LAST UPDATE | 8 Dec 2023
THE UNITED STATES today vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for an immediate ceasefire in the intense fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The United States’ deputy representative at the UN, Robert Wood, said the resolution was “divorced from reality” and “would have not moved the needle forward on the ground.”
Fighting raged today across Gaza between Israel and Hamas as the UN Security Council was due to meet to discuss a ceasefire in a war now in its third month.
Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages, Israeli officials say.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a military offensive in Gaza that has killed nearly 17,500 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the region.
During a seven-day truce that expired on December 1, Gaza militants released 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis, in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Israel says 138 hostages remain in Gaza.
Here are five key developments from the past 24 hours:
Gaza’s health ministry said today the death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has risen to at least 17,487 in the Palestinian territory.
The ministry reported 40 dead in Israeli strikes near Gaza City and “dozens” more in the northern Jabalia refugee camp and Khan Yunis.
Israeli forces have encircled major urban centres as they seek to destroy Hamas over its unprecedented attack.
Its army said it had struck more than 450 targets over a 24-hour period.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
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”.
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken welcomed an Israeli investigation into a strike that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six others, including two from AFP, on October 13 in southern Lebanon.
“It is important and appropriate that it be fully and thoroughly investigated,” he said at a news conference.
An AFP investigation published Thursday found the strike involved a tank shell that is only used by Israel in the region, and that it was fired from a location where Israeli tanks were operating.
The Israeli army said on Friday the area had been an “active combat zone” and that “the incident is currently under review”.
The US embassy in Baghdad was targeted in a multi-rocket attack on Friday morning.
US officials said there were no casualties.
There were a further five attempted attacks on US and anti-jihadist coalition forces in Iraq and Syria on Friday, none of which caused casualties, a US official said.
There have been 84 such attacks since October 17, with most claimed by pro-Iran groups opposed to US support for Israel.
Israeli forces shot dead at least six Palestinians in a raid on the Al-Fara refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Israeli army said it conducted a joint “counter-terrorism” operation with the Shin Bet internal security agency.
The Palestinian Authority says Israeli soldiers and settler attacks in the West Bank have killed at least 263 Palestinians since the Israel-Hamas war began.
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