Israeli airstrikes kill dozens as calls for Gaza ceasefire and hostage talks grow

Fatalities in last 24 hours come amid public anger over mistaken killing of three hostages by Israeli forces

Airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 100 people over the last 24 hours, as Israel’s leadership faces growing international pressure for a ceasefire and calls at home to resume hostage negotiations after the Israeli army shot and killed three men kidnapped by Hamas.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said on Sunday that at least 90 people had been killed by Israeli bombardment in the Jabalia camp in the north, and another 12 had died in bombings in the central city of Deir al-Balah, as fighting was reported in several parts of Gaza.

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MP Layla Moran fears family trapped in Gaza church ‘will not survive until Christmas’

Oxford and Abingdon MP’s extended family among those sheltering in besieged Holy Family church in Gaza City

“I fear my family under siege by Israeli forces in a church in Gaza will not survive until Christmas, between the snipers and the lack of water.”

Those were the stark words of Layla Moran, the MP for Oxford and Abingdon whose extended Christian Palestinian family members are among those who have been trapped inside the Holy Family church complex in Gaza City for 60 days.

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Two-state solution would mean relocating 200,000 settlers, says Israeli lawyer who has David Cameron’s ear

Lawyer who has advised foreign secretary says Israel has the capacity, but not the will, to relocate even one settler

Nearly 200,000 of the 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank would have to be relocated to Israel to create a viable Palestinian state, according to an Israeli lawyer from whom the UK foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, has sought advice on his visits to Israel.

Cameron has said he realises reaching a two-state solution would be tough, but he has not spelled out the practical consequences in terms of borders, including the need to persuade so many Israelis to relocate.

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Pro-Palestine rally leaders credit public ‘pressure’ with Labor’s shift on Gaza

Change of heart on ceasefire shows ‘collective action is working’, Sydney protest speaker says

Speakers at Sydney’s pro-Palestine rally have said public outcry against the war in Gaza has pushed the Albanese government to shift its position and back calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, while criticising Labor for not calling for a permanent end to the conflict.

On Wednesday Australia joined 152 other nations in voting in favour of a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in an emergency session of the United Nations general assembly. The move followed Australia’s decision in late October to abstain from casting a vote on a similar motion.

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Israel-Gaza war: UK and Germany call for ‘sustainable’ ceasefire

UK foreign minister David Cameron and German counterpart Annalena Baerbock say goal must be peace lasting ‘generations’

The foreign secretary, David Cameron, has called for a “sustainable” ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, as he warned that “too many civilians have been killed” by Israel in spite of its right to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas.

In a significant shift in tone by the UK government, Cameron, in a joint article with the German foreign affairs minister Annalena Baerbock, wrote: “Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations. We therefore support a ceasefire, but only if it is sustainable.

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MP Layla Moran’s family trapped inside Catholic church in Gaza City

‘Beyond desperate and terrified’ relatives among hundreds inside compound amid bombing by Israeli forces

An MP’s relatives have been trapped alongside hundreds of other civilians in a Catholic church in Gaza City since almost the start of the conflict, and the situation has only grown more dire in recent days.

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford and Abingdon, told the BBC that some of her Christian Palestinian extended family – a grandmother, her son, his wife and their 11-year-old twins – sought refuge inside the Holy Family Church complex after their home was bombed in the first week of the war.

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USAid contractor and family killed in Israeli Gaza airstrike, agency says

Deaths of Hani Jnena, 32, wife and daughters aged 2 and 4 led NGO to call for Biden to demand Israeli accountability

A contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAid) in Gaza was killed with his wife and two daughters aged four and two in an Israeli airstrike in November, his employer said on Saturday.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm the tragic loss of our colleague, Hani Jnena (33), along with his family in Gaza, including his wife, Abeer (32), and their two young daughters, Mariam and Zayna, aged 4 and 2,” the non-profit organization Global Communities, which partners with governments and private-sector entities for humanitarian work, said in a statement.

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‘Israel only responds to force’: support for Hamas soars in West Bank after October attack

Residents of Jenin say Israeli army seems intent only on revenge as they pick through wreckage of their homes

Fluffy pink slippers on her feet and scarves thrown over her hair and pyjamas, Amal Abu Ghazi, 39, leaned against a wall as she watched her family clear out the rubble from their ruined house in the Jenin refugee camp, in the north of the occupied West Bank.

Her husband used a stick to smash the remaining shards of glass out of the window frames of their two-storey home and her brothers-in-law hauled out the remains of sofas and tables; somehow, a laptop had managed to survive intact. Israeli soldiers had burst in two nights ago, Abu Ghazi said, arresting her sons, 20 and 18, and ordering the rest of the family to wait outside before troops used explosives to demolish the building.

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Al Jazeera asks legal team to refer journalist’s killing to ICC – as it happened

This blog has now closed. Read our full report on the latest developments here.

Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.

The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions”.

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Israel tempers claims of imminent Hamas defeat as both sides seem set on long war

The militant group’s ideology and its complex tunnel network means it is no ordinary enemy

Israel’s insistence to the Biden administration that it needs more time to defeat Hamas has raised questions over the level of damage inflicted on the Islamist militant organisation, and whether it is changing tactics in its fight against the Israel Defense Forces.

In a week in which nine Israeli soldiers were killed, including two senior commanders and several other officers in a single complex ambush in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, analysts and commentators have begun to question previously bullish assessments about Hamas’s ability to fight.

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Israeli military says its troops shot and killed three hostages by mistake

IDF identifies hostages killed as Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa, saying they were mistakenly believed to be a threat

The Israeli military has said that its troops shot and killed three hostages being held by Hamas after mistakenly identifying them as a threat during fighting in a battle-torn neighbourhood of Gaza City.

The announcement on Friday came amid heavy fighting across the embattled territory that led to an influx of dead and wounded into hospitals in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah.

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Lufthansa to resume flights to Tel Aviv in January – as it happened

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The Israeli heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, of Otzma Yehudit, the far-right party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, said in a radio interview that the Gaza Strip must be “fully” occupied.

In comments reported by Haaretz, Eliyahu said: “Anyone who sells an illusion that [Hamas] will return to manage things does not want to remember what happened on Simhat Torah.”

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UK terror threat level under close review after foiled alleged attack plot in Europe

Arrests in Germany and the Netherlands increase fears that Jewish institutions in the UK could be targeted by Hamas

Britain’s terror threat level is being kept under “very close” review amid concerns that extremist groups could target Jewish institutions in the UK, a day after German prosecutors said they had foiled a Hamas attack plot by making four arrests.

MI5 and counter-terror police indicated they were focused on whether the war in the Middle East could galvanise extremists into taking violent action, as Israel’s intense bombing of Gaza extends to its third month.

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Israeli forces recover body of French-Israeli hostage in Gaza

Elya Toledano was among estimated 240 hostages taken during Hamas attacks on 7 October

The Israeli army has recovered the body of the French-Israeli hostage Elya Toledano, who was kidnapped and taken to Gaza by militants during the 7 October attacks.

Toledano, who turned 28 in captivity, was among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during the Hamas attacks in southern Israel. A resident of Tel Aviv, he was at the Nova music festival along with his friend and fellow French-Israeli Mia Schem, who was released under a truce agreement at the end of November.

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Israel says it will open new aid crossing into Gaza Strip

Announcement follows pressure from allies in US to alleviate humanitarian crisis in besieged territory

Israel has said it will open a new aid crossing into the Gaza Strip in the face of pressure from allies in Washington to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory and wind down its wide-scale bombings and armoured ground operations against Hamas.

The Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel, previously used for goods and aid deliveries, would reopen to process humanitarian supplies, the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday.

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Australia denounces Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Government joins more than a dozen countries to say settlers are ‘terrorising’ Palestinians in ‘unacceptable’ violence

The Australian government has warned that violent acts by Israeli settlers are “terrorising Palestinian communities” in the occupied West Bank, joining with western allies to denounce an “environment of near complete impunity”.

Two days after voting in favour of a UN general assembly resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the Australian government has strengthened its objections to violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

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Biden in a bind as Netanhayu ready to flout any US attempt to rein in Israel

Israel PM has defied US calls for restraint in Gaza and told domestic audience he will not compromise

US efforts to show it retains significant influence over the Israeli government were dealt a double blow on Thursday when the Israeli defence minister said it would take months to complete the task of rooting out Hamas, and a leaked US intelligence assessment revealed up to 45% of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions that Israel has dropped on Gaza since 7 October have been unguided “dumb bombs”.

The predictions of a months-long campaign were delivered on camera by Yoav Gallant to a stony-faced Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, who had arrived in Israel to convey a message that its campaign needed to change – and preferably be wrapped up in weeks. They were later reinforced by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Neyanyahu, who said Israel would not stop until complete victory.

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Georgia teacher accused of threatening to kill student over Israeli flag, police say

Teacher arrested after allegedly saying he would ‘cut’ student’s ‘head off’ after she told him she was offended by his Israeli flag

A school teacher in the US state of Georgia was arrested after allegedly threatening to behead a student who expressed taking offense over his Israeli flag, according to authorities.

Benjamin Reese’s arrest at the middle school named after the town of Warner Robins occurred on after a student approached and told him she was offended by the Israeli flag hanging in his classroom, the local news station WMAZ reported, citing a police account of the case.

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Israel tells US it needs ‘months’ to defeat Hamas

Defence minister addresses US national security adviser as Biden administration presses for end to war

Israel will fight on until “absolute victory against Hamas”, the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a senior official from the Biden administration, as another minister said the war could last “more than several months”.

Netanyahu’s comments were made to Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, during a visit to Israel hours after its defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told Sullivan that many more months were needed to defeat Hamas in Gaza.

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IDF censures its soldiers filmed mocking call to prayer in Jenin mosque

Israeli military says soldiers have been removed from duties after incident in West Bank city

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have condemned the behaviour of several of their soldiers who were filmed singing and mocking the Islamic call to prayer over the loudspeaker of a mosque in the city of Jenin.

The incident came during three days of raids in the occupied West Bank, during which Israeli troops have killed 12 Palestinians, including one youth shot dead at a hospital, according to Palestinian officials and international health charities.

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