Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 68
Pressure is mounting on Israel amid a UNGA resolution as Biden makes statements signalling divisions with Netanyahu government.
Published On 13 Dec 2023
Here’s how things stand on Wednesday, December 13, 2023:
The latest developments
- In an emergency session on the Israel-Gaza war on Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of a ceasefire. The United States and Israel were among the 10 votes against the non-binding resolution.
- Harvard University’s board has backed President Claudine Gay following calls for her resignation over Gay’s controversial Congress testimony on the campus anti-Semitism row.
- US media reports on Tuesday suggested that Israel has begun flooding a network of tunnels it says is used by Hamas with seawater.
- Sports brand Puma will stop sponsoring Israel’s national football team in 2024, a spokesperson for the German company said on Tuesday. Puma has been on the Boycott Divest, Sanctions (BDS) list since 2018 after it first signed a deal to sponsor the Israeli Football Association.
Human impact and fighting
- On Tuesday, Israeli forces blew up a UN Relief and Works Authority school building in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza.
- An Israeli military raid on Jenin in the occupied West Bank has been continuing for 29 hours, as of early on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Charles Stratford.
- Up to 100 Palestinians may have been arrested in the raid on Jenin so far, while about 30 of those initially detained may have been released, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
- About 8,000 people are missing or trapped under the rubble in Gaza, according to a civil defence official.
- A Human Rights Watch (HRW) statement on Wednesday called on Yemen’s Houthi group to “immediately release” hostages from attacks on ships in the Red Sea that HRW says have no connections to Israel.
- The Israeli military on Wednesday announced that it has deployed four new warships to the Red Sea in the wake of attacks by the Yemeni armed group.
- Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed over the past day, military spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced on Wednesday.
- Some 360,000 cases of disease have been detected in crowded shelters for the 1.9 million people displaced by Israel’s military onslaught, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest situation report on Tuesday.
Diplomacy
Advertisement
- At a fundraiser on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden told donors that Israel risks losing international support over its “indiscriminate bombing” of civilians in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
- World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “extremely worried about reports of a raid at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza after several days of siege” in a post on X on Tuesday. Tedros called for an immediate ceasefire and for all people inside the hospital to be protected.
- In efforts to accelerate aid deliveries, the Karem Abu Salem (called Kerem Shalom by Israel) crossing between Israel and Gaza opened on Tuesday and screened humanitarian trucks before transferring them to the enclave via Rafah crossing, according to Palestinian Red Crescent officials.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies