Israel-Hamas war live: 14 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes since ceasefire expired, says Gaza health ministry - The Guardian

Gaza’s health ministry has said 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since the truce expired this morning.

Reuters reports the figure provided by the Hamas-run ministry. Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary had earlier said that at least six had been killed in an attack on a house in Rafah and in Khan Younis.

Another seven were also killed in the Maghazi area.

Israel has also been asking residents in certain neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave before an expected attack in the area.

“The Israeli forces are dropping leaflets for people in Khan Younis asking them to evacuate to Rafah but they are also targeting Rafah,” Khoudary said.

Harry Davies and Bethan McKernan are in Jerusalem, and report here on the AI-driven “factory” that increases the number of targets for strikes in Palestine.

Israel’s military has made no secret of the intensity of its bombardment of the Gaza Strip. In the early days of the offensive, the head of its air force spoke of relentless, “around the clock” airstrikes. His forces, he said, were only striking military targets, but he added: “We are not being surgical.”

There has, however, been relatively little attention paid to the methods used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to select targets in Gaza, and to the role artificial intelligence has played in their bombing campaign.

As Israel resumes its offensive after a seven-day ceasefire, there are mounting concerns about the IDF’s targeting approach in a war against Hamas that has so far killed more than 15,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The IDF has long burnished its reputation for technical prowess and has previously made bold but unverifiable claims about harnessing new technology. After the 11-day war in Gaza in May 2021, officials said Israel had fought its “first AI war” using machine learning and advanced computing.

You can read more here:

Here is a dispatch from the Guardian’s defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh in Jerusalem.

Israel’s military announced on Friday morning that it was dividing the entirety of Gaza into dozens of numbered blocks as a prelude, it said, to demanding targeted local evacuations in the crowded south of the strip ahead of planned bombing. It dropped leaflets over Gaza on Friday with a QR code to a website with a map of all the areas and geolocating people within them.

Earlier this week Israeli military sources said they anticipated the next phase of the operation in Gaza to involve an attack on the south, and in particular Khan Younis, where it believes Hamas’s leadership is based, and that Israel’s Defense Forces would call for the local civilian population to relocate on a district by district basis before likely targeting the area with airstrikes and artillery.

Humanitarian groups said on Friday that such a plan to divide and attack the south, where 2 million people are now sheltering, risked stretching Gaza to breaking point. “There is fundamentally nowhere for people to go,” said Danila Aizi, the Palestine country manager for charity Humanity and Inclusion.

Another Palestinian armed group has admitted attacking Israel, as Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, also known as the al-Qassam brigades, which is Hamas’ armed wing, said it launched a rocket barrage on Ashkelon, Sderot and Beersheba in southern Israel.

On its Telegram channel, the group said the attack comes “in response to the targeting of civilians”.

The military arm of another Gaza-based armed group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also known as al-Quds, said it had targeted cities and towns close to the fence along the strip earlier in the day as a truce ended.

Air raid sirens have sounded in the southern Israeli settlements of Yad Mordechai and Netiv Hatara, close the Gaza Strip, according to a statement on Telegram by Israel’s Home Front Command responsible for civil defence.

Palestinian fighters had said earlier that they had launched a volley of rockets towards Israel.

Qatar has confirmed that talks are continuing between Israel and Palestine with the aim of the ceasefire resuming.

Its ministry of foreign affairs posted a statement on X, saying: “The state of Qatar expresses its deep regret at the resumption of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip following the end of the humanitarian pause, without reaching an agreement to extend it.

“The state of Qatar is committed, along with its mediation partners, to continuing the efforts that led to the humanitarian pause, and will not hesitate to do everything necessary to return to calm.”

It added: “The ministry stresses that the continued bombing of the Gaza Strip in the first hours after the end of the pause complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip, and in this context calls on the international community to move quickly to stop the violence.”

It went on to condemn the targeting of civilians, collective punishment and “attempts to forcibly displace citizens of the besieged Gaza Strip”.

Qatar had successfully brokered the agreement a week ago for the ceasefire to come into effect, which saw the release of hostages and prisoners.

Hamas said on Friday morning that Israel refused an offer for the release more hostages and the bodies of an Israeli family killed in airstrikes. This has not been independently verified.

The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said it had attacked Israeli cities and towns on Friday.

In a statement on Telegram, the militant group said it was in response to “crimes against our people”, according to Reuters.

Thirty-two Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since the truce expired on Friday morning, Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday, according to the ministry’s Telegram account.

The latest figures, reported by Reuters, follow Israeli jets firing on the Gaza Strip minutes after the truce expired on Friday.

The Unicef spokesperson James Elder has reported that an airstrike landed about 50 metres away from the “biggest still functioning hospital in Gaza”.

“This hospital simply cannot take more children with the wounds of war,” he says in a video posted on X. He pans briefly to children asleep on the floor of a hospital room. Elder is the chief of communications for Unicef. His post was accompanied with the caption: “Has humanity given up on the children of Gaza?”

“I cannot overstate how the capacity has been reduced in hospitals over the last seven weeks. We cannot see more children with the wounds of war, with the burns, the shrapnel littering their body, with their broken bones. Inaction from those with influence is allowing the killing of children. This is a war on children.”

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said that the Israeli military must “return and crush Gaza with all our might”.

In a post on X this morning, he said: “For the sake of the children who have not yet returned, for the murdered who will no longer return, so that the horrors of 7/10 will never return, we must return and crush Gaza with all our might, destroy Hamas and return to the Strip, without compromises, without deals. at maximum power.”

While the ceasefire has expired this morning, negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt with Israel and Hamas are continuing, Reuters reports.

Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been in contact with both sides since fighting resumed in Gaza on Friday, the source said.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, was seen speaking to the Qatari emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai.

Israel has been dropping leaflets into parts of southern Gaza, telling residents to leave.

Associated Press reports that they have been dropped in Khan Younis, a city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The leaflets warn that the city is now a “dangerous battle zone”. So far since the Israeli response to the Hamas terror attack has focused largely on the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Many had fled the north into the south, taking shelter in areas including Khan Younis.

It comes as fighting has resumed this morning in the Palestinian territory after the ceasefire, which had been in place since 24 November.

Gaza’s health ministry has said 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since the truce expired this morning.

Reuters reports the figure provided by the Hamas-run ministry. Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary had earlier said that at least six had been killed in an attack on a house in Rafah and in Khan Younis.

Another seven were also killed in the Maghazi area.

Israel has also been asking residents in certain neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave before an expected attack in the area.

“The Israeli forces are dropping leaflets for people in Khan Younis asking them to evacuate to Rafah but they are also targeting Rafah,” Khoudary said.

Here are images of Antony Blinken boarding a US military plane before his departure from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on Friday.

On Thursday the US secretary of state had met Israeli and Palestinian officials and called for the temporary truce to be extended, as well as saying any resumption of combat must protect Palestinian civilians.

Blinken had told reporters in Tel Aviv of the seven-day pause in fighting:

Clearly, we want to see this process continue to move forward. We want an eighth day and beyond.

On his third trip to the Middle East since 7 October, Blinken also said the US remained committed to supporting Israel’s right to self-defence, but that Israel must protect civilians if it started major military operations in southern Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes have hit southern Gaza, including the community of Abassan east of the city of Khan Younis, the Hamas-run territory’s interior ministry said.

Another strike hit a home north-west of Gaza City, it said.

The strikes came as the Israeli military said its fighter jets hit Hamas targets in Gaza as the war resumed in full force after the weeklong truce expired, Associated Press reports.

Loud, continuous explosions were heard coming from Gaza and black smoke billowed from the territory on Friday morning.

In Israel, sirens blared at three communal farms near Gaza, warning of incoming rocket fire, suggesting Hamas had also resumed its attacks.

The Israeli military’s announcement of the strikes came just 30 minutes after the ceasefire expired at 7am (0500 GMT) on Friday.

Earlier Friday, Israel accused Hamas of having violated the terms of the ceasefire.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas did not agree to release further hostages, infringing on the terms of the truce, and that Israel remained committed to achieving its objectives as fighting resumed.

Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that Hamas did not release all women captives as agreed and also launched rockets at Israel, Reuters reports.

His office said:

With the resumption of fighting we emphasise the Israeli government is committed to achieving the goals of the war: to free our hostages, to eliminate Hamas and to ensure that Gaza will never pose a threat to the residents of Israel.

Jason Burke in Jerusalem has filed a full report on the developments this morning:

The first images since the resumption of fighting in Gaza are coming though over the news wires:

Inside the Gaza Strip a journalist reported artillery fire in Gaza City and Israeli warplanes carrying out a series of strikes after the resumption of fighting.

The Agence France-Presse journalist also reported drones could be heard in the air over the south of the territory for the first time since the ceasefire.

The resumption of fighting dashed hopes for an extension of the seven-day truce that had seen a reported 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners released.

The ceasefire also allowed more aid into the ravaged Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken had met Israeli and Palestinian officials and called for the pause in hostilities to be extended, as well as saying any resumption of combat must protect Palestinian civilians.

Israeli military warplanes are now attacking Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces has said on social media.

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2023-12-01 08:56:00Z
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A brief history of Henry Kissinger's alleged war crimes - The Independent

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In his eight years at the helm of US foreign policy, Henry Kissinger’s unique brand of realpolitik diplomacy was blamed for genocides, massacres, rape and torture on an industrial scale.

The architect of US efforts to contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War prioritised ideology over morality, and was responsible for the deaths of three to four million people between the years of 1969 and 1976, according to experts including Yale University historian Greg Grandin, the author of Kissinger’s Shadow.

As Secretary of State under the Nixon and Ford administrations, he pursued an interventionist approach to world affairs that shaped the thinking of a generation of neocons who would come after him.

In his 2001 book The Trial of Henry Kissinger, legendary British author Christopher Hitchens methodically laid out the case for the grand old US statesman to be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture.

Hitchens wrote that the US could “either persist in averting their gaze from the egregious impunity enjoyed by a notorious war criminal and lawbreaker, or they can become seized by the exalted standards to which they continually hold everyone else.”

US President Nixon’s special advisor Henry Kissinger laughs during a press conference, after the implementation of the Paris Peace Accords, with North Vietnam in Paris on June 13, 1973

(AFP via Getty Images)

Kissinger, who died aged 100 at his home in Connecticut on Wednesday 29 November, leaves behind a tainted legacy as national security adviser and secretary of state that would only emerge years after the fact, as US records were declassified, dictatorial regimes removed, and reckonings established.

His world view was shaped by his experiences growing up as a Jew under the Nazis in Germany. That prioritised his need to project American strength towards its communist adversaries and led to disastrous consequences for countries caught in the crossfire of his machiavellian strategies.

In his latter years, Kissinger reportedly had to avoid travelling to countries where he may summoned to account for his record.

Despite his blood-soaked record, he remained a revered figure within US foreign policy circles until his death.

Nowhere has the impact of Kissinger’s influence been more keenly felt than in Cambodia, where his role in expanding the Vietnam War through a “secret bombing” campaign in 1969 and ground incursion by US forces the following year leaves a festering wound on the Southeast Asian nation to this day.

The United States dropped over 540,000 tonnes of bombs in a campaign known as Operation Menu, which he and then-president Nixon pursued without the backing or knowledge of Congress in an effort to destroy the Khmer Rouge.

The aftermath of heavy bombing in Snuol, Cambodia, during the Cambodian Campaign of the Vietnam War, in May 1970

(Getty Images)

The US was not at war with Cambodia, but Kissinger felt the barbaric operation was needed to prevent the Khmer Rouge from supporting the communist North Vietnamese army.

The fissures from the disastrous military campaign led to an eight year civil war between the Cambodian government and the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot. The war killed an estimated 275,000–310,000 people, displaced millions, and destroyed a fifth of the country.

In declassified transcripts of telephone conversations from 1970, Kissinger spoke to Nixon about the situation in Cambodia before relaying the following order to his deputy Alexander Haig: “He wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia… It’s an order, it’s to be done. Anything that flies, on anything that moves. You got that?”

At the age of 90, and in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Kissinger maintained that the US aerial bombardment took place in parts of Cambodia that “were essentially unpopulated”.

Kissinger was later found to have sabotaged peace talks between the US and the Vietcong while advising the Lyndon B Johnson administration during the Paris Peace Talks of 1968 by passing confidential intelligence to the South Vietnamese government.

President Richard Nixon, right, offers his congratulations to his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973

Many thought it grotesque that Kissinger was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for negotiating the end of the war.

After visiting the country, the late chef, author and TV icon Anthony Bourdain wrote in his 2011 book A Cook’s Tour: “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands”.

“Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.”

Speaking to the New Yorker in 2017, Bourdain said he was “sickened” by how New York society had embraced Kissinger.

Senator Bernie Sanders said that Kissinger “created one of the worst genocides in the history of the world”.

East Timor

Kissinger’s bloody role in the massacre by Indonesian forces of the East Timorese people would only emerge decades after the fact.

He and President Gerald Ford met with the Indonesian dictator Suharto in December 1975 where they gave him the greenlight to invade East Timor, sparking a civil war that left as many as 200,000 people dead, according to documents that were declassified in 2001.

“It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly,” Kissinger told Suharto during a brief visit to Indonesia, according to telegrams obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

The next day, Indonesia invaded the fledgling former Portuguese colony, resulting in a decades-long conflict that continued until 2002 when Timor finally gained independence.

President Bill Clinton, left, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger laugh at a national policy conference, March 1, 1995

Asked about the tacit approval in 1995, Kissinger flat out denied he had discussed the invasion with Suharto, who was viewed as a bulwark against communist expansion in the region.

“Those who follow history, who follow international politics — they know about this past, which was tragic and ugly,” East Timorese president José Ramos-Horta told the Washington Post in an interview after Kissinger’s death.

Mr Ramos-Horta told The Post that he felt Kissinger and other US officials were “embarrassed by what they did”, but in numerous face-to-face meetings he had never acknowledged his role in the massacre of the East Timorese people.

Salvador Allende had been viewed as a threat to US hegemony in South America long before he was elected as Chilean president in 1970, at a time when much of the continent was ruled by military dictatorships propped up by American support.

The socialist leader implemented wide-ranging reforms to nationalise the country’s copper mining industry, provide free health care and education to help lift the poorest out of poverty. He also re-established diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

Declassified reports would later show that Kissinger led the Nixon administration’s efforts to destabilise the country, and spent millions on covert activities to undermine his government and protect US business interests.

Chilean President Salvador Allende salutes from an open vehicle as General Augusto Pinochet rides on horseback alongside him in Santiago, in May 1972

(Associated Press)

Three years into Allende’s rule, with the country facing record inflation and widespread strikes (which were in part funded by the CIA) a coup led by General Augusto Pinochet saw the overthrow of the democratically-elected government.

Kissinger denied any involvement or knowledge of the coup, although declassified documents later showed that he and Nixon had branded Allende as a dangerous communist and laid the seeds for his overthrow

Allende was killed in the presidential palace on 11 September 1973, in what came to be known as the “other 9/11”.

A report by the Chilean government later found that 40,018 people were killed, tortured, or imprisoned on political charges during Pinochet’s regime.

Historian Peter Kornbluh, author of The Pinochet File, wrote that under the “narrow definition  of ‘direct role’... the CIA does not appear to have been involved in the violent actions of the Chilean military on September 11, 1973.”

But he continued that the Nixon White House had undoubtedly “embraced the coup”.

In a recorded conversation with Nixon five days after it, Kissinger confessed: “We didn’t do it. I mean we helped them... (inaudible) created the conditions as great as possible.”

Pinochet’s military junta was immediately recognised by the United States, and the dictator ruled the country with an iron fist until 1990.

Kissinger provided US support to the military junta of General Jorge Rafael Videla after he overthrew President Isabel Perón in March 1976, according to State Department cables.

This led to the infamous Dirty War between 1976 to 1983, where Argentina’s military rulers killed or “disappeared” between 10,000 and 30,000 citizens, many of whom were never heard from again.

Secretary Kissinger secured $50m in funding for the Argentine dictatorship from Congress. After leaving the White House, he attended the 1978 Football World Cup as a personal guest of Videla.

The horrors of military rule were exposed after Argentina elected democratic leaders again in 1983. Many political prisoners were dropped from helicopters into the Atlantic Ocean.

Videla was later convicted of torture, kidnapping, and murder, and died in prison in 2013.

Bangladesh

When war broke out in what was then known as East Pakistan in 1970, Kissinger and Nixon backed the military government of West Pakistan in its genocide in what would become Bangladesh.

At the time, East Pakistan was a key US ally in its geopolitical struggle against the Soviet Union and communist-leaning India.

As the war spread and India became involved, the White House opted to back the slaughter by illegally transferring military hardware to the East Pakistan government.

Henry Kissinger during a White House news briefing in October 1972

Independent researchers put the death toll at between 300,000 to 500,000 people, while Bangladeshi officials placed it as high as five million.

In the 2013 book The Blood Telegram, Gary J Bass wrote that Kissinger had called Indians “bastards,” and Nixon said they needed “a mass famine.”

Mr Bass recounted a conversation between the pair where they compared Pakistan’s genocide to the Holocaust, and yet still decided that any US intervention would be unwise.

Kissinger reportedly felt that it was more important to secure Pakistan’s help in diplomatic efforts to woo China.

After Kissinger’s death, Bangladesh’s foreign minister AK Abdul Momen condemned his role in violating “all American laws, international laws to support Pakistani military junta and also supplied weapons to illegally occupying forces of Pakistan”.

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2023-12-01 05:04:11Z
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Israel-Hamas war live: Israel resumes military operations in Gaza after ceasefire expires - The Guardian

Gaza’s health ministry has said 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since the truce expired this morning.

Reuters reports the figure provided by the Hamas-run ministry. Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary had earlier said that at least six had been killed in an attack on a house in Rafah and in Khan Younis.

Another seven were also killed in the Maghazi area.

Israel has also been asking residents in certain neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave before an expected attack in the area.

“The Israeli forces are dropping leaflets for people in Khan Younis asking them to evacuate to Rafah but they are also targeting Rafah,” Khoudary said.

Qatar has confirmed that talks are continuing between Israel and Palestine with the aim of the ceasefire resuming.

Its ministry of foreign affairs posted a statement on X, saying: “The state of Qatar expresses its deep regret at the resumption of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip following the end of the humanitarian pause, without reaching an agreement to extend it.

“The state of Qatar is committed, along with its mediation partners, to continuing the efforts that led to the humanitarian pause, and will not hesitate to do everything necessary to return to calm.”

It added: “The ministry stresses that the continued bombing of the Gaza Strip in the first hours after the end of the pause complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip, and in this context calls on the international community to move quickly to stop the violence.”

It went on to condemn the targeting of civilians, collective punishment and “attempts to forcibly displace citizens of the besieged Gaza Strip”.

Qatar had successfully brokered the agreement a week ago for the ceasefire to come into effect, which saw the release of hostages and prisoners.

Hamas said on Friday morning that Israel refused an offer to release more hostages and the bodies of an Israeli family killed in airstrikes. This has not been independently verified by the Guardian.

The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said it had attacked Israeli cities and towns on Friday.

In a statement on Telegram, the militant group said it was in response to “crimes against our people”, according to Reuters.

Thirty-two Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since the truce expired on Friday morning, Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry said on Friday, according to the ministry’s Telegram account.

The latest figures, reported by Reuters, follow Israeli jets firing on the Gaza Strip minutes after the truce expired on Friday.

The Unicef spokesperson James Elder has reported that an airstrike landed about 50 metres away from the “biggest still functioning hospital in Gaza”.

“This hospital simply cannot take more children with the wounds of war,” he says in a video posted on X. He pans briefly to children asleep on the floor of a hospital room. Elder is the chief of communications for Unicef. His post was accompanied with the caption: “Has humanity given up on the children of Gaza?”

“I cannot overstate how the capacity has been reduced in hospitals over the last seven weeks. We cannot see more children with the wounds of war, with the burns, the shrapnel littering their body, with their broken bones. Inaction from those with influence is allowing the killing of children. This is a war on children.”

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said that the Israeli military must “return and crush Gaza with all our might”.

In a post on X this morning, he said: “For the sake of the children who have not yet returned, for the murdered who will no longer return, so that the horrors of 7/10 will never return, we must return and crush Gaza with all our might, destroy Hamas and return to the Strip, without compromises, without deals. at maximum power.”

While the ceasefire has expired this morning, negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt with Israel and Hamas are continuing, Reuters reports.

Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been in contact with both sides since fighting resumed in Gaza on Friday, the source said.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, was seen speaking to the Qatari emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai.

Israel has been dropping leaflets into parts of southern Gaza, telling residents to leave.

Associated Press reports that they have been dropped in Khan Younis, a city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The leaflets warn that the city is now a “dangerous battle zone”. So far since the Israeli response to the Hamas terror attack has focused largely on the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Many had fled the north into the south, taking shelter in areas including Khan Younis.

It comes as fighting has resumed this morning in the Palestinian territory after the ceasefire, which had been in place since 24 November.

Gaza’s health ministry has said 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since the truce expired this morning.

Reuters reports the figure provided by the Hamas-run ministry. Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary had earlier said that at least six had been killed in an attack on a house in Rafah and in Khan Younis.

Another seven were also killed in the Maghazi area.

Israel has also been asking residents in certain neighbourhoods of Khan Younis to leave before an expected attack in the area.

“The Israeli forces are dropping leaflets for people in Khan Younis asking them to evacuate to Rafah but they are also targeting Rafah,” Khoudary said.

Here are images of Antony Blinken boarding a US military plane before his departure from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on Friday.

On Thursday the US secretary of state had met Israeli and Palestinian officials and called for the temporary truce to be extended, as well as saying any resumption of combat must protect Palestinian civilians.

Blinken had told reporters in Tel Aviv of the seven-day pause in fighting:

Clearly, we want to see this process continue to move forward. We want an eighth day and beyond.

On his third trip to the Middle East since 7 October, Blinken also said the US remained committed to supporting Israel’s right to self-defence, but that Israel must protect civilians if it started major military operations in southern Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes have hit southern Gaza, including the community of Abassan east of the city of Khan Younis, the Hamas-run territory’s interior ministry said.

Another strike hit a home north-west of Gaza City, it said.

The strikes came as the Israeli military said its fighter jets hit Hamas targets in Gaza as the war resumed in full force after the weeklong truce expired, Associated Press reports.

Loud, continuous explosions were heard coming from Gaza and black smoke billowed from the territory on Friday morning.

In Israel, sirens blared at three communal farms near Gaza, warning of incoming rocket fire, suggesting Hamas had also resumed its attacks.

The Israeli military’s announcement of the strikes came just 30 minutes after the ceasefire expired at 7am (0500 GMT) on Friday.

Earlier Friday, Israel accused Hamas of having violated the terms of the ceasefire.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas did not agree to release further hostages, infringing on the terms of the truce, and that Israel remained committed to achieving its objectives as fighting resumed.

Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that Hamas did not release all women captives as agreed and also launched rockets at Israel, Reuters reports.

His office said:

With the resumption of fighting we emphasise the Israeli government is committed to achieving the goals of the war: to free our hostages, to eliminate Hamas and to ensure that Gaza will never pose a threat to the residents of Israel.

Jason Burke in Jerusalem has filed a full report on the developments this morning:

The first images since the resumption of fighting in Gaza are coming though over the news wires:

Inside the Gaza Strip a journalist reported artillery fire in Gaza City and Israeli warplanes carrying out a series of strikes after the resumption of fighting.

The Agence France-Presse journalist also reported drones could be heard in the air over the south of the territory for the first time since the ceasefire.

The resumption of fighting dashed hopes for an extension of the seven-day truce that had seen a reported 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners released.

The ceasefire also allowed more aid into the ravaged Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken had met Israeli and Palestinian officials and called for the pause in hostilities to be extended, as well as saying any resumption of combat must protect Palestinian civilians.

Israeli military warplanes are now attacking Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces has said on social media.

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2023-12-01 07:24:00Z
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Israel-Hamas war live: Israel frees 30 Palestinians from jails as Hamas releases eight hostages - The Guardian

The Israel Prison Service said early on Friday it had released 30 Palestinians from Israeli jails as part of the latest exchange for hostages under the truce deal with Hamas.

The prison service said the Palestinians were released from prisons in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem under the seventh swap, Reuters reported.

Israel knew of Hamas’s attack plan more than a year ago, according to a report in the New York Times.

The report says a blueprint reviewed by the Times laid out the attack in detail, but that Israeli officials dismissed it as aspirational and ignoring specific warnings.

The NYT report says:

Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.

The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.

The translated document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters.

Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision.

… Officials privately concede that, had the military taken these warnings seriously and redirected significant reinforcements to the south, where Hamas attacked, Israel could have blunted the attacks or possibly even prevented them.

… The Israeli military and the Israeli Security Agency, which is in charge of counterterrorism in Gaza, declined to comment.

These images are coming in over the news wires of Palestinian prisoners being welcomed in the occupied West Bank early on Friday after their release by Israel in the latest exchange.

On the number of hostages released by Hamas in the latest exchange, Agence France-Presse is reporting how the truce deal stipulates that a minimum of 10 Israeli captives should be released alive each day.

The militant group released just eight Israelis on Thursday.

But a source close to Hamas told AFP that two Russian-Israeli women freed on Wednesday in addition to 10 others made up for only eight being released on Thursday.

Mediator Qatar appeared to back the calculation.

In exchange under the extended truce deal – due to expire within hours – Israeli prison authorities said 30 Palestinians prisoners were freed overnight on Thursday.

Since the agreement came into force on 24 November, 110 hostages have been released, including 80 Israelis.

The majority of the 30 non-Israeli hostages freed were from Thailand, released under a separate agreement.

Israel has freed 240 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.

Al Jazeera is reporting that a bus carrying newly released Palestinian detainees has been hit with tear gas fired by Israeli forces, according to a witness.

The network’s report says Issam Rimawi, a Palestinian photojournalist, witnessed and recorded the incident and said Israeli forces were deployed outside Ofer prison in the West Bank before the release of the Palestinian prisoners.

The report quotes Rimawi as telling Al Jazeera in Ramallah:

They were firing tear gas just as the bus carrying the prisoners was leaving

The prisoners were suffocating, and the driver had to stop the bus until the Red Cross crew came to help them.

The medical team had to go into the bus, and we have documented this with our own camera.

The Israeli authorities are doing this because they don’t want people to celebrate the release of the prisoners.

The Al Jazeera Media Network is funded by the Qatari royal family and says it has editorial independence.

The Israel Prison Service said early on Friday it had released 30 Palestinians from Israeli jails as part of the latest exchange for hostages under Israel’s truce agreement with Hamas.

Here are some of the images coming in of the latest release of six hostages by Hamas – in addition to two freed earlier on Thursday – under the exchange agreement with Israel.

Here’s more around the Agence France-Presse report that Hamas has said it is willing to further extend the truce pausing fighting with Israel.

Israel had yet to respond, the news agency reports.

The current truce is due to expire early on Friday after a seven-day pause. US secretary of state Antony Blinken urged an extension after meeting with leaders in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

“Clearly, we want to see this process continue to move forward,” he told reporters in Tel Aviv on Thursday.

We want an eighth day and beyond.

Blinken also said Israel “must put in place humanitarian civilian protection plans that minimise further casualties of innocent Palestinians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza, where they can be safe and out of the line of fire”.

International pressure has risen for a lasting halt to the war. The White House said it was “working on it literally by the hour” to try to extend the temporary ceasefire.

Amid the latest release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a source close to Hamas, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media, told AFP it was “willing to extend the truce”.

The source added:

The mediators are currently making strong, intense and continuous efforts for an additional day in the truce and then working to extend it again for other days.

The Israel Prison Service said early on Friday it had released 30 Palestinians from Israeli jails as part of the latest exchange for hostages under the truce deal with Hamas.

The prison service said the Palestinians were released from prisons in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem under the seventh swap, Reuters reported.

It’s 1am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:

• Israel’s military confirmed on Thursday that a truce with Hamas would continue, allowing further hostage and prisoner releases and the possibility of more a durable pause in hostilities. There were frantic diplomatic efforts through the night to prolong the six-day halt to fighting in Gaza, which had been due to end at 7am local time (5am GMT) on Thursday. Both sides have stressed they have the will and capabilities to continue the conflict.

• Talks are continuing about extending the pause, which is due to end early Friday. Hamas is willing to further extend the truce, a source close to Hamas has said. The White House has said it is “working on it literally by the hour” to try to extend the temporary ceasefire.

• Eight Israeli hostages held in Gaza were released on Thursday. Hamas freed six of the hostages hours after releasing two Israeli women. All were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza and were being brought to Israel to be taken to hospitals and be reunited with their families, the Israeli military said. Among them is Mia Schem,a French-Israeli woman who was abducted from the Supernova music festival in Israel and shown in the first Hamas video of a hostage speaking from captivity.

• Under the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas – which was extended on Thursday for another day – Hamas must release 10 Israeli hostages each day in exchange for the release of 30 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The Qatari foreign ministry saidtoday’s overall tally has been reached, because two Russian-Israeli dual-nationals released on Wednesday have been included in Thursday’s count. The prominent Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi was among 30 prisoners freed by Israel early on Thursday. Eight Palestinian women and 22 children are slated for release later today.

• The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has stepped up calls for Israel to comply with international law and spare civilians as it wages its war against Hamas in Gaza. On his third trip to the Middle East since 7 October, Blinken said the US remains committed to supporting Israel’s right to self defence, but that Israel must protect civilians if it starts major military operations in southern Gaza.

• Three people were killed and 13 injured after two brothers from East Jerusalem shot at people waiting at a bus stop on a main road towards the western edge of the city in the rush hour, local police and medics reported. Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.

• An Israeli military assault into the south of Gaza may lead to 1 million refugees, the head of the UN’s Palestine relief agency UNRWA has warned. After a second overnight visit to Gaza, Philippe Lazzarini urged Israel to think through the consequences of an offensive in the south if the temporary truce in the fighting is not extended.

• Seventeen Thai hostages freed by Hamas over recent days have landed back in Bangkok, where relatives had gathered at the airport to welcome them home. The latest releases bring the total number of Thai nationals freed to 23, with nine still being held.

Among the Israeli hostages who were released today include two children and six women, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that eight people who were being held hostage in Gaza have been released.

Hamas is willing to further extend a truce to pause fighting with Israel, a source close to Hamas has told Agence France-Presse.

The source told the news agency:

The mediators are currently making strong, intense and continuous efforts for an additional day in the truce and then working to extend it again for other days.

Here’s a clip from Antony Blinken’s press conference earlier, held in Tel Aviv after meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

The US secretary of state said the immediate focus of his visit was to try to extend the pause in fighting in Gaza and enable more hostages to be freed.

The US also urged Benjamin Netanyahu to protect civilians in Gaza. Blinken said:

Israel has one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world, it is capable of neutralising the threat while minimising harm to innocent men, women and children.

Two siblings, Aisha Ziyadne, 17, and Bilal Ziyadne, 18, are among the Israeli hostages who have been released tonight.

The pair were abducted from the kibbutz Holit together with their older brother, Hamza, and their father, Yousef.

Since the day of the assault, the extended Ziyadne family has been holding a permanent vigil outside the house of Yousef, the Times of Israel reported.

Ilana Gritzewsky, one of the two Mexican hostages held in Gaza, has been released, Mexico’s foreign minister, Alicia Bárcena, has confirmed.

In a social media post, Bárcena thanked the Qatari government for its “invaluable mediation”, adding that Mexico continues to work for the release of its other citizen, Orion Hernandez.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that eight people who were being held hostage in Gaza have been released.

An ICRC statement reads:

We’re glad to inform that 8 people who were being held hostage in Gaza have just been released, with facilitation from the ICRC.

Our teams have transferred them and handed them over to the Israeli authorities.

This is possible thanks to our neutral intermediary role.

The six Israeli hostages who are being released tonight by Hamas from captivity in Gaza have been named.

They are:

• Aisha Ziyadne, 17

• Bilal Ziyadne, 18

• Nili Margalit, 40

• Shani Goren, 29

• Sapir Cohen, 29

• Ilana Gritzewsky, 30

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al Ansari, said 30 Palestinians will be released on Thursday in exchange for the release of 10 hostages in Gaza.

In a social media post, he said two Russian citizens released on Wednesday were counted on today’s list.

It comes as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said six Israeli hostages are currently on their way back to Israel territory. Two Israeli hostages have been released earlier today.

Earlier today, an Israeli official reiterated Israel’s position that it would agree to an extra day of truce for the release of each group of 10 hostages. In exchange, three times the number of Palestinian prisoners would be released each time.

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2023-12-01 01:13:00Z
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