LIVE – Israel-Hamas war: Macron calls on Netanyahu to open a second access to deliver aid to Gaza

“The violence perpetrated by Hamas cannot in any way justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people“, declared Antonio Guterres, the secretary general of the UN, before the Security Council of the body.

Just like Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the leader demanded this Friday “a humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip.

“Four Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli drone strike on car in Baath“, in the province of Qouneitra, declared this Friday the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahmane.

The official then added that he was unable to specify whether these fighters were Syrian or not, but assured that they were not part of the Syrian army.

Fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas is still raging this Friday in the Gaza Strip. Violent clashes took place in several areas of the city: in the old city of Gaza, but also in Khan Younès, Deir al-Balah and even Nuseirat, three localities in the center of the small territory.

The toll of Palestinian victims continues to rise and exceeds 17,000 deaths, more than two thirds of them women and minors, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

Two senior officials from the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been added to a European Union blacklist sanctioning people or organizations involved in terrorist acts, the EU Council announced on Friday.

They are Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa, both from Gaza. The sanctions consist of a freezing of any assets they hold in the EU and a ban on any European operator from financing them, the organization said in a press release.

“The situation is becoming more and more terrible by the day…literally beyond belief.”, declared WHO spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier, to the press in Geneva, regarding the state of hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The UN organization calls for a ceasefire “NOW” to avoid making the situation even worse.

The bombing that killed a Reuters journalist and injured six others, including two from Agence France-Presse (AFP), on October 13 in southern Lebanon occurred in “an active combat zone “, the Israeli army declared to AFP this Friday.

On Thursday, AFP and Reuters published investigations into this bombing and concluded that shells were fired by Israeli tanks. Asked about these findings, an Israeli army spokesperson stressed that “being in this area is dangerous,” adding that “the incident is under investigation.” According to this same source, the army had asked the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) the day before, on October 12, “to verify that no civilians were in the combat zone.”

Thursday evening, “69 trucks carrying humanitarian aid and 61,000 liters of fuel returned to Gaza from Egypt,” the United Nations agency responsible for humanitarian coordination (OCHA) said on Friday. This is much less than the humanitarian aid that could circulate during the truce which took place between November 24 and 30.

The Israeli army said this Friday that it had “hit 450 targets” in Gaza during land, air and naval operations, killing “many terrorists”.

In Khan Younes, one of the hardest-hit towns in the south of the Gaza Strip, bombings razed the al-Katiba neighborhood in the north of the town.

Six Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, according to a new report drawn up by the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority, which earlier in the morning reported five people killed by gunfire.

The Israeli army carried out an incursion Thursday evening into the streets of Ramallah, in the West Bank, and fired grenades to disperse Palestinians who were throwing stones at its armored vehicles, reported an AFP journalist on the spot.

Thursday evening in Tel Aviv, families and loved ones of the hostages participated in a vigil on the occasion of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, and lit the candles of a 138-branched menorah in tribute to those still hostages of Hamas.

Israeli forces shot and killed five Palestinians in a refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry reported. The ministry did not identify the dead but specified that they had been killed “by occupation bullets (Israel, Editor’s note) in the al-Fara refugee camp”, in the Tubas region.

“The Israelis are hitting houses with five, six stories, everything falls on the people. Why? What have we done to you? (…) We just want someone to listen to us, and stop this war !” begs a mother in the south of the Gaza Strip at the LCI microphone.

The Hamas Health Ministry reported this Friday that 40 people were killed in strikes near Gaza City, and “dozens” of others in Jabaliya (in the north) and Khan Younes (in the south). On Thursday, the ministry reported 17,177 deaths since the start of the conflict.

Weapons stored in the middle of homes. The Israeli army posted on its X account an undated video of a room filled with weapons attributed to Hamas, in the middle of civilian housing.

Under pressure from the Secretary General, the UN Security Council must decide today on a call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, a vote with an uncertain outcome in a context tense diplomacy.

In a letter addressed to Council members on Wednesday, Antonio Guterres explicitly invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which allows the Secretary-General to “draw the attention of the Council” to a matter which “could endanger the maintenance of international peace and security. A first in decades.

US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it is essential to protect civilians as heavy urban fighting rages in and around Gaza’s largest cities, the White House announced Thursday.

Hello and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to the war between Israel and Hamas. A conflict which has lasted since October 7, and of which you can find the main news here throughout the day.