Israel-Hamas war LIVE: US to continue providing arms to Israel, says Austin

Hamas's military wing on Monday released footage it claimed showed three Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the Palestinian group's deadly October 7 attacks on Israel. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades video, titled "Don't let us grow old here", showed three bearded men sitting on chairs at an undisclosed location, with one of them asking Israeli authorities to work towards their release.

Israelis protest in Tel Aviv, setting up camping tents outside the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence to ask for the release of the remaining 129 hostages believed held in Gaza.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin on Monday said the United States will provide more arms and munitions to Israel, whose forces battle Palestinian militants in Gaza following deadly attacks.

Austin also warned Iran to "stop" supporting Yemen's Huthi rebels who were increasingly attacking vessels in the Red Sea since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.

"We'll continue to provide Israel with the equipment that you need to defend your country... including critical munitions, tactical vehicles and air defence systems," the US defence secretary said, according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister's office.

"In the Red Sea, we're leading a multinational maritime taskforce to uphold the bedrock principle of freedom of navigation. Iran's support for Huthi attacks on commercial vessels must stop," Austin said.

As he reiterate his support for Israel in joinet press conference with Israeli defence minister, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the US will continue provide arms to Israel.

"We'll continue to provide Israel with the equipment that you need to defend your country... including critical munitions, tactical vehicles and air defence systems," the US Defence Secretary said.

Austin has said that Iran's support to Houthi rebels who are attacking shipping in the Red Sea 'must stop'. Additionally, he said that Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, should not do anything that will worsen the situation surrounding Israel-Hamas war.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has said that Americans are still among the hostages in Hamas captivity and that the militant group is hiding behind innocent people. He added that US is working to bring back all the hostages.

Austin made an appeal for continuous humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Saying that no country should suffer fate like October 7 attack, Austin said he will continue to work for secure Israel and brighter Palestine

Saying that what Hamas did on October 7 was a massacre, Austin said the millitant group wants to carry out such attacks over and over again.

In the joint press conference with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reiterated US support for Israel.

"I am here for clear message - Ameria support Israel's security, Israel is not alone," he said.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has claimed that Israel has been precise while eliminating Hamas leaders. He added that Israel will continue till it has achieved its goal. While mentioning 'complexity of war', Gallant said that Israel was working to minimise harm to civilians in Gaza.

Gallant, during his joint press conference with US Defence Secretary, said that Israel's war was not with people of Gaza but against Hamas, which he called a 'brutal enemy'.

Gallant has said that Israel is fighting a war it didn't want for last 72 days after Hamas butchered women, children and soldiers. He said that destruction of Hamas and return of hostages was Israel's goal.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin is holding a joint press conference with Iraeli Defence MInister Yoav Gallant.

In Gaza's central city of Deir al-Balah, mourners gathered around bodies of their loved ones who were killed in the latest Israeli airstrikes. In Nuseirat refugee camp, people were assessing damage.

Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip has said that that death toll in the enclave has crossed the 19,000 mark. At least 19,453 people have been killed in Israel-Hamas war since October 7. The ministry has added that 52,286 people in Gaza have been wounded.

Israel denied on Monday (December 18) it targeted a Catholic church in the Gaza strip following reports two women inside the church were killed by an Israeli sniper. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic authority in the Holy Land, said at the weekend the two women, named as Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar, were shot dead in the compound of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh urged the global community on Monday to help the Palestinians stop Israeli "aggression and end the occupation."
During a cabinet meeting in Ramallah, Shtayyeh said "what we want now is to stop the war, the aggression, the killings and the (Israeli) invasions in Gaza and the West Bank."

Displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are struggling to get access to basic necessities including water. The World Food Programme said on Dec. 14 that access to water in Gaza was severely constrained, with less than two litres per person per day, falling well short of the 17 litres a day that's considered the basic survival-level requirement.

Palestinian group Hamas released on Monday (December 18) a video statement in which Hamas senior official Ghazi Hamad said Israeli government "does not care about the lives of the Palestinian civilians nor its soldiers and prisoners".

"We continue to say that the US administration is totally responsible of these massacres and violations taking place at the hands of the Israeli occupation army in Gaza," Hamad added.
 

Trucks loaded with aid enter the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, near Rafah. A humanitarian aid convoy entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday, the first since Israel approved the opening last week.

Benjamin Netanyahu expressed these sentiments at an event commemorating the extension of Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron's tenure.

CIA Director Bill Burns is scheduled to meet with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency in Warsaw, Poland, as reported by two US and Israeli officials to Axios. The discussions aim to explore a potential new agreement for the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has uncommonly criticized Israel, condemning Israeli forces for fatally shooting two women within a Gaza church.

“A [Israeli] sniper shot two women inside a church. This has nothing to do with the fight against Hamas because the terrorists are certainly not hiding in Christian churches,” Tajani said, as reported by Al Jazeera.

As per French politicians, the Foreign Ministry employee who succumbed to injuries after an Israeli air strike in Rafah chose to stay in Gaza when French authorities declined to include his four sons on the evacuation list. Ahmad Abu Shamla, a 23-year veteran at the French Institute in Gaza, tragically lost his life. Thomas Portes, the deputy of the French National Assembly, provided this information on X.

“France did not put his four elder sons on the list of persons authorised to leave Gaza. He chose to stay with them, and lost his life in a bombardment,” said Elsa Faucillon, a left-wing French lawmaker.

A 27-year-old Israeli woman who was taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas during the October 7 attack on southern Israel has been confirmed dead, the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum announced. 

Inbar Haiman was said to have been abducted from the Supernova music festival and described as a “creative girl full of joy.”

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Prominent rights group, Human Rights Watch on Monday accused the Israeli government of intentionally starving civilians in Gaza and using starvation as a "method of warfare," a strategy that amounts to a war crime.

"The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime," said the New York-based rights group in a report. 

"Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel, while wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival," it added.

Israel has since criticised the organisation and called it an antisemitic and "anti-Israeli organisation".

"Human Rights Watch ... did not condemn the attack on Israeli citizens and the massacre of October 7 and has no moral basis to talk about what's going on in Gaza if they turn a blind eye to the suffering and the human rights of Israelis," Israel's foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told AFP.

At least 110 Palestinians have been killed since since the previous day in Israeli strikes on a northern part of the territory, said the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry, on Monday. 

In a brief statement, the ministry said "there were 50 martyrs in occupation strikes on houses in Jabalia," bringing to 110 the number of deaths in the area since Sunday. 

WION cannot independently verify this claim.

Israel's national cyber directorate accused Tehran and Iran-backed Lebanon-based militant group of attempting to hack the country's Ziv Medical Center. 

The attempt to hack occurred last month, said the directorate, as per Times of Israel, however, hackers were thwarted from disrupting the workings of the hospital.

"In a joint effort by the cyber directorate, the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Health Ministry and hospital teams, the attack was stopped before it could achieve its goal of disrupting the hospital’s operations and harming the medical care of civilians," said the directorate, in a statement. 

It added, "However, it was found that the group stole some sensitive information stored in the hospital’s systems." 

The Israeli army on Sunday (Dec 17) said that it had uncovered an unusually large concrete and iron-girded Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip, just a few hundred metres from a key border crossing.

As per news agency AFP, the size of the tunnel was such that small vehicles could easily travel inside it.

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Oil prices have risen nearly 1 percent in Asian trade, as Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and lower exports from Russia stoke supply fears.

Brent crude futures climbed 0.4 percent to $76.87 a barrel on Monday morning, while US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5 percent to $71.77 a barrel.

Israel on Monday continued to face mounting international outrage over the rising death toll in the Gaza Strip, as it pressed on with its offensive.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's offensive after Hamas launched an attack on Oct 7, killing 1,139 people and abducting 250 others.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that they had uncovered an unusually large concrete and iron-girded tunnel, designed to carry carloads of militant fighters from Gaza right up to the border.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) said late Sunday that the Al-Shifa Hospital was completely overwhelmed and could only provide the most basic care to patients.

Former British defense secretary Ben Wallace warned the Jewish nation that it risks undermining the legal basis for its action in the Gaza Strip.

Writing in the Telegraph, the senior Tory politician warned against a "killing rage" and said Israel's "original legal authority of self-defense is being undermined by its own actions."

The Syrian Center for Human Rights reported Sunday that two people, whose identities were not revealed, were killed in an Israeli attack against a military site close to Al-Dimas, west of Damascus.

According to reports in Israeli media, the Israeli spy agency Mossad has received the green light to restart negotiations with mediators.

The Chief of the agency David Barnea is travelling to Europe within the next two days to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani for the second time in just under a week. 

WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said he was appalled by the Israeli attacks on Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital over the weekend.

“WHO is appalled by the effective destruction of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern #Gaza over the last several days, rendering it non-functional and resulting in the death of at least 8 patients,” he said.

Threatening emails were sent to more than a dozen Jewish organisations and synagogues in at least 8 US states over the weekened, NCB News cited officials as saying.

In each instance, the threats — most of which have been about bombs — appear to have been emailed.

Synagogues and Jewish organisations in Maine, Michigan, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., received the threats. It wasn’t immediately clear if they were all related. 

The UN Security Council could meet as early as Monday morning (Dec 18) to demand Israel and Hamas allow aid access to Gaza via land, air and sea routes.

Diplomats said the fate of the draft Security Council resolution hinges on final negotiations between Israel ally and council veto power, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates, which has drafted the text.

The IDF announced that an Israeli fighter jet attacked Hezbollah infrastructure and a terrorist cell that was attempting to launch an anti-tank missile into Israel from the border area.

Gaza's health ministry claimed Sunday (Dec 17) that Israeli raids on the Jabalia refugee camp have killed at least 90 Palestinians.

According to Palestine's Wafa news agency, dozens were also injured or missing after Israel hit the residential square belonging to the al-Bursh and Alwan families.