Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza amid ceasefire push; IDF troops recover body of hostage

The body of Youssef Ziyadne, an Israeli Bedouin taken hostage by Hamas-led fighters on 7 October 2023, has been found in a tunnel in Gaza, along with evidence suggesting his son may also have been killed, said the Israeli military on Wednesday.

Three Palestinians, including two children, were killed on Wednesday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said Palestinian news agency Wafa, as Israeli strikes persisted following Monday’s killing of three Israelis in the territory.

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza amid ceasefire push

Israeli strikes killed dozens of people across Gaza on Wednesday, said Palestinian medics, as talks to halt the fighting continued in Qatar.

Palestinian medical workers said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a multistorey house in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, while another killed 10 in other parts of the city.

In Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, a total of seven people were killed, they said.

Israel’s military said it struck Hamas militants operating in a school building in Jabalia, and that it took steps to minimise risk to civilians.

Such mass casualties have become a daily occurrence in Gaza, where some 46,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel’s 15-month-long assault against Hamas, according to health officials in the enclave.

As Israel continued its bombardments, the US, Qatar and Egypt were making intensive efforts to reach a ceasefire deal, with one source close to the talks saying this was the most serious attempt to reach a deal so far.

The outgoing US administration has called for a final push for a deal before President Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region view President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January as an unofficial deadline.

“Things are better than ever before, but there is no deal yet,” the source told Reuters.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Nasser Hospital and the Gaza European Hospital might stop operations in a few hours unless the Israelis stopped restricting the flow of fuel to the facilities.

It later said it received a limited amount of fuel that would delay a complete halt of operations until Thursday unless more fuel arrives.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said those two hospitals and Al Aqsa Hospital were at risk of collapse for want of fuel, threatening the lives of hundreds of patients including newborns.

Israel denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza and says it has facilitated the distribution of hundreds of truckloads of food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to warehouses and shelters over the past week.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Its Gaza campaign has laid waste to much of the enclave. Most of the territory’s 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, say humanitarian agencies.

On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said heavy rains and flooding had left families living in damaged tents with up to 30cm of water in them, “clinging on to survival without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets”.

Israel and Hamas accuse each other of blocking a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal by adhering to conditions that have torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.

Israeli troops recover body of Gaza hostage

The body of Youssef Ziyadne, an Israeli Bedouin taken hostage by Hamas-led fighters on 7 October 2023, has been found in a tunnel in Gaza, along with evidence suggesting his son may also have been killed, said the Israeli military on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear how Youssef Ziyadne had been killed, but Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said his death did not appear to have been recent.

“We are currently investigating the circumstances of his death and we are also investigating the findings regarding his son,” he told a briefing with reporters.

“These findings raise concern for his life and they are still being examined at this moment,” he said, without giving details.

Earlier, Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the bodies of both men had been recovered.

Shoshani said special forces soldiers had conducted a “complex and difficult operation” in a tunnel in the area of the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday, and that the body of Ziyadne had been recovered close to bodies of armed guards from Hamas or another Palestinian militant group.

Two other children of Ziyadne, who were also abducted at the same time, were released in an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners that took place in November 2023.

Three Palestinians, including two children, killed in West Bank

Three Palestinians, including two children, were killed on Wednesday in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said Palestinian news agency Wafa, as Israeli strikes persisted following Monday’s killing of three Israelis in the territory.

The Israeli military said its air force “struck a terrorist cell in the area of Tamun”, a town northeast of Nablus city. It told Reuters it was looking into reports children had been killed in the strike and would respond shortly.

Wafa said two boys, aged nine and 10, were killed by a drone strike which also killed a 23-year-old man. There was no immediate confirmation from the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Violence in the West Bank has intensified in parallel with 15 months of war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, with killings by Palestinian militants, increased Israeli military raids and a rise in revenge attacks by Jewish settlers.

Hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza conflict.

The attack on Monday that killed three Israelis occurred near the Jewish settlement of Kedumim, home of Israel’s hard-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Hamas praised the incident but did not claim responsibility.

Wafa said that in addition to drones, Israel’s military deployed snipers in Tamun and besieged and raided homes. It also raided the city of Tubas and the town of Aqaba, in the northeastern West Bank.

The West Bank has been occupied since it was captured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

UN says more significant Syria sanctions work needed

A US sanctions exemption for transactions with governing institutions in Syria was welcome, but “much more significant work ... will inevitably be necessary”, the UN special envoy on Syria, Geir Pedersen, told the Security Council on Wednesday.

After 13 years of civil war, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in a lightning offensive by insurgent forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) a month ago.

The US, Britain, the European Union and others imposed tough sanctions on Syria after a crackdown by Assad on pro-democracy protests in 2011 that spiralled into war. But the new reality in Syria has been further complicated by sanctions on HTS — and some of its leaders — for its days as an al Qaeda affiliate.

“I welcome the recent issuance of a new temporary general licence by the United States government. But much more significant work in fully addressing sanctions and designations will inevitably be necessary,” Pedersen told the council.

The US on Monday issued a sanctions exemption, known as a general licence, for transactions with governing institutions in Syria for six months in an effort to ease the flow of humanitarian assistance and allow some energy transactions.

The foreign ministry in Damascus on Wednesday welcomed the US move and called for a full lifting of restrictions to support Syria’s recovery.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said earlier on Wednesday that European Union sanctions on Syria that obstruct the delivery of humanitarian aid and hinder the country’s recovery could be lifted swiftly.

With Hezbollah weakened, Lebanon to hold presidential vote

Lebanon’s Parliament will try to elect a president on Thursday, with officials seeing better chances of success in a political landscape shaken by Israel’s war with Hezbollah and the toppling of the group’s ally Assad in neighbouring Syria.

The post, reserved for a Maronite Christian in the country’s sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun’s term ended in October 2022. None of the political groups in the 128-seat parliament have enough seats to impose their choice, and they have so far been unable to agree on a consensus candidate.

The vote marks the first test of Lebanon’s power balance since the Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah — which propelled its then Christian ally Aoun to the presidency in 2016 — emerged badly pummelled from the war with Israel.

It takes place against a backdrop of historic change in the wider Middle East, where the Assad-led Syrian state exercised sway over Lebanon for decades, both directly and through allies such as Hezbollah.

Reflecting the shifts, Hezbollah and its ally the Shi’ite Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had dropped their insistence on Suleiman Frangieh, their declared candidate for the last two years, and were ready to go with a less divisive figure, said three senior sources familiar with their thinking.

Candidates in focus include army commander General Joseph Aoun — said by Lebanese politicians to enjoy US approval — Jihad Azour, a senior International Monetary Fund official who formerly served as finance minister, and Major-General Elias al-Baysari, head of General Security, a state security agency. DM

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