NAfter the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri in Lebanon, the pro-Iranian Hezbollah said it fired more than 60 rockets at an Israeli military base. “As part of the initial response to the crime of assassinating” al-Aruri, Hezbollah fired “at the Meron air base with 62 different types of rockets,” the Hamas-allied militia said on Saturday.
The Israeli military said it had identified around 40 rocket launches from Lebanese territory on Saturday. Shortly afterwards, Israeli forces hit a cell responsible for some rocket launches, the army said. Air alarms sounded in towns and villages in northern Israel, and later in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Al-Aruri and six other Hamas members were killed on Tuesday in an attack on a Palestinian organization office in a southern suburb of Beirut. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack – but a US defense official told AFP the country carried out the attack.
Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip
Source: OpenStreetMap; Infographic WORLD
Al-Aruri was considered a key military strategist for Hamas and one of its leaders in the West Bank. Israel blames him for planning numerous attacks.
All developments in the live ticker:
7:33 p.m. – Thousands of Israelis in new protests against Netanyahu
Thousands of people took part in protests in Israel against right-wing conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Demonstrators in the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv and the port city of Haifa called for Netanyahu’s removal and new elections on Saturday evening. “We will not give up” and “government of evil,” demonstrators in Tel Aviv chanted as they marched through the city center.
Last year there were repeated mass protests against the highly controversial judicial reform that Netanyahu’s right-wing, religious government wanted to implement. After the massacre by the Islamist Hamas and other groups in the Israeli border area on October 7th and the ensuing war in Gaza, the protests largely stopped.
2:37 p.m. – Borrell: Lebanon must not be drawn into the conflict
According to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Lebanon should not be drawn into the Middle East conflict. Nobody emerges victorious from a conflict in the region, said Borrell during a visit to Lebanon. The increasing shelling across the border between Israel and Lebanon is worrying.
11:49 a.m. – Gaza: Over 22,700 Palestinians killed
In the Gaza Strip, at least 22,722 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. Almost 58,200 other people were injured. According to the authorities, 122 people were killed and 256 were injured in the last 24 hours alone.
10:54 a.m. – Security company Ambrey reports an incident in the Red Sea
The British maritime security company Ambrey says it has received a report about an incident in the Red Sea. Ambrey says this happened in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, but does not give any details. The crews of merchant ships traveling in the area are asked to stay on deck as little as possible. Only really essential crew members should be on the bridge of the ships, says Ambrey.
The Bab al-Mandab is the strait that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, which then continues into the Arabian Sea, a marginal sea of the Indian Ocean. Important merchant shipping routes run across the Red Sea. Houthi rebels in Yemen, a country bordering the Red Sea, allied with Hamas, have repeatedly attacked merchant ships that they claim are connected to Israel.
05:10 a.m. – Famine in Gaza? Israel contradicts UN narrative of horror
While aid organizations in the Gaza Strip speak of an impending famine, Israel’s army presents the situation differently. “According to our assessment, based on our discussions with the UN and other humanitarian organizations, there is sufficient food supply in the Gaza Strip,” said Elad Goren from the relevant Cogat authority.
“We are also seeing improved access to water and food.” However, in order for more aid to reach the coastal area sealed off by Israel, the UN and other aid organizations must “urgently” increase their own capacities to receive and distribute aid.
On the same day, the head of the UN emergency relief office OCHA, Martin Griffiths, described the situation in Gaza as increasingly dramatic. “Gaza has become a place of death and despair,” he said. “The last twelve weeks have been traumatic, especially for children,” said the UN emergency aid coordinator. “No food. No water. No school. Nothing but the terrible sounds of war, day after day.” The Gaza Strip had simply become “uninhabitable,” explained Griffith.
2:01 a.m. – Israel wants to avert South Africa’s genocide charges
According to a media report, Israel wants to build international pressure against South Africa’s genocide lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the Gaza war. The aim is to avert an injunction from the court to immediately stop fighting, reported the news portal “Axios”, citing a copy of a telegram from the Israeli Foreign Ministry to its embassies abroad. It would instruct embassies to persuade local diplomats and politicians to issue a statement against South Africa’s lawsuit. Hearings on the lawsuit are scheduled before the Court next week.
A good three months after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip against the Islamist Hamas, Israel has to answer for the ongoing military operation before an international court for the first time. South Africa had sued Israel before the highest UN court and accused it of genocide. The Court has scheduled the hearings for January 11th and 12th. The UN court’s rulings are usually binding. However, judges have no power to force a state to implement it.
11:21 p.m. – USA offers ten million dollars for information on Hamas financiers
The United States is offering up to $10 million for information on five Hamas financiers or anything that leads to disruption of the Palestinian militant group’s financial mechanisms, the State Department says. The five individuals are Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Khair, Amer Kamal Sharif Alshawa, Ahmed Sadu Jahleb, Walid Mohammed Mustafa Jadallah and Muhammad Ahmad ‘Abd Al-Dayim Nasrallah, all of whom had previously been designated as global terrorists by the United States, the ministry said in a statement.
10:56 p.m. – Israel defends planned investigation into its own failings
The Israeli army is defending itself against strong criticism from some right-wing extremist ministers of a planned investigation into its own mistakes that made the Hamas massacre on October 7 possible. The military must learn from its mistakes, said spokesman Daniel Hagari on Friday evening. The investigation has not yet begun, he emphasized. According to the information, this is an internal investigation in which former defense officials will also be involved. According to Hagari, the results of the processing should be made public.
According to Israeli media reports, there was a heated argument at a meeting of the Israeli cabinet on Friday night. Right-wing extremist ministers sharply attacked Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi after he announced the establishment of a commission to address the army’s mistakes.
The cabinet members criticized the timing because the fighting in the Gaza Strip was still ongoing. The appointment of former Defense Minister Shaul Mofas, who oversaw Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, to head the commission was also met with sharp protests. Several right-wing extremist ministers are currently calling for the repopulation of the Gaza Strip after the war. Defense Minister Joav Galant rejects this.