Fleeing Palestinians have packed into areas along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the southern Mediterranean coastline, where shelters and tent camps are overflowing. The U.N. humanitarian office says the scale and intensity of ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups and their devastating impact is impeding aid deliveries. The Israeli military’s air and ground offensive against Hamas has widened to most of the territory. Israel says it is striking militant targets, though homes full of people are regularly crushed. Israeli forces bombarded cities, towns and refugee camps across Gaza overnight and into Thursday, killing dozens of people. More than 20,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead. About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, with around 240 people taken hostage. Israel says it aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.
Here’s what’s happening in the war:
Quick Read
- Displacement in Gaza: Thousands of Palestinians are fleeing to areas along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the southern Mediterranean coastline, where shelters and camps are overwhelmed due to the Israeli offensive against Hamas.
- Impeded Aid Deliveries: The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the intensity of the conflict in Gaza is hampering aid deliveries, with blocked roads and fuel scarcity being major obstacles.
- Israeli Bombardments: Israeli forces have continued their bombardment across Gaza, targeting cities, towns, and refugee camps, leading to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians.
- Palestinian Casualties: The Health Ministry in Gaza reports over 20,000 Palestinian deaths since the war began, with a significant portion being women and children. The distinction between civilian and combatant casualties is not clear in these figures.
- Objective of Israeli Offensive: The Israeli military’s objective is to dismantle Hamas and secure the release of over 100 hostages taken during Hamas’ raid into southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in around 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians.
- United Nations’ Efforts: Despite challenges, the United Nations is striving to deliver food and supplies to displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
- UN Peacekeeper Injured in Lebanon: A UNIFIL peacekeeper was injured in Lebanon in an attack by a group of young men, highlighting the tension in the region related to the Israel-Hamas war.
- Iran Vows Revenge: Iran vows revenge for the death of Gen. Seyed Razi Mousavi in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Syria, indicating heightened tensions in the region.
- Israeli Arrests in West Bank: Israel has arrested 21 Palestinians in the West Bank accused of helping finance Hamas.
- Israeli Official’s Warning: Israel’s foreign minister warns that the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon could be a target, reflecting the ongoing conflict and its potential to escalate further.
The Associated Press has the story:
UN warns of impeded aid deliveries as Israel expands offensive in Gaza
Newslooks- UNITED NATIONS — (AP)
The U.N. humanitarian office says the scale and intensity of ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in most areas of Gaza and their devastating impact is impeding aid deliveries.
The office, known as OCHA, cited blocked roads, a scarcity of fuel and telecommunications blackouts as some of the obstacles hampering the humanitarian response.
Despite the challenges, OCHA said the U.N. World Food Program reached about a half-million people internally displaced in U.N. shelters south of Wadi Gaza with food parcels, wheat flour, high-energy biscuits and nutrition supplements between Dec. 23 and Dec. 26.
The World Food Program, through its partners, is also helping thousands of people outside U.N. shelters at distribution points and community kitchens, OCHA said.
The U.N. humanitarian agency said it is also working to deliver 50 tons of wheat flour to more than a dozen bakeries in Gaza.
UN PEACEKEEPER INJURED IN LEBANON
BEIRUT — A United Nations peacekeeper was injured when a group of young men attacked a patrol in south Lebanon, the peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL reported Thursday.
A vehicle was also damaged during the Wednesday night attack in the village of Taybeh, the force said.
Such attacks “are not only condemnable, but they are violations of Resolution 1701 and Lebanese law,” UNIFIL said on X, formerly known as Twitter, referring to a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended a monthlong 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
In a separate incident Thursday morning, residents blocked a group of peacekeepers that was traveling through the border village of Kfar Kila, UNIFIL spokeswoman Kandice Ardie said. The peacekeepers were able to move on “after a brief discussion with locals,” Ardie said.
Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon frequently accuse the U.N. mission of colluding with Israel, while Israel has accused the peacekeepers of turning a blind eye to Hezbollah’s military activities in southern Lebanon.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Hezbollah and allied groups have clashed almost daily with Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border, and shelling has struck UNIFIL facilities.
The peacekeeping force said gunfire from Israeli troops hit one of its patrols last month, causing no injuries but damaging a vehicle.
HEAD OF IRAN’S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD VOWS REVENGE FOR GENERAL’S DEATH
TEHRAN, Iran — Thousands of people attended a funeral in Iran for a high-ranking general killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Syria.
Mourners gathered in a central square in Tehran on Thursday before accompanying the casket of Gen. Seyed Razi Mousavi to a shrine where he was buried.
Mousavi was a high-ranking general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who had served as a longtime military advisor to the Syrian government during that country’s ongoing civil war. He was killed in an airstrike in Damascus on Monday.
The head of the Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, said “our revenge will be tough, as always,” but that the only fitting revenge would be “the removal of Israel from the face of existence.”
Salami described Mousavi as a close companion of Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.
Earlier Thursday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prayed before Mousavi’s casket, state TV footage showed.
Iran and Israel have waged a long shadow war, with Israel regularly carrying out strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria. Tensions have soared since Hamas’ Oct, 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza.
Israel views Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran’s disputed nuclear program and its support for regional militant groups like Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
ISRAEL ARRESTS 21 PALESTINIANS ACCUSED OF HELPING FINANCE HAMAS
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military says forces carried out an operation across multiple areas of the West Bank and arrested 21 Palestinians alleged to have helped finance Hamas.
In a statement Thursday, the military alleged the suspects were financial services providers who allegedly funded Hamas through digital currency and cash. Israeli media said those arrested worked as foreign exchange brokers.
The military said it confiscated tens of millions in Israeli currency as well as safes, documents and cell phones. Video released by the military showed troops raiding establishments overnight, at one point drilling through a wall that appeared to have been stuffed with cash.
One suspect, blindfolded and hands bound by zip ties, was seen getting escorted from a military vehicle.
During the operation, the military says its aircraft struck militants in Jenin who fired on troops. Forces also opened fire on Palestinians whom the military said were throwing firebombs at troops in numerous areas across the West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli forces in the central city of Ramallah. It did not disclose the circumstances.
More than 300 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry says, mostly in confrontations with Israeli forces during raids and protests.
Israel has also arrested more than 2,500 people in the West Bank during that time.
ISRAELI OFFICIAL SAYS MILITANT LEADER IN LEBANON COULD BE TARGETED
JERUSALEM — Israel’s foreign minister says the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group could be Israel’s next target.
Eli Cohen spoke a day after a Hezbollah strike wounded 11 people in northern Israel. The Iranian-backed group has fired missiles and rockets into Israel throughout the two-and-a-half month war between Israel and Hamas. Israel has responded dozens of airstrikes and artillery barrages.
The daily battles have forced tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate their homes from border communities and raised fears that they could escalate into a region-wide war.
Touring Israel’s border with foreign ambassadors. Cohen said Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, “must understand that he’s next.”
He said Hezbollah must respect a 2006 U.N. cease-fire that calls on the group to withdraw from the border area.
“We will operate to make the most of the diplomatic option,” Cohen said. “If it doesn’t work, all options are on the table.”
Currently:
— On foot and by donkey cart, thousands flee widening Israeli assault in central Gaza
— Number of wounded Israeli soldiers grows, representing a hidden cost of war
— Lose a limb or risk death? Growing numbers among Gaza’s thousands of war-wounded face hard decisions
— The U.N. appoints a former Dutch deputy premier and Mideast expert as its Gaza humanitarian coordinator.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
