The war in the Middle East is also reviving tensions on the border between Lebanon and Israel, an almost daily scene of exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, a movement close to Iran and which supports Hamas. In eastern Syria, at least 23 Iranian-affiliated fighters – five Syrians, four members of Lebanese Hezbollah, six Iraqis and eight Iranians – were killed in “probably Israeli” raids on Saturday.
Information to remember
⇒ Benyamin Netanyahu defends a war “of unequaled morality”
⇒ International mediators, led by Qatar and Egypt, continue their efforts to bring about a new pause in the fighting
⇒ US military says it sank three Houthi ships in Red Sea
Netanyahu defends a war of “unparalleled morality”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed this Sunday, December 31, that the war waged by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip was “of unequaled morality”, reacting to accusations of “acts of genocide” brought by the South Africa before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “We will continue our defensive war, the justice and morality of which are without equal,” he declared at the opening of a meeting of his government, adding that the Israeli army is acting “in the most moral manner possible” in the Gaza Strip.
US military says it sank three Houthi ships
US Navy helicopters sank three boats of Yemen’s Houthi rebels after they attacked a container ship in the Red Sea, the military announced on Sunday. After Houthi fire targeting American helicopters, the latter “retaliated in self-defense, sinking three of the four small ships, and killing the crews”, indicated the American military command in the Middle East (Centcom) in a press release, specifying that the fourth boat had “fled the area”.
The US Navy, Centcom said, was responding to a request for assistance from the Maersk Hangzhou, a Danish-owned and operated Singapore-flagged container ship, which had reported being attacked for the second time in 24 hours while sailing in the Red Sea. The ship had previously been targeted by two ballistic missiles launched from Houthi-controlled Yemeni territory, which the US military shot down.
Just after the American announcement, the Danish company Maersk announced that it would suspend the passage of its ships for 48 hours in the Red Sea.
The year ends without respite for civilians in Gaza, “exhausted” by the bombings
In these last hours of the year 2023, there is no respite from air raids, artillery fire and ground fighting in the Gaza Strip, to the great dismay of an “exhausted” Palestinian population. During the night, the Hamas Ministry of Health reported numerous deaths in strikes in Al-Mughazi and Al-Zawayda (center) which will be added to the 21,672 people, mostly women and minors. , already killed in Gaza since the start of the war – figures that cannot be verified from an independent source.
“We hoped that the year 2024 would arrive under better auspices and that we would be able to celebrate the New Year, at home, with family. But the situation is difficult,” says Mahmoud Abou Shahma, 33, in a displaced persons camp in Rafah , at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. “We hope for the end of the war and that we can return home to live peacefully,” adds the man from Khan Younes, the main city in the south of the Gaza Strip and the new epicenter of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Negotiations for a new truce
At the same time, international mediators, led by Qatar and Egypt, are continuing their efforts to bring about a new pause in the fighting, after the one-week truce obtained at the end of November. According to American sites Axios and Israeli YnetQatar indicated to Israel that Hamas accepted the principle of a resumption of talks with a view to the release of more than 40 hostages in exchange for a ceasefire that could extend up to a month.
A delegation from Hamas, a movement classified as terrorist by the European Union, the United States and Israel in particular, arrived in Cairo on Friday to convey “the response of the Palestinian factions” to an Egyptian plan providing for the release of hostages and a pause in the confrontations. This response will be given “in the coming days,” said Muhammad al-Hindi, deputy secretary general of Islamic Jihad, an armed group fighting alongside Hamas, in a statement.
Questioned on Saturday evening, Benjamin Netanyahu remained evasive about these behind-the-scenes negotiations. “Hamas issued a whole series of ultimatums which we rejected […]. We see a change (but) I do not want to create expectations,” he said, assuring that “the war will continue for several months.”
Demonstration in Tel Aviv for the release of hostages
While around a hundred Israeli hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, more than a thousand people demonstrated in Tel Aviv in support of the captives and their loved ones, chanting “bring them home!” . “I’m trying to be optimistic. I’m really trying to be optimistic. I hope there’s another deal, even partial, or that some information comes out. I’m trying to hold on to every strand of hope,” Nir Shafran, 45, said on the spot.
Gal Gilboa-Dalal remains traumatized by October 7. He had gone with his brother Guy to a rave party that was stormed by Hamas commandos. “I was there with him and he was taken away the minute I wasn’t with him. I went there with him and came back without him and it’s like time has stopped ever since “I’m waiting for him to come back. Every day is hell,” he said on the sidelines of the demonstration in Tel Aviv.
Tensions in Lebanon and Syria
The war in Gaza has also reignited tensions on the border between Lebanon and Israel, an almost daily scene since October 7 of exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, a movement close to Iran and which supports Hamas.
Israel said it had increased strikes on Saturday against “positions” of Hezbollah which announced the death of four of its fighters “on the road to Jerusalem”, a term used to designate its members who have fallen since October 7. “We are hitting hard against Hezbollah […] and if Hezbollah wants to extend the war, it will take blows like never before, and so will Iran,” Benyamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday evening.
In eastern Syria, at least 23 fighters affiliated with Iran – five Syrians, four members of Lebanese Hezbollah, six Iraqis and eight Iranians – were killed on Saturday in “probably Israeli” raids, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH).