Here’s how things look on Wednesday, December 20, 2023:
The latest developments
- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday that the Gaza Strip was experiencing the sixth consecutive day of communications outage, with the exception of a partial restoration in southern Gaza on Monday.
- A protest was organized in New York on Tuesday evening, amid international demands for the release of detained artists from the Freedom Theater in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The Freedom Theater was raided, vandalized, and painted with Israeli religious and political symbols.
- The Jerusalem Brigades, affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, published a video clip on its Telegram channel on Tuesday, showing two prisoners appealing to the Israeli government to help in their release.
- Israeli forces on Monday raided Al Awda Hospital in northern Gaza and arrested, stripped, bound and interrogated people at the hospital, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday, citing Doctors Without Borders.
Human impact and combat
- A pre-dawn Israeli raid on Tuesday destroyed a home in Rafah, killing 27 people, including a 17-day-old baby, the Associated Press news agency reported.
- Judy Ginsburg, chair of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told National Public Radio (NPR) that it appears to be… “Targeted” killings. Journalists in Gaza must be investigated. The Committee to Protect Journalists recorded the killing of at least 68 journalists in the region since October 7, while the Gaza Media Office estimated the death toll at 97.
- UN Children’s Agency Executive Director Catherine Russell warned on Wednesday that many children would die without safe drinking water in the coming days, and that diarrhea cases among children under five have already exceeded 20 times the monthly average.
- Israel raided at least six areas across the occupied West Bank overnight, including the town of Tammoun where Israeli forces wounded a 16-year-old boy with live bullets and demolished two homes, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and Wafa News Agency.
- Half of Gaza’s population is suffering from severe or extreme hunger, while 90 percent of the besieged enclave’s population goes without food for an entire day, according to the World Food Programme’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. Africa.
Diplomacy
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog told a gathering of ambassadors on Tuesday that his country is ready to agree to a new temporary truce with Hamas to ensure the release of more prisoners held in Gaza.
- Member states of the United Nations Security Council are conducting intense negotiations on draft resolutions related to the war between Israel and Gaza, which also caused the vote to be postponed until at least Wednesday morning, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondents at the United Nations.
- On Tuesday, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim banned Israeli shipping company ZIM and “any ship en route to Israel from loading goods at Malaysian ports,” in response to Israeli actions against Palestinians in Gaza.
- White House national security spokesman John Kirby said in a press conference on Tuesday that “attacks on ships in the Red Sea must stop.” The United States announced the creation of a new multinational maritime security force in response to attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels on ships in Yemen.
