DIRECT Israel Hamas war The UN fears fierce fighting in

DIRECT. Israel Hamas war: The UN fears fierce fighting in the southern Gaza Strip "hellish scenario"

2:20 p.m

Contents

The Israeli army claims to have discovered “significant weapons depots” in the civilian area of ​​Gaza

“One of the largest weapons depots in the Gaza Strip was discovered by a military unit near a clinic and a school in the north” of the Palestinian territory, the Israeli army said in a statement.

It contained, according to the same press release, “hundreds of RPG anti-tank rocket launchers and their ammunition, dozens of anti-tank missiles, dozens of explosive devices, long-range missiles intended to reach central Israel, dozens of grenades and drones.” .

The Israeli army sees this as “further evidence of Hamas’ cynical use of Gaza residents as human shields.”

14:11

France “deplores the Israeli attack” that killed a Lebanese soldier

France says it regrets the Israeli attack that killed a Lebanese soldier, the first since almost daily exchanges of fire on the Israel-Hezbollah border began on October 8.

France is “deeply concerned about the continuation of the clashes on the border between Lebanon and Israel,” the Quai d’Orsay spokesman added in a press release, calling on “all parties” to exercise “the utmost restraint.” The Israeli army says it did not target the Lebanese armed forces, but rather a position belonging to the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah.

12:51

Empty streets and a full hospital in Khan Younes

The streets of Khan Younes, where ground troops are also deployed, were almost empty on Wednesday as the dead and wounded continued to stream into hospitals, AFP journalists at the scene reported.

Thousands of them continue to flee on foot, piled into carts or with their luggage on the roofs of their cars, heading south and into the neighboring town of Rafah, following orders from the Israeli army.

“The entire city is suffering from destruction and incessant bombing. Many people arrive from the north in catastrophic conditions, homeless and looking for their children,” Hassan Al-Qadi, a resident of Khan Younes, told AFP. He moved to Rafah.

“We want to understand. If they want to kill us, they should surround us in one place and eliminate us all together. But forcing us to move from one place to another is not fair. We “We are not just numbers. We are human beings,” he added.

12:38

Putin in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, the first stop of a brief diplomatic visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and oil.

After his arrival, Vladimir Putin went to the Emirates Presidential Palace to meet with his counterpart Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

Vladimir Putin will then travel to Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before departing, according to the Kremlin.

11:52

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemns the “utter horror” experienced by Palestinians in Gaza

The Palestinians in Gaza were living in “complete terror,” denounced the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, at a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday.

Two months after “the horrific attacks on Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups,” “civilians in Gaza continue to be relentlessly bombed and collectively punished by Israel,” he added, claiming he feared “atrocities.”

10:58

The Israeli army demands access to the hostages from the International Committee of the Red Cross

The Israeli army demanded on Wednesday that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) be given access to the Israeli and foreign hostages held since October 7 by the Palestinian movement Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip, an area under intensive Israeli bombing.

“Every minute in captivity endangers the lives” of the hostages, said army spokesman Daniel Hagari, “the international community must act. The Red Cross must have access to the hostages,” he said.

The ICRC, which has come under criticism in Israel, reminded AFP in late November that it did not know where the hostages were and could not gain access to them due to a lack of consent from their prison guards.

10:55

“Nightmarish”: The head of the MSF mission in Palestine warns about the situation in Gaza

“The situation in the Gaza Strip is nightmarish,” reports the Médecins Sans Frontières teams on site, reports the NGO’s head of operations in Palestine, Leo Cans.

The humanitarian workers on the ground told him about “children who had their limbs torn off” who, after an operation, had to be told that “their whole family is dead,” he explains.

“We have a population that is now completely concentrated in the south of the Gaza Strip, where “the infrastructure is no longer able to meet the basic needs of the population,” he warns.

“We cannot justify the fact that we have to operate on a child and amputate a child without morphine because we refuse to bring morphine to hospitals,” explains the humanitarian on BFMTV.

10:01

Israeli army says Khan Younes remains ‘an extremely important epicenter of Hamas’

As fighting rages in Khan Younes in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli army spokesman Colonel Olivier Rafowicz confirms a “major IDF operation” around that city.

“Khan Younes remains an extremely important epicenter of Hamas” and it is “perhaps also where Hamas leaders are currently hiding,” he said on BFMTV.

The Israeli army drops leaflets on Khan Younes daily, warning of an impending bomb attack and urging residents to leave their neighborhood. But “for people who have been ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere to go safely and there is very little on which to survive,” the U.N. secretary-general’s spokesman said Tuesday.

9:49

The Israeli army accuses Hamas of “abusing” hostages

Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, spokesman for the Israeli army, reiterated on BFMTV that “it is clear that the terrorists committed abuse against the hostages held by Hamas,” including through drugs (editor’s note). are not the good ones.”

The spokesman also denounced Hamas’s “atrocities” on October 7, such as rape.

He sees it as “the DNA of Hamas, which is now one of the cruelest terrorist groups in the world.”

9:38

According to the United Nations, there has been a “new wave of displacement” in Gaza since hostilities resumed

The UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, confirms this on record.

“There is no ‘safe’ zone, the entire Gaza Strip has become one of the most dangerous places in the world” and the organization’s accommodation centers are “overcrowded,” UNRWA continues.

8:40

Doctors Without Borders warns of “critical levels” of medical equipment at Al-Aqsa Hospital

“Fuel and medical equipment have reached critical levels at Al-Aqsa Hospital” in central Gaza due to road closures and “hundreds of patients are in need of emergency care due to incessant Israeli bombing,” warns the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on X ( formerly Twitter).

According to Doctors Without Borders, the hospital has been admitting “an average of 150 to 200 war-wounded per day” since hostilities resumed on December 1.

“It is important to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance. “The hospital urgently needs surgical equipment, external fixators to fix broken bones and essential medicines, including medicines for chronic diseases,” said Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial, Médecins Sans Frontières coordinator in the Gaza Strip.

8:26

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke to Blinken about the conflict

According to the respective ministries, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by telephone with his American counterpart Antony Blinken on Wednesday about the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“The top priority is a ceasefire to end the fighting as soon as possible,” Wang Yi said during the call, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.

8:25

Images of the hostages returning home to the cheers of the crowd

Mia Schem, a French-Israeli woman abducted by Hamas on October 7, left the hospital on Tuesday where she had been since her release on November 30. As she rode in the car with her family, the crowd cheered her on, as these pictures show.

8:14

Images of the overcrowded Khan Younès hospital, where the injured are streaming

A catastrophic humanitarian situation. While Israel has resumed its offensive, the situation of the population in the Gaza Strip is deteriorating day by day.

At the Khan Younès Hospital, where part of the population from the north of the enclave has found refuge, patients are being treated on site in extremely precarious conditions. A situation that angers the local population.

“They told us to leave Gaza because there was war. We left the north to go south as they asked us to do, and now it’s the same in the south. “What can we do?” says a father.

7:55

Did Hamas enrich itself from the October 7 attacks?

In a 66-page study entitled “Trading on Terror,” written by Robert J. Jackson, a professor at New York University, and David J. Greenwald of Columbia University, the two researchers estimate that Hamas was ahead of the attacks bet against Israel on October 7th.

According to this work, during the period from September 14 to October 5, a few days before the attack, unusual stock market activity was observed in Israeli stocks, including significant short selling, including downside bets on the stock market and even selling at a loss.

For the financial newspaper GlobesThese suspicious movements particularly affected Leumi, Israel’s largest bank.

Read the full article on BFMTV.com

7:52

Elie Korchia asks for a date to honor the French Hamas victims

The President of the Central Consistory of France called on Emmanuel Macron this Wednesday to set a date for honoring the French victims of the Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel.

“We can understand why the president did not want to give a date due to his diplomatic action to release the French hostages and in agreement with the families beforehand,” he told AFP.

But two months after the Hamas attack, “it is important that a date for the memorial ceremony for the 40 French victims is now officially announced,” he emphasized.

6:04

Former Hamas hostage, a little girl returns to school after 49 days in detention

Five-year-old Emilia Aloni was kidnapped in Hamas attacks on October 7. Released on November 24th, she was able to reunite with her classmates on December 5th.

The Israeli Ministry of Education shared a video of the reunion with her friends on X, formerly Twitter, adding: “There is nothing more exciting than that.” We see Emilia being hugged by the other children.

“They were greeted by a crowd with Israeli flags who came to applaud their return,” our colleagues at I24 News reported.

Read the full article here

5:49

Netanyahu insists on his desire to “demilitarize the Gaza Strip”

What will happen to the Gaza Strip when the war between Israel and Hamas, which controls the enclave, is over? On Tuesday, during a press conference, the Israeli prime minister emphasized his desire to “demilitarize” this area, which is bombed almost daily. by its troops since October 7 and the response of the Hebrew state to the attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group.

“Gaza must be demilitarized and there is only one force capable of achieving this demilitarization. That force is the Israeli army,” Benjamin Netanyahu said.

>> Our article

5:28

82 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the IDF offensive began in the Gaza Strip

According to the army, a total of 82 Israeli soldiers have died in fighting in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli offensive to “eliminate Hamas”.

On Tuesday afternoon, the army communications office reported that the number of soldiers killed in military operations in Gaza so far had reached 80, after five soldiers were killed yesterday.

In the evening, the army announced in a statement that two more soldiers had died in fighting in the Gaza Strip today.

5:00

The US announces sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of violence in the occupied West Bank

The United States announced it would impose sanctions on Jewish settlers accused of attacks on Palestinians in a bid to curb it Violence in the occupied West Bank.

“Today, the State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy against individuals suspected of helping to undermine peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including by committing acts of violence” against Palestinians, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

>> Read the article

4:40

Israel currently counts 138 Israeli and foreign hostages in the Gaza Strip

Israel is currently holding 138 Israeli and foreign hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, after adding a person previously missing to the list.

The Cabinet declined to provide further details about the hostage in question (identity, age, gender, etc.) or how authorities confirmed his situation.

Before the new figure, they identified 20 women and two children among 137 hostages held in Gaza.

4:20

Fierce fighting in Khan Younis, surrounded by Israel

The Israeli army surrounded the major city of Khan Younes in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, where some of the fiercest fighting has raged in two months of war against Hamas.

“We have secured many Hamas strongholds in the northern Gaza Strip and are now conducting operations against their strongholds in the south,” Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi said in a news release.

4:00

Hello everyone

And good morning. Welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to the situation in the Middle East on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.