ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 376
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The Times of Israel liveblogged Friday’s events as they unfolded.
The White House offers condolences after Al Jazeera says one of its journalists was killed Friday in an Israeli strike.
“I just want to offer our deepest condolences to Al Jazeera to and to the family and loved ones of Sameer Abu Daqqa, who was on the ground doing necessary important work for not only your viewers but to people all around the world,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says during a phone briefing with reporters.
Al Jazeera said that Abu Daqqa, a cameraman, and Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh were wounded in a school in Khan Younis, where they were hit by “shrapnel from an Israeli missile attack.”
In a subsequent statement condemning the Israeli military, Al Jazeera attributed the injuries to a drone strike.
“Following Samer’s injury, he was left to bleed to death for over 5 hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment,” the network charged.
Al-Dahdouh was wounded in the arm and transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to an AFP journalist.
In a news update, Al Jazeera said Al-Dahdouh was able to leave the area of the strike to look for help, “but by the time he reached an ambulance, medics said they could not return to the site of the attack because it was too dangerous.”
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
Large crowds have amassed at the Kaplan Junction in Tel Aviv and have blocked off the road to traffic as they march toward the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters in a flash protest calling for the government to take the initiative to secure the release of the hostages, after the IDF’s mistakenly killed three of them earlier today in Gaza.
“Their time is running out! Bring them home now!” the crowd is heard chanting. “There is no victory until every last hostage is released!”
Anger among the hostage families has mounted in recent days following reports that the government has been holding off on initiating a hostage deal proposal with Hamas on the grounds that it believes that only continued IDF operations in Gaza will bring the terror group to its knees and back to the table with an offer Israel could accept.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly barred Mossad chief David Barnea from traveling to Qatar for that reason earlier this week.
However, Axios reports that Netanyahu has since changed his mind and has agreed to dispatch Barnea to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe this weekend to discuss resuming negotiations toward another hostage deal.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger refused to take a picture with the families of the hostage during their highly charged meeting yesterday in Tel Aviv, Hebrew media reports.
Spoljaric has also pushed back on Israeli calls to publicly pressure Hamas to allow for Red Cross visits of the hostages, arguing that the terror group won’t be moved and that taking such steps risks her agency losing its influence to operate in such conflict.
It’s unclear why she refused the photograph if she took one with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that same day.
The hostages’ families have rejected the Red Cross’s arguments outright, saying the ICRC is failing to do its job, refusing to make an effort to at least get medicine transferred to their loved ones and only willing to criticize the Israeli government.
During their meeting, one of the fathers of the hostages got up from his chair and demanded that Spoljaric take his son’s inhaler and ensure that he receives it. The Red Cross chair uncomfortably tried to explain why she didn’t have the power to heed the request but the father refused to accept her argument.
After the cabinet voted earlier today to reopen its Kerem Shalom Crossing for humanitarian aid to be able to enter Gaza directly through Israel for the first time since the outbreak of the war, two US and Israeli officials tell The Times of Israel that the Biden administration has set its sites on its next ask from Israel: to allow commercial goods into the Strip.
Since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, only basic humanitarian goods have — food, water, medicine and fuel — have been entering Gaza.
The officials tell The Times of Israel that the US aims to get Gaza’s albeit limited economy up and running again after it effectively stopped operating on October 7.
Both the US and Israeli officials say that Jerusalem is currently resistant to the idea, but the US official expresses optimism that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will come around, as it did on reopening Kerem Shalom, allowing in fuel and allowing in humanitarian trucks from Egypt after initially rejecting all three requests.
“The Israelis understand that the more aid that gets in, the more time they’ll have to continue operations in Gaza,” the US official says.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reacts to the news of the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages by IDF troops in northern Gaza earlier today.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s tragic,” Kirby says during a press briefing.
“I think the Israelis will certainly take a look at this, and I’m sure they will do the forensics and to try to figure out how this happened. That’s certainly the way we would approach a situation like this,” he says.
He declines a request to pass judgement on the incident.
“We are mourning with the families who are getting the worst possible news a family can get, and I think we need to keep them foremost in mind,” Kirby says, adding that US President Joe Biden has been briefed by his national security team on the incident.
The White House issues its readout on the meeting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held earlier today with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
“Sullivan expressed his deepest sympathy for Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives in Gaza since October 7th,” the readout begins.
Over 19,000 have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to a Hamas-run Gaza health ministry figure, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The number, which cannot be verified, includes Gazans killed by terror groups’ rocket misfires. Israel says it has killed 7,000 Hamas operatives in Gaza.
“He discussed US efforts to increase the flow of life-saving humanitarian assistance for Palestinian civilians in Gaza and stressed the importance of enhancing the protection of civilians.”
“President Abbas and Mr. Sullivan discussed efforts to promote stability in the West Bank, including ongoing actions against terrorism and incitement, as well as recent measures to counter extremist settler violence against Palestinians,” the readout says, referring to visa bans announced recently by the US.
“Mr. Sullivan reemphasized President Biden’s longstanding vision for a more peaceful, integrated, and prosperous Middle East region, and ultimately a path to a two-state solution that provides for equal measures of justice, freedom and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” the readout adds, repeating a talking point that has been used more aggressively by the US since the outbreak of the war.
In his first public comments on the mistaken IDF killing of three Israeli hostages in northern Gaza earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, “Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the fall of three of our dear sons who were taken hostage, among them Yotam Haim and Samar Talalka.”
The third hostage killed was later named as Alon Lulu Shamriz.
“This is an unbearable tragedy. The entire State of Israel mourns this evening. My heart goes out to the grieving families in their difficult time.”
“I strengthen our brave warriors who are pursuing the sacred mission of returning our abducted, even at the cost of their own lives.”
“Even on this difficult evening, we will dress our wounds, learn the necessary lessons and continue with our supreme effort to return all our hostages home safely,” Netanyahu says.
In his own statement, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says, “During this difficult time, my thoughts and my heart are with the families of the three hostages who were mistakenly killed by IDF fire in Gaza.״
״This is a painful incident for every Israeli. We must remain resilient and continue operating – for the hostages, for our citizens and for our soldiers.”
“This evening I spoke with the IDF Chief of the General Staff about the details of this tragic incident in order to learn lessons immediately,” Gallant adds.
The Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council announces the death of Kibbutz Kfar Aza resident Alon Lulu Shamriz, revealing the identity of the third Israeli hostage mistakenly shot dead by the IDF during fighting in northern Gaza earlier today.
Shamriz, 26, was a computer engineering student. His parents are from Iran.
Also killed were Yotam Haim and Samar Talalka.
War cabinet minister Benny Gantz writes on X that he is “heartbroken” over the news that three hostages were mistakenly killed by the IDF during fighting in northern Gaza earlier today.
“My heart goes out to all of the families of the hostages and also the soldiers who are in the depths of [Gaza] carrying out a complex and important mission, the likes of which we’ve never seen since the establishment of the state,” he writes.
“Our responsibility is to win this war, and part of that victory will be bringing the hostages home. We’ll do everything we can to bring them back alive. Everything,” Gantz vows.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan asserts that the Palestinian Authority is capable of returning to govern Gaza after the war but that discussions on this effort cannot begin until there is a ceasefire.
Prince Faisal says during a press conference in Oslo that the PA has done a very good job in the West Bank despite difficult conditions and Israeli attempts to collapse it.
Perhaps the problem lies elsewhere when talking about the need to revive the PA, the Saudi foreign minister says. “It is capable of shouldering the responsibilities if a Palestinian state is established.”
The mayor of the Bedouin town of Rahat mourns the mistaken killing of three hostages by IDF troops earlier today in Gaza.
The IDF has identified two of the hostages as Yotam Haim and Samar Talalka, who was a resident of Rahat.
“Such bitter news: Bedouins and Jews were taken hostage together, managed to flee together in an effort to continue their lives — and ended their lives together in this very tragic event,” Ata Abu Madighem tells Army Radio.
Initial assessments from the IDF say Haim, Talalka and a third hostage whose family requested that he not be identified managed to either flee from captivity or were abandoned by their captors amid the intensity of the IDF firefight in northern Gaza.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says during battles in northern Gaza’s Shejaiya this morning, Israeli troops mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and opened fire at them, killing them.
Hagari says the IDF bears responsibility for the “tragic incident.”
“This is an area where the soldiers encountered many terrorists, including suicide bombers,” he adds.
Hagari names the hostages as Yotam Haim, who was abducted by Hamas from Kfar Aza, and Samar Talalka, who was abducted from Nir Am. The third hostage was not named following requests by their family.
Asked how the hostages were able to escape Hamas captivity, Hagari says the military believes that “the three fled or were abandoned by the terrorists who held them captive.”
In his statement, Hagari says that “after the shooting, during a scan and examination, an immediate suspicion arose regarding the identity of the dead, and their bodies were quickly transferred for examination in Israel, where the hostages were identified.”
“This is a sad and painful event for all of us, and the IDF bears responsibility for everything that happened,” he says.
Hagari says the IDF immediately began to investigate the incident. “This is a tragic event, which took place in a battle zone where the troops encountered many terrorists in recent days, and today, and fought hard battles,” he says.
“In some cases, suicide bombers were encountered, and also attacks in which terrorists tried to lure our forces and draw them into an ambush. Shortly after the tragic incident, another encounter with terrorists took place near the scene of the incident,” Hagari says.
He says the IDF is still working to “gather the facts and clarify the details of the incident,” but meanwhile new protocols for identifying hostages were transferred to the ground forces, “to do everything to prevent another tragic event like this.”
“The IDF expresses deep sorrow for the disaster and shares in the grief of the families. May their memory be blessed,” Hagari adds.
Channel 12 reports that the families of hostages in Gaza are weighing launching a hunger strike in protest of what they view as government inaction to secure the release of their loved ones.
The development comes amid reports that the government is holding off on initiating a hostage deal with Hamas on the grounds that it believes that continued IDF operations in Gaza will bring the terror group to its knees and back to the table with a good offer.
Also in recent days, the IDF managed to retrieve a number of bodies of hostages killed in Gaza, which the families say could have been saved.
The hostages’ families have argued that each day that passes places their loved ones at even greater risk.
The IDF says it carried out another wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to rocket fire on northern Israel today.
Among the sites that were hit by aircraft were a command center, a military compound and other infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah, the IDF says.
The army says it also hit a rocket launch position used to fire at Israel earlier with the Iron Sting guided mortar.
Several rockets were fired from Lebanon at Shtula earlier, setting of alarms in the community.
The IDF says it carried out another wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon in response to rocket fire on northern Israel today.
Among the sites that were hit by aircraft were a command center, a military compound, and other infrastructure belonging to… pic.twitter.com/8YLYL9Igwb
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) December 15, 2023
German transport company Hapag-Lloyd announces it is suspending Red Sea container ship traffic until December 18, after one of its vessels was attacked by Huthi rebels from Yemen.
“Hapag-Lloyd is interrupting all container ship traffic across the Red Sea until Monday,” the company says in a statement sent to AFP.
The move comes hours after Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, announced a similar decision.
German airline group Lufthansa says it plans to resume flights to Tel Aviv from January 8 after the service was suspended after Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.
The group’s airlines will initially “offer a total of 20 weekly connections to and from Tel Aviv,” Lufthansa says in a statement. “This corresponds to around 30 percent of the regular flight schedule.”
Lufthansa Airlines will offer connections from Frankfurt and Munich, while Austrian Airlines and SWISS will also restart the service.
The Lufthansa group halted flights to Israel on October 9, citing security concerns after Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7.
Other airlines including British Airways, Air France-KLM and US airline Delta also cut flights to Tel Aviv in the wake of the attack.
In addition, Lufthansa suspended flights to and from the Lebanese capital Beirut on October 13 as tensions in the region soared.
Flights to Beirut were resumed on Friday by Lufthansa and its subsidiaries SWISS and Eurowings, the group adds.
“The Lufthansa group continues to monitor the security situation in Israel closely and is in close contact with the local and international authorities,” the statement says.
“Possible flight schedule adjustments must be expected due to changing conditions.”
A Palestinian Authority official tells The Times of Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reported claim earlier this week that Israel is preparing for the possibility of warfare with the PA security forces sparked alarm in Ramallah.
Selected quotes from closed-door testimony Netanyahu gave before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs on Monday were leaked to the Kan public broadcaster. They revealed that Netanyahu was asked whether Israel is prepared for a scenario in which the PA security forces cease working to quash Hamas and other terror elements in the West Bank and instead direct their weapons at Israel.
Netanyahu reportedly responded by saying that Israel is aware of this potential scenario and has already been preparing for it.
“We want to reach a situation where if such an event unfolds that within a few minutes, there will be IDF helicopters in the air ready to respond,” Kan quoted Netanyahu as having told the lawmakers.
The PA official says the reported comments were quickly picked up in Ramallah and he took particular issue both with Netanyahu’s message as well as what he said was his decision to leak them to the press.
The PA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warns that such messaging from Jerusalem could further weaken the morale of PA security troops and even risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
PA security officers and other employees have already been enduring long periods where they haven’t been paid in full or at all as Ramallah faces an ever-intensifying economic crisis.
A Washington Post report calls into a question several stories in other news outlets about anonymous letters purportedly signed by hundreds of federal government staffers expressing their opposition to the Biden administration’s support of Israel in the war against Hamas.
NBC News reported on a letter signed by what it said were 40 White House interns; Huffington Post reported on another such letter it said was signed by 140 Capitol Hill staffers; The New York Times reported on a letter signed by 500 political appointees and staff members from 40 government agencies; and Foreign Policy wrote about another letter signed by 370 US Agency for International Development employees.
The signatories in each letter maintained anonymity, however.
“In each case, it was impossible to identify or enumerate the letters’ purported signatories. The stories said supporters declined to make their names public. That left open claims that dozens of people stood behind the underlying sentiments,” The Washington Post reports.
The USAID letter explained that staffers withheld their names due to “concern for our personal safety and risk of potentially losing our jobs.”
Each news outlet that reported on the letters told the Post that it stands by the reporting but declined to elaborate further on their veracity.
A screenshot obtained by the Post indicates that the intern letter was organized by an individual who lives in San Francisco where they work as a doctor.
The B’Tselem rights group publishes security camera footage obtained from the al-Faraa refugee camp in the Jordan Valley of the West Bank showing IDF troops shooting dead two Palestinians at short range on December 8.
The army was engaged in a chase after a group of Palestinian men who are seen trying to flee the scene upon the arrival of an IDF jeep.
Soldiers then fire from the jeep, striking 25-year-old Rami Jundob who appears to be holding an explosive device. Jundob falls down, and the jeep moves closer to him before one of the soldiers inside fires at him again.
Jundob is then seen lifting his hand before the soldiers again proceed to fire repeatedly at him from close range. He died of his wounds the next day, B’Tselem says.
Thaar Shahin, a 36-year-old Palestinian is then seen peeking up from a car where he was hiding. The soldiers then fired at him.
Both were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were later pronounced dead, B’Tselem says.
Asked for comment on the incident, the IDF says in a statement that the Military Police opened a probe into the matter “on the suspicion that illegal shooting was carried out during the incident. At the end of the investigation, the findings will be submitted to the Military Advocate General for consideration.”
Original security camera footage obtained by B'Tselem captures two short-range executions of Palestinians in al-Far'ah R.C. on 8 December 2023. pic.twitter.com/gyDztMXIww
— B'Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) December 15, 2023
Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, says it is suspending its vessels’ passage through a key Red Sea strait following attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels on merchant ships.
“Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to pause their journey until further notice,” says a statement to AFP from the Danish firm.
German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, which has also been targeted by Houthi rebels, says it is examining whether to pause sailings through Red Sea, but that no final decision has been made yet.
Several Border Police officers were filmed earlier today beating Palestinian photojournalist Mustafa Haruf in East Jerusalem.
Haaretz describes Haruf as “a well-known photographer in the city who also documented the aftermath of Hamas’s massacre on the Gaza-border communities.”
Haruf says he was attacked without cause after leaving a prayer protest broken up by Israeli security forces in the Wadi Joz neighborhood.
Footage shows one border cop approaching Haruf and striking him with the barrel of his weapon. He is then flung to the floor by an officer and repeatedly kicked in the head and the body as he lies on the ground defenselessly and screaming in pain.
He was later taken to the hospital for injuries to the head and face.
The Border Police later announced that it had suspended the two officers involved in the incident and that the Department of Internal Police Investigations has opened a probe into the matter.
An earlier police statement said journalists had sought to interfere with their operations in the area and refused orders to vacate the premises.
צלם העיתונות מוסטפא חרוף אויים בירי חי והוכה באכזריות על ידי שוטרים במזרח ירושלים. הוא מאושפז עם פגיעות רציניות בראש. עוד לא ברור מה מצבו. pic.twitter.com/dYNPHHKryr
— نير حسون Nir Hasson ניר חסון (@nirhasson) December 15, 2023
Hamas’s military wing claims responsibility for the barrage of rockets fired at Jerusalem earlier this evening.
Israeli authorities have been disseminating footage of what they say was one of the rockets that fell near a hospital in Ramallah.
There are no immediate reports of injuries from the rocket fire.
#Hamas launch rockets indiscriminately.
They don't care what they hit – even if it is a hostile in #Ramallah pic.twitter.com/aWenmApqDY— COGAT (@cogatonline) December 15, 2023
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan hails the Israeli decision to reopen its Kerem Shalom Crossing for the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza for the first time since the war’s outbreak.
“Before departing Israel, I was informed by my counterpart, National Security Council chair Tzachi Hanegbi, that the Government of Israel has taken the decision to open its border crossing at Kerem Shalom for direct delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza. We welcome this significant step,” Sullivan says after wrapping up two days of meetings in Israel and Ramallah.
“President Biden raised this issue in recent phone calls with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and it was an important topic of discussion during my visit to Israel over the past two days,” Sullivan says in a statement.
“The United States remains committed to expanding and sustaining the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
“We will continue to work closely with Egypt and other partners on the delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance through Rafah crossing, and we hope that this new opening will ease congestion and help facilitate the delivery of life-saving assistance to those who need it urgently in Gaza,” he adds.
In an apparent warning to the Hezbollah terror group, the IDF issues a statement saying it is carrying out intensive training in northern Israel.
The army says the training, dubbed “precious time,” is aimed at preparing the soldiers for “additional possible scenarios on the northern border,” while carrying out their routine operations in the area.
It says the troops are training during the day and at night, in open and urban areas, and from the level of platoons to battalions. The soldiers are also being taught how to use armored vehicles and other weaponry.
Several rockets fired from Gaza are intercepted in the Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh area.
Eyewitnesses report at least three intercepts by the Iron Dome rocket defense system. Later reports indicate a total of six intercepts.
There are no reports of injuries.
The barrage was the first at the capital in more than a month.
Magen David reports that one rocket fell in open ground in the Beit Shemesh area. Damage was caused to henhouses in the area. Falling shrapnel also hit a high-voltage wire.
The IDF says troops of the Commando Brigade’s Maglan unit are fighting Hamas deep within Khan Younis, including at one of the homes of the terror group’s Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar.
“In one of the battles, the troops operated above the ruins of one of his houses where he had lived in recent years, which was attacked from the air at the beginning of the war,” the IDF says.
The IDF releases footage showing the troops fighting in the area.
It says the commando forces killed several Hamas operatives during the operations in Khan Younis.
In one of the incidents, the IDF says the soldiers identified a Hamas cell coming out of a tunnel and aiming RPGs at them. The gunmen were killed before they managed to open fire, according to the IDF.
The IDF says the Maglan soldiers located a long-range rocket launcher, and several “significant” tunnel shafts.
The troops also raided the home of the head of Hamas’s rocket array in its northern Khan Younis battalion, and seized weapons and intelligence materials.
The IDF says an attack helicopter and drone struck a number of Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, including a rocket launcher used to fire projectiles at northern Israel earlier.
The IDF says some of the rockets were intercepted, while others landed in open areas.
The Iron Dome also intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, and a drone launched from Lebanon crashed near an army post close to Menara, the IDF says.
לפני זמן קצר, מסוק קרב וכלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקפו והשמידו מספר מטרות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה. בין המטרות שהושמדו, עמדת שיגור ועמדה צבאית אשר ממנה בוצעו שיגורים לעבר שטח צפון הארץ מוקדם יותר היום >> pic.twitter.com/cUEUhXd1vw
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) December 15, 2023
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that “the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the Palestinian state,” rejecting what he said have been Israeli efforts to isolate the territory from the West Bank, his office says.
The stance is backed by the Biden administration, which is looking for the PA to eventually return to govern the Gaza Strip, re-uniting it with the West Bank under a singular political entity in what the US hopes will pave a path toward a two-state solution.
Israel has sought to first focus on dismantling the threat from the Gaza Strip before thinking more broadly and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the return of the PA to Gaza as well as the establishment of a Palestinian state.
During their meeting in Ramallah, Abbas also raised with Sullivan the need for Israel to release the tax revenues that belong to Ramallah, his office says.
The Israeli cabinet last month voted to withhold roughly $275 million in tax revenues that Jerusalem collects on the PA’s behalf. The sum amounts to what the PA allocates for services and salaries in the Gaza Strip, from which the cabinet is seeking to disconnect following the October 7 onslaught. The figure also makes up roughly 30% of the total monthly revenues owed to Ramallah.
In protest of the Israeli decision, the PA announced that it would not accept any of the tax revenues, daring Jerusalem to allow for its collapse, which could lead to Israel finding itself responsible for providing services to some three million Palestinians in the West Bank.
Abbas told Sullivan the tax revenues “will be for our people in the Gaza Strip. They are a priority, and they will not be abandoned,” according to the readout from his office.
The US has sought to coax Israel into walking back the decision, highlighting the efforts by the PA security forces to maintain stability in the West Bank since October 7 and warning that taking steps to facilitate its collapse risk opening a second front in the West Bank. To date, Netanyahu has shown no signs of budging on the matter, bowing to his far-right coalition partners who have long advocating in favor of dissolving the PA.
The rest of the PA readout regurgitates talking points about the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; the need to reopen of all crossing into Gaza to provide civilians there with more humanitarian aid; Israeli “aggressions” against Palestinians in the West Bank; the “abuse” of Palestinian prisoners; a rejection of displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the a warning about the “silent annexation” and displacement taking place in the West Bank
“There must be serious intervention by the American administration to prevent such policies that violate international law,” Abbas told Sullivan, according to the readout.
Abbas also raised the PA’s desire to obtain full-member status at the UN, to hold an international peace conference and for a two-state solution with Israel.
No readout is immediately issued by the White House.
Incoming rocket sirens are sounding in Jerusalem and several nearby communities, including Bet Shemesh.
The alarms sound following long-range rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Loud booms are heard from the center of the capital.
The cabinet has voted to approve the reopening of Israel’s Kerem Shalom Crossing for the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of the war on October 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announces today.
The statement comes after escalating pressure from the Biden administration and hours after US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan wrapped up his final meetings in Israel.
Netanyahu’s office reveals for the first time that Israel had committed as part of the truce that secured the release of 105 hostages last month it would facilitate the entry of 200 trucks per day of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Egypt’s Rafah crossing, which until now has been the only one open for the entry of aid, has only been able to keep up with 100 trucks per day, even after Israel began using Kerem Shalom for inspections earlier this week in addition to its Nitzana Crossing, said Netanyahu’s office.
The current framework has led to significant bottlenecks in the entry of aid.
“To comply with the agreement, today the cabinet temporarily approved the unloading of trucks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” the Israeli statement, employing the vaguest language possible, to announce that it had reopened Kerem Shalom for the entry of aid.
The cabinet decision only extends to aid from Egypt and not the United Nations, an Israeli official says.
Netanyahu’s office also reveals that “the US has pledged to finance the upgrading of the Rafah crossing as quickly as possible” so that the Egyptian access point will eventually be beefed up enough to be the sole crossing where aid is allowed into the Strip and so that Israeli crossings will not be needed for this purpose as well.
The cabinet decision is the latest flip-flop from Netanyahu’s government regarding humanitarian aid since Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught.
Netanyahu initially pledged not to allow any aid into Gaza, initially imposing a siege on the Hamas-run enclave.
Two weeks later, though, Israel began allowing aid trucks into the Strip through Egypt’s Rafah Crossing. It kept its own Kerem Shalom goods crossing closed, arguing it that it would not directly facilitate the entry of aid into Gaza as long as hostages remained inside.
Jerusalem said it was part of a broader policy to try and disconnect from the enclave.
Just over a month into the war, Israel approved the entry of fuel tankers into Gaza for the first time after Netanyahu initially declared that “not one drop” would be allowed in since it would be diverted by Hamas.
But the amount of aid still lagged well behind the 500 trucks a day that entered Gaza before the war, which the UN says is still not currently sufficient given Gaza’s unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
Until a seven-day truce was implemented at the end of November, just about 50 trucks were entering Gaza on average each day. The temporary ceasefire saw a major spike of 200 trucks per day.
That number had plummeted back down to roughly 100 a day since.
The IDF announces the death of a soldier during fighting this morning in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 119.
He is named as Master Sgt. (res.) Tomer Shlomo Myara, 28, of the Combat Engineering Corps’ 710th Battalion, from Netanya.
ושוב הלב נשבר- עוד לוחם מילואים שנפל במלחמה- רס״ר תומר מיארה, בן 28 מנתניה. יהי זכרו ברוך???????????? pic.twitter.com/A3YEq6GI4H
— יוסף חדאד – Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) December 15, 2023
Rocket sirens are heard in the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.
Around the same time, War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz, visiting Ma’alot-Tarshiha in the Upper Galilee, says he has invited top Western diplomats to visit the area and realize the threat posed by Hezbollah.
He warns that “if the world doesn’t get Hezbollah away from the border, Israel will do so.”
Israel has warned it will no longer tolerate the presence of the terror group along the frontier, where it could attempt to carry out an attack similar to the massacres committed by Hamas on October 7.
Since that date, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, though they have attempted to limit the scope of the attacks in an apparent bid to avoid all-out war.
The EU and 14 countries including the UK, Australia, Canada and France urge Israel in a joint statement “to take immediate and concrete steps to tackle record-high settler violence in the occupied West Bank,” saying ongoing attacks are “unacceptable.”
The statement warns of “grave concern about the record number of attacks by extremist settlers,” particularly since October 7.
“Israel, as the occupying power, must protect the Palestinian civilian population in the West Bank,” it says. “Israel’s failure to protect Palestinians and prosecute extremist settlers has led to an environment of near complete impunity in which settler violence has reached unprecedented levels.”
It says “settlers have committed more than 343 violent attacks, killing 8 Palestinian civilians, injuring more than 83, and forcing 1026 Palestinians from their homes.”
The countries say Israeli statements against such violence are welcome, but words “must now be translated into action.”
A Dutch court rejects a request by a group of human rights and humanitarian organizations to order a halt to the transfer to Israel of parts for F-35 fighter jets.
The organizations went to court Dec. 4 arguing that delivery of parts for F-35 jets makes the Netherlands complicit in possible war crimes committed by Israel in its war with Hamas. The parts are stored in a warehouse in the Dutch town of Woensdrecht.
In a written statement, the Hague District Court says the judge who heard the civil case concluded that the government of the Netherlands “weighed the relevant interests” before agreeing to the delivery of parts.
Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld told the court that the Dutch government decided to continue transferring F-35 parts to Israel even after the deadly October 7 attacks by Hamas triggered the Israel-Hamas war.
“The warning that the fighter jets can contribute to serious breaches of the laws of war does not, for the state, outweigh its economic interests and diplomatic reputation,” Zegveld said.
Government lawyer Reimer Veldhuis told the judge hearing the civil case that a ban on transfers from the Netherlands would effectively be meaningless as “the United States would deliver these parts to Israel from another place.”
The army releases a video filmed by troops in northern Gaza, in which a commander details methods used by Hamas to lure soldiers into traps amid the fighting.
Standing near the Jabaliya camp, he points to what he says are child-like mannequins planted by gunmen, alongside schoolbags and a speaker playing Hebrew speech and sometimes sounds of crying.
He says these were positioned in a location in which gunmen tried to ambush soldiers with gunmen and bombs planted inside sacks of the UN refugee agency UNRWA. He says soldiers fought and defeated the gunmen.
“Their goal is to lure us in to examine these things… to pull us into a rigged location,” he says.
מרחב ממולכד עם בובות המשמיעות קולות בכי של ילדים: צה"ל חשף מארב של חמאס שנועד למשוך את הכוחות למנהרה
לכל העדכונים – https://t.co/8G2wrna0ZE@OrHeller pic.twitter.com/8FPgJfUpMG
— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) December 15, 2023
The IDF announces the death of a soldier during fighting this morning in the southern Gaza Strip, bringing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 118.
He is named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Shay Uriel Pizem, 23, a tank commander in the 401st Armored Brigade’s 9th Battalion, from Ein HaNatziv.
The IDF says the Air Force struck a Hezbollah target in Lebanon, amid the ongoing exchanges of fire with the terror group along the border.
It also says troops carried out a strike on two gunmen identified near the border.
כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקף והשמיד מטרת טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בשטח לבנון. בנוסף, לפני זמן קצר כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקף מחבל שפעל בשטח לבנון סמוך למרחב זרעית.
כמו כן, במהלך הבוקר כוחות צה"ל תקפו שני מחבלים חמושים שפעלו בשטח לבנון, סמוך למרחב יארון pic.twitter.com/fG5B39KIEQ
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) December 15, 2023
On Israel’s warnings of a potential larger conflict with Hezbollah in the north if the terror group does not remove its forces from the border, Sullivan tells reporters that “the citizens of Israel who have been evacuated from the north have to be able to return to their homes and have to be able to do so with a true sense of security.
“And that means dealing with the threat that comes from the other side of the border.”
However, he says, Washington still believes “that threat can be dealt with through diplomacy and does not require the launching of a new war.”
But it also requires “deterrence as well, because we need to send a clear message that we will not tolerate the kinds of threats and terrorist activity that we have seen from Hezbollah and from the territory of Lebanon.”
Jake Sullivan tells reporters Hamas’s tactics in Gaza have placed “an incredible burden on the IDF, a burden that is unusual for a military in today’s day and age,” by hiding behind civilians as it conducts its war with Israeli forces.
Israel “doesn’t have the opportunity to meet Hamas on a field of battle in a way in which civilians are off to one side and the terrorists are off to the other side,” he says.
Hamas on October 7 “massacre[d] 1,200 people in a brutal and savage way. They then turned around and went back into Gaza and hid behind a civilian population, using civilians as human shields, using protected sites like hospitals and schools for military purposes, embedding themselves among the innocent Palestinian people,” while vowing to commit more attacks and destroy Israel.
He says Israel has the crucial responsibility to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians, but Hamas’s ultimate responsibility for the conflict “has been lost a little bit in this whole debate.”
Sullivan says Yemen’s Houthi rebels are a “threat to freedom of navigation to commercial shipping,” after the Iran-backed group claimed a series of attacks.
“The United States is working with the international community, with partners from the region and from all over the world to deal with this threat,” Sullivan tells journalists at the press conference.
“While the Houthis are pulling the trigger, so to speak, they’re being handed the gun by Iran,” he adds.
The IDF says it has completed a series of airstrikes against sites used by Hamas’s internal security on the Gaza-Egypt border.
In a statement, it says the strikes, carried out by fighter jets, attack helicopters and drones, targeted military compounds, guard posts, observation posts, weapons depots and command centers belonging to Hamas’s internal security forces.
“The sites that were hit in the Rafah area, where Hamas terrorists operated, aided the smuggling efforts led by the Hamas terror organization and included weapons that endanger IDF soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip and the citizens of Israel,” the IDF says.
It says the strikes “deal a blow” to Hamas’s ability to smuggle more weapons into the Strip.
It says Hamas’s internal security apparatus “robs humanitarian resources entering the Gaza Strip, aids in the smuggling of additional weapons, and its operatives are complicit in Hamas’s activities against IDF forces in the Gaza Strip.”
מטוסי קרב, מסוקי קרב וכלי-טיס מאוישים מרחוק של חיל-האוויר, בהובלת אמ"ן ופיקוד הדרום, השמידו השבוע אתרים צבאיים, עמדות שמירה, עמדות תצפית, מחסני אמצעי לחימה וחדרי פיקוד ושליטה של מנגנוני הביטחון הכללי של חמאס הממוקמים במרחב גבול רצועת עזה ומצרים. pic.twitter.com/rcDUwEGlu4
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) December 15, 2023
At a press conference, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says there is no disagreement between Jerusalem and Washington that the fight against Hamas in Gaza will take months, while adding that both sides agree that there will be a transition from the current high-intensity phase to one of precision operations.
“The White House has “had very good discussions” on the timeline and the transition to the next phases of the conflict,” but “We’re not here to tell anybody you must do X, you must do Y.”
Reports in recent days have claimed the White House is pressing Israel to end the current phase within weeks, due to concerns for the mounting civilian toll in the Strip.
He says in his meetings with Israeli leaders, “I did not hear [them]… say things that would lead me to feel I need to answer the hypothetical question” of how Washington will respond if the current phase drags on.
He adds that his Israeli counterparts “very much indicated” their goal to distinguish civilians from combatants and prevent harm to innocents.
As for who will govern Gaza after the war concludes, amid Israeli rejection of the current leadership in Ramallah, Sullivan does not comment on the rejection directly, but says: “We do believe that the Palestinian Authority needs to be revamped and revitalized, needs to be updated in terms of its method of governance, its representation of Palestinian people.
“That will require a lot of work by everybody who is engaged in the Palestinian Authority, starting with the President, Mahmoud Abbas, who I will go to see… And ultimately, it’s going to be up to the Palestinian people to work through their representation.”
Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, says Israel “should fully occupy the Gaza Strip” following the war, as he believes the Palestinians are incapable of controlling the territory without turning it into a terror hotbed.
“Anyone who is today selling the idea that [the Palestinians] can go back to running things doesn’t remember what happened on [October 7],” he tells Kan Radio.
Israel removed its forces and settlers from Gaza in 2005, and has since faced repeated attacks from the territory by terror groups. Since the start of the war, Jerusalem has refused to say what it envisions for the Strip once its goal of removing Hamas from power is achieved, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Palestinian Authority can not be trusted to govern it.
Eliyahu does not say how he envisions Israeli rule either. Asked by the interviewer if Israeli authorities should be overseeing civil affairs, including all that entails, he demures, saying only that the Palestinians cannot do so.
He adds that he wants “to reestablish settlements” in the Strip, but acknowledges that “this isn’t necessarily the time for that.”
Eliyahu previously made headlines in November when he said one of Israel’s options in the war against Hamas could be to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza — comments that were quickly disavowed by Netanyahu, who also suspended the minister from cabinet meetings.
Axios reports that the US has warned the Houthis in Yemen to halt their attacks on Israel and Israel-bound vessels in the Red Sea.
The report says such messages have been passed through multiple channels, and not just by the US.
It does not say whether Washington has threatened action if the attacks do not cease.
A projectile fired from rebel-controlled Yemen has hit a cargo ship in the Red Sea, a US official and an intelligence firm says, the latest in a series of attacks.
“We are aware that something launched from a Houthi-controlled region of Yemen struck this vessel which was damaged, and there was a report of a fire,” the US defense official says.
Private intelligence firm Ambrey says the container ship, owned by German transport company Hapag-Lloyd, “sustained physical damage from an aerial attack” north of the Yemeni coastal city of Mocha.
“The projectile reportedly hit the port side of the vessel and one container fell overboard due to the impact. The projectile caused a fire on deck” that was reported over the radio, Ambrey said.
The Iran-backed rebels have said they will target any ships traveling to Israel irrespective of their nationality and are now launching near-daily attacks, although they are mostly unsuccessful.
US, French and British warships are patrolling the area and have shot several missiles out of the sky.
The New York Times says the IDF appears to have damaged or destroyed six cemeteries in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, citing analysis of satellite photography.
It says that at least in some cases the locations have been razed and converted into bases of operations, with armored vehicles and fortifications.
It notes that international law views destruction of religious locations as possible war crimes if the action is not a necessity.
The military does not provide the paper with a response to the allegations.
Israeli forces have damaged or destroyed at least six cemeteries in the Gaza Strip, satellite imagery and video shows. The laws of armed conflict consider the intentional destruction of religious sites without military necessity a possible war crime. https://t.co/JmrYQTLUW4
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 15, 2023
Visiting IDF troops in Gaza yesterday, IDF Intelligence chief Aharon Haliva said Israel “must continue to press the enemy; continue to kill the enemy; continue to destroy the enemy. The campaign has multiple theaters and has months to go.”
The IDF announces the visit and Haliva’s comments this morning.
Haliva held an operational assessment along with several top officers in the field, including division and brigade commanders.
“The maneuvering [military] machine, with its many parts — the air force which is doing incredible work, the navy, the intelligence — is a fearsome military mechanism,” he said.
The IDF says forces operating in Gaza have recovered the bodies of two more Israeli hostages taken by Hamas: Cpl. Nik Beizer, 19, and Sgt. Ron Sherman, 19.
The military says it has informed the soldiers’ families and shares in their grief.
Beizer began his army service on April 30, and on October 7 was taken captive by Hamas terrorists who launched an assault on his base near the Erez Crossing.
Beizer was working at the IDF’s Gaza District Coordination and Liaison, which coordinates permits and the passage of goods through the Erez Crossing into Gaza.
“That’s the irony,” Beizer’s mother Katy Beizer said previously. “Everyone at this base is taking care of the Palestinians, working so that Gazans can live their lives.”
Beizer wasn’t supposed to be at the base that weekend but had switched with a friend who wanted the weekend off.
Sherman last spoke to his mother on the morning of October 7, when his army base near the Gaza border was attacked by Hamas terrorists.
“They got cut off,” Shalhev Kimchi, his aunt, said previously in a video made by Bring Them Home, the organization helping tell the stories of those missing following the overwhelming Hamas terrorist attacks.
When Sherman’s phone call with his mother was cut off, he switched to WhatsApp text messages.
“He told her he loves her,” said his aunt.
“That’s it, Mom, they’re here, it’s over, I love you.”
However, some four or five hours later, said Kimchi, they found Hamas videos of Sherman, “whole and healthy,” she said, but bound in the back of a pickup truck.
The IDF says its forces in Gaza have captured and destroyed the command center for Hamas’s Shejaiya battalion, in northern Gaza.
The soldiers killed gunmen and destroyed a tunnel shaft at the scene, as a gunman inside attempted to throw an explosive device at the forces. The operation was backed up by tank fire, artillery fire and air force strikes, according to the army.
Meanwhile, it says forces operating in Khan Younis in the south tackled terror infrastructure, including numerous tunnel shafts, and killed “many” gunmen there. They also located a tunnel within which were motorcycles used by terrorists during the October 7 attack on Israel.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna says her country is “deeply saddened to hear the Israeli armed forces announce the death of our compatriot Elia Toledano, a Hamas hostage whose body was found in Gaza,” after the hostage’s body was recovered from the Strip.
Toledano had dual Israel-French citizenship.
“We share the grief of his family and loved ones. The release of all hostages is our priority,” she writes on X.
After the IDF suspended soldiers who sang Hanukkah songs and a Jewish prayer over a Jenin mosque’s loudspeaker system during an operation there, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir blasts the move as “shameful.”
Ben Gvir, in a tweet, accuses Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of “bringing politics into the IDF,” saying the soldiers are “heroes” who “risked their lives for us in the Jenin operation.”
The IDF said the soldiers’ actions were “serious and completely contrary to IDF values.”
Yesterday Ben Gvir lamented that the soldiers’ “only sin is that they said ‘Shema Yisrael’ in a place that has become one of the focal points for terror against Israel. These wonderful warriors should be given full backing.”
At least 11 Iranian police officers have been killed in a jihadist-claimed attack on a police station in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, an official tells state television.
“In the terrorist attack on the police headquarters in the town of Rask, 11 policemen were killed, and others were wounded,” says Alireza Marhamati, deputy governor of the province, adding that a number of assailants were also killed in the attack, which was claimed by the Sunni jihadist Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) group.
Mossad chief David Barnea met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan yesterday at Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, the Prime Minister’s Office announces.
Sullivan is in Israel for meetings with top Israeli officials.
The two discussed efforts to return hostages held in Gaza, increased cooperation and regional challenges posed by Iran through its nuclear program, expansionism and support for terror, the statement says.
A court in the Netherlands will rule today on whether to force the Dutch government to stop supplying parts for F-35 fighter jets being used by Israel over the Gaza Strip.
A group of human rights organizations has brought the case, arguing that supplying the parts contributes to alleged violations of international law by Israel in its war with Hamas.
The case concerns US-owned F-35 parts stored at a warehouse in the Netherlands and then shipped to several partners, including Israel, via existing export agreements.
These parts “make it possible for real bombs to be dropped on real houses and on real families,” said Michiel Servaes, director of Oxfam Novib, one of the plaintiffs.
Dutch authorities have said it is not clear whether they even have the power to intervene in the deliveries, part of a US-run operation that supplies parts to all F-35 partners.
“On the basis of current information on the deployment of Israeli F-35s, it cannot be established that the F-35s are involved in serious violations of humanitarian law of war,” the government said in a letter to parliament.
Representatives of families of Israelis held hostage in Gaza met overnight with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York.
Hebrew media outlets describe the meeting as tense, with relatives pressing the UN chief to do far more to ensure the return of the abductees, and criticizing him for comments seen as offering justification for Hamas’s October 7 attacks and for the fact that he has not visited Israel since war broke out.
According to Channel 12, Ye’ela David, whose brother Eviatar is held in Gaza, told Guterres: “If you want peace that’s fine, but you can’t say something that justifies the massacre… Look me in the eyes. You need to come to the kibbutzim and the location of the [Supernova] party, to visit Israel and see what our loved ones went through. That’s what a real leader does.” Others shared similar sentiments.
On conducting a visit, Guterres asserted he had made overtures but was not receiving a response from the Israeli government.
Guterres told the families he expresses “full solidarity” with them, calling their abduction “a terrible crime,” but said he unfortunately does not have the power to return their loved ones. He said he was nevertheless making every effort through his channels to sue for their release, and that this must happen as soon as possible.
The Israel Defense Forces announces that IDF troops have recovered the body of civilian hostage Elia Toledano, 28, who was taken by terrorists from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7.
Toledano’s body was retrieved from Gaza during operational activity carried out by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504, and the 551st Brigade.
After his body was brought back to Israel and identified by medical and rabbinical authorities, his family was notified.
There were no details on how he died or when.
Some 360 partygoers were killed during the Hamas-led assault on the music festival, and another 36 were taken hostage.
It is believed that 134 hostages remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — out of the 240 taken on October 7, when thousands of terrorists also killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians in their homes and at the music festival.
A temporary truce from November 24 to December 1 saw the release of 105 civilian hostages — Israeli women and children and foreign nationals — held by Hamas. Four hostages were released prior to the temporary truce and hostage release in late November, and one was rescued by troops.
The bodies of six hostages have also been recovered, including Toledano’s. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of some 20 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
Toledano was at the Supernova festival with friend Mia Schem, 21, who was released on December 1 as part of the temporary truce deal. Schem was shot in the arm during the attack, and following her release, her aunt said that while in captivity she had been operated on by a Palestinian veterinarian.
According to witnesses, Toledano was last seen with Schem in the early morning of October 7 at the party.
The Israeli military announces the death of a soldier who died fighting in Gaza yesterday, pushing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 117.
Sgt. Oz Shmuel Aradi, a 19-year-old soldier with the Combat Engineering Corps’ 603rd Battalion, from Kibbutz Hatzor near Ashdod, was killed in action in southern Gaza yesterday.
In addition, four reservist soldiers were seriously injured in fighting yesterday across the Palestinian enclave according to the military.
France says it is concerned about the heavy toll among journalists covering the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and is pushing to get Agence France Presse reporters out of the Gaza Strip.
“We are keeping up our efforts regarding AFP employees,” says Christophe Lemoine, deputy spokesman for Paris’ foreign ministry.
It is “a complex operation,” he adds.
“Since October, we have been working to allow French citizens on the ground to leave Gaza, as well as their dependents,” Lemoine adds.
The comments came after a group of journalists, among them AFP staff, published an op-ed in the French daily Le Monde asking French President Emmanuel Macron to help secure the evacuation of Palestinian journalists working with French media.
Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt has been shut since the start of the war that began after Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, when terrorists killed 1,200 people and took some 240 hostages. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an extensive ground and air operation to rout out the terror group.
While the border crossing has intermittently opened in recent weeks, only people whose names were on approved lists have been allowed out.
“Since the start of the war, foreign nationals have been able to leave Gaza, but the Rafah crossing is closed to Palestinian journalists working for French media on the ground,” the op-ed read.
“The Americans have done it… France can do it too. France must do it. It is our collective responsibility,” it added, calling on Macron to work with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to help get the journalists out.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania defeated legislation to send $33.5 million to the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school over criticism that the school has tolerated antisemitism, as statehouses across the US eye how higher education is handling tensions around the Israel-Hamas war.
The bill’s defeat is perhaps the starkest example of how some lawmakers and governors around the country are trying to keep universities from taking sides and to toughen the schools’ response to acts of hate and discrimination, including antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The vote came four days after Penn President Liz Magill resigned amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was questioned about whether calls on campus for the genocide of Jewish people would violate the Ivy League school’s conduct policy.
Annual state aid for Penn’s veterinary school normally draws strong bipartisan support in Pennsylvania’s Legislature and, earlier Wednesday, had won overwhelming approval in the Republican-controlled Senate.
However, it failed late Wednesday night in the House after the Republican floor leader spoke against it, saying Penn must do more to make it clear that it opposes antisemitism.
“Until more is done at the university in terms of rooting out, calling out and making an official stance on antisemitism being against the values of the university, I cannot in good conscience support this funding,” GOP House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler said during floor debate.
Magill’s resignation was a start for the university, Cutler said, but not enough.
In the end, every Democrat voted in favor of it, all but 25 of the 101 Republicans in the chamber opposed it, ensuring it fell short by a handful of votes of the two-thirds majority required by the state Constitution.
In a statement, Penn said it was deeply disappointed in the vote and that it hoped the House would reconsider when it returns to session next year.
Jewish Democratic House Rep. Steve Cohen likens Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Vladimir Putin over the ongoing IDF war against Hamas in Gaza.
“Netanyahu has gone way too far and [US National Security Adviser] Jake Sullivan will be informing him that the bombing must be greatly limited or Israel will be without its last real friend, the USA and [its president], Joe Biden,” Cohen tweets.
“The President is finished with Bibi’s Putin-like no-holds-barred war. Hostages first! Civilians never,” he adds.
The congressman has long had a beef with Netanyahu, boycotting the premier’s speech to Congress against the Iran nuclear deal being brokered by then-US president Barack Obama.
The Palestinian Authority will initially be able to “re-activate” at least 3,500 of some 15,000 former members of its security forces in Gaza, a Palestinian official tells The Times of Israel.
The figure was reached in an assessment that the PA conducted in recent weeks amid a US-encouraged effort for it to eventually return to governing Gaza after losing elections to Hamas in 2005 and being booted from the Strip two years later.
The official says more ex-PA troops will eventually be able to bolster the first several thousand but that they and others will need additional training.
A senior Biden administration official briefing reporters says, “There are a number of security personnel in Gaza linked to the Palestinian Authority who we think might be able to provide some sort of nucleus in the many months that follow the overall military campaign.”
The official says that the PA security forces have “performed incredibly well” in the West Bank, thwarting an effort by Hamas to use cells in the territory to “instigate violence and uprising in the days after October 7.”
Through its US Security Coordinator in Jerusalem Gen. Mike Fenzel, the US has helped train the PA security forces and its work with them has continued through October 7, the senior administration official says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with visiting International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger today, demanding that the organization “fulfill its mission” to reach the hostages taken by terror group Hamas in Gaza on October 7 and ensure their wellbeing.
In a televised portion of the meeting, he points to a sealed box labeled “medication and first aid for the hostages” and tells her she has “every right and every expectation to place public pressure on Hamas,” to access the remaining hostages in Gaza following the release last month of 105 civilians — Israeli women and children, and foreign nationals — in a weeklong truce brokered by Qatar.
“It’s not going to work because the more public pressure we seemingly would do, the more they would shut the door,” she replies.
“I’m not sure about that. Why don’t you try?” Netanyahu responds.
It is believed that 135 hostages remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — out of the 240 taken on October 7. Some are elderly and need consistent care, some are ill or believed to be injured, and most are believed to be held in dire conditions.
A senior Biden administration official briefing reporters on US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s meetings in Israel says it’s “safe to say” that Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s “days are numbered.”
While Israeli leaders have voiced such threats against the terror leader this appears to be the first time that a senior US official is talking about Sinwar in this manner.
“I also think it’s safe to say it doesn’t matter how long it takes…justice will be served,” the senior administration official adds, noting that Sinwar has “American blood on his hands.”
Thirty-eight Americans were killed during Hamas’s terror onslaught on October 7, and eight US citizens and permanent residents are among the roughly 135 currently being held hostage in Gaza.
