Israeli forces raided a refugee camp within the occupied West Financial institution, killing no less than six Palestinians, Palestinian well being authorities mentioned Wednesday. The Israeli army additionally expanded its floor offensive within the Gaza Strip to the densely populated city refugee camps within the central a part of the territory.
Residents reported shelling and airstrikes within the tiny, cramped enclave, together with the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the southern metropolis of Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, the place tens of 1000’s have sought refuge in latest weeks. A lot of northern Gaza was pounded to rubble weeks in the past.
Greater than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them girls and kids, have been killed for the reason that begin of the conflict, in keeping with the Well being Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the many lifeless.
About 1,200 folks had been killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, with round 240 folks taken hostage. Israel says it goals to free the greater than 100 hostages who stay in captivity in Gaza.
Presently:
— The U.N. appoints a former Dutch deputy premier and Mideast knowledgeable as its Gaza humanitarian coordinator.
— An Israeli airstrike in Syria kills a high-ranking Iranian basic.
— Biden orders strikes on an Iranian-aligned group after three U.S. troops are wounded in drone assault in Iraq.
— Discover extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Right here’s what’s taking place within the conflict:
JERUSALEM — Israel’s international minister says the top of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group could possibly be Israel’s subsequent goal.
Eli Cohen spoke a day after a Hezbollah strike wounded 11 folks in northern Israel. The Iranian-backed group has fired missiles and rockets into Israel all through the two-and-a-half month conflict between Israel and Hamas. Israel has responded dozens of airstrikes and artillery barrages.
The each day battles have pressured tens of 1000’s of Israelis to evacuate their houses from border communities and raised fears that they may escalate right into a region-wide conflict.
Touring Israel’s border with international ambassadors. Cohen mentioned Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, “should perceive that he’s subsequent.”
He mentioned Hezbollah should respect a 2006 U.N. cease-fire that calls on the group to withdraw from the border space.
“We are going to function to take advantage of the diplomatic possibility,” Cohen mentioned. “If it doesn’t work, all choices are on the desk.”
Additionally Wednesday, Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, mentioned the army is in a state of excessive readiness and has accepted quite a lot of plans for the northern entrance. “We must be ready to strike if required.”
TEL AVIV, Israel — Dozens of pals and family members of a 23-year-old Israeli-American man held hostage by Hamas gathered Wednesday at Israel’s worldwide airport to attract consideration to his plight.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin had been scheduled to fly out on Wednesday for a long-planned backpacking journey.
“At the moment, Dec. 27, Hersh Hersh has a one-way ticket to go touring around the globe. It’s a visit that he’s been planning for a very long time. He’s been dreaming about it for a very long time,” mentioned his father, Jonathan Polin. “He’s sadly not going to be taking off on a visit immediately, however we hope and praying that he’s going to take off on this journey quickly.”
Goldberg-Polin was attending a music social gathering close to the Gaza border that was focused by Hamas within the Oct. 7 cross-border assault that triggered the Israel-Hamas conflict. Over 300 folks had been killed whereas a number of dozen had been taken hostage.
About 50 folks joined the gathering at Ben-Gurion airport, many holding posters of Goldberg-Polin’s image with the slogan “Convey Hersh Dwelling.”
His father introduced a backpack that he mentioned he had purchased as a gift for his son’s journey.
“The bag was not purported to be right here immediately on my again. It’s purported to be on Hersh’s again,” he mentioned. “We hope it’s going to be, quickly.”
BEIRUT — A spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed Wednesday that the lethal Hamas-led assault in southern Israel on Oct. 7 was launched in retaliation for the 2020 killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Power, in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. Hamas promptly denied the declare, in a uncommon public spat between the Palestinian militant group and its important sponsor.
The paramilitary guard’s spokesman Ramezan Sharif made the feedback at a information convention the place he threatened retaliation for the killing of one other high Iranian army determine, Gen. Razi Mousavi, who was killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria on Monday.
On Wednesday, a whole lot of mourners processed by way of the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala with Mousavi’s physique. It’s an Iranian custom to take the our bodies of outstanding figures to the shrines of Shiite saints earlier than being repatriated for burial.
Sharif mentioned that the Oct. 7 assault — by which some 1,200 folks had been killed in Israel and 240 taken hostage — was “one of many acts of revenge by the resistance entrance in opposition to the U.S. and the Zionists for the assassination of the martyr Soleimani.”
Hamas in an announcement denied Sharif’s characterization and mentioned the Oct. 7 operation was launched in response to threats to the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and to the “Zionist occupation and its ongoing aggression in opposition to our folks and our holy websites.”
Iranian and Hamas officers have beforehand denied that Iran ordered or performed a job in planning the incursion. Hamas officers have pushed — typically publicly — for Iran and affiliated militant teams, together with the Lebanese Hezbollah, to intervene extra forcefully in opposition to Israel within the ensuing conflict, which has killed greater than 20,000 Palestinians, principally civilians, within the Gaza enclave.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified his criticism of Israel on Wednesday, evaluating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
In a speech at an award ceremony, Erdogan additionally prompt that the US was complicit within the deaths of 20,000 folks in Gaza, for “supporting” Israel.
“We watched Israel’s Nazi camps within the stadiums, proper?” Erdogan mentioned in reference to a video aired on Turkish televisions that appeared to indicate Israeli troopers rounding up half-naked males in a stadium in Gaza. “What is that this? Keep in mind they used to speak about Hitler in a bizarre method? How are you totally different than Hitler?”
Erdogan continued: “They are going to make us lengthy for Hitler. Is there something totally different in Netanyahu’s actions in comparison with Hitler’s?”
The Turkish chief went on to say that Netanyahu was receiving “every kind of assist” from the US.
“And with all this assist, what did they do to greater than 20,000 Gazans? They killed them,” he mentioned.
Considered one of Israel’s most vocal critics, Erdogan has beforehand referred to Netanyahu as “the butcher of Gaza,” accused him of actions amounting to “genocide” and known as for him to be prosecuted by a global conflict crimes tribunal.
BINT JBEIL, Lebanon — One Hezbollah fighter and two civilians, a newlywed couple, had been killed in an in a single day Israeli strike on a family-owned residential constructing in south Lebanon, residents and state media mentioned Wednesday.
Lebanon’s state-run Nationwide Information Company reported that an Israeli airstrike hit the constructing within the heart of Bint Jbeil, about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the border, late Tuesday evening. Rescue groups pulled the our bodies of Ibrahim Bazzi, his spouse, Shorouk Hammoud, and Ibrahim’s brother, Ali Bazzi, from the rubble, the company reported. One other member of the household was wounded.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been clashing with Israeli forces on the border near-daily since Oct. 8, introduced Ali Bazzi’s dying as a “martyr on the highway to Jerusalem,” because it sometimes does when one among its fighters is killed. The group didn’t declare Ibrahim Bazzi. Relations within the village informed The Related Press that he was a civilian.
A cousin of the brothers, Hashem Bazzi, mentioned Ibrahim had been dwelling in Australia for the previous three years and had returned to Lebanon a number of days earlier to convey Shorouk again with him. The couple married a yr in the past, he mentioned. Afaf Bazzi, the mom of the brothers, mentioned Ibrahim had come after his spouse acquired the visa permitting her to journey to Australia with him.
The Israeli army didn’t have instant touch upon the incident. Chief army spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari mentioned Wednersday Hezbollah is “making an attempt to tug” Lebanon and all the area into an “unneccessary” conflict, and the Israeli army is responding to assaults by concentrating on Hezbollah infrastructure.
Greater than 150 folks have been killed on the Lebanese facet within the clashes, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied teams, but additionally together with no less than 19 civilians, in keeping with a tally by The Related Press.