• It is the 110th day of the war: “25,490 Palestinians dead,” Hamas reports. According to the UN, 70% of the victims are women or children (data from January 18). According to a U.S. intelligence estimate, Israeli security forces have killed only 20-30% of Hamas fighters (January 21). In Israel, 1,200 people died in the attack on October 7th.
• Unicef's dramatic conclusion: “More than 1,000 children mutilated in Gaza.”
• Qatar: “Responses from Hamas and Israel arrive in serious discussions.”
• Borrell: “Israel has no right of veto over the “two states”.”
10:08 a.m. – The Pope: “I beg the politicians to stop the wars”
The Pope's new call for peace, because “war itself, he said, is a denial of humanity.” Let us not tire of praying for peace, for an end to conflict, for an end to weapons and for that exhausted population groups are helped. I think of the Middle East, Palestine, Israel, I think of the disturbing news from troubled Ukraine, particularly the bombings that hit places frequented by civilians, causing death, destruction and suffering. I pray for the victims and their families and implore everyone, especially those with political responsibility, to protect human lives by putting an end to wars.” “Let us not forget: war is always a defeat, always. Only the manufacturers of the weapons ‘win’.”
9:48 a.m. – Israeli sources: “No news on the hostage negotiations”
A senior Israeli source has denied reports of a possible move towards an agreement to release more hostages in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza. “Reports of progress in the talks are incorrect,” the source told Jewish media, the Times of Israel reported. “There are very big gaps and there is no progress in the talks.” “It's very complicated, Hamas is constantly tightening its positions. Nobody should be fooled, it will take a long time,” the source said.
9:37 a.m. – The Iranian President in Ankara for talks with Erdogan
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi traveled to Ankara today, where he will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the latest regional developments, particularly the Gaza crisis, Isna news agency reports. Raisi's visit, which was originally scheduled to take place at the end of November, was postponed to January 3, but that date was also canceled because of the attack that day in the Iranian city of Kerman.
9:30 a.m. – Tajani, visits to Lebanon, Israel and Palestine today and tomorrow
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will be in the Middle East today and tomorrow, with stops in Beirut, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ramallah. The Farnesina announced this in a statement. Looking at the situation in the Gaza Strip, Tajani stated that “Italy continues to work to avoid the risk of an escalation of the conflict and to promote de-escalation,” adding: “We must restore a political horizon as quickly as possible.” Two-state solution that represents the most effective response to Hamas’s brutal violence.”
In Lebanon, Tajani will hold meetings with senior representatives of the Lebanese government and visit the Italian Bilateral Military Mission in Lebanon (MIBIL), from where he will have a video link with the Italian contingent at the United Nations Mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL). , where our country is currently present with 1,062 soldiers. The MIBIL mission has been conducting training activities for the benefit of the Lebanese Armed Forces since 2015 to improve their ability to control the territory. The Deputy Prime Minister's engagements include high-level meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian authorities on Thursday, January 25, as well as with his Israeli counterpart Katz and his Palestinian counterpart al-Maliki. Tajani will also attend the annual ceremony at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, as a guest of honor to mark Remembrance Day.
“I will be at Yad Vashem to testify that Italy, alongside Israel, is at the forefront against anti-Semitism,” emphasized the deputy prime minister. “These shameful outbreaks of anti-Semitism that are spreading as a result of the ongoing conflict cannot be tolerated in any way. This year we have even more of a duty to counteract them everywhere and in every way.”
8:39 a.m. – Israel: “In Khan Yunis, the army is increasing the pressure on Hamas”
The Israeli army continues its offensive against Hamas in the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip. The military spokesman said this, emphasizing that the troops are “increasing pressure” on Hamas by eliminating “several armed cells” with sniper fire, tanks and airstrikes. According to the same source, in the last 24 hours the army has carried out various operations on Hamas positions in Khan Yunis, killing “many activists” of the Islamic faction. The military actions also affected the center of the Gaza Strip.
8:34 a.m. – Iranian Foreign Minister at Guterres (UN): “The Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are directed against Israel’s crimes.”
“The goal of the Yemeni Houthis behind the attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea is to put an end to the crimes and genocide of the Zionist regime in Gaza,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said last night at a meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York, on the sidelines of the Security Council meeting on the Middle East. “The United States and Britain made a strategic mistake by targeting the Houthis in retaliation for the group's (Iran-backed) attacks on commercial shipping, as this would lead to a spread of tensions and conflict in the region,” he said. Amirabdollahian added. quoted by state television. For his part, Guterres expressed concern about developments in the Red Sea.
8:12 a.m. – Hamas, the horror story in the Knesset: “Women dressed like dolls and raped in tunnels, men also raped”
(by Davide Frattini, Jerusalem correspondent) Like dolls. Like dolls. “Boys and girls, the terrorists did whatever they wanted with them.” Aviva Siegel emerged from the Gaza dungeons after 51 days. Since then, 58 people have died, and her husband Kieth is still there, along with the hundreds of hostages Israeli intelligence believes are alive. At least 27 have instead died in captivity in the period since the agreement with Hamas at the end of November last year.
Aviva – write the local newspapers – spoke in the Knesset at the invitation of a parliamentarian to the group for victims of sexual or gender-based violence. There is no minister from the right-wing extremist coalition in power around the families of those still prisoners. “We were abandoned on October 7th and they are leaving us alone again. “How dare they not attend these meetings?” shouts Dor, Doron Steinbrecher’s sister. (…)
8:03 a.m. – Wall Street Journal: “Hamas ready to discuss releasing hostages in exchange for pause in fighting”
Hamas officials said they were available with international mediators to discuss an agreement to release some Israeli hostages – civilians, women and children – in exchange for a longer pause in fighting. Egyptian officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal reported this. The group had previously – emphasizes the WSJ – rejected any proposal that did not provide for a permanent ceasefire: The announcement – it writes – represents a significant change on the part of Hamas, which for weeks insisted that it would negotiate over the hostages only within the framework of a comprehensive agreement that would lead to a permanent end to the war.
7:48 a.m. – Iraq: “The US attacks are not helping to calm things down”
American strikes in Iraq last night “do not contribute to reassurance,” Iraq's national security adviser Qassem al-Aaraji said, deploring “the aggression and blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty.” “The American side should push to stop the aggression in Gaza instead of targeting and bombing the premises of an Iraqi national institution,” he added, referring to the Hashd al-Shaabi organization, which is officially part of Iraq Armed forces integrated former pro-Iranian paramilitaries.
7:36 a.m. – American attack in Yemen: Anti-ship missiles owned by Houthis destroyed
The United States carried out new strikes in Yemen in the early hours of today, destroying two Houthi anti-ship missiles aimed and ready to launch in the Red Sea. The message came from US Central Command and stated that the attack occurred around 2:30 a.m.: “US forces identified the missiles in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen and determined that they posed an imminent threat to merchant ships and ships of the United States U.S. Navy “represented the region,” a message posted on X said.
“US forces then attacked and destroyed the missiles in self-defense. This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer for U.S. Navy vessels and merchant vessels,” he concludes.
7:26 a.m. – The Financial Times: “The US has asked China to put pressure on Iran to stop Houthis attacks on the Red Sea.”
The United States has repeatedly called on China to use its influence on Iran to stop attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, but has so far received “no sign of support” from Beijing. This was reported by the British newspaper Financial Times, citing US officials.
The United States hoped that Beijing would take concrete measures to help calm the crisis, as China also sees the Houthi attacks as a threat to its trade interests: the Red Sea is actually a key hub for the export of Chinese goods to Europe. For this reason, the British newspaper said, the United States had asked Beijing to pressure Tehran to contain Iran-backed Yemeni rebels, who have been attacking merchant ships transiting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for weeks.
Over the past three months, U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, have raised the issue with Chinese officials and “asked them to send a warning to Iran not to stoke tensions” in the Middle East, the reports Financial Times.
A State Department source told the newspaper that the United States had also raised the issue in the United Nations Security Council, of which China is a permanent member. A source at the newspaper noted that the United States will continue to raise “the issue of Iran and the Houthi attacks” with Chinese officials, but “has not expressed much optimism that China will change its stance.”
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said China is concerned about “the escalation of tensions” in the Red Sea and invites “interested parties to play a constructive and responsible role in maintaining security and stability in the region.” .” “
7:03 a.m. – FIRST HOUR | The massacre of Israeli soldiers
(by Gianluca Mercuri) On Monday (but yesterday it became known) 24 people died in the Gaza Strip: three in the fighting in Khan Younis in the south and 21 in the Al Maghazi refugee camp in the north while laying mines. A building is to be blown up as part of the operation that aimed at creating a buffer zone between Gaza and the kibbutzim attacked on October 7. A Hamas rocket hit a mine and the palace buried the soldiers, all reservists, almost all of them fathers.
The consequences for the mood in the country will inevitably be serious, with the division between the right, which insists on the “total destruction” of Hamas, and the left, which calls for negotiations on the release of the 136 hostages still in Palestinian hands condition. But the Islamist organization reportedly rejected a two-month ceasefire proposed by Israel, likely a ploy by Prime Minister Netanyahu to calm protests from prisoners' families. A woman released after the first ceasefire told Parliament about the horrors of imprisonment where “girls and boys are subjected to sexual abuse on a daily basis”.
Meanwhile, writes Davide Frattini, “nearly 26,000 Palestinians have been killed, Unicef reports that “a thousand children are mutilated,” while the United Nations warns that the population faces “imminent famine”.”
6:47 a.m. – Cameron is in Israel today and will see Netanyahu and Katz
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron's trip to the Middle East will begin today in Israel and continue in the Palestinian territories, Qatar and Turkey. He will hold “high-level talks” with regional leaders to put an end to what he described as a situation. “Desperate” in Gaza, according to a statement from the British Foreign Office.
Cameron will focus the talks on sending more aid to Gaza, releasing more hostages and reaching a “sustainable and lasting ceasefire”. The British Foreign Secretary will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz to discuss humanitarian aid and civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, London said. Cameron will also meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to reiterate the UK's support for a two-state solution “so that Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace.”
04:20 – Red Sea: US, two Houthi anti-ship missiles destroyed in Yemen
The United States has destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles in Yemen that were aimed at the Red Sea and ready to be fired. The US Central Command said this, stressing that American forces had identified the weapons in rebel-held areas in Yemen and determined that they posed a threat. US forces destroyed the missiles in “self-defense”. This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer,” Centcom said in a statement.
1:21 a.m. – The Wall Street Journal: “Hamas opens up to release some hostages due to pause in fighting”
Hamas officials told international mediators they were willing to discuss the release of some prisoners in exchange for a “significant” lull in fighting. This is reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing Egyptian sources. According to the newspaper, Hamas was open to an agreement to release civilian women and children.
The opening marks a major shift in strategy for Hamas, which for weeks had linked the release of the hostages to an agreement to permanently end the conflict with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet commented.
00:56 – Israel, 100 Hamas militants killed in Khan Younis
The Israeli army announced last night that it had killed more than 100 Hamas militants in the last 24 hours in ongoing fighting in the western area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
00:56 – US raid in Iraq against pro-Iranian targets
The United States attacked three facilities used by Iran-linked groups in Iraq. These attacks are in response to the series of attacks on US and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria. This was reported by US Central Command. According to rumors, there were two deaths.