Israeli strike kills 76 members of one Gaza family – reports
An Israeli airstrike has killed 76 members of an extended family in Gaza, Associated Press reported rescue officials as saying on Saturday.
Friday’s strike on a building in Gaza City was among the deadliest of the Israel-Gaza war, Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence department said.
Bassal provided a partial list of the names of those killed, according to AP – 16 heads of households from the Mughrabi family – and said the dead included women and children.
Among them was Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the UN Development Programme, his wife and their five children.
“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, the head of the agency. “This war must end.”
Key events
Pro-Palestinian protesters have marched on London’s Oxford Street urging shoppers to boycott “Israeli-linked” brands.
Several hundred protesters brought traffic to a standstill as part of the demonstration organised by direct action group Sisters Uncut on Saturday afternoon, PA reports.
They gathered in Soho Square chanting “free Palestine” before marching on the busy shopping street.
More than 20,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel’s brutal siege. We say, NO BUSINESS AS USUAL AS PEOPLE ARE TRAPPED UNDER RUBBLE. CHRISTMAS IS CANCELLED. pic.twitter.com/uPCQKIDdDo
— Sisters Uncut (@SistersUncut) December 23, 2023
Security guards blocked the entrance to fashion retailer Zara, while dozens of officers followed the march.
Leaflets distributed by Sisters Uncut said: “No Christmas as usual in a genocide. The UK is complicit. Don’t fund genocide in Palestine. Boycott Israel.”
The presidents of Egypt and Iran discussed recent developments in Gaza and the prospect of restoring diplomatic ties between their countries in what Iranian state television said on Saturday was their first phone call.
The network said the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, had called his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. The two men met in November for the first time on the sidelines of the joint Arab Islamic extraordinary summit in Riyadh.
“Raisi said Iran was ready to provide all its capacities to stop the genocide by the Zionist regime and send aid to the Palestinians,” Iranian state TV reported, adding that it was the first time the two presidents had spoken by phone.
Relations between Egypt and Iran have generally been fraught in recent decades, although the countries have maintained some diplomatic contacts. Their call follows other moves by countries in the region to ease tension in recent months.
Egypt’s Sunni Muslim Arab ally Saudi Arabia and Shia Muslim Iran restored diplomatic relations earlier this year, while Cairo has mended a rift with Qatar and re-established ties with Turkey.
Here are the latest images from Gaza and Israel:
As we reported earlier, the United Nations security council has backed a resolution calling for a major boost in humanitarian assistance for the Gaza Strip but the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has said the way Israel is conducting its military operation there is creating “massive obstacles” to aid distribution.
Here’s a clip of his comments.
A worldwide campaign of assassinations of Hamas leaders announced by senior Israel officials is likely to be counterproductive, impractical and ineffective, targets of previous such efforts have suggested.
Benjamin Netanyahu first announced the new strategy two weeks after the 7 October attacks launched by Hamas into southern Israel which killed 1,200 people.
Officials in Israel have briefed journalists that a new operation called Nili, an acronym for a biblical phrase in Hebrew meaning “the eternal one of Israel will not lie”, would target senior leaders of the militant Islamist organisation.
You can read the full story from my colleague Jason Burke here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/23/israeli-campaign-to-kill-hamas-leaders-likely-to-backfire-say-earlier-assassination-targets
A drone strike damaged an “Israel-affiliated” merchant ship off the coast of India on Saturday, but caused no casualties, according to maritime agencies.
The attack caused a fire on board, according to the British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).
Ambrey, a maritime security firm, said the “Liberia-flagged chemical/products tanker … was Israel-affiliated” and had been on its way from Saudi Arabia to India.
Both agencies said the attack occurred 200 nautical miles south-west of Veraval, India.
The UKMTO said the “authorities were investigating”, and noted the fire had been extinguished. Ambrey said the Indian navy was responding.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the strike, which came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on a vital shipping lane in the Red Sea.
Iran has also been accused of carrying out attacks near its waters.
Last month, an Israeli-owned cargo ship was hit in a suspected drone attack by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the Indian Ocean, according to a US official.
Israeli strike kills 76 members of one Gaza family – reports
An Israeli airstrike has killed 76 members of an extended family in Gaza, Associated Press reported rescue officials as saying on Saturday.
Friday’s strike on a building in Gaza City was among the deadliest of the Israel-Gaza war, Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence department said.
Bassal provided a partial list of the names of those killed, according to AP – 16 heads of households from the Mughrabi family – and said the dead included women and children.
Among them was Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the UN Development Programme, his wife and their five children.
“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, the head of the agency. “This war must end.”
Thomas White, director for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has criticised a decision by Israeli authorities to issue evacuation orders for people in central Gaza to move to Deir al-Balah.
He said on X that 150,000 people would be impacted, while the area was “already overwhelmed with displaced including UNRWA shelters.”
People in #Gaza are People. They are not pieces on a checkerboard – many have already been displaced several times. The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go. @UNRWA
— Thomas White (@TomWhiteGaza) December 23, 2023
He added that people in Gaza were “not pieces on a checkerboard”.
The spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it attacked a number of Hezbollah “terrorist targets” overnight and on Saturday morning “including operational infrastructures, terrorist infrastructures and a military compound”.
Daniel Hagari added that the attacks took place in “Lebanese territory”.
You can read more about fears over the involvement of Hezbollah in the conflict here:
Israeli strikes on Gaza continued on Saturday, with Hamas authorities reporting heaving shelling in several cities, reports the AFP news agency.
The Hamas-controlled health ministry said 18 people were killed in a house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
UN chief says 136 colleagues have died in Gaza
António Guterres said on X this morning that 136 United Nations colleagues in Gaza had died in 75 days, something the global organisation had “never seen” in its history.
The UN chief added: “Most of our staff have been forced from their homes.
“I pay tribute to them and the thousands of aid workers risking their lives as they support civilians in Gaza.”
Biden ‘heartbroken’ over American’s death
The US president, Joe Biden, has said he is “heartbroken” by the news that an American named Gadi Haggai is believed to have been killed by Hamas on 7 October when it attacked Israel.
Haggai, a 73-year-old Israeli-American man, was previously thought to have been taken hostage in the militants’ attack, along with his wife. A group representing hostages’ families had said earlier on Friday that Haggai died in captivity.
Biden said in a statement released by the White House on Friday:
Jill [Biden, the first lady] and I are heartbroken by the news that American Gadi Haggai is now believed to have been killed by Hamas on October 7. We continue to pray for the wellbeing and safe return of his wife, Judy.
Reuters also reports that Judith Weinstein, the wife of Haggai, is still being held hostage in Gaza, according to the Israeli media outlet Haaretz.
The Biden statement gave no further details about what happened to Haggai.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed three people including a journalist of Hamas’s Aqsa TV channel and two of their relatives, Palestinian health officials and Hamas media said.
The reporter’s death would bring to at least 69 the number of journalists killed in the conflict, according to a tally by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Reuters also reports that in Gaza’s south, at least four civilians died in an airstrike on a car in Rafah, a Palestinian rescue worker said. A boy, his face covered in blood, and a girl, were carried away, video showed.
There was no immediate Israeli comment. Its military has expressed regret for civilian deaths but blamed the militant Hamas for operating in densely populated areas or using civilians as human shields, an allegation the group denies.
The Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency reported heavy shelling and airstrikes on Jabaliya al-Balad and Jabaliya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, and said Israeli vehicles were trying to advance from the western side of Jabaliya amid the sound of gunfire.
Wafa reported that Israeli shelling destroyed a water desalination plant in Jabaliya by the al-Amal hospital.
Israeli strikes reported across Gaza
Airstrikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across Gaza late into Friday night.
Israel’s military ordered residents of al-Bureij, in central Gaza, to move south immediately, Reuters reports. The directive signalled a new focus of the ground assault that has devastated the territory’s north and made a series of incursions in the south.
Some residents packed up donkey carts and left. But there was no immediate sign of large numbers from al-Bureij joining the hundreds of thousands fleeing other areas.
Ziad, a medic and father of six, said:
Where should we go to? There is no place safe. They ask people to head to [the central Gaza city of] Deir al-Balah, where they bomb day and night.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said at least 18 Palestinians were killed and dozens others wounded in an airstrike on a house in Nuseirat, central Gaza, late on Friday night.
UN chief says Israeli military offensive creating ‘massive obstacles’ to aid distribution in Gaza
The UN security council has called for boosting humanitarian assistance for Gaza, but the UN chief said the way Israel was conducting its military operation was creating “massive obstacles” to aid distribution inside the battered territory.
After days of wrangling to avert a threatened US veto, the security council passed a resolution on Friday urging steps to allow “safe, unhindered and expanded humanitarian access” to Gaza and “conditions for a sustainable cessation” of fighting.
But Reuters reports UN secretary general António Guterres said after the vote that the way Israel was conducting its operation is “creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian assistance” in Gaza, where the UN says the aid available is just 10% of what is needed.
Israel says 5,405 aid trucks – bearing food, water and medical supplies – have entered Gaza since the war started.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. It’s nearing 9am and Gaza City and Tel Aviv on this 23 December and here’s an overview of the latest to bring you up to speed.
The United Nations security council has backed a resolution calling for a major boost in humanitarian assistance for the Gaza Strip but the UN secretary general has said the way Israel is conducting its military operation there is creating “massive obstacles” to aid distribution.
António Guterres’s comments after the UN vote came as airstrikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across Gaza late into Friday night, with at least 18 people killed, according to Palestinian media.
Israel’s military ordered residents of al-Bureij in central Gaza to move south immediately, in a directive signalling a new focus of the ground assault that has devastated the territory’s north and made incursions in the south.
More on those stories soon as well as below, along with a recap of other key developments.
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The UN security council, after days of delay, passed its new resolution on Gaza aid delivery with 13 votes in favour, no votes against and abstentions by the US and Russia. Although abstaining, it was pivotal for Gaza that the US did not veto and therefore block the resolution. A vote had originally been expected on Monday but was delayed day after day as negotiations went on to try to get the pieces in place for the resolution to pass when it did finally come to the vote.
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António Guterres said after the vote that he hoped aid delivery would improve “but a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare”. The UN chief added: “As difficult as it might appear today, the two-state solution – in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements – is the only path to sustainable peace.”
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The Palestinian Authority and Hamas issued different responses towards the UN vote. The Palestinian foreign ministry, which is part of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, called the resolution “a step in the right direction” and said it would help “end the aggression, ensure the arrival of aid and protect the Palestinian people”. But Hamas, the militants who run Gaza, called the resolution an “insufficient step” for meeting the impoverished territory’s needs.
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The International Rescue Committee, the global humanitarian organisation, lamented the lack of a UN security council (UNSC) resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, even as it welcomed the resolution on aid. It also welcomed the call for the unconditional release of remaining hostages held by Hamas after they were snatched from southern Israel during the 7 October attack that triggered the war. “From a humanitarian point of view, the failure of the UNSC to demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire is unjustifiable,” the committee said.
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The European Commission said it had adopted a €118m ($130m) aid package to support the Palestinian Authority. The EC said on Friday the aid would help pay salaries and pensions of civil servants in the West Bank, social allowances for vulnerable families and the payment for medical referrals to East Jerusalem hospitals.
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Gaza health officials say more than 20,000 people have been killed in the war. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday that it had documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors.
