Israel-Hamas war: Top developments Jan 4

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will leave Thursday on a trip to five Arab countries, the West Bank, Turkey and Greece, in addition to a previously announced stop in Israel, the State Department said.

Blinken among other issues will "discuss immediate measures to increase substantially humanitarian assistance to Gaza," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
 

Israeli forces searched houses in the Nour al-Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm on Thursday, detaining hundreds of people suspected of militant activities, the military said.

As the extended raid ended in the afternoon of its second day, the Palestinian Red Crescent said it had treated 21 casualties, of whom 17 suffered injuries from beatings during detention and interrogation and one from live fire.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said on X (formerly Twitter) that Israeli forces have carried out airstrikes at several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon.

Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said that the death toll in the enclave has exceeded 22,000. As per the latest figures, 22438 people have been killed in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

The health ministry has said that total number of injured people is 57,614.

Mourners gather in Beirut for the funeral of Hamas officials killed in a strike on the suburbs of Beirut on the 3rd of January, including the Hamas deputy chief, Saleh al-Aruri.

Lebanese authorities and Hamas accused Israel of killing Hamas leader Aruri and other officials, with Lebanese state media saying they died in a drone strike.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari did not directly comment on the killings but said the military was "highly prepared for any scenario" in its aftermath. 

The U.S. military has carried out a strike in Baghdad against an Iraqi militia leader it blames for attacks against U.S. forces in the country, killing him and another person, a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the strike hit a vehicle in Baghdad. It targeted a leader of Harakat al Nujaba, the official said, without naming the person.

Oil rose by about 1% on Thursday, extending gains on concerns over Middle Eastern supply after disruptions at an oilfield in Libya and heightened tensions relating to the Israel-Hamas war.

Local protests forced a production shutdown on Wednesday at Libya's Sharara oilfield, which can produce up to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd). The field, one of Libya's largest, has been a frequent target for political protests.

Brent crude rose 61 cents, or 0.8%, to $78.86 a barrel by 1300 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rallied 74 cents, or 1%, to $73.44.

"A confluence of headlines around further tensions in the Red Sea and a full shutdown of Libya's Sharara oilfield from local protests have renewed concerns about global oil supply disruptions," said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG.

Reuters

Sixteen people were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza's Al-Mawasi town on Thursday. Speaking to the news agency Reuters, an official said that the dead included nine children. 

A senior official in the US Education Department resigned on Wednesday over President Joe Biden's handling of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. 

"I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government," Tariq Habash, special assistant in the Education Department's Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, said in a letter Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. 

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Thursday that its building in the Gaza Strip's Khan Younis was attacked by Israeli strikes.

In a post on X, the PRCS said the attack led to seven injuries among the displaced families. 

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit of Israel's defence ministry, slammed the United Nations for stalling the entry of aid into the Gaa Strip. 

“You can’t keep avoiding the facts: There is no collective punishment. 2 crossings are open. You said you can transfer 200 trucks a day in Kerem Shalom, yet you’re not scraping 100," COGAT said in a post on X on Wednesday. 

“Over the last 80 days, we’ve adjusted ourselves, all you’ve been doing is stalling,” the COGAT added. 

Hezbollah on Thursday said four of its fighters were killed overnight in southern Lebanon. The four fighters had been killed “on the road to Jerusalem” – a phrase the terror outfit has been using to announce deaths of its members. 

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday took to Telegram to claim that it had killed terrorists who had planted explosive next to IDF troops. 

"In the city of Khan Younis, three terrorists attempted to plant an explosive device next to IDF troops. In response, an IAF aircraft directed by the troops targeted and killed the terrorists," read the message. 

"Furthermore, the troops eliminated two additional terrorists who were hiding in a nearby building and a fighter jet struck a Hamas weapons storage facility," it added. 

According to an Al-Jazeera report, the commercial marine traffic along the Suez Canal is down a third from last year. The drop has been primarily caused by the Houthi attacks on commercial vessels which has spooked the major shipping firms. 

Air raid sirens sounded in Ashkelon as well as surrounding communities close to the northern Gaza Strip, breaking 15 hours of silence in the area. Later, the Ashkelon municipality said that two Iron Dome were intercepted over the city.

While visiting the Lebanese border, where Israeli forces have continuously exchanged fires with Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said that the troops were “in a very high readiness in the North”.

The chief's remarks came a day after Israel Hamas’s deputy political chief Saleh Al-Arouri was killed in an Israeli strike in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

Iran has revised the the death toll in the explosions which took place near the grave of the late general Qasem Soleimani. It was earlier reported that 103 people have died, however, the death toll has now be brought down to 84 people.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said that the United States “does not want the conflict [in the Middle East] to widen”.

Speaking about whether the US has supported Israel in the strikes carried out on Hamas and if the deployment of strike groups by Washington to the Eastern Mediterranean to fight against Yemen’s Houthi rebels is leading to an escalation, Kirby said: “I stand by my answer. No.

The International Court of Justice confirmed South Africa and Israel will deliver oral arguments in public hearings on January 11 and 12 in relation to the genocide charges Pretoria has laid against Israel.

The head of Israel’s foreign intelligence service has vowed to track down and kill all Hamas leaders responsible for attacking Israel on October 7, less than a day after a drone strike in Lebanon killed the militant organisation’s second seniormost official.

David Barnea said on Wednesday (Jan 3) that Mossad was "committed to settling the score with the murderers who descended upon the Gaza envelope" on October 7 and with those who planned the attacks.

Barnea was speaking at the funeral of the former Mossad director Zvi Zamir, who oversaw Israel’s bloody retaliation against Palestinian groups after the 1972 killings of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich.

"It will take time, just like after the Munich massacre, but we will lay our hands on them wherever they will be … Every Arab mother ought know that if her son participated, directly or indirectly, in the slaughter of 7 October, his blood shall be upon his own head," Barnea told mourners.

Antony Blinken's latest West Asia trip has put the spotlight on his earlier trips to the region in the past months. 

On November 3, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Israel's Tel Aviv in what was his second trip to West Asia, days after his much-criticised shuttle diplomacy in the region failed to yield geopolitical results aimed towards a purported de-escalation of Israel-Hamas war and access to humanitarian aid into Gaza Strip.

Read here: Explained: Why Blinken has returned to West Asia despite a failed peace bid last time

The United States on Wednesday, criticised South Africa for bringing a genocide case against Israel to the UN's top court. 

Speaking at a press briefing, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby rejected the allegations as "meritless" and said that the submission is "counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever."

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, in a separate statement, emphasized that, according to the US assessment, "We have not at this point seen acts that constitute genocide." He cautioned against making allegations of genocide lightly, calling it a "heinous atrocity."

The International Court of Justice in The Hague is scheduled to conduct hearings next week based on South Africa's filing, which accuses Israel of "genocidal acts against the people in Gaza". 

South Africa says that Israel has been acting "with the requisite specific intent... to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group." The country is seeking an order to end Israel's military operation.

Israel has vehemently rejected South Africa's accusation, labelling it "blood libel."

A senior official in the US Education Department resigned on Wednesday (Jan 3rd), citing dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden's handling of the Gaza conflict as the reason. 

The departure of Tariq Habash, the special assistant in the Education Department's Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, underscores a growing dissent within the administration amid escalating casualties in the war.

In a letter addressed to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Habash said, "I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government."

Habash, a Palestinian-American and a student debt expert, was appointed early in Biden's presidency as part of an initiative to enhance the Education Department's proficiency in managing student loans.

In an open letter, 17 of Joe Biden's re-election campaign staffers have warned the US President that his handling of the Gaza war could cost him voters.

The anonymous re-election campaign staffers, in their letter, urged Biden to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

"Biden for President staff have seen volunteers quit in droves, and people who have voted blue for decades feel uncertain about doing so for the first time ever, because of this conflict," wrote the staffers, in the letter published on Medium.

The US says that it sees no sign that Israel was behind the two explosions that on Wednesday (Jan 3rd) killed nearly 100 people in Iran. In a statement White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said "We have no indication at this time at all that Israel was involved in any way whatsoever".

On Wednesday, as scores of people gathered to commemorate Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani four years after his death in a US strike, two explosions in the country's south ripped through a crowd, killing 95 people and injuring many more.

"We aren't at a point now where we have a lot of great detail on this bombing. Certainly, our hearts go out to all the innocent victims and their family members who are obviously their lives are going to be forever changed by this. But we don't have any we don't have any more detail in terms of how it happened or who would might be responsible for it,'' said Kirby.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will reportedly head back to West Asia on a new crisis trip, on Thursday (Jan 4th). His trip comes as fears rise of a regional escalation of the Israel-Hamas war, which is nearing its three-month mark. Quoting a US official speaking on the condition of anonymity, the news agency AFP reported that the trip will include Israel.

This will mark his fifth trip to Israel since Oct 7 when the Hamas militants launched their unprecedented attack.