Following the UN vote, Israel continues to bomb the Gaza Strip with intense airstrikes in the Gaza City area and is expanding its land operations to other areas of the Palestinian enclave. As Iran threatens to close the Strait of Gibraltar and therefore the Mediterranean, the US and its allies should continue to commit “crimes” in Gaza: “They should soon expect the closure of the Mediterranean, the Strait of Gibraltar and other routes. “Water” by the “resistance forces,” Pasdaran commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi warned at the height of Red Sea tensions fueled by Houthi attacks.
On the 78th day of the war, medical sources in Gaza reported that at least 20 people were killed in multiple attacks in Nuseirat camp and Deir al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip, where the fiercest fighting is currently concentrated. According to the Associated Press – citing aid sources – an Israeli airstrike killed 76 members of the same family in Gaza City: one of the “bloodiest” attacks of the conflict, Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the local civil protection authority, reported an incomplete list of names and underlined, that the dead included Issam al-Mughrabi, a UN development program employee, his wife and their five children.
Instead, the Israeli army announced that it had killed Hassan Atrash, who was responsible for trafficking, manufacturing and smuggling weapons for Hamas. According to the same sources, the man was involved in smuggling from various countries into the Palestinian enclave and also played a role in supplying weapons to the West Bank. The IDF (144 soldiers killed so far) then announced that it was continuing to operate extensively in the Palestinian enclave. During an operation in the Bakshi suburb of Gaza City, the military spokesman reported that “a weapons cache hidden in toy boxes in a kindergarten” was discovered. However, south of the city, in the suburb of Issa, Israeli aircraft and ground troops have “eliminated dozens of terrorists”.
There were also operations in the Shati refugee camp in the north in which “three terrorists were killed”. According to the IDF, around 700 “Hamas activists” have been arrested and taken to Israel for interrogation since the ground operation began.
In the course of Hamas' destabilization campaign in Israel regarding the fate of the hostages still held captive in Gaza (around 130), the spokesman for the military wing of the Abu Obeida faction has now reported contacts with a group of militiamen who were holding five Israelis in custody. “We believe,” Obeida said, “that the five Zionist prisoners died as a result of the Israeli Air Force’s heinous bombing.” Three of them, elderly people, were seen in a video released by Hamas on December 18.
The day after the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution on aid to the Gaza Strip, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke again about the hostages and called for their immediate release. Guterres stressed that “nothing can justify the horrific terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7 or the brutal kidnapping of 250 people.” He then focused on the suffering in Gaza, denouncing that “four out of five of the world’s hungriest people live in Gaza.”
Finally, it is worth noting the Wall Street Journal's version that on October 11, US President Joe Biden convinced Israel not to launch a preemptive attack against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, which prompted him to discuss the consequences of this step in the Region to think about while the fighters with the Star of David were already floating in the air, waiting for the green light. However, the indiscretion was denied by Netanyahu's office: “On the first day of the war, the prime minister decided – his office explained – that Israel must first work to achieve a decisive victory “in Gaza”, at the same time as an attack from there to ward off the north. This was the policy chosen by the War Cabinet.”
Today the two leaders spoke by phone again: Netanyahu thanked the head of the White House for Washington's position at the United Nations and made it clear that “Israel will continue the war until all its goals are achieved.”
“I had a long conversation with Netanyahu today, it was a private conversation. “I didn’t ask for a ceasefire,” Biden said. The US president stressed the need to protect civilians in Gaza and those supporting humanitarian activities, noting that it is “important to allow civilians to safely escape from combat zones.”.
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