Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 53 Palestinians, including a journalist and rescue workers, said medics, and the Israeli military said its air and ground forces in the north of the enclave killed dozens of militants and captured others.
Israel’s foreign minister accused Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris on Monday of anti-Semitism as he defended Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Dublin over Ireland’s policies.
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad issued his first statement since being toppled from power, saying he was evacuated to Russia from the Hmeimim base on 8 December as it came under drone attack, after leaving Damascus that morning with rebel fighters closing in.
Dozens dead as Israeli forces attack in Gaza
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 53 Palestinians, including a journalist and rescue workers, said medics, and the Israeli military said its air and ground forces in the north of the enclave killed dozens of militants and captured others.
An airstrike hit the civil emergency centre in the Nuseirat market area in the central Gaza Strip, killing Ahmed Al-Louh, a video journalist for Al Jazeera TV, and five other people, said medics and fellow journalists. Another strike on a house in Nuseirat camp killed five people, including children, according to medics.
The TV network said Al-Louh was working when he was killed and condemned Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike had targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants operating from Gaza’s Civil Defence’s Nuseirat office. It named Al-Louh as a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad, without providing evidence.
Al Jazeera did not immediately comment on the Israeli allegation but has condemned previous claims by Israel naming some of the Qatari-owned network’s journalists killed in the Gaza war as members of militant groups.
Hamas media said the head of the civil emergency service in Nuseirat, Nedal Abu Hjayyer, was also killed.
Another airstrike hit a group of Hamas-linked men tasked with protecting aid trucks west of Gaza City, and medics said several were hurt but exact figures were unavailable.
At least 11 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City houses, nine were killed in the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia camp when clusters of houses were bombed or set ablaze, and two were killed in Rafah, medics and residents said.
The Israeli military said the three Gaza City houses belonged to militants planning imminent attacks. It said steps were taken to reduce risk to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.
The military issued a photo showing the weapons it seized in Beit Lahiya, including explosives and dozens of grenades.
In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, medics said that at least 20 people, including women and children, were killed when an airstrike hit a shelter housing displaced families.
In Beit Hanoun, residents said Israeli forces besieged families sheltering in Khalil Aweida school before storming it and ordering them to head towards Gaza City.
Medics said several people were killed and wounded during the raid while the army detained many men.
The military said it struck dozens of militants from the air and on the ground and captured others in Beit Hanoun.
Reuters was unable to confirm whether any of the people killed were fighters. Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its death toll between combatants and non-combatants.
Israel says Gaza’s militants regularly embed among civilians, using them as human shields. Hamas denies this.
Separately, Israel said aircraft struck a command and control centre in a compound in the Abu Shabak clinic in northern Gaza used by Hamas to store weapons and plan attacks. The Gaza health ministry said the medical centre was destroyed.
Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing to depopulate Gaza’s northern edge to create a buffer zone. Israel denies this and says the campaign targets Hamas militants. The military says it has instructed civilians to evacuate battle zones for their safety.
The war began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel then launched an air and land offensive that has killed almost 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The campaign has displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.
A bid by Egypt, Qatar and the US to reach a truce, which would also include a hostage deal, has gained momentum in recent weeks, yet there has been no news of a breakthrough.
Israeli foreign minister brands Irish PM ‘anti-Semitic’
Israel’s foreign minister accused Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris on Monday of anti-Semitism as he defended Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Dublin over Ireland’s policies.
“There is a difference between criticism — and anti-Semitism based on the delegitimisation and dehumanisation of Israel and double standards towards Israel,” said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
He cited Ireland’s support for what he called “politicised” proceedings against Israeli leaders by the International Criminal Court as well as Irish support for an action at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide over its campaign in Gaza.
“Last night, Ireland’s anti-Semitic Prime Minister Simon Harris said in an interview ‘Ireland is not anti-Israel but Ireland is absolutely anti the starvation of children’,” said Saar. “Is Israel starving children?”
He said Israel was working to enable humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and prevent civilian casualties while Hamas was looting aid and using civilians as human shields.
The decision to close the Israeli embassy in Dublin has highlighted Israel’s increasing international isolation over the Gaza war.
Harris has rejected Israel’s criticism, called the decision to close the embassy deeply regrettable and said Ireland would always stand up for human rights and international law.
Assad gives account of last hours before leaving Syria
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad issued his first statement since being toppled from power, saying he was evacuated to Russia from the Hmeimim base on 8 December as it came under drone attack, after leaving Damascus that morning with rebel fighters closing in.
His written statement was published on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel and dated 16 December from Moscow, where he has been granted asylum.
He was ousted after insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham swept through Syria in a lightning offensive, ending more than 50 years of iron-fisted rule by his family.
“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual party,” said Assad in the statement detailing the circumstances leading to his departure from Syria.
He said he had remained in the capital Damascus, carrying out his duties until the early hours of Sunday, 8 December.
“As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in coordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations,” he said.
But upon arriving at the Russian air base of Hmeimim that morning, “it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen”.
The Russian military base came “under intensified attack by drone strikes” and “with no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia”, according to the statement.
The Kremlin said on 9 December that President Vladimir Putin had decided to grant Assad asylum in Russia, which deployed its air force to Syria in 2015 to help him repel rebel forces.
Israeli military says missile fired from Yemen shot down
The Israeli military said sirens sounded across central Israel on Monday after a missile was fired from Yemen and was shot down before it crossed into Israel.
Yemen’s Houthi militants fired a ballistic missile at a military target in Jaffa, a city in central Israel, said Yahya Saree, their military spokesperson, in a televised statement.
The Iran-backed group in Yemen have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
UN envoy meets Syria’s Sharaa, urges inclusive transition
The UN’s Syria envoy urged an inclusive Syrian transition based on a nine-year-old Security Council resolution during a meeting with the commander of Syria’s new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said the envoy’s office on Monday.
Syria’s ruling General Command, in a separate statement about Sunday’s meeting with the UN’s Geir Pedersen, said they had discussed the need to review Security Council Resolution 2254, saying it needed to be updated to “suit the new reality”.
The meeting marked one of the most significant international encounters yet for Sharaa, leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which has emerged as the ruling power in Damascus since toppling Assad just over one week ago.
HTS is designated a terrorist group by Western and regional powers, including Turkey, which had long been one of the main international backers of the Syrian opposition.
The new administration in Damascus has set out few details on its thinking for the next steps for Syria, which is emerging from more than five decades of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family and nearly 14 years of devastating civil war.
Newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated government in Idlib province, has said he will remain in office until March.
Pedersen briefed Sharaa on the outcome of an international meeting convened in Jordan on Saturday, the statement from his office said.
“The Special Envoy briefed on the outcome of the Aqaba International Meeting ... stressing the need for a credible and inclusive Syrian-owned and led political transition based on the principles of United Nations Security Council resolution 2254 (2015),” according to a statement from Pedersen’s office.
UN Resolution 2254 has emerged as a focal point of diplomacy over Syria since Assad was ousted and fled to Russia.
It was passed in 2015 at the height of the conflict, which spiralled out of pro-democracy protests against Assad’s rule in 2011. The resolution was approved after Russia intervened militarily on Assad’s side, propping up his rule.
The resolution states support for a Syrian-led political process which is facilitated by the United Nations and, within a target of six months, establishes “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance and sets a schedule and process for drafting a new constitution”.
It further expresses support for free and fair elections, held under the new constitution, to be held within 18 months.
Sharaa “stressed the importance of rapid and effective cooperation to address the issues of the Syrians and the need to focus on the unity of Syria’s territories, reconstruction and achieving economic development”, said the Syrian statement.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday she had instructed the bloc’s top diplomat for Syria to go to Damascus and make contact with the new government.
The Kremlin said on Monday that no final decisions had yet been taken on the fate of Russia’s military bases in Syria and that it was in contact with those in charge of the country.
Palestinians mourn dead after Israeli strike on Gaza’s Khan Younis
Relatives of Palestinians killed by Israel in Khan Younis gathered around their white-shrouded bodies on Monday before carrying them to their graves.
Palestinian health officials said on Sunday at least 20 people, including children, were killed in the strike at the school sheltering displaced families in the city in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had struck Hamas militants operating from a compound that previously served as a UN-run school. It said the compound served also as a training camp to prepare and plan attacks against Israeli forces.
Women wept as the bodies of the family members were carried away on medical stretchers by men who laid them on the ground to perform funeral prayers.
“People were safe, staying in their homes [shelters] after they prayed the dinner prayer. They were sitting, sleeping, and staying put in their places,” said Manal Tafesh, whose brother and his children were among those killed.
“Our children are gone, our children are gone. Our youth are gone. Our children are gone, and our lineage ended. When will this darkness end?” she told Reuters outside the morgue.
Trump again warns Hamas to release hostages soon
President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday he had a “very good talk” with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about the war in Gaza and reiterated his threat that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release its hostages by 20 January, the day Trump takes office.
“As you know, I gave a warning that if these hostages aren’t back home by that date, all hell is going to break out,” he said during a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida.
Later, Trump added that if no ceasefire deal was reached by the time he takes office, “It’s not going to be pleasant.” DM
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