Israel-Gaza war updates: 100s killed in last 24 hours in Israeli strikes
The future of the truce looks bleak after Israel renews its intensive strikes across the Gaza Strip.
- The director-general of the Government Media Office in Gaza tells Al Jazeera that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the last 24 hours.
- Hamas says captive-prisoner swap talks will not resume until the Israeli onslaught in Gaza ends.
- The director-general of the Government Media Office in Gaza tells Al Jazeera that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the last 24 hours.
- Hamas says captive-prisoner swap talks will not resume until the Israeli onslaught in Gaza ends.
- Israel pulled back its negotiators from Qatar on Saturday, saying Hamas violated the terms of the truce agreement.
- At least 15,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the official death toll stands at about 1,200.
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Here’s what happened today
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- The Israeli military says operations in southern Gaza will be “no less strength” than its earlier offensive in the north as it extends its ground attack to the entire Gaza Strip.
- Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas official, accused Israel of pursuing a deliberate strategy of luring Gaza civilians south “to trap and massacre” them there.
- Iran has warned of an expansion of war in the region if Israeli forces continue to commit “war crimes” against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
- Israel will hunt down Hamas officials in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar “even if it takes years”, Shin Bet’s chief says.
- Gaza residents say they fear Israeli troops moving into the south after a large bombardment.
West Bank raids continue under cover of darkness
We’re hearing of raids in villages around Jenin where Israeli vehicles that were carrying out raids there were targeted with pipe bombs. There are confrontations north of Tulkarem. We’re also hearing of ongoing raids in Qalqilya.
At least 60 people were detained throughout the course of today. Sixty detentions a day in the occupied West Bank – in raids and at checkpoints – has become a daily average.
The number of raids is going up in intensity and frequency since the beginning of the war with most of these actions carried out at night under the cover of darkness.
At least nine killed in Israeli strike near Gaza’s Rafah
The Israeli strike hit a residential building in the al-Tanour neighbourhood, east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, resulting in multiple deaths, according to exclusive information and video footage obtained by Al Jazeera and verified by the Sanad news agency.
Several people were also injured in the strike that hit the building belonging to the al-Jazzar family in al-Tanour.
Images seen by Al Jazeera showed widespread destruction from the shelling as well as the search and rescue effort carried out by civil defence staff and residents of the area.
WATCH: How Israel made Gaza the world’s biggest prison
Often described as the world’s biggest open-air prison, most of the world only pays attention to Gaza when it is firing rockets at Israel.
It’s a tiny territory with no control of its own borders or airspace. Most of its residents are refugees from just across the boundary with Israel who have almost no chance of ever leaving.
US raid in Iraq kills 5 preparing attack
A US air strike killed five Iraqi fighters near the northern city of Kirkuk as they prepared to launch explosive projectiles at US forces in the country.
The Reuters news agency quoted three Iraqi security sources confirming the raid, identifying the dead as members of an Iran-backed militia. A US military official confirmed a “self-defence strike on an imminent threat” that targeted a drone staging site near Kirkuk.
A statement by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group representing several Iraqi armed factions with close ties to Tehran, said five of its members had been killed, and pledged retaliation against US forces.
Iraqi armed groups have claimed more than 70 such attacks against US assets since October 17 over Washington’s backing of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Hamas says Israeli forces withdrawing from northern Gaza
The the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military arm, says Israeli forces have withdrawn from the northern part of Gaza.
It called their operations there “failures”. It is saying as much as 70 percent of the Israeli military contingent in the north is now gone.
Israeli forces continue to push everybody from the north to the south. They’re dropping leaflets saying their next target will be Khan Younis. That will begin to become the major area of operations. That’s been causing chaos for the past 24 to 48 hours.
LISTEN: Arrests and harassment threaten Palestinians in Israel
Palestinian citizens in Israel grapple with rising threats and restrictions following the events of October 7.
Hamas denounces plans for UK surveillance flights over Gaza
Hamas has denounced the United Kingdom for planning to conduct surveillance flights over the Gaza Strip, calling it a partner in Israel’s war.
The UK carrying out surveillance flights over Gaza to help locate Israeli captives makes it a “participant in the war”, Hamas said in a statement, according to Arabic media reports.
The UK’s defence ministry confirmed on Saturday that the military will be conducting surveillance flights over Gaza.
Hamas: Israel attempting to ‘trap and massacre’ civilians
Osama Hamdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas official, accused Israel of pursuing a deliberate strategy of luring Gaza civilians south to trap and kill them there.
“It has become clear that the occupation’s claim … of the existence of safe areas in the south of the Gaza Strip, and its constant call for citizens to go there, was a premeditated plan and trap to commit more massacres against unarmed civilians and displaced people in the south,” he told reporters.
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate several areas in and around Khan Younis City. It posted a map highlighting shelters they should go to west of Khan Younis and south towards Rafah, on the border with Egypt. But many residents said areas they were told to go to were also under attack.
Turkish Red Crescent sends $3.4m in aid to Gaza
The Turkish Red Crescent has dispatched more than $3.4m worth of aid to Gaza.
Addressing an event in Istanbul, the head of the organisation, Fatma Meric Yilmaz, said the Red Crescent received about 500 million liras ($17.3m) in donations and 20 percent had been already dispatched as immediate assistance.
The Red Crescent also sent physical humanitarian relief from Turkey on 11 aircraft and two ships.
Israel says south Gaza offensive ‘no less strength’ than north
The Israeli military has said operations in southern Gaza will be “no less strength” than its earlier offensive in the north.
The military expanded ground operations to every part of Gaza and ordered more evacuations in the crowded south followed by heavy bombardment.
Palestinians in Gaza have said they are running out of places to go in the sealed-off territory that borders Israel and Egypt. Many of its 2.3 million people are crammed into the south after Israel ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the war.
Israel says expanding ground offensive to south Gaza
Israel’s military is extending its ground offensive to the entire Gaza Strip, army spokesman Hagari says.
“The [military] continues to extend its ground operation against Hamas centres in all of the Gaza Strip,” he told reporters in Tel Aviv. “The forces are coming face-to-face with terrorists and killing them.”
The Wafa news agency said that Israeli armoured vehicles penetrated the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Sunday night, originating from the east.
“Israeli occupation vehicles are positioned near the Al-Matahin intersection amid intense aerial coverage from warplanes and the firing of shells from tanks and artillery, as well as reconnaissance aircraft,” it reported.
No injuries or pollution after container ship attack in Red Sea
There have been no reports of injuries or pollution after the attack on the Number 9 container ship in the Red Sea and the vessel is currently sailing, says its manager, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement.
The Panama-flagged vessel was hit by a projectile while transiting the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the company said in a statement.
Yemen’s Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Paramedics wounded as Israeli forces fire on ambulances
The Palestine Red Crescent says two paramedics and a third person were wounded when soldiers fired at ambulances in northern Gaza’s Faluja area.
The ambulances were evacuating an injured person to a hospital, it said.
🚨Urgent: Two PRCS paramedics and an accompanying injured person were wounded as IOF fired upon two ambulances 🚑 in the Faluja area, north of the #Gaza Strip, while transporting an injured individual.#Gaza#NotATarget pic.twitter.com/pEqhOxFkX8
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 3, 2023
Israeli forces storm Kafr Thulth in West Bank
Israeli forces have stormed the town of Kafr Thulth, southeast of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian media report.
Videos shared on social media showed a stream of Israeli military vehicles entering the town.
Palestinian media said Israeli forces arrested at least one resident in the town.
Scenes of horror and anguish from Gaza
Outside a morgue in Khan Younis, Samy al-Najeila carried the body of a child. He said he and his sons were preparing to evacuate their home, “but the occupation didn’t give us any time”.
Their three-floor building was completely destroyed. “The whole block was totally destroyed,” he said.
“Five people are still under the rubble. God help us.”
Outside a Gaza City hospital, a dust-covered boy named Saaed Khalid Shehta dropped to his knees beside the bloodied body of his little brother, Mohammad, one of several laid out after people said their street was hit by air attacks. He kissed him. “You bury me with him!” the boy cried.
Two ships struck in Red Sea have no connection to Israel: Army
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari says the two ships the Houthis struck in the Red Sea had no connection to the country.
The Houthi movement said its navy attacked “two Israeli ships”, Unity Explorer and Number 9, with an armed drone and a naval missile.
A US defence department official told Al Jazeera that a US destroyer blew up two drones that were attacking the cargo vessels.
WATCH: Reports of Israel using AI to target Gaza
Israel’s war has devastated much of Gaza. The few days of calm under a ceasefire have all but disappeared with Israel resuming its bombardment.
Now, its army is reportedly using new AI technology to help it expand the potential list of targets, which could lead to even more civilian deaths.
Watch more below.
At least 61 journalists killed since October: Watchdog
October is now the deadliest month for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists began documenting deaths in 1992, the group says.
As of December 2, CPJ’s investigations found that 54 Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese journalists and media workers had been killed since the war began on October 7. This death toll is coupled with harassment, detentions and other reporting obstructions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel and beyond.
The watchdog also said that 11 journalists were injured, three are missing and 19 have been arrested.
Israeli forces have told news agencies they cannot guarantee the safety of journalists working in Gaza, CPJ said in a statement.
‘They kill in the north, they kill in the south’
Halima Abdel-Rahman, a Palestinian widow and mother of four, said she won’t heed the evacuation orders any more.
She fled her home in Beit Lahiya in October for an area just outside Khan Younis, where she is staying with relatives and which has just come under an evacuation order.
“No, we won’t leave. The occupation tells you to go to this area then they bomb it. The reality is that no place is safe in Gaza. They kill people in the north. They kill people in the south.”
Residents said the Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering them to move south to Rafah or to a coastal area in the southwest. “Khan Younis city is a dangerous combat zone,” the leaflets read.
Iran warns of ‘war expansion’ if Israel doesn’t stop
Iran has warned of an expansion of war in the region if Israeli forces continue to commit “war crimes” against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke by phone with the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about the latest developments.
“If the war crimes committed by the Israeli regime in Gaza and the West Bank are not stopped, the scope of the war in the region is likely to deepen and expand,” Amir-Abdollahian said, according to a foreign ministry statement.
He stressed the need to “stop the military attacks launched by the Zionist regime against the residents of Gaza as soon as possible” and urged “the importance of providing the necessary ways to send humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip”.
Qatar calls for international probe into ‘Israeli crimes’
Qatar’s prime minister is calling for an “immediate, comprehensive and impartial international investigation” into what he called Israeli “crimes in Gaza”.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told Al Jazeera that Qatar will continue its efforts towards facilitating another truce and reaching a permanent ceasefire.
A week-long Israel-Hamas truce – brokered by Qatar with the support of Egypt and the United States – led to the release of 80 Israeli captives in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Read more here.
Israeli spy chief vows to hunt down Hamas ‘everywhere’
Israel will hunt down Hamas in Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar even if it takes years, the head of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet says.
The comments were made in a recording aired by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan. It was unclear when Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar made the remarks, or to whom. The agency itself declined to comment on the report.
“The cabinet has set us a goal, in street talk, to eliminate Hamas. This is our Munich. We will do this everywhere – in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Lebanon, in Turkey, in Qatar. It will take a few years but we will be there to do it.”
By “Munich”, Bar was referring to Israel’s response to the 1972 killing of 11 Israeli Olympic team members when gunmen from the Palestinian Black September group launched an attack on the Munich games.
Israel responded by carrying out a targeted assassination campaign against Black September operatives and organisers over several years and in several countries.
ראש השב״כ רונן בר בהקלטות בלעדיות: “נחסל את בכירי חמאס גם בקטר ובטורקיה. זה המינכן של הדור שלנו”. וגם – האחריות שבר לוקח בקולו על המחדל שהוביל ל-7 באוקטובר. החשיפה של @carmeldangor#חדשותהערב pic.twitter.com/1cNomMzos7
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 3, 2023
‘High risk of famine for all the people of Gaza’: UN
The World Food Programme (WFP) says this is especially true for those with chronic diseases, older persons, children, and those living with disabilities.
“Hunger is spreading widely as people grow increasingly desperate in their search for bread and other essential foods. Cases of dehydration and malnutrition are increasing rapidly. People are resorting to skipping or reducing meals,” the WFP, a United Nations agency, said in a statement.
Gaza’s food system is on the brink of collapse, it said. “Most shops are either shut down or have nearly empty shelves. Inflation is high as prices of essential food items have spiked while aid delivery has not been sufficient during the humanitarian pause to cater for the food and nutrition needs of people in Gaza.”
The UN agency said additional crossing points are necessary to deliver at scale.