Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 422

A Hamas delegation discussed a ceasefire in Gaza with Egyptian intelligence officials, two officials from the group told AFP.

The “delegation met with the head of the Egyptian general intelligence, Major General Hassan Rashad, and a number of Egyptian intelligence officials, and discussed ways to stop the war and aggression, bring in aid, and open the Rafah crossing” at Gaza’s border with Egypt, said a senior Hamas official.

A second Hamas official also present in Cairo told AFP that “Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are making great efforts to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange”.

“Our Palestinian people are waiting for American and international pressure on (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to stop the war and reach an agreement as happened in Lebanon,” the official said.

At least 44,466 Palestinians have been killed and 105,358 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since October 7 2023, Gaza’s health ministry has said, Reuters reports.

The UN chief has said the situation in Gaza is “appalling and apocalyptic”, as he called for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, AFP reports.

“The catastrophe in Gaza is nothing short of a complete breakdown of our common humanity. The nightmare must stop. We cannot continue to look away,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at a Cairo conference.

The Israeli forces have arrested at least 12 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since yesterday, according to a statement by prisoners’ groups, Al Jazeera reports.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said the arrests took place across the governorates of Ramallah, Hebron, Tubas, Qalqilya and Tubas as well as the occupied East Jerusalem.

The number of arrests by Israeli forces of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since Israel’s onslaught on Gaza began has surpassed 11,900, the report said.

Palestinian refugees with disabilities have talked to Al Jazeera, sharing their traumatic experiences from Israel’s war on Gaza.

They describe immense challenges while fleeing for their lives, with limited access to resources tailored to their needs.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Vall reports:

German airline group Lufthansa said it was extending the suspension of flights to Tel Aviv to the end of January, as a fragile ceasefire held between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, AFP reports.

“All airlines of the Lufthansa Group will extend the suspension of its flights to Tel Aviv up to and including 31 January 2025,” the group said in a statement.

The group’s services to Tel Aviv had previously been suspended until at least December 15. For flagship carrier Lufthansa, the stop had applied until the end of the year.

An Israeli drone targeted a Lebanese military bulldozer while it was carrying out fortification work inside the Al-Abbara military base near Lebanon’s border with Syria, the Lebanese army said, Reuters reports.

One soldier was wounded, it said.

An Israeli drone has hit a bulldozer of the Lebanese army that was carrying out “fortification work” at a military base in the northeastern Hermel area close to the Lebanon-Syria border, Al Jazeera reports.

The attack “resulted in one soldier being moderately injured”, the Lebanese army said on X.

Former Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon says his remarks last week on Israel taking the path of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza were not directed at the army but at “the politicians, who speak proudly of the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip”, according to the national Channel 12, Al Jazeera reports.

Ya’alon, who was slammed by many Israeli politicians for his comments, stood by his words, saying: “I hope that my public appearance will stop the government from committing a war crime, while imposing the responsibility on [Israeli] commanders.”

Israeli forces have again warned people in Lebanon against travelling south in their country, saying they are “prohibited” from returning to their homes, Al Jazeera reports.

“I remind you that until further notice, you are prohibited from moving south to the line of the following villages and their surroundings: Shebaa, al-Habbariyeh, Marjayoun, Arnoun, Yohmor, Qantara, Chaqra, Baraachit, Yater, Al-Mansouri,” Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X.

“Anyone who moves south of this line — puts himself in danger,” he added.

Adraee also listed more than 60 villages that he said people are “prohibited” from returning to. Israeli forces do “not intend to target you and therefore you are prohibited at this stage from returning to your homes from this line south until further notice”, he said.

Ahmed Bayram of the Norwegian Refugee Council says the people of Gaza are suffering from a massive shortage of supplies.

“I think, at this rate, Israel is suffocating the support for these people,” he told Al Jazeera from Amman, adding that Gaza needs 25 supply trucks to enter each week instead of the “10 or 11” that bring aid into the enclave now.

“I think, at this rate, Israel is suffocating the support for these people,” Bayram said.

“It is not only constraining access, the roads and the safety of the people and the aid workers, but also there is a systematic attempt here to keep people in the cold and keep them starving,” he said, adding the aid community is frustrated about the situation.

The World Health Organisation has dropped off food, fuel and medical supplies to the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.

A WHO member who took part in the mission told Al Jazeera that the agency had delivered 400 food parcels for the patients and staff at the facility, as well as fuel to operate generators, and medical consumables and supplies, including blood units.

The staffer also said a team from Mercy International will be deployed to the hospital. “The team will be deployed here for one month — specialised medical staff,” he said.

The Israeli army opened fire towards the town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon, the latest violation of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire that entered into force last week, Anadolu reports.

The Israeli army opened bursts of machine gun fire, according to Lebanese National News Agency.

Yesterday, the Israeli army committed 11 violations by targeting southern Lebanese towns, bringing the total number of violations since the ceasefire to 73.

Israeli forces have arrested a man identified as Waqas Nofal during a raid on his home in the town of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports citing Wafa.

His detention follows a night of Israeli raids across the West Bank, including the city of Nablus and the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah.

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that Israeli forces have killed one Palestinian in the village of Al Masdar in central Gaza.

The attack comes as Israeli forces continued to pound Gaza, with attacks reported across the Strip, including in Jabalia in the north and Abasan al-Kabira in the south.

Human Rights Watch made the appeal in a statement issued ahead of the annual session of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties in The Hague, Al Jazeera reports.

It said the court has been under “extreme pressure” since ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas’s Mohammed Deif. These include threats from US legislators who said they would impose sanctions on ICC officials and those cooperating with the court.

“ICC warrants, whether against Vladimir Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu, send a critical message that no one is above the law,” said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

“ICC member countries should make a commitment during their annual meeting to take all necessary steps to ensure that the ICC’s crucial work for justice can continue without obstruction.”

The Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) said that it is holding discussions in Cairo with the resistance group Hamas on Egyptian proposals regarding the reopening of the Rafah border crossing, Anadolu Agency reports.

“Fatah is keen on an immediate end to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, expediting aid delivery and initiating reconstruction,” a Fatah official, Abdullah Abdullah, told Anadolu.

“A Fatah delegation is present in Cairo discussing with a Hamas delegation Egyptian proposals related to reopening the Rafah border crossing (between Gaza and Egypt) and having the Palestinian Authority manage it on the Palestinian side,” he said.

Muhannad Hadi, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, has called for accountability after Israeli forces killed four more humanitarian workers in Gaza last week, Al Jazeera reports.

“Humanitarian workers in Gaza represent the last lifeline for over two million Palestinians who are enduring unimaginable conditions,” Hadi said, noting that more than 330 humanitarian workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

“Their work is not just critical; it is indispensable,” he said.

The United Kingdom promised to provide 19 million pounds ($24m) in funding for Gaza ahead of the humanitarian conference in Egypt, Al Jazeera reports.

Annelise Dodds, the UK’s international development minister, who is set to attend the conference, described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” and urged Israel to ensure “unimpeded aid access to Gaza”.

She added, “Gazans​ are in desperate need of food, and shelter with the onset of winter […] I will meet counterparts both in Israel and the [occupied Palestinian territory] to discuss the need to remove these impediments, bring about a ceasefire, free the hostages and find a lasting solution to the conflict.”

Israel has no excuse for hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, a top German diplomat said ahead of a conference in Cairo on the subject next week.

The country must “at last keep its promises to fluidify humanitarian aid into Gaza and to allow sufficient humanitarian access at any moment”, said Tobias Lindner, the deputy foreign affairs minister, in a statement published ahead of his trip to Egypt.

“There is no excuse for that. Israel’s right to legitimate self-defence finds its limits in international humanitarian rights.”

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said something similar in November, accusing Israel of “constantly” reneging on its commitments.

Israel’s far-right national security minister has ordered police to ban mosques in Israel from broadcasting the call to prayer, Al Jazeera reports.

In a video post on X, Itamar Ben-Gvir said police needed “to address and enforce the issue of noise in mosques”.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported earlier that Ben-Gvir had sent police instructions on enforcing the ban, including by confiscating loudspeakers and issuing fines.

About 14 per cent of Israel’s population is Muslim, according to the Pew Research Centre.

The ministerial conference on enhancing the “humanitarian response to the Gaza Strip” is set to open in Cairo, Al Jazeera reports.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J Mohammed and ministers from countries in the Middle East and elsewhere are expected to attend the meeting, according to Egyptian media.

“The event will address the political, security, and humanitarian aspects of the situation in Gaza, with a particular emphasis on supporting UNRWA’s operations,” the Ahram Online newspaper reported.

Aluf Benn, the editor-in-chief of Haaretz, has hit back at the Israeli government’s decision to boycott the left-leaning newspaper in an editorial titled, “Haaretz will not be silenced by Netanyahu”, Al Jazeera reports.

The Israeli prime minister has “never liked our reporting and our strong stance against his policy of occupation and annexation in the occupied territories and his overall denial of Palestinian rights”, Benn wrote.

“Now his political henchmen want to delegitimise and strangle us financially — but we are not alone in the government’s crosshairs,” he said, referring to an ongoing bid “to close Israel’s public broadcaster, which the government sees as too independent”.

Netanyahu’s “coalition colleagues are promoting anti-democratic bills that threaten to undermine free elections and other means of political expression, as they prepare for building Jewish settlements in occupied Gaza”, Benn added.

A former Israeli defence minister has accused Israel of committing “war crimes” and “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip, drawing a sharp rebuke from government ranks, Reuters reports.

Moshe Yaalon, a hawkish former general, told Israeli media that hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet were looking to chase Palestinians from northern Gaza and wanted to re-establish Jewish settlements there.

“I am compelled to warn about what is happening there and is being concealed from us,” Yaalon told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Sunday. “At the end of the day, war crimes are being committed.”

In a separate interview with Democrat TV on Saturday, Yaalon warned that the nation was at a crossroads with the government looking “to conquer, to annex, to carry out ethnic cleansing”.