As it happened: Hamas says no hostage talks unless fighting stops

“Unfortunately, due to a decisive failure of the United Nations, they are unable to bring in more than 125 trucks a day,” Herzog said in a meeting with the president of the French Senate, Gerard Larcher, who is currently visiting Israel.

“It is possible today to provide three times the amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza – if the UN— instead of complaining all day — would do its job,” he added.

Hamas has recently announced plans to expand its political movement in Lebanon, sparking concerns among domestic groups in the Middle Eastern country.

Hamas announced the "Vanguards of the Al-Aqsa Flood" at the beginning of December, a new recruitment drive in Lebanon, as the group said that the role of the Palestinian people, wherever they are, is to resist the Israeli occupation through all available means.

According to the Times of Israel, IDF said that it has expanded its ground operations in the central Gaza Strip, with the 99th Division carrying out an operation in areas south of Gaza City.

The 99th Division manoeuvred into new areas of central Gaza in order to establish "operational control" between Gaza City and the so-called central camps – the central Gaza refugee camps, IDF said. 

"It's a very painful situation to know that this aid is likely to harm my son or other soldiers," says Fabienne, a demonstrator near the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, who has come to prevent the passage of humanitarian convoys into the besieged Palestinian territory. A military and police presence is in place to prevent the trucks from reaching the border, preventing traffic from passing with a roadblock. 

A salvage of rockets is fired from the southern Gaza Strip towards Israel. The Israeli army said it bombed scores of targets in the Gaza Strip as diplomats pressed on with efforts to halt the fighting that Hamas says has killed 20,000 people in the Palestinian territory.

Hamas, in a statement published on Thursday said Palestinian factions reject any talks about prisoners swap until Israeli aggression comes to an end. 

“There is a Palestinian national decision that there should be no talk about prisoners or exchange deals except after a full cessation of aggression”, the statement said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Thursday said countries surrounding the Red Sea had the responsibility to protect it as Houthis continue to attack Israeli ships. 

 “We continue to cooperate with many of our partners to provide suitable conditions for the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” Shoukry said.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), northern Gaza is now without a functional hospital due to lack of fuel, staff and supplies. 

“There are actually no functional hospitals left in the north. Al-Ahli [hospital] was the last one but it is now minimally functional," said Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in Gaza.

According to a Guardian report, a Hamas-appointed senior border official was among four Palestinians killed in a fresh Israeli air strike in Rafah, near the border with Egypt. The officials has been identified as Col Bassam Ghaben. 

A report by The Wall Street Journal quoting Egyptian officials said that Hamas has turned down an Israeli offer to stop fighting for one week in exchange for dozens of captives. Hamas will not discuss any releases until a ceasefire first takes hold, the reports said. 

Gulf countries, led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have issued an ultimatum to Israel stating that if the war between Israel-Hamas does not end next month, there will be a reduction in humanitarian aid, N12 reported, citing Arab sources. 

"If the fighting does not stop in January, then we will be forced to reduce the humanitarian aid we transfer to the Gaza Strip," N12 reported, quoting their Arab sources. 

Australia will not deploy a warship to the Red Sea as part of a nascent US-led coalition meant to protect vessels in vital shipping lanes being threatened by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, Aussie Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed, media reports said. 

The Human Rights Watch, in its new 51-page report said that Facebook and Instagram owner Meta's content moderation policies and systems are increasingly silencing voices in support of Palestine on its social media platform. 

“Meta’s censorship of content in support of Palestine adds insult to injury at a time of unspeakable atrocities and repression already stifling Palestinians’ expression,” said Deborah Brown, acting associate technology and human rights director at HRW, in statement. 

“Social media is an essential platform for people to bear witness and speak out against abuses while Meta’s censorship is furthering the erasure of Palestinians’ suffering,” the statement added. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that three more troops were killed while fighting Hamas in northern Gaza, bringing the death toll since the beginning of Israel's ground offensive against the Palestinian militant group to 137. 

Three soldiers were: Sergeant Lavi Ghasi (19), Lieutenant Yaacov Elian (20), and Lieutenant Omri Shwartz (21). 

An officer and two other soldiers were seriously hurt in the incident in which Shwartz and Elian were killed, according to the Israeli army. 

On X, the Israel Defense Forces have shared a video allegedly of a Hamas tunnel located next to a school for deaf children.

"Follow LTC Ido, the deputy commander of the 401st Brigade, as he exposes a terrorist tunnel he and his soldiers uncovered in a civilian garage, next door to a community college and a school for deaf children," wrote the IDF along with the video.

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said that a rocket was fired at al-Assad Air Base in Iraq, which hosts US and other international forces.

CENTCOM, which is responsible for US forces in West Asia, said no injuries or damage were sustained by the rocket.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington, DC-based think tank, and the Critical Threat Project (CTP) said that Israeli forces are transitioning from "clearing operations" to "holding" some areas in the northern Gaza Strip.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said Australia will send "up to six additional" Australian troops to contribute in the US-led Prosperity Guardian operation in the Red Sea.

"The Australian Government continues to work with the United States and other partners in support of the international rules-based order in the Middle East and surrounding region," the Australian defence minister wrote in a post on X.

UN said that it has 'disturbing' information as it accused IDF of killing 11 Palestinians in front of their families. 

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the leading UN entity on human rights, said that the incident took place on 19 December in Al Remal neighbourhood in Gaza City, and come "in the wake of earlier allegations concerning the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians at the hands of Israeli forces".

According to witness accounts, Israeli troops allegedly “separated the men from the women and children, and then shot and killed at least 11 of the men, mostly aged in their late 20s and early 30s, in front of their family members”, the report says.

The United Nations said that Israel has ordered the evacuation of large areas of Khan Younis, the urban centre in southern Gaza where the Palestinians from the northern Gaza fled to at the start of the war. 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Israel had released maps showing new areas covering about 20 per cent of Khan Younis that had been marked for evacuation, news agency AFP reported.

The Israeli army said on Wednesday that "ground, aerial and naval operations were carried out on dozens of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure" on military command and control centres in Khan Younis.

The Israeli military claimed it has uncovered a major Hamas command centre in the heart of Gaza City, a day after a think-tank report stated that Israel may be nearing end of its operations in northern Gaza.

The army said it had exposed the centre of a vast underground network used by Hamas to move weapons, militants and supplies throughout the Gaza Strip.

Associated Press reported that the Israeli military escorted Israeli journalists into Palestine Square in the heart of Gaza City to show the purported centre of Hamas’s tunnel network.