explainer
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in new Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip amid Qatar-led mediation efforts to re-establish a cease-fire agreement.
Here’s what you need to know about the situation on Saturday, December 2, 2023.
battle
More than 180 Palestinians were killed and about 600 injured in the first day of Israel’s renewed offensive on Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants said they had fired a barrage of rockets and mortars from the Gaza Strip into various Israeli cities and settlements.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a presentation to the UN Security Council that Gaza is “the most dangerous place in the world for children”.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 61 journalists have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, including 54 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.
Cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon has resumed after a week-long cease-fire collapsed, with at least three people killed by Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon.
diplomacy
Qatar, which has played a central mediating role in ceasefire efforts, said talks were still ongoing with Israel and the Palestinians to restore a truce, but new shelling of Gaza was complicating matters.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US was working diplomatically to restore a ceasefire with Israel, Egypt and Qatar, and blamed Hamas for failing to take hostage terms and attacking Jerusalem.
Hamas accused the United States of greenlighting Israel’s “war of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he “deeply regrets” the resumption of military operations in Gaza.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths renewed his call for a ceasefire, saying Palestinians living in the enclaves have no safe place to go and “there is little to survive.”
Other developments
The Palestinian Red Crescent announced that the Israeli military had stopped all aid shipments to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border with Egypt.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said aid deliveries should resume with the same frequency and scope as allowed during the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, even though “much more is needed”. Ta.
Israel has told several Arab countries it plans to create a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border to prevent future attacks as part of its post-war enclave proposal, Egyptian and regional officials told Reuters. Ta.
The United States has provided Israel with tens of thousands of weapons and artillery shells, including large bunker-buster bombs, to help drive Hamas out of Gaza, US officials told The Wall Street Journal.
Israel’s consul general in the southeastern United States has accused protesters who self-immolated outside the country’s consulate in Atlanta, Georgia, of acting out of hatred for Israel.