestine - MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) January 1, 2024

Death toll has risen from three to 15 in Israel’s bombing of a home in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

The death toll is expected to rise as more people remain trapped in the rubble.

“The house was full of people when it was bombed, local sources tell us, we are talking about mainly orphaned children and women sheltering,” he said.

Israeli forces arrested 32 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

The mother of Ahmad Illian, who was killed by soldiers last week following an alleged stabbing attack at a checkpoint south of Jerusalem, was taken into custody in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal al-Mukabber.

Another woman was among 12 people arrested in the village of Qatana, in the Jerusalem district, with the Wafa news agency reporting she was taken so her sons would turn themselves over to the army.

Arrests were also reported in the occupied West Bank governorates of Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem, Tulkarem and Ramallah, bringing the total number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army since October 7 to 4,910, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

At least six people were killed in an Israeli air raid on the Bir an-Naaja area, west of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera.

The New York Times newspaper has reported that US President Joe Biden is facing increasing pressure to directly strike the Houthi armed group in Yemen amid their continued Red Sea attacks.

It said US military officials have prepared plans to strike missile and drone bases in Yemen, but the Biden administration is hesitant to use them, as it remains concerned the strikes could inadvertently benefit Iran, while also jeopardising a delicate truce between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Retired Fifth Fleet commander Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan warned in the report that if the US did not respond to the Houthi threat it would invite more attacks as enemy groups start believing that “attacking a US ship carries a low risk of retaliation”.

Iran's Alborz warship has passed through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and entered the Red Sea, the country's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.

Iranian warships have been operating in the region "to secure shipping lanes since 2009", Tasnim said.

Iran’s foreign ministry has called on the UN Security Council to take action after Israel’s killing of a top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander in Assad regime-held Syria last week.

“Through Iran’s representative office, we communicated with the UN secretary general [Antonio Guterres] and called on the Security Council to commit to its duty of maintaining international peace and preventing regional peace from being compromised,” spokesman Nasser Kanani said in his weekly press conference.

Kanani described the assassination of Razi Mousavi as a “blatant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and said both countries reserve the right to respond at a time of their choosing

Tens of thousands marched in Istanbul Monday to protest "murderer" Israel's war on Gaza and the killing of Turkish soldiers by outlawed Kurdish militants in Iraq.

The rally, called by a foundation which counts Bilal Erdogan, the son of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, among its members started after crowds performed morning prayers at Istanbul's iconic mosques, including Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

Protesters waving Turkish and Palestinian flags rallied to the Galata Bridge on the Bosphorus chanting: "Murderer Israel, get out of Palestine" and "Allahu Akbar" (God is the greatest).

Tens of thousands of people joined the rally "Mercy for our martyrs and a curse on Israel", the official Anadolu news agency reported.

Erdogan, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause, has lashed out repeatedly at Israel for the scale of death and destruction caused by its war.

Read the full report here.

Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s spokesperson, has said the war on Gaza will continue throughout 2024, adding that tens of thousands of reservists would be needed for fighting.

“[The army] must plan ahead, understanding that we will be required for additional tasks and warfare throughout this year,” he said. “The objectives of the war require prolonged fighting and we are preparing accordingly," he said according to Al Jazeera.

Hagari said the army is currently planning how to deploy troops in the months ahead and “some of the reservists will return to their families and employment this week” in order to ease the burden of the war on the Israeli economy and allow reservists to replenish their strength ahead of another deployment.

The Israeli army has claimed to have killed Adil Mismah, a Hamas commander in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, whom it said took part in the October 7 surprise attack.

It also claimed to have struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Shejaiya and “located large amounts of weapons”. It said a Palestinian cell that attacked Israeli troops with mortar shells was destroyed, and a Hamas fighter launching rockets in Khan Yunis was killed.

It said its attacks continued overnight, with naval troops providing support fire for ground troops, who are pushing further south.

IDF troops continue operating in Gaza:

🔺ELIMINATED: Adil Mismah, the Nukhba Company Commander of Deir al-Balah who took part in Hamas’ October 7 invasion and massacre and attack on other communities surrounding Gaza.

🔺In Shejaiya, troops struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror…

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 1, 2024

Several civilians were killed and others injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a group of civilians in the eastern Gaza district of Zeitoun, the Wafa news agency is reporting, citing medical sources.

Wafa also reports that an Israeli drone bombed a house in the al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, injuring civilians, mostly children.

People were also injured in an Israeli attack on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, with Wafa reporting the injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital.

Israeli forces raided many areas across the occupied West Bank last night, according to multiple media outlets.

There are raids reported in several places including:

• Al Bireh City, south of Qalqilya
• Biet Iybia, west of Nablus City
• Beit Ummar north of Hebron, targeting the neighbourhood adjacent to the Kermi Tsur settlement
• Barta’ah in Jenin

The Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) says that several people were killed and others injured by Israeli shelling in the area of Beach Street in Khan Younis.

In a video posted on Instagram, PRCS ambulances can be seen responding to the attack in the southern Gaza City.

 

 

 

 

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There have been at least 20 rockets fired towards Tel Aviv

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said they have fired in response to what they call “the genocide in Gaza”.

Though the rocket attack centred on Tel Aviv, a huge number of sirens went off across the territory, all the way to the outskirts of Jerusalem.

The rockets come as Israel says it’s going to prolong the war on Gaza. The Israeli military claims it has secured the north and is continuing to push south through Khan Younis and over to Rafah.