Israel-Hamas war updates from Dec 8: Hamas brutality can't justify 'collective punishment' of Palestinians

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) called on Friday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to end the "decimation" of Palestinian lives in the territory.

Philippe Lazzarini urged all UN member states to "take immediate actions to implement an immediate humanitarian ceasefire", saying in a statement that "calling for an end to the decimation of the lives of Palestinians in Gaza is not a denial of the abhorrent attacks of 7 October in Israel".

The United States told a UN Security Council meeting on Friday that it opposed an immediate ceasefire in the fighting raging in Gaza.

"While the United States strongly supports the durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire," said Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood.

"This would only plant the seeds for the next war, because Hamas has no desire to see a durable peace to see a two state solution," Wood added.

The UN Security Council is "complicit in the ongoing slaughter" in the Gaza Strip through inaction and vetoes, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday.

"To date, the inaction of the United Nations Security Council and vetoes from member states, particularly the United States, make them complicit in the ongoing slaughter; this inaction has given license to the mass killing of men, women and children," MSF said in a statement.

Chief diplomats from a grouping of Arab and Islamic nations, on a visit to Washington, called Friday for end to fighting in the Gaza Strip.

"Our message is we believe it is absolutely necessary to end the fighting immediately," said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on behalf of the group, appealing for the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Bin Farhan was in Washington as part of a visit of the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee.

A senior Hamas official Izzat El-Reshiq accused Israeli forces on Friday of carrying out a "heinous crime against innocent civilians" after images of detained Palestinian men stripped to their underwear in Gaza circulated on social media.

The Israeli military said on Friday it had struck more than 450 targets in Gaza from land, sea and air over the past 24 hours. This is the most since a truce collapsed last week and about double the daily figures typically reported since then. 

With most Gazans now displaced and unable to access any aid, hospitals overrun and food running out, the main UN agency there said society was "on the verge of a full-blown collapse" and its ability to protect people there was "reducing fast".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Hamas brutality could never justify "collective punishment" of Palestinians as Israel presses its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza strip.

"Some 130 hostages are still held captive. I call for their immediate and unconditional release, as well as their humane treatment and visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross until they are freed," Guterres said at an emergency meeting of the organization's Security Council.

"At the same time, the brutality perpetrated by Hamas can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Friday the death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has risen to at least 17,487 in the Palestinian territory.

Announcing the new figure, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said: "Every day we are losing dozens of wounded due to a lack of care and delay in getting them out of Gaza."

Mohammed Deif, the commander general of the military wing of Hamas, and his deputy Marwan Issa have been put on the terrorist list by the European Union. As a result, their funds and other assets in the EU members states will be freezed. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Palestinian Authority (PA) is not the solution to post-war governance of Gaza.

“A. There will be no Hamas – we will eliminate it. B. The very fact that this is the Palestinian Authority’s proposal only strengthens my policy: the Palestinian Authority is not the solution,” Netanyahu wrote on X.

The Israeli Army on Friday evening announced that two of its soldiers had been martyred during the war in northern Gaza. It increases the toll of Israeli soldiers killed to 420. 

As per Al-Jazeera, the Israeli military on Friday bombed the Great Omari Mosque, in the Gaza Strip. It is the oldest and the biggest mosque in the region. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said 85 per cent of Gaza Strip's population had been displaced, which amounts to 1.9 million Palestinians. 

"As of 6 December, almost 1.2 miliion internally displaced persons (IDPs) were sheltering in 151 UNRWA installations across all five governorates of the Gaza Strip, including in the North and Gaza City," the agency stated. 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Friday warned that the war had reached a point of no return. 

"We are reaching a point of no return in Gaza, where the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law scars our collective conscience,” said the UNRWA's commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini. 

Palestinian worshippers held Friday prayers on a street overlooking Al-Aqsa compound as heavy restrictions have been imposed by Israeli police since October 7 Hamas attack.

If you joined our Live blog on Israel-Hamas war just now, read these main developments in last few hours

- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Israel must do more to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. He said that their was 'gap' in what Israel promised and what is actually happening.

- Southern Gazan city of Khan Younis is witnessing fight between Israel soldiers and Hamas fighters.

- BBC reported that Jabaliya refugee camp is witnessing fires that are breaking out in different parts of the camp. Israeli military has reportedly been firing bombs in the camp.

- Palestinian health ministry has said that Israeli soldiers shot dead six Palestinians in al-Fara camp which is north of Israel-occupied West Bank.

- United Nations Security Council is due to meet on Friday for a vote over immediate ceasefire.

The Times of Israel has reported that Master Sgt. (res.) Gal Meir Eisenkot (25) has been killed in Gaza. He was son of Israeli war cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot who is former IDF chief.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Friday that the Palestinian authority was working with US officials on a plan to run the Gaza Strip after the Israel-Hamas war was over.

Speaking to the news agency Bloomberg, Prime Minister Shtayyeh said the preferred outcome of the war would be for Hamas to become a junior partner under the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), helping to build a new independent state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticised Israel for the rising civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip. "As we stand here almost a week into this campaign into the south... it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection," Blinken told reporters following his meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Washington. 

Israeli forces on Friday killed six Palestinians at a refugee camp in north of West Bank. According to local media, the Palestinian health ministry said that they were killed by Israeli forces in the Al-Fara refugee camp.

Clashes escalated with the (Israeli) forces who stormed the camp amid intense fire and the blasts of explosions, a report by the news agency Wafa said. 

Israel and the United Nations signaled on Thursday (Dec 7) that the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel could soon be opened to help speed up the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, where the Israel-Hamas war has left people desperately short of basic needs, reported Reuters. 
 

According to the Palestinian health ministry, five Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in West Bank, reported AFP news agency. 

Heavy bombardment has continued and rockets have been raining down over Gaza on Friday morning (Dec 8). As per reports, hundreds more Palestinians were killed on Thursday (December 7) as Israel fought Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip's biggest cities. 

Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, who was among prominent English authors in Gaza, was killed in an Israeli strike, said his friends.

“My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family a few minutes ago,” wrote Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha on Facebook. “I don’t want to believe this. We both loved to pick strawberries together,” he added.

Alareer had refused to leave northern Gaza after Israel began its ground offensive in October.

Responding ton the allegations of using white phosphorus in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military that it “only used legal weapons and ammunition.”

The Lebanon National News Agency (NNA) had alleged that “phosphorus” was shelled by the Israeli artillery on the outskirts of the town of Rmeish.

“The primary smoke-screen shells used by the IDF do not contain white phosphorus. Like many Western militaries, the IDF also possesses smoke-screen shells that include white phosphorous that are legal under international law. These shells are used by the IDF for creating smoke screens and not for targeting or causing fires and are not defined under law as incendiary weapons," read the statement.

“IDF procedures require that such shells are not used in densely populated areas, subject to certain exceptions. This complies and goes beyond the requirements of international law,” it added.

The IDF said that two reserves soldiers died while fighting in Gaza as the military death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas reached 91.

The soldiers who died are Sergeant major (res.) Kobi Dvash, 41, a reserves soldier in the Armored Corps, from Tiberias and Master sergeant (res.) Eyal Meir Berkowitz, 28, of the 551st Brigade’s 699th Battalion, from Jerusalem.

Israel Prison Service Commissioner Katy Perry has been instructed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to make preparations for incarcerating Hamas terrorists who have been captured in October 7 attack in a less-used underground wing of the Nitzan prison in Ramle, as per the Hebrew media.

The reports said that the underground wing was not used for many years and provides minimal imprisonment conditions.

Under acute pressure from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the UNSC (United Nations Security Council) will today vote on urging an immediate ceasefire in the ruinous Israel-Hamas war. 

In a letter to the council on Wednesday, Guterres took invoked the UN charter's Article 99.

This was an extraordinary step, as no one in his job had done this in decades.

To know everything about Article 99, click here.

Calling for a "humanitarian ceasefire" to prevent "a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians" and the entire Middle East, Guterres wrote: "Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible."

At a gathering in Buenos Aires, Argentinian demonstrators on Thursday (Dec 7) demanded the release of all Hamas hostages. Urging the Argentinian government to condemn the militant group, demonstrators erected a memorial with photographs of children kidnapped by Hamas, stuffed toy bears.

Talking to AFP, Daniel Korin, the brother of a man murdered by Hamas demanded that "The outgoing government of President Alberto Fernandez should declare Hamas as a ‘terrorist organisation’, and if they fail to do so, the incoming government of Javier Milei should do it."

Milei who is set to take the helm on Sunday (Dec 10) was vocal about his plans to have a pro-Israel foreign policy. During his campaign, he had also expressed his desire to move the Argentine embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday voiced his strongest public criticism of Israel's conduct of the war on Hamas in south Gaza.

He said there was a gap between the Israeli government's declared intentions to protect civilians and the casualties.

Speaking at a press conference following a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Washington, he said: "As we stand here almost a week into this campaign into the south … it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection." 

"And there does remain a gap between … the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we're seeing on the ground," he noted.

Several flares were seen over the night Sky in Gaza as Israel continued its fight against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip's on Thursday (December 7).

Some distant radiances in the horizon briefly lit up the night sky amid sound of loud bangs which could heard from across the border in southern Israel.

Residents reported fierce battles going on east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza's largest city. Palestinian health officials said three Gazans were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.

Israel said its forces killed a number of gunmen in Khan Younis, including two who emerged firing from a tunnel.

Relatives of hostages taken by Hamas speak out during an interview in Paris, France following a stop in Brussels, Belgium, and ahead of a stop in Strasbourg as part of a tour in Europe to maintain the focus on their loved ones. Their aim: to urge Europe to put pressure on Qatar to continue bringing hostages home.

"This is a humanitarian must," insists Liran Berman, whose twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman are being held by the Palestinian militant group. Without news from their loved ones, it's all "hope and fear and sadness," Ido Shamriz, whose brother Alon Shamriz was taken by Hamas, tells AFP. Israel says 138 hostages remain in Gaza. 

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken on Thursday welcomed an Israeli investigation into a strike that killed a journalist and wounded six others on October 13 in southern Lebanon. 

"It is important and appropriate that it be fully and thoroughly investigated. My understanding is that Israel has initiated such an investigation and it will be important to see that investigation come to a conclusion and to see the results of the investigation," he said when asked about the case at a news conference.

Friends, family, and supporters of the hostages held in Gaza gathered on Thursday (December 7) to mark the start of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah by lighting candles for the hostages in a plaza in Tel Aviv.

The holiday is the first Jewish festival since Oct. 7 when Israel says Hamas massacred 1,200 people and took roughly 240 people hostage. Some of the hostages were released in a weeklong ceasefire that has since ended, bringing war back to Gaza.

Kibbutz Be'eri is one of the Israeli communities hardest hit by Hamas gunmen on October 7, but on Thursday (December 7), two months after the devastating attack, some residents raised hopes of returning to live there.

In Be'eri, like in other communities along the Israel-Gaza border, the gunmen shot at families taking refuge in their safe rooms and set houses alight.

The White House said on Thursday (December 7) that Israel and Hamas are not close to another deal on a new humanitarian pause in their ongoing conflict. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that hostages' families continue to be a "terrific source" of information, even as he had no news regarding their release. A day prior, leaders of the Group of Seven nations called for further humanitarian pauses in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The leaders also called on Iran to refrain from providing support to Hamas as well as Hezbollah and Houthi militants in the region.

Kanaan is a Vegan-vegetarian restaurant that was established by Oz Ben David, an Israeli entrepreneur and marketing business man and Jalil Dabit, an Palestinian arab descendent of the Samir family that own the famous "Humos Samir“ in Israel and Palestine.

US President Joe Biden held a telephonic discussion with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu where the two leaders held a discussion about the latest developments in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the White House said.

They have spoken on the phone at least 16 times since the war’s outbreak.

The US president also spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah and held discussion over the war, the White House said in a statement.

Israel and the United Nations signalled on Thursday that the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel could soon be opened to allow more humanitarian supplies into Gaza, where the Israel-Hamas war has left people desperately short of basic needs.

In Israel, Colonel Elad Goren, head of the civil department at COGAT, the Israeli agency for civilian coordination with the Palestinians, told reporters: "We will open Kerem Shalom just for inspection. It will happen in the next few days."

In Geneva, United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths told reporters that negotiations were under way. "There are promising signs now that that may be able to open soon," he said.

The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on 13 individuals and entities for allegedly funneling tens of millions of dollars in foreign currency to Yemen’s Houthi group from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities.

The U.S. Treasury said in a statement that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s paramilitary and espionage force, backed the scheme involving a complex web of exchange houses and firms in multiple countries, including Yemen, Turkey, and St. Kitts and Nevis.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accused the West on Thursday of supporting "genocide" by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, at the start of talks in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin.

As part of a burst of meetings focused on the Middle East, Putin greeted Raisi in the Kremlin a day after visiting the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where he discussed the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and efforts by Russia and OPEC to boost oil prices.