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USA: Ship hit by Iranian drones off the coast of India
A Japanese-flagged tanker was hit by an attack drone launched from Iran off the coast of India on Saturday. The Pentagon explains this and emphasizes that no one was injured. The Pentagon assures that it will remain in contact with the ship on its further route to India.
December 23rd – 5:50 p.m
Biden convinced Israel not to attack Hezbollah
Joe Biden convinced Israel not to launch a preemptive strike against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon on October 11. This was revealed by the Wall Street Journal citing some sources that said the Israeli planes were in flight waiting for the green light to fly when the American president spoke to Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and told him to stand down and about the Think about the consequences that the action would have. Israel had decided on the preemptive strike based on intelligence considered reliable by the United States that suggested Hezbollah fighters were ready to cross the border.
December 23rd – 5:47 p.m
Israel: Hassan Atrash, Hamas weapons manager, killed
The army and the Shin Bet said they killed Hassan Atrash, who was responsible for trafficking, manufacturing and smuggling weapons for Hamas. Atrash was killed in a targeted airstrike yesterday while he was in a vehicle in Rafah, southern Gaza. Two other people also died with him. According to the same sources, the man was also involved in smuggling from various countries into the Palestinian enclave and also played a role in supplying weapons to the West Bank.
December 23rd – 5:18 p.m
Iran confiscates Mahsa Amini's prize at the airport
Iranian security forces have confiscated the 2023 EU Sakharov Prize plaque recently awarded to Mahsa Amini. Kurdish human rights activists denounced this. Amini's family's lawyer, Mohammad Saleh-Nikbakht, was reportedly intercepted and interrogated at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport last night after arriving from France, where he accepted the award on behalf of the family. The award, as well as the lawyer's cell phone and passport, were confiscated by security forces at the airport.
December 23rd – 4:30 p.m
Hamas: Lost contact with group with five hostages
Hamas said it had lost contact with a militia group holding five hostages and that it believed they were all killed in an Israeli airstrike. This was announced by the spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida.
December 23rd – 2 p.m
Gaza authorities: 76 family members killed in raid
An Israeli airstrike killed 76 members of an extended family in Gaza City, the Associated Press reported on its website, citing aid workers in the enclave who today reported the death toll from yesterday's raid on a building in the city. The attack “was among the bloodiest in the war between Israel and Hamas,” said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Gaza Civil Protection Department, providing an incomplete list of names and stressing that among the dead were women and children as well as Issam al-Mughrabi, a U.N. employee development program, his wife and their five children.
December 23rd – 1:59 p.m
Attack on a ship in the Indian Ocean for Israel leaving Iran
Israel believes that the drone that attacked a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker off the coast of India in recent hours and, according to various sources, linked to the Jewish state, came from Iran. This is reported by the Israeli broadcaster Channel 12.
December 23rd – 1:41 p.m
Iran: We will close the Mediterranean if crimes in Gaza continue
This was said by a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards The Mediterranean could be “closed” if the United States and its allies continue to commit “crimes” in Gaza. Portal reports this on its website. “You should soon expect the closure of the Mediterranean, the Strait of Gibraltar and other waterways,” said Pasdaran commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi, quoted by Tasnim. Iran has no direct access to the Mediterranean and it is unclear how it can try to close it, although Naqdi spoke of “the rise of new resistance powers and the closure of other waterways.”
Dec 23 – 10:59am
Guterres: 136 UN staff killed in Gaza in 75 days
In the 75 days of war in Gaza, 136 UN staff were killed, which was “unprecedented” in the history of the UN, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told his colleagues. “Many of our employees had to leave their homes. “I pay tribute to them and the thousands of humanitarian workers who are risking their lives to help civilians in Gaza,” Guterres wrote again in his tweet.