Israeli airstrikes kill 13 people ‘protecting humanitarian aid trucks’; US's Sullivan hints at Gaza ceasefire deal

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday he believed a deal on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release could be close as Israel had signalled it was ready and there were signs of movement from Hamas.

US president-elect Donald Trump said “anything can happen” when asked about the chances of going to war with Iran during his next term in an interview with Time, coinciding with his being named the magazine’s Person of the Year. 

Israel kills 36 Palestinians in Gaza, targets volatile aid route

Israel killed 13 Palestinians in two airstrikes in Gaza on Thursday that Gaza medics and Hamas said were part of a force protecting humanitarian aid trucks. Israel’s military said they were Hamas militants trying to hijack the shipment.

Many of those killed in the attacks on Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza had links to Hamas, according to sources close to the group. The 13 were among 36 Palestinians killed in separate Israeli attacks on Thursday, said the medics.

The Israeli military said in a statement the two airstrikes aimed to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and accused Hamas members of planning to prevent the aid from reaching Gaza civilians who need it.

The statement said the Hamas members aimed to hijack the aid “in support of continuing terrorist activity”.

Armed gangs have repeatedly hijacked aid trucks after they roll into the enclave, and Hamas has formed a task force to confront them. The Hamas-led forces have killed more than two dozen members of the gangs in recent months, said Hamas sources and medics.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa said those killed in the two airstrikes were guarding the aid trucks.

Hamas said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 700 police tasked with securing aid trucks in Gaza since the war began on 7 October 2023. It has accused Israel of trying to protect acts of looting and “creating anarchy and chaos to prevent aid from reaching the people of Gaza”.

Later on Thursday, the Israeli military ordered residents of several districts in the heart of Gaza City to evacuate, citing new rocket launches from those areas that it would respond to.

“This is a pre-warning before an attack,” read the military statement posted on X. The warning was also channelled to some residents through audio and written text on their mobile phones.

The evacuation orders caused a new wave of displacement. At nightfall, dozens of families streamed out of the areas heading toward the centre of the city.

Children were among seven people killed when a residential building in Gaza City’s al-Jalaa Street was bombed in a separate attack, said Wafa.

Another Israeli bombing killed 15 people in a house where displaced people were taking shelter, west of Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, said medics and Wafa.

In the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabalia, where the army has operated since October, health officials said an orthopaedic doctor, Saeed Judeh, was shot dead by Israeli forces while on his way to Al-Awda Hospital where he usually treated patients.

The health ministry said his death raised to 1,057 the number of healthcare workers killed since the war began.

Months of ceasefire efforts by Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have failed to conclude a deal between the two warring sides.

On Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to demand an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire and the immediate release of all hostages seized in Israel in October 2023 and held by Hamas in Gaza.

The war in the Palestinian enclave began after Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Hamas-run Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel’s military has levelled swathes of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 44,800 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since the Gaza war began, Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians, at least one of them a militant, in separate raids in Nablus and Qalqilya, said Palestinian and Israeli officials.

Around 810 Palestinians, including many militants and civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023.

Gaza deal may be close, says US’s Jake Sullivan

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday he believed a deal on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release could be close as Israel had signalled it was ready and there were signs of movement from Hamas.

After meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Sullivan said: “It might not happen but I believe it can happen with political will on both sides.”

He said he planned to travel to Qatar and Egypt, Washington’s fellow moderators of the talks, to advance efforts that “would start bringing those hostages home. It would also allow for a massive surge in humanitarian assistance.”

A Western diplomat in the region said this week that a deal was taking shape but was likely to be limited in scope, involving the release of only a handful of hostages and a short pause in hostilities.

Sullivan, an adviser to President Joe Biden, said he had been engaging with President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to succeed him, Mike Waltz, “in a professional and serious way on all the issues that affect the State of Israel”.

He dismissed suggestions that Netanyahu was waiting for Trump to take office on 20 January before accepting a deal.

“No, I do not get that sense. I got the sense from the prime minister he is ready to do a deal,” he told a press conference in Tel Aviv. “My goal will be to put us in a position to be able to close this deal this month.

“I can’t make any promises or predictions to you but I wouldn’t be here today if I thought this thing was just waiting until after January 20,” said Sullivan.

Anything more than a limited truce remains unlikely so long as both sides stick to demands that have hampered numerous rounds of failed negotiations.

Hamas, also backed by Iran, wants an end to the war before all hostages are freed, while Israel says the war will not end until the hostages return and Hamas no longer rules Gaza or constitutes a threat to Israelis.

Trump, asked about chances of war with Iran, says ‘anything can happen’

Trump said “Anything can happen” when asked about the chances of going to war with Iran during his next term in an interview with Time, coinciding with his being named the magazine’s Person of the Year.

“Anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation,” said Trump.

Trump has previously threatened Iran, whose elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have sought to assassinate him, according to the US government. Iran has denied the claim.

During his first term in office, in 2020, Trump ordered a US air strike that killed Iran’s top military commander, Qassem Soleimani.

Trump, in 2018, also reneged on a nuclear deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and re-imposed US economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed. The deal had limited Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons.

Paraguay opens Israel embassy in Jerusalem after moving it from Tel Aviv

Paraguay formally opened its new Jerusalem embassy in Israel on Thursday in a ceremony attended by President Santiago Peña and Netanyahu, following a back-and-forth struggle over the diplomatic seat that kicked off in 2018.

The South American nation’s embassy had for decades been located in the coastal Israeli city of Tel Aviv, but in 2018 former President Horacio Cartes ordered its move to Jerusalem. Months later, the facility was moved back to Tel Aviv after an abrupt reversal announced by Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo.

Cartes, a Netanyahu ally, is also a close confidant of Peña, with both men coming from Paraguay’s conservative Colorado Party.

Peña took office last year and shortly afterwards announced the embassy’s move back to Jerusalem. He travelled to Israel to officially open it on Thursday.

“This step symbolises our commitment to shared values and the strengthening of the ties that build a future of peace, development and mutual understanding,” he said at the new embassy’s opening ceremony.

Vatican officials, Palestinian president discuss Gaza’s ‘very serious’ needs

Pope Francis met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican on Thursday, their first face-to-face encounter in three years, as the pontiff has become more vocal in his criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

The two men held private talks for a half-hour, said the Vatican, but offered few other details about the meeting.

A statement said Abbas also met afterwards with the Catholic Church’s top diplomatic officials to discuss the “very serious humanitarian situation in Gaza, where it is hoped that there will be a ceasefire and the release of all hostages as soon as possible”.

Abbas said in a statement that he thanked the pope “for his positions in support of achieving a just peace in Palestine based on the two-state solution”.

Abbas was in Rome for a brief visit this week. He was also due to meet Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday.

Suspected Palestinian shooting attack on Israeli bus kills child

A suspected Palestinian shooting attack on an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank killed a child overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, said Israeli emergency services.

The Israeli military said its forces were in pursuit of the gunman and had set up roadblocks and encircled an area near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

At least four people were wounded, among them a child of around the age of 12, who was critically hurt and died later in a Jerusalem hospital, said medics and the hospital. DM

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