• It is the 85th day of the war: “More than 21,600 Palestinians dead,” including around 8,000 children, according to Hamas. In Israel, 1,200 people died in the attack on October 7th.
• Netanyahu: “Go on for many more months, I will not give in to the pressure.” There is a possibility of moving the hostages.”
4:28 p.m. – Netanyahu: “What will happen to Gaza?” We will talk about it again when Hamas is defeated.”
Discussions about what will happen in Gaza must wait “until the day after” the end of the war or the defeat of Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this during a cabinet meeting, according to Israeli media reports. “To talk about the day after tomorrow, we must first come here,” the Prime Minister added. “Only the IDF will be in control.” Apparently the Gaza Strip is being demilitarized. There will be no other power but Israel.”
4:19 p.m. – Iran: “Break the dominance of the dollar with the Brics”
Iran and BRICS members will work to end the US dollar's dominance over trade, economic and financial transactions. Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri said this on the eve of Tehran joining the group. “We have worked with BRICS to expand its member states, which currently include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. “We have already made programs with partners about economic activities,” Bagheri added, quoted by state television. The BRICS has invited Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina to join the group, but Buenos Aires has announced it will not join.
4:12 p.m. – Abu Mazen: “Israel’s war of annihilation will not break us”
“The war of annihilation started by Israel will not break our will, we will remain firmly in our land and continue the struggle until victory and independence,” said Palestinian President Abu Mazen in a speech marking the 59th anniversary of Israel's founding al-Fatah. “The West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip are a single and indivisible geographical area. We will not allow displacement to occur there, either from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, while a hectic war waged by the Israeli army and terrorist settlers continues.” Abu Mazen reiterated that the Palestinian Authority remains the only pillar for a political solution of the conflict and that the PLO was the sole representative of the Palestinian people. This was reported by the official Wafa news agency.
3:01 p.m. – Gaza: “Over 5,300 seriously injured civilians are waiting to be evacuated”
According to the authorities in the Gaza Strip, more than 5,300 seriously injured and sick people are urgently awaiting evacuation. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is organizing the transport of people abroad together with the World Health Organization (WHO), OCHA reported, citing figures from health authorities in Gaza. In the northern Gaza Strip, it was possible to restore limited services in some health facilities, including Al Ahli Arab and Al Awda hospitals, as well as some doctors' offices, OCHA said. Authorities are working with WHO and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to reopen more facilities. In some cases, this comes at the risk of the lives of staff as many areas are still under constant Israeli fire, the UN agency added.
1:44 p.m. – Netanyahu: “The war in Gaza is an act of unprecedented morality”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war in Gaza is an act of “unprecedented morality” amid charges of “genocide” brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “We will continue our defensive war, the justice and morality of which is unparalleled,” he said before the start of a cabinet meeting, emphasizing that Israel is acting in Gaza “in the most moral way possible.” For its part, the Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry regretted that Netanyahu continued to “steal the world’s joy” ahead of the new year and accused him of “preferring the extermination of Palestinians to recognizing his state.” “The international community must acknowledge its failure given its inability to stop the genocide against our people,” he said in a statement. South Africa filed a genocide lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice on Friday over the military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which was launched on October 7 in retaliation for the attack by Palestinian militias from the Gaza Strip on Israeli territory in which around 1,200 people died. According to the latest figures, more than 21,800 people have died in Gaza since the offensive began.
12:35 p.m. – The Egyptian delegation in Tel Aviv to discuss the ceasefire
An Egyptian intelligence delegation traveled to Tel Aviv on Thursday to discuss a possible agreement on a prisoner exchange and a cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, but Israel has not yet given an answer: This is what the Egyptian press writes: citing government sources in Cairo. In particular, the delegation wanted to determine whether Israel would be prepared to withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip if a comprehensive agreement could be reached.
11:59 a.m. – Netanyahu: “Our army acts morally”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a harsh attack on South Africa today after Pretoria accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” in Gaza and called for the intervention of the International Court of Justice. The accusation of genocide, Netanyahu said at the beginning of the government meeting, should rather be directed against Hamas: “If it had the capacity,” he said, “it would kill us all.” “The Israeli army – he added – is behaving morally, it does everything not to hit civilians, while Hamas does everything to make sure we hit them and uses them as human shields.” “I ask,” Netanyahu continued, “Where were you in South Africa, as millions People were killed or driven from their homes in Syria, Yemen or elsewhere?” You remained absent. What you are doing now are just meaningless things, lies, evil. “We – he concluded – will continue our defensive war, a war unparalleled in terms of justice and morality.”
11:24 a.m. – Two more Israeli soldiers dead, total rises to 172
The Israeli army announced the deaths of two more soldiers in ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll since the ground offensive began to 172. They are Sergeant Major Eliraz Gabai, 37 years old, and Sergeant Liav Seada, 23 years old. Gabai was killed yesterday in central Gaza, while Seada was killed today in northern Gaza.
11:12 a.m. – USA: “Three Houthi boats sunk in the Red Sea”
Centcom (United States Central Naval Command) has announced that it has sunk three small boats owned by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. The intervention – it is explained – was carried out after an emergency call from the container ship “Maersk Hangzhou”. The crews of the three boats were killed by US Navy helicopters, while a fourth boat managed to escape.
8:47 a.m. – Netanyahu: “The war against Hamas in Gaza will continue for many months”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war against Hamas in Gaza would continue for “many more months.” Israel's prime minister on Saturday rejected persistent international calls for a ceasefire after a rise in civilian deaths, starvation and mass displacement in the besieged enclave. Netanyahu also thanked the Biden administration for its continued support, including approving a new emergency arms sale, the second this month to bypass Contress. Israel argues that an immediate end to the war would mean victory for Hamas. This position is shared by the Biden administration, which has simultaneously called on Israel to do more to prevent harm to Palestinian civilians. In new fighting, Israeli warplanes have struck urban refugee camps in central Gaza.
8:46 a.m. – One of the founders of Hamas's military wing in Gaza killed
One of the founders of Hamas's military wing, Abdel Fattah Ma'ali, was killed in an Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip yesterday. This was reported by military radio, citing information from a Palestinian source. As the former “right-hand man” of the engineer Yihia Ayash (the manufacturer of sophisticated bombs that caused numerous Israeli casualties in the Intifada), Ma'ali subsequently spent long periods in Syria, Yemen and Sudan, honing his military knowledge. In 2006, he returned to Gaza and took a prominent position in the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Military radio added that the army is expanding its operations to Khan Yunis (the capital in the southern part of the Gaza Strip) and the nearby towns of Nusseirat and Daraj-Tufach. “100 terrorists have been killed” in these areas in the last two days, he said. “We are making slow but steady progress,” the broadcaster specified. Meanwhile, the military spokesman added that ready-to-use explosive devices were found and neutralized in a nursery in Shati, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
3:59 a.m. – UN: In Gaza, at least 40% of the population is at risk of famine
The director of the United Nations Disaster Relief Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, Tom White, said that at least 40% of the Gaza Strip's population was at risk of famine. In a post on his X account, White shared a video of a large group of people in Gaza surrounding a humanitarian convoy and jumping onto aid trucks. “More regular deliveries are needed: safe and sustainable humanitarian access is needed everywhere, including in the north of the Gaza Strip,” the UNRWA official said.
3:21 a.m. – The US shoots down two missiles fired by Houthi rebels into the Red Sea
The US has shot down two anti-ship missiles fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen into the southern Red Sea. This was announced by the US Central Command (Centcom). The missiles were fired from the destroyer USS Gravely, which, together with the USS Laboon, responded to a request for help from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou, which was hit by a missile while crossing the Red Sea. No injuries were reported on the Singapore-flagged cargo ship. “This is the 23rd illegal Houthi attack on international transport since November 19,” Centocom notes.
1:02 a.m. – Unicef, 600,000 doses of vaccinations for children delivered to Gaza
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said it delivered at least 600,000 doses of vaccines to the Gaza Strip on Friday to protect children from disease. On its Palestine operations account, the UN fund added that it would work with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to “reach all children waiting for vaccination.” (
12:47 a.m. – Al Jazeera: 12 dead in Israeli attack on a residential building in Zawaida
According to the Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera, at least twelve people died yesterday in an Israeli shelling of a residential building in Zawaida in the center of the Gaza Strip.