live blog
During the night, Israel continued shelling targets in the Gaza Strip. US Secretary of State Blinken urged Israel to provide more protection for civilians. All developments in the live blog.
Numerous Palestinian employees of German organizations in the Gaza Strip are apparently unable to come to Germany because of security concerns against them. As the magazine “Focus” reports, around half of those who left failed in talks with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Egypt, where around 200 of the local employees were taken. In comparable cases the rate is around ten times lower.
It was said that many of the Gaza employees had extremist, anti-Semitic attitudes. The Ministry of the Interior, to which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is subordinate, confirmed: “The proportion of people who, after comprehensive examination, cannot expect to be admitted to Germany is significantly higher here compared to other procedures in which people are admitted.”
The first light on the Hanukkah menorah burns. But it is a dark time for the relatives of the hostages who are still in the hands of Hamas. They are calling on politicians to do more to ensure their release.
Read the report from Tel Aviv here:
The Israeli army has continued its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip. Over the past day, around 450 targets were attacked on the ground, from the air and from the sea, the army said. The troops are still in the process of identifying and destroying tunnel shafts, weapons and other terrorist infrastructure.
During the night, naval and secret service assets of the Islamist Hamas were also hit with precision ammunition from the sea. In the southern city of Khan Yunis, which is considered a stronghold of Hamas under its leader Jahia Sinwar, its terrorists were attacked from the air with precision strikes, it was said. It was only “a matter of time” before Sinwar was found, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening after the army had converted Sinwar’s house.
Experts suspect that Sinwar and his leadership have entrenched themselves in an extensive network of tunnels in southern Gaza. Many of the 138 hostages still held are also believed to be there. Sinwar, along with Mohammed Deif, commander of the armed wing of the terrorist organization Hamas, is considered to have planned the massacre of more than 1,000 Israelis.
Israeli police blocked a protest march by national-religious extremists in Jerusalem on Thursday evening who wanted to demonstrate for “complete Jewish control of the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.” The authorities had allowed the Temple Mount march, which was registered for 200 participants, through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City despite massive political protests, but under strict conditions.
However, after the 150 participants chanted offensive slogans, calling for the demolition of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the elimination of the Islamic Waqf Authority, the police threatened to use water cannons and stopped the procession from marching towards the Old City. A feared escalation of violence did not occur. A massive police presence and extensive cordoning off of the Old City prevented the protest march from reaching the Damascus Gate, from which it wanted to march to the Western Wall.
According to the current status quo, non-Muslims are allowed to visit the Temple Mount, but public prayer is reserved for Muslims. In the past, visits by nationalist Israelis and Jewish demands for prayer rights on the Temple Mount have repeatedly sparked violent protests from Palestinians. A visit by the later Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in 2000 is considered to be one of the triggers for the second Intifada.
The United Arab Emirates has asked the UN Security Council to vote tomorrow on a draft resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, according to diplomats. To pass, a resolution needs at least nine votes and no veto from the five permanent members – the US, Russia, China, France and Britain.
The US has said it does not support further action by the Council at this time. The US and Israel reject a ceasefire because they believe it would only benefit Hamas.
According to US government sources, Israel has agreed to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing for humanitarian aid. This should happen in the coming days, reports the Times of Israel, citing a senior government official. This should make it easier to import a larger number of trucks, it said, citing the responsible Israeli Cogat authority.
Kerem Shalom is closer to Rafah than the smaller Nitzana crossing, where Israel has so far inspected the contents of aid transports before sending them to Rafah. Since the beginning of the war, deliveries have gone exclusively through Rafah. Before the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th, most of the aid supplies reached the Gaza Strip through this.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has again called on Israel to do more to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli leadership has taken important additional steps in this direction, said Blinken after a meeting with his British colleague David Cameron in Washington. However, there is still a gap between what he suggested during his recent visit to Tel Aviv and what actual results can be observed.
Blinken said, for example, that it was not just about setting up safety zones, but also communicating about them in such a way that people actually knew where they could flee – when exactly and how. In addition, there must be food, water and medicine for the refugees in such security zones.
Israel wants to open the Kerem Shalom border crossing for inspections of goods so that more aid can reach Gaza. According to the Israeli army, Hamas fired rockets from a “humanitarian zone”. Thursday’s live blog for reading.