Israel-Hamas war updates: Israel's Netanyahu calls on Hamas militants to 'surrender now'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, "it is the beginning of the end of Hamas" and adds "don't die for Sinwar. Surrender – now". Netanyahu's statement is released after Hamas warned that no hostages would leave Gaza alive unless its demands for prisoner releases are met, media reports said. 

Israeli soldiers who got injured while fighting in the Israel-Hamas war since October 7th, currently in rehabilitation at the Hadassah Mt. Scopus hospital in Jerusalem, recount their experiences.

Menahem, a soldier who was injured on October 7, while talking about losing his friends on the battlefield says, "they would have liked me to move forward and not get stuck behind, so I try. But I cry at night, no doubt." Another injured soldier, Hagai says he had to relearn how to breathe on his own, how to walk on his own, and how to speak after being injured in a burning tank while fighting in Gaza. 

Hamas releases video of what it says are its fighters operating in Khan Yunis, Gaza. A man with a RPG gets into position in a room as Israeli soldiers deploy. A UAV drops a munition on a tank.
 

Violence escalated at Lebanon's border with Israel on Sunday as Hezbollah launched explosive drones and powerful missiles at Israeli positions and Israeli air strikes rocked several towns and villages in south Lebanon.

Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire since the war in Gaza erupted two months ago, in their worst hostilities since a 2006 conflict. The violence has largely been contained to the border area, Reuters reported. 

Hamas, engaged in a war with Israel in the Gaza Strip, warned on Sunday (Dec 10) that no hostage would leave the territory alive unless the group's demands were met.

"Neither the fascist enemy and its arrogant leadership... nor its supporters... can take their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance," Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, said in a televised broadcast, referring to the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

After the UN Security Council declined to demand a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas, the 34 countries on the WHO's executive board adopted by consensus a resolution calling for the "immediate, sustained and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief" into Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed they have struck "over 250 terror targets" in the last 24 hours.

According to local authorities in Gaza, at least 17,700 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 48,780 wounded, by Israeli military actions since 7 October. An additional 7,780 people are believed to be missing. The tally could not be independently verified. 

In an interview with CNN, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel intends to prevent civilian toll in Gaza but "the results are not always manifesting themselves..."

"We think there needs to be a premium put on protecting civilians and making sure that humanitarian assistance can get to everyone who needs it. And, as I said, I think the intent is there, but the results are not always manifesting themselves…," Blinken said.

"Israel needs to be able to deal with this to protect itself, to prevent October 7 from happening again. But, as it does that, it’s imperative that civilians be protected," he added.

Mediation efforts are continuing to secure a new Gaza ceasefire and free more hostages held by Hamas amid raging state of war in the blockaded Palestinian Enclave.

"We are going to continue, we are committed to have hostages released, but we are also committed to stop the war," Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said. But, he added, "we are not seeing the same willingness from both parties".

In an exclusive interview with WION, Palestine's Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh laid emphasis on urgently bringing an end to the war between Israel and Hamas, which has now entered its ninth week. 

The Palestine Authority never really left Gaza, Palestine's Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told WION on the sidelines of Doha Forum in the Qatari capital on Sunday (Dec 10).

Asked about the talks of Palestine Authority taking up the administration of Gaza from Hamas, Shtayyeh said that the salary of 34,000 Palestinian civil servants in Gaza is paid for by the Palestine Authority itself. "There are important issues that need national consensus," Shtayyeh said. 

Read in detail here.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement today that two soldiers were “moderately injured and a number of additional soldiers were lightly injured from shrapnel and smoke inhalation,” after it intercepted two aerial targets that crossed from Lebanon.

The statement added that Israeli fighter jets also “completed an extensive series of strikes” on targets belonging to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah inside Lebanon.

“Among the targets struck were terrorist infrastructure, launchers, and military compounds belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” it said.

The Arab world's priority is to ensure an immediate end to war in Gaza, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told WION on the sidelines of Doha Forum in the Qatari capital on Sunday (Dec 10).

"That is our priority at this point. To stop the aggression. To stop the catastrophe," Safadi told WION. 

Jordan, an immediate neighbour of Israel and Palestinian territories along the West Bank, has been at the forefront of bringing about an international consensus to ensure cessation of prevailing hostilities in Gaza.

Safadi expressed fears that failure to bring about an end to the conflict in Gaza will push the region "deeper into conflict". "The images we are seeing are the same images the whole world is seeing," Safadi said. 

"This is an Israeli aggression that is killing people, including children and women," he added. 

Read in detail here.

Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, on Sunday (December 10) said that Israel was implementing a policy of pushing Palestinians out of Gaza through a war that he said meets the "legal definition of genocide," allegations that Israel rejected as "outrageous". 

On Sunday, the World Health Organization chief highlighted that in current circumstances, Gaza's health situation is almost impossible to improve. He has labelled the health crisis in Gaza as "catastrophic".

"I must be frank with you: these tasks are almost impossible in the current circumstances," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin amid growing tensions between the two countries over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

“The Prime Minister spoke with Putin for around fifty minutes,” the Israeli PMO said.

Netanyahu expressed his dissatisfaction to Putin over Russia's "anti-Israel stance" on the war against Hamas.

Netanyahu also asked Putin to pressure the Red Cross to secure visits to the remaining hostages and deliver medications to them.

In the recently held UN Security Council meeting at New York, the Russians had supported a resolution which called for ceasefire and peace in Gaza while the U.S had vetoed the resolution and the U.K had abstained from voting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was not acceptable for Israel to use Hamas' terror attack on October 7 to justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. 

He also called for international monitoring on the ground in Gaza. This comes as Israeli tanks have reportedly battled their way to the centre of Khan Younis on Sunday in a major new push into the heart of the main city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Speaking at the Doha Forum conference in Qatar, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that an entire generation in the Middle East is at risk of becoming radicalised because of the ongoing war in Gaza.

"Seeing these images right now that's coming out of Gaza every day, it's not just affecting those forces which are in Lebanon and Yemen or Iraq, but it also affects an entire generation that might be radicalised because of these images and seeing the international community not responding responsibly to it," said Al Thani, as quoted by Reuters. 

He also  told the gathering that Doha will continue to pressure Israel and Hamas for a truce despite "narrowing" chances. Al Thani also noted that hostages were released from Gaza because of negotiations and not because of Israel's military actions.

The Israel Defense Forces said two soldiers were moderately wounded and others lightly hurt by shrapnel and smoke inhalation following an attack by the Lebanon-based Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in the Western Galilee.

Two of the drones launched from Lebanon were shot down by the Iron Dome air defense system, the Israeli army said. The Lebanon-based militant group has since claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Rocket alarms were sounded in the evacuated Gaza border towns of Netiv HaAsara and Yad Mordechai signalling the first rockets that have been launched by Hamas after a 20-hour lull, reported Times of Israel. 

According to the report, it was the longest lull - aside from the weeklong temporary truce last month - since the war started on October 7. 

A report by Reuters citing a Cypriot newspaper said two Iranians have been detained in Cyprus for questioning over suspected planning of attacks on Israeli citizens living in Cyprus. 

The two individuals were said to be in the early stages of gathering intelligence on potential Israeli targets, reported Kathimerini Cyprus newspaper without citing any sources, as per the news agency. 

The paper added that the Iranians were political refugees in contact with a person linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO) convened for an emergency session with the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza was at the top of the agenda. 

Speaking at the start of the session, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed his disappointment at the UNSC's failure to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza saying that it was "the only way to truly protect the people of Gaza". 

Speaking about the situation in the Palestinian enclave, he said the healthcare system in Gaza has been reduced to a third.

"The impact of the conflict on health is catastrophic" and health workers are doing an impossible job in unimaginable conditions, said Tedros. 

During the recent cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed international calls to end the war in Gaza and called them inconsistent with Israel's aim to "eradicate" Hamas. 

"You cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas and on other pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas," the Israeli PM told the leaders of France and Germany. 

Netanyahu also thanked the United States President Joe Biden for his administration's veto at the United Nations Security Council on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

He also thanked the US president for approving an urgent shipment of some 14,000 tank shells he says is due to start arriving today (Dec 10). 

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, on Sunday (Dec 10) said the United States should also be held responsible for Israeli attacks on Gaza and the loss of Palestinian lives. 

Shtayyeh was speaking at the Doha Forum conference in Qatar.

Source: Reuters

On Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would continue appealing for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

"I urged the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared," Guterres said.

"Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it, but that does not make it less necessary," he said.

"I will not give up," Guterres added.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani opened the Doha Forum on Sunday condemning the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, reports CNN

"We meet today with great sadness as the world suffers continuous crises. The Gaza Strip is witnessing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster which makes the free people of the world ask some legitimate questions about the nature of the international systems and the efficiency of the legal instruments and its principles," the Emir told audiences.

Without mentioning Israel, the Emir condemned the targeting of civilians, including women and children, as a violation of international law and said the crisis has "highlighted the great gap between East and West and between the various generations and highlighted the double standards (within) the international community."

Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, fled Gaza City in northern Gaza to Khan Yunis in an IDF humanitarian convoy, The Jerusalem Post said in a report on Saturday.

North Korea has criticised the United States for block the UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. 

Speaking to the news agency Reuters, Kim Son Gyong, North Korea's vice foreign minister for international organisations, said, "The United States' abuse of its veto power to protect an ally that massacred tens of thousands of civilians is not only a manifestation of illegal and unreasonable double standards, but also the height of inhumane evil."

Kim argued Washington was contradicting itself by condoning continued fighting in Gaza while condemning Pyongyang's recent satellite launch that caused no harm to any other country.

Hamas said on Sunday that Israeli forces launched very violent raids in southern Gaza's Khan Yunis and the road from there to Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

The United Nations has warned that half of the Gaza Strip's population is starving as the conflict intensifies. 

Only a fraction of supplies needed have been able to enter the region, and nine out of 10 people cannot eat everyday, Carl Skau, deputy director of the UN World Food Programme, said.

Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip are overwhelmed by the rising numbers of people injured in heavy Israeli bombardments over the past two months.

According to a report by the news agency Reuters on Sunday, only 14 of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are still functioning, and they are handling tens of thousands of injured patients.

Israel's Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has allegedly conveyed to Israel's war cabinet that he opposes the re-entry of Palestinian workers into the country.

“Bringing workers from the Palestinian Authority, who are covered in incitement, into Israel now, is the continuation of the concept and understanding that we did not understand anything from October 7th!” Ben-Gvir wrote in a post on X.

Hundreds of Israelis gathered at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on Saturday, rallying for the release of approximately 140 individuals still held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. As speakers addressed the crowd, demonstrators held up signs with messages such as "they trust us to get them out of hell" and "bring them home now."

In the largest protest witnessed at COP28 in Dubai on Saturday, hundreds of participants, adorned with pro-environment banners echoing the colors of the Palestinian flag, fervently called for the termination of fossil fuels and an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. The demonstrators vocalised demands for "Climate justice!" and "Ceasefire now!" The enduring conflict in Gaza has cast a shadow over the United Nations meeting in Dubai, where global negotiators strive to reach a new consensus on addressing global warming.

Israeli forces entered southern Gaza on Sunday (Dec 10), prompting the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians seeking refuge from ongoing bombardments and fierce clashes with Hamas terrorists.

Concerns over the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory have been raised by aid groups, describing the situation as "apocalyptic" and warning of a looming crisis with the potential for disease and starvation overwhelming the region.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels issued a threat on Saturday ( Dec 9), stating their intention to attack any ships heading to Israeli ports unless the delivery of food and medicine to the besieged Gaza Strip is permitted. This warning adds to the heightened tensions in the Red Sea and surrounding waters, marked by a series of maritime attacks by Huthi rebels since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed on Saturday that Israel will persist in its "just war to eliminate" the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He commended the United States for thwarting a UN ceasefire proposal.

"I very much appreciate the correct stance the US took at the United Nations Security Council... Therefore, Israel will continue our just war to eliminate Hamas and achieve the rest of the war's goals," Netanyahu said in a video statement.