There is progress in humanitarian aid in Gaza. Meanwhile, the fronts in the Middle East conflict are hardening. All developments in the news ticker.
- Humanitarian aid: Medicine for Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip
- German military weapons: Israel receives 20 million euros for the fight against Hamas
- The information processed here about the war in Israel and the fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip come from local and international media and news agencies. Much of the information cannot be independently verified.
Update from January 18th, 7:30 a.m.: With Qatari-French mediation, an agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas on drug deliveries. Yesterday, two Qatari planes carrying relief supplies landed in the border town of Al-Arish, Red Crescent officials said. Some of the medication is also said to be intended for Israeli hostages.
It is an agreement based on trust: Qatar guaranteed that the supplies would be distributed to the hostages in the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials admitted they had no insight into the transaction. The Information from the Foreign Minister from Qatar, Dr. Majed Al Ansari, the medicines have already been transported to the Gaza Strip. It is not known whether the deliveries have already reached the hostages. Relatives demanded proof of the handover.
US attacks Houthi rebels in Yemen again
Update from January 18th, 5:00 a.m.: US forces have again attacked Houthi rebel positions in Yemen. The responsible US regional command, Central Command, said on Thursday night that the attacks had targeted 14 Houthi rockets that had been prepared for firing by the militia.
“These launch-launched missiles posed an imminent threat to commercial and U.S. Navy vessels and could have been fired at any time,” the regional command said. The US armed forces exercised “their right and obligation” to defend themselves.
Media in the USA and Yemen had previously reported on the renewed attacks. It was the fourth attack by US forces on Iranian-backed Houthi militia positions in less than a week. The Al-Masirah television station, run by the Houthi rebels, spoke of renewed “American-British aggression”. Targets included the port city of Hodeida and the city of Tais.
Isfreael News: Militants killed in southern Gaza Strip
Update from January 17th, 11:15 p.m.: The Israeli military says it has killed numerous militants in the south of the Gaza Strip. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement that the armed forces had killed more than 30 militants in an operation in the city of Khan Yunis in the past 24 hours. The army has expanded its activities to a Hamas regiment in the southern part of the city. “The fighting there was hard, but unfortunately there were also casualties.”
Update from January 17th, 8:00 p.m.: Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), has now estimated the “likelihood of war” in Lebanon is higher than ever, reports Times of Israel. The IDF would “increase its combat readiness in Lebanon,” Halevi said at a troop exercise.
The Chief of General Staff does not know when a war will break out in Lebanon. However, the Israeli troops have learned “many lessons” from the war in the Gaza Strip that will be “very relevant to the fighting in Lebanon.” “We want to achieve a very clear goal in Lebanon, namely the return of the residents to the north, of all the communities in the north,” said Halevi.
According to Netanyahu, the Israel war could last until 2025
Update from January 17th, 2:10 p.m.: During talks with the heads of the Gaza Border Municipality Authority, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the war between Israel and Hamas could last until 2025, the reported Times of Israel.
At the beginning of the month, Netanyahu and other ministers had already discussed possible solutions for an end to the Israel war. The idea was put forward that Palestinian troops who are not hostile to Israel should take control of the Gaza Strip.
War between Israel and Hamas: Two Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip
Update from January 17th, 10:30 a.m.: The Israeli military (IDF) has announced that two soldiers were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Both were killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF said. In addition, two soldiers were seriously wounded yesterday – one in fighting in the Gaza Strip, the other in communities inside Israel adjacent to the Gaza Strip. This is reported by the haaretz.com portal – the information cannot be independently verified.
Update from January 17th, 9:40 a.m.: According to Palestinian reports, three Palestinians died in the Israeli drone strike in the Balata refugee camp (see Report from 8:40 a.m).
According to the Al-Aqsa Brigades, which is close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, the three killed were members of the armed group. They named three names – but Schalals was not among them. His family reportedly denied his death. The information could not initially be independently verified.
War in Israel: Israel reports death of a leading terrorist
Update from January 17th, 8:40 a.m.: The Israeli military says it has killed a leading terrorist in the West Bank. The man is Amed Abdullah Abu Schalal. The commander of a terrorist cell is said to have been responsible for several attacks on Israeli soldiers in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Abu Schalal was killed in a drone strike on a terrorist cell position near the city of Nablus. According to Israel, the terrorist leader is said to have received his orders directly from Iran.
War in Israel: USA puts Houthi rebels back on terror list
First report from January 17, 2024: Gaza/Tel Aviv – After a series of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, the US government wants to put the Shiite group back on the list of global terrorists, according to media reports. This was reported by CNN and the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday evening (local time), citing people familiar with the matter. When it comes to terrorism classifications, the USA differentiates between global terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations. The distinction plays a role in the sanctions associated with each category.
Shortly before the end of the term of office of the then US President Donald Trump, his Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo had the Houthis classified in both categories in 2021. Pompeo’s successor, Antony Blinken, reversed this shortly afterwards to make it easier to deliver humanitarian aid to Yemen. Civil war has been raging in the impoverished country since 2014. A large part of the population lives in areas controlled by the Houthis. According to the UN, millions of people suffer from hunger.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, the Houthi militia has repeatedly attacked merchant ships with alleged Israeli connections in the Red Sea. The USA and Great Britain responded with a comprehensive military strike on Houthi positions in Yemen. Large shipping companies are increasingly avoiding the Red Sea route, through which around ten percent of world trade normally passes. The Houthi militia in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon belong to the “Axis of Resistance” against Israel.
This could mean that more far-reaching sanctions could be imposed against the organization, which is supported by Iran and has recently repeatedly fired rockets into the south of Israel.
Medicine for Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip
Medicine purchased in France for the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip will be flown to Egypt on Wednesday aboard two Qatari military planes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. From there they would be taken to the Gaza Strip.
In the attack and massacre on Israel by the Islamist Hamas and other Palestinian organizations on October 7, around 250 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip. 136 people are currently being held in the coastal strip. Israel estimates that around two dozen of them are no longer alive.
German war weapons for 20 million euros to Israel in 2023
Last year, the federal government approved the export of war weapons worth 20.1 million euros to Israel. These included 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons and 500,000 rounds of ammunition for machine guns, submachine guns or other fully or semi-automatic firearms. This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Economic Affairs to a request from Bundestag member Sevim Dagdelen from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, which was submitted to the German Press Agency. In total, the traffic light government approved arms deliveries to Israel worth 326.5 million euros – ten times as much as the previous year. (With agency material)