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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Tuesday, December 19, 2023

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Tor Wennesland (right on screen), special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, speaks from Jerusalem during a UN Security Council meeting on "the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question," at the UN headquarters in New York City on December 19, 2023. (Charly Triballeau/AFP)

Live updates (closed)

Dec. 19: Biden says Israel must differentiate between Hamas and Palestinian civilians in Gaza

By Ricky Ben-David, ToI Staff and Jacob Magid

3 soldiers killed as Gaza ground op death toll reaches 132 * UNSC Gaza vote again delayed, as diplomats seek language to avoid US veto * Houthis vow to keep up Red Sea attacks

2:14 am

US, NATO, EU and others condemn Houthi attacks on shipping in Red Sea
12:18 am

Biden: Israel faces 'added burdens' but must differentiate between Hamas, Palestinian civilians
10:33 pm

Cyprus foils alleged Iranian plot to kill Israelis, in joint operation with Mossad

Families of hostages seen in new Hamas video urge release deal at any price

Amid reports Israel is in talks for a fresh prisoner exchange deal, families note that the only hostages coming out of Gaza recently are dead

People walk by photographs of civilians held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, December 19, 2023. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Screen capture from undated propaganda video released by the Hamas terror group on December 18, 2023 shows (L-R) Amiram Cooper, Chaim Peri, and Yoram Metzger, three Israelis held hostage since October 7 in the Gaza Strip. (X. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Hamas releases propaganda video showing 3 elderly Israeli hostages

Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza have formed a tent city outside Tel Aviv's Hakirya Base, December 18, 2023. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing Dec. 19: Day 74 – Hostage families split as new release deal may loom

In this government handout photo, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pictures of hostages taken by Hamas in the Gaza-ruling terror group's October 7 onslaught, at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on December 18, 2023. (Kobi Gideon/ GPO)

Gallant: Israel won't control Gaza 'in any civilian way'

Visiting Israel, US defense chief says he won’t ‘dictate timelines or terms’ of war

By Amy Spiro and Jacob Magid

Austin pushes for more Gaza aid, two-state vision; says he’ll convene regional ministers to counter Houthis; Gallant: There’s ‘no clock running,’ war will see ‘end of Hamas’

Troops of the Golani Brigade's 13th Battalion stand by a Hamas monument at the Palestine Square in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighborhood, December 18, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF solidifies hold in northern Gaza as Israel allows expanded aid into Strip

By Emanuel Fabian and Jacob Magid

Finance minister and head of the Religious Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, December 18, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Amid reported plan to funnel PA money into Gaza, Smotrich insists: ‘Not one shekel’

By Jeremy Sharon and Sam Sokol

Cochav Elkayam-Levy

From the Hartman Institute

Believe Israeli Women

Cochav Elkayam-Levy describes her work to compile a comprehensive accounting of gender-based violence committed by Hamas – and the struggle for international recognition

Inside story

Israel cornering itself into postwar Gaza military occupation, Western diplomats warn

By asserting it will maintain security control over Strip, rejecting PA return, not advancing alternate plans, Israel likely to find itself stuck in enclave, top officials tell ToI

Israeli soldiers are seen during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Interview

‘If the generals are counting tunnels, it suggests things are not going well’

Yehuda Kfir, an expert in underground warfare, says the IDF can’t keep bombing buildings and infrastructure to locate Hamas’s tunnels: ‘We need to dig from our side to theirs’

Soldiers stand in a large Hamas tunnel found near the Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout image published December 17, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

Iris, Raviv and Tuval Haim, at the funeral of Yotam Haim, a hostage mistakenly killed by the IDF in Gaza, in Kibbutz Gvulot, December 18, 2023. (Screenshot used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

‘You wouldn’t sit and wait’: Family mourns Yotam Haim, hostage mistakenly slain by IDF

Security Council set for Gaza ceasefire vote after delay to seek text US won’t veto

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Draft resolution slated for Tuesday vote says civilians in Strip don’t have sufficient access to services ‘essential for survival,’ calls for Hamas to immediately release hostages

A woman sits by food cooking on a fire as children play nearby at the southern Gaza Strip on December 18, 2023. (Mahmud Hams / AFP)

Four IDF soldiers look out a window at a partially demolished neighborhood in the Gaza Strip, in a handout photo released December 18, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)

South Africa says its citizens serving in IDF could face prosecution back home

The Capitol is seen under a winter sky in Washington, December 18, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Billions in US aid for Israel, Ukraine held up in Senate as border talks lag

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Yemenis in Houthi-controlled territory brandishing their guns chant slogans during a march in solidarity with the people of Gaza, in the capital Sanaa on December 15, 2023. (MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP)

Houthis vow to keep up attacks in key strait after US rolls out plan to shield ships

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Major carriers not rushing to return vessels to more cost-efficient route via Suez Canal and Red Sea despite announcement of coalition to protect marine traffic in Bab el-Mandeb

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin makes a joint statement with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, December 18, 2023. (Maya Alleruzzo/AP)

US-led coalition of 10 nations to counter Houthi attacks on vessels in Red Sea

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Illustrative: This handout picture courtesy of the US Navy taken on October 19, 2023, shows the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) defeating a combination of Houthi missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles in the Red Sea. (Aaron Lau / US NAVY / AFP)

AnalysisHouthi attacks on commercial ships sink global trade in vital Red Sea corridor

By COURTNEY BONNELL

Michal I. Berman

A soldier’s laundry

Other mothers no longer need to fold their son’s uniforms…their sons don’t need them anymore

War is unsustainable

A world that has passed the 2-degree climate threshold is more terrifying than the destruction we are now seeing in Gaza

Capt. (res.) Sivan Sekeli Ben Zichri (Facebook)

Officer tasked with arranging constant IDF funerals nearly died after heart gave way

By Renee Ghert-Zand

Following weeks of notifying families of fallen loved ones, and non-stop burials, Sivan Sekeli Ben Zichri suffered cardiac arrest caused by tear in heart artery

War cabinet minister Benny Gantz (right) with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference at the Defense Ministry, in Tel Aviv. December 16, 2023. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Poll shows Gantz’s party soaring as Likud nosedives, Smotrich out of Knesset

Survey finds National Unity leader preferred over Netanyahu for prime minister; Bennett, who could win 13 seats with a new party, also seen as a possible replacement

Evacuees from Kibbutz Nir Oz in the lobby of a hotel in Eilat on October 17, 2023. (Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

State comptroller assails government failures on home front after Oct. 7 onslaught

By Jeremy Sharon

Exterior of Georgetown University's medical and dental school, August 5, 2007 (Wikimedia commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0/ Workman); Screenshots of antisemitic social media posts by medical students at Georgetown University following the October 7 Hamas atrocities. (Courtesy)

Inside Story'These posts are inciting, divisive and inappropriate'

Med students’ antisemitic comments after Oct. 7 roil two prominent DC universities

By Cathryn J. Prince

Social media posts by physicians-in-training on Hamas atrocities use tropes like media control and global cabals, raising worry about how tomorrow’s MDs will treat Jewish patients

San Francisco begins prosecuting dozens who blocked bridge in Gaza ceasefire protest

In this picture released by the Iranian Defense Ministry on May 25, 2023, a Khorramshahr-4 missile is launched at an undisclosed location, Iran. (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP)

At UN, West accuses Iran of illegal missile testing, high-grade uranium enrichment

By Edith M. Lederer

During Security Council meeting on failing 2015 nuclear agreement, Britain, France, Germany and US warn all means will be used to prevent Tehran getting atomic weapons

People wait at a gas station in Tehran on December 18, 2023 as fuel distribution across 60 percent of Iran's gas stations is disrupted in an alleged Israel-linked cyberattack. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran gas stations reopen but payment issues persist after alleged hack chokes supply

By ToI Staff and Agencies

A Birthright Israel group exploring the desert. (Sarah Kornbluh)

Birthright to resume free trips to Israel for first time since October 7 Hamas attack

By Deborah Danan

Around 350 students and young adults primarily from US are expected to travel to Israel beginning in early January

Illustrative: Palestinian students in the playground of a local school in East Jerusalem on November 2, 2006. (Orel Cohen / Flash90)

Twenty released Palestinian inmates set to return to Jerusalem schools in January

By Gianluca Pacchiani

Social workers to decide in each case whether to allow student to return to school; some municipal officials fear they may have bad influence over peers

The IDF demolishes the home of Osama Bani Fadl, who had been arrested for gunning down two Israelis, in the West Bank town of Aqraba, December 19, 2023. (IDF screenshot)

IDF razes home of Palestinian suspected in August terror slaying of man, son

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna (R) and British Foreign Minister David Cameron give a press conference in Paris on December 19, 2023. (Miguel MEDINA / AFP)

France to sanction extremist West Bank settlers, following US, Britain

By Agencies and ToI Staff

More Headlines

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld at the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum Headquarters in Tel Aviv, December 18, 2023 (Courtesy)

Seinfeld's supportVisiting Israel, Jerry Seinfeld meets with freed hostages, families

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Illustrative: A man casts his ballot at a voting station in Israel's municipal elections, October 30, 2018, in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Pushing to again delay municipal elections, Smotrich urges Netanyahu to get involved

By Michael Horovitz

Workers clean the street under a billboard supporting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi for the presidential elections, in Cairo, Egypt, December 10, 2023. (Amr Nabil/AP)

Facing negligible opposition, Sissi wins third term as Egypt’s president

By AP

A home in Ashkelon damaged by a rocket fired by terrorists from the Gaza Strip, October 7, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/ Flash90)

President Herzog launches debt clemency scheme for war-affected Israelis

By Sharon Wrobel

File: Then-Foreign Minister Eli Cohen speaks during a press conference at the European Office of the United Nations, Palais des Nation, in Geneva on November 14, 2023. (Pierre Albouy / AFP)

Foreign Ministry says no issue with diplomatic passports for Likud bigwigs

Vehicles seized as part of a police raid on a beverage company owner suspected of fraud. (Israel Police spokesperson)

Head of large beverage firm suspected of recycling fraud worth hundreds of millions

Weapons, recovered from Hamas terrorists following their murderous October 7 assault on southern Israel, on display at an army base in southern Israel, October 15, 2023. The weapons include guns, RPGs, mines and various types of explosive devices. (Israel Defense Forces)

ZAKA volunteer arrested for taking RPG launcher, other Oct. 7 weapons as souvenirs

Illustrative: The Ramle police station in an undated photo published by Israel Police on July 3, 2022. (Israel Police)

Parents arrested after 7-year-old daughter dies weighing only 18 pounds

By Michael Horovitz

Pope Francis speaks during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, on October 18, 2023. (AP/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

In radical shift, Pope Francis approves priestly blessings for same-sex couples

By Nicole Winfield and David Crary

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