Israel’s Gaza invasion - Day 58

  • Israel lays siege to Gaza Strip after Hamas Oct 7 attack in which 242 hostages were taken
  • Western allies back Israel’s bombardment of Gaza; UN, groups decry onslaught against Palestinians; global protests break out
  • 80pc of Gaza population displaced; 60pc houses laid to waste; 22 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza out of service
  • Temporary truce starts Nov 24, expires on Dec 1; 105 hostages freed; 240 Palestinian prisoners released
Israel’s Gaza invasion - Day 58
6:19 PM

PHOTOS: Activists demand Gaza ceasefire at UN climate conference in Dubai

6:00 PM

ICC prosecutor vows to ‘further intensify’ Gaza probe

5:46 PM

UN official calls for political solution to end Gaza conflict

5:25 PM

Israel says it uncovered 800 shafts to Hamas tunnels below Gaza

5:10 PM

WATCH: US Senator Marco Rubio says ‘won’t call for a ceasefire’

4:58 PM

Kakar says Gaza conflict could spread to region

4:39 PM

Pope deplores end to Gaza truce, urges new ceasefire

4:17 PM

Israeli medical experts declare some Gaza hostages dead in absentia

3:55 PM

PHOTOS: Gazans search for bodies after Israeli strikes in Rafah

3:48 PM

Gaza residents seek shelter as Israeli bombing intensifies

Dec 03, 2023 06:19pm

PHOTOS: Activists demand Gaza ceasefire at UN climate conference in Dubai

Participants react as the names of individuals from the health ministry list who have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military offensive are being read out during a demonstration demanding a ceasefire at the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on December 3. — AFP
Participants react as the names of individuals from the health ministry list who have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military offensive are being read out during a demonstration demanding a ceasefire at the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on December 3. — AFP

A man gestures as climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters
A man gestures as climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters

 People sit as climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters
People sit as climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters

People gesture as climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters
People gesture as climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters

 Participants react as the names of individuals from the health ministry list who have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military offensive are being read out during a demonstration demanding a ceasefire at the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on December 3. — AFP
Participants react as the names of individuals from the health ministry list who have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military offensive are being read out during a demonstration demanding a ceasefire at the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on December 3. — AFP

Climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters
Climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters

 Climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters
Climate activists protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 3. — Reuters

Dec 03, 2023 06:00pm

ICC prosecutor vows to ‘further intensify’ Gaza probe

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has vowed to step up efforts to investigate alleged war crimes, as he wrapped up a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, AFP reports.

Karim Khan stressed his visit was “not investigative in nature” but said he was able to speak to victims on both sides of the conflict.

“My office will further intensify its efforts to advance its investigations in relation to this situation,” Khan said. “Credible allegations of crimes during the current conflict should be the subject of timely, independent examination and investigation.”

Opening its doors in 2002, the ICC is the world’s only independent court set up to probe the gravest offences including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It opened an investigation in 2021 into Israel as well as Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups for possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

Read more here

Dec 03, 2023 05:46pm

UN official calls for political solution to end Gaza conflict

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk has called for a political solution built on a viable long-term basis to end the Gaza conflict with full respect for Palestinians’ and Israelis’ human rights.

Dec 03, 2023 05:25pm

Israel says it uncovered 800 shafts to Hamas tunnels below Gaza

Israeli forces have found 800 shafts leading to Hamas’ vast subterranean network of tunnels and bunkers since a Gaza ground operation began on Oct 27, and have destroyed more than half of them, the military has said, Reuters reports.

The Palestinian group said before the now eight-week-old conflict in the Gaza Strip that it had hundreds of kilometres of tunnels — a network comparable in size to the New York subway system — to protect and serve as operational bases.

That has made them prime targets for Israeli air strikes with penetrating munitions and army engineers using mapping robots and exploding gel that can be poured into the passages.

“The tunnel shafts were located in civilian areas, many of which were near or inside civilian buildings and structures, such as schools, kindergartens, mosques and playgrounds,” the military said in a statement on Sunday.

The statement, summarising anti-tunnel operations so far, followed near-daily accounts to the media by troops who said they uncovered access shafts in civilian sites.

Of some 800 shafts discovered, the military said, 500 had been destroyed using a variety of operational methods, including by “detonation and by sealing off”. It added that “many miles” of main tunnel routes had also been destroyed.

Dec 03, 2023 04:58pm

Kakar says Gaza conflict could spread to region

On the sidelines of COP28, Interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar stated that Pakistan has been in the forefront of advocating for a ceasefire in order to put a stop to the “senseless violence which was perpetrated in very disproportionate manner by the government of Israel”.

“When we say immediately stop, not a single bullet could be afforded by anyone here in the region and beyond,” he said.

He said that if the violence did not cease then it can engulf the region “maybe Egypt, Syria, Jordan and probably there would not be any limit to that”.

“The creation of humanitarian corridor is the second most important thing and there are diversified views and Pakistan does understand that,” he said.

Dec 03, 2023 04:39pm

Pope deplores end to Gaza truce, urges new ceasefire

Pope Francis has said he was saddened the temporary truce in the Gaza Strip had been broken and urged those involved to reach a new ceasefire deal as soon as possible, AFP reports.

Speaking in Italian, the pontiff said: “There is so much suffering in Gaza.”

He said the occupied Palestinian territory lacked even essential supplies, adding that the situation there and in Israel was “serious”.

Dec 03, 2023 04:17pm

Israeli medical experts declare some Gaza hostages dead in absentia

Even as it tries to recover hostages through indirect talks with Hamas and army operations in the Gaza Strip, Israel has been declaring some of the missing as dead in captivity, a measure designed to grant anxious relatives a measure of closure.

According to Reuters, a three-person medical committee has been poring over videos from the October 7 rampage by Palestinian fighters in southern Israel for signs of lethal injuries among those abducted, and cross-referencing with the testimony of hostages freed during a week-long Gaza truce that ended.

That can suffice to determine that a hostage has died, even if no doctor has formally pronounced this over his or her body, said Hagar Mizrahi, a health ministry official who heads the panel created in response to a crisis now in its third month.

“Designation of death is never an easy matter, and certainly not in the situation embroiling us,” she told Israel’s Kan radio.

Her committee, she said, addresses “the desire of the families of loved ones abducted to Gaza to know as much as possible”.

Read full story here

Dec 03, 2023 03:55pm

PHOTOS: Gazans search for bodies after Israeli strikes in Rafah

People gather around a crater among destroyed buildings in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli bombing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 3, 2023.—AFP
People gather around a crater among destroyed buildings in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli bombing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 3, 2023.—AFP

People carry away the body of a victim recovered amid the rubble of a building in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli bombing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 3, 2023.—AFP
People carry away the body of a victim recovered amid the rubble of a building in the aftermath of an overnight Israeli bombing in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 3, 2023.—AFP

People check the damage in a house hit by Israeli bombing in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 3, 2023.—AFP
People check the damage in a house hit by Israeli bombing in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 3, 2023.—AFP

Dec 03, 2023 03:48pm

Gaza residents seek shelter as Israeli bombing intensifies

Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip have sought shelter in an ever-shrinking area of the south as Israel stepped up its bombing from air, sea and land across the enclave, Reuters reports.

Bombardments were concentrated on Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, residents said. Hospitals were struggling to cope with the flow of wounded, they said.

The renewed warfare followed the collapse on Friday of a seven-day temporary pause in the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas to allow an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners.

It took place despite growing calls from the United States — Israel’s closest ally — for Israel to avoid further harm to Palestinian civilians.