Shortly after midnight on New Year's Day, Hamas fired rockets, which triggered air raid sirens in southern and central Israel. No injuries were reported.
At least 100 people have been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hoursas the three-month-old conflict between Israel and Hamas enters the new year.
Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrichhas called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war and said that the Palestinian population in Gaza should be encouraged to emigrate, according to AFP. “To ensure security, we have to control the territory,” Smotrich told Israeli Army Radio in response to a question about the prospect of re-establishing settlements in Gaza. “In order to be able to control the territory militarily in the long term, we need a civilian presence.” The Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu has not proposed any official plans to expel Gaza residents or send Jewish settlers back to the area since the war broke out on October 7th.
US Navy helicopters sank three of four small boats belonging to the Iranian-backed Houthi fighters on Sunday to attack a merchant ship in the southern Red Sea, U.S. Central Command said. The Houthis have targeted ships in the vital Red Sea shipping route in attacks they say are supporting Palestinians in Gaza.
A former member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet has offered a rare public apology, Associated Press reports. That's what the news agency says Galit Thistle Atbaryan, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's Likud party, appeared to take responsibility for the polarized atmosphere before the Oct. 7 attack. “I sit here and say to you, the democratic, secular public: I have sinned against you, I have caused you pain, I have caused you fear for your life here, and for that I am sorry,” she told Channel 13 TV.
World Health Organization officials visited the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on Sunday to assess the needs of the overwhelmed health facility, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said. In a tweet on Sunday, Tedros added that the Nasser Medical Complex was one of only two major functioning hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip capable of providing medical care to the wounded and other patients.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue for “many more months.” and that Israel would take control of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt. He made the comments at a press conference on Saturday.
Cori Bush, a Democratic U.S. senator who represents Missouri, has joined a handful of Democrats in criticizing Joe Biden's administration for bypassing congressional review when supplying weapons to Israel. Over the weekend, Bush tweeted: “The White House cannot have it both ways: calling on the Israeli government to uphold international law while at the same time bypassing Congress and sending weapons that will result in violations of international law.” How many innocent people must die , before @POTUS calls for a ceasefire?”
Palestine's ambassador to the UK said the world wanted to talk about the “day after Israel's aggression against Gaza, but it is the day before that we need to understand.” In an interview with Democracy Now, Husam Zomlot said: “Everyone now wants us to discuss the day after. No. The day before. The day before October 7th. The occupation, the colonization, the racism, the domination, the murders throughout the West Bank, the provocations in Jerusalem, the seizure and arrest of our children without trial, without charge, without access to their parents or lawyers, that is what is needed to discuss.”
The Palestinian foreign minister released a statement ahead of the new year condemning what he described as “the Israeli war machine's persistence in the war of genocide.” Riad Malki wrote in a statement and expulsion.”
About 1.4 million Palestinians displaced by Israeli attacks are living in UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip, UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma said. She told the BBC: “Facilities in the north are becoming overcrowded by the hour, people are continuing to come in. They are completely overcrowded and so people have started to seek refuge in areas outside of these facilities, including outdoor parks. “Many are sleeping in their cars.”
More than 21,800 Palestinians were killed and more than 56,000 injured, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.