Israeli minister calls for return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war and said Gaza’s Palestinian population should be encouraged to emigrate, according to AFP.
“To have security, we must control the territory,” Smotrich told Israel’s Army Radio in response to a question about the prospect of re-establishing settlements in Gaza.
“In order to control the territory militarily for a long time, we need a civilian presence.”
The Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to the territory since the war broke out on 7 October.
Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers in 2005, ending a presence inside Gaza that began in 1967, but maintained near complete control over the territory’s borders.
All settlements on occupied Palestinian land are regarded as illegal under international law, regardless of whether they were approved by Israel.
Key events
The Israeli military will release some reservists who were called to join Israel’s war in Gaza, Reuters reports.
“Some of the reservist soldiers will return to their families and their jobs already this week,” said military spokesperson rear admiral Daniel Hagari.
“This will allow a significant relief for the economy, and will allow them to gather strength ahead of the coming activities in the next year, and the fighting will continue and we will need them,” he added.
Several pro-Palestine groups around the world calling for a ceasefire in Gaza where Israeli forces have killed over 21,600 Palestinians have united in what they call a “#countdown2ceasefire” ahead of the new year.
In several posts on X, the group posted pro-ceasefire rallies to be held globally as countries gear up for the new year’s eve countdown:
World Health Organization representatives visited Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on Sunday to assess the needs of the overwhelmed health facility, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said.
In a tweet on Sunday, Tedros addred that the Nasser Medical Complex is one of only two key functioning hospitals in southern Gaza that is able to provide medical care for wounded and other patients.
Since October 7, human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch reported that “the Israeli military’s repeated, apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transport are further destroying the Gaza Strip’s healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes.”
Cori Bush, a US Democratic senator representing Missouri, has joined a handful of Democrats in criticizing the Joe Biden’s administration for bypassing congressional review in its transfer of weapons to Israel.
Over the weekend, Bush tweeted:
“The White House cannot have it both ways: calling on the Israeli government to uphold international law while bypassing Congress to send weapons that are leading to violations of international law. How many innocent people must die before @POTUS will demand a ceasefire?”
Bush’s comments come as Israel strikes have killed more than 21,600 Palestinians across Gaza since October 7.
On Saturday, Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator representing Virginia, also condemned the Biden administration for bypassing Congress in its transfer of American munitions to Israel, saying, “Unnecessarily bypassing Congress means keeping the American people in the dark.”
Palestine’s ambassador to the UK said that the world wants to discuss the “day after Israel’s aggression on Gaza but it’s the day before we need to understand”.
In an interview with Democracy Now, Husam Zomlot said:
Everybody now is wanting us to discuss the day after. No. The day before. The day before 7 October. The occupation, the colonisation, the racism, the supremacy, the murders all over the West Bank, the provocations in Jerusalem, the rounding and arresting of our children without trial, without charge, without access to their parents or lawyers, this is what needs to be discussed.
The decades-long oppression and suppresion of an entire nation, the denial, the bare, basic denial of basic rights needs to be discussed.
Palestinian foreign minister condemns ‘Israeli war machine’s persistence in the war of genocide’
The Palestinian foreign minister has released a statement before the new year in which he condemned what he called the “Israeli war machine’s persistence in the war of genocide”.
In a statement on X, Riad Malki wrote:
We welcome the new year and the 59th anniversary of the start of the Palestinian revolution, yet the wounds of our people are bleeding due to Israeli war machine’s persistence in the war of genocide, destruction, and displacement … starvation, the spread of epidemics, invasions, arrests, and torture, all of which are crimes of ethnic cleansing dominating the daily lives of Palestinian citizens.
We reaffirm our demand at the beginning of this year for an immediate ceasefire, and we hope and work for the new year to be the year when the Palestinian people obtain their fair and legitimate national rights to return, self-determination, and the embodiment of the Palestinian state on the ground with East Jerusalem as its capital, and for security and peace to prevail in the region and the world.
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza, where more than 21,600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October and displaced survivors grapple with shortages of food, water, medical supplies and fuel:
Approximately 1.4 million Palestinians who have been displaced by Israeli strikes are living in UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip, the UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said.
She told the BBC:
The facilities in the north are becoming crowded by the hour, people continue to come in. They are absolutely full and so people have started taking refuge in areas outside these facilities including in parks, in the open. Many are sleeping in their cars.
Our facilities, yes they have been hit. We have recorded 180 hits on our facilities. Some were directly hit and as a result of these hits, at least 300 people who were sheltering in these facilities got killed and around a thousand were injured.
Summary of the day so far …
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Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, reportedly called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war and said Gaza’s Palestinian population should be encouraged to emigrate. “To have security, we must control the territory,” Smotrich told Israel’s Army Radio in response to a question about the prospect of re-establishing settlements in Gaza. “In order to control the territory militarily for a long time, we need a civilian presence.”
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A former Palestinian Authority minister was killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, the official Palestinian news agency and the Hamas-run health ministry said. Youssef Salama, 68, a former minister of religious affairs in the Palestinian Authority, was killed in a strike on al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency and the ministry reported.
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In an interview on Israeli radio on Sunday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s outgoing foreign minister, acknowledged that “the government bears responsibility” for having failed to anticipate the 7 October Hamas attack, AFP reported.
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Israel is prepared to let ships deliver aid to the Gaza Strip immediately as part of a proposed sea corridor from Cyprus, Cohen said. Under the arrangement, cargo would undergo security inspection in the Cypriot port of Larnaca before being ferried to the Gaza coast, 230 miles away, rather than through neighbouring Egypt or Israel, Reuters reported.
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The Israeli government has approved the appointment of a new foreign minister to replace Cohen, who will become energy minister as part of a pre-arranged ministerial rotation, a government statement said. Cohen is due to continue to serve as a member of the security cabinet, while Israel Katz will be the new foreign minister.
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A total of 21,822 Palestinian people have been killed and 56,451 injured in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday. The figures include 150 Palestinians killed and 286 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
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US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats used by Iranian-backed Houthi militants to attack a merchant vessel in the southern Red Sea on Sunday, US central command said.
Israeli minister calls for return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war and said Gaza’s Palestinian population should be encouraged to emigrate, according to AFP.
“To have security, we must control the territory,” Smotrich told Israel’s Army Radio in response to a question about the prospect of re-establishing settlements in Gaza.
“In order to control the territory militarily for a long time, we need a civilian presence.”
The Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to the territory since the war broke out on 7 October.
Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers in 2005, ending a presence inside Gaza that began in 1967, but maintained near complete control over the territory’s borders.
All settlements on occupied Palestinian land are regarded as illegal under international law, regardless of whether they were approved by Israel.
At least 10 Houthi rebels were killed on Sunday when US forces struck their boats in the Red Sea, two sources at Yemen’s Hodeida port said.
AFP reports:
The US military earlier said it had destroyed several small boats operated by the Iran-backed Houthis after the rebels had attacked and tried to board a container ship.
One source at the rebel-controlled port said the wounded were rescued after the strike. The other source, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were four other survivors.
“Ten Houthis were killed and two were wounded in the US strike on Huthi boats that tried to stop a vessel in the sea off Hodeida,” the first source said.
The second source said: “Four survivors have arrived in Hodeida with two wounded who were taken to hospital.”
Gemma Connell, an official with the UN humanitarian agency OCHA who has been working in Gaza, said tens of thousands of people fleeing to Rafah had survived bombardment and had arrived often with no possessions or anywhere to sleep.
“I just am so fearful that the amount of deaths that we’ve been seeing is going to increase exponentially both because of this renewed offensive but also because of these conditions, which are literally unbelievable,” she was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The UN’s humanitarian office said on Friday that over the past few days an estimated 100,000 people had arrived in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town on the border with Egypt, after an intense new ground and aerial offensive around the central town of Deir al-Balah and airstrikes on the southern town of Khan Younis.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations organisation said it received a report of an incident in the Red Sea about 55 nautical miles south-west of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah.
The master of the ship reported “a loud bang accompanied by a flash on the port bow of the vessel” and several explosions in the area.
It came after the US Central Command (Centcom) said it dispatched two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Laboon, after the container ship Maersk Hangzhou reported being struck by a missile at 8.30pm local time on Saturday (see more details in the post at 09.37).
“While responding, the USS Gravely shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen toward the ships,” Centcom said.
Former Palestinian Authority minister killed by Israeli strike on Gaza Strip, says Hamas-run health ministry
A former Palestinian Authority minister was killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, the official Palestinian news agency and Hamas-run health ministry said.
Youssef Salama, the 68-year-old former minister of religious affairs in the Palestinian Authority, was killed in a strike on the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency and the ministry reported.
Considered close to Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, Salama served as minister between February 2005 and March 2006.
He also served as a preacher at al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.
There was no immediate comment on his killing from the Israeli army.
Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 35 people on Sunday, hospital officials said, as the military targeted areas in several parts of the territory a day after Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue for “many more months”, resisting international calls for a ceasefire.
The military said Israeli forces were operating in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and residents reported strikes in the central part of the tiny enclave after Israel this week made that region the new focus of its war.