Gallant cites signs Hamas ‘is beginning to break’ as army says more operatives surrendering * 2 troops seriously hurt in op to rescue hostages * Ground offensive toll at 93
A general view shows a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza, at UN headquarters in New York City on December 8, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura/AFP)
This handout photo from the Israel Defense Forces on December 8, 2023, shows Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip. (Israel Defense Forces)
A car damaged by rocket shrapnel in Tel Aviv on December 8, 2023. (Courtesy)
Palestinians try to rescue a woman stuck under the rubble of a destroyed building following Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
War cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot, family and friends attend the funeral of his son Gal in Herzliya on December 8, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center-left) consoles war cabinet minister minister and former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot (center in white kippa) at the funeral of Eisenkot’s son, Master Sgt. (res.) Gal Meir Eisenkot, in Herzliya on December 8, 2023. Gal Eisenkott was killed December 7 during an IDF ground operation in the Gaza Strip. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 8, 2023, shows smoke rising above buildings during an Israeli strike in northern Gaza, amid continuing battles between Israel and Hamas. (Jack Guez / AFP)
Israeli soldiers are seen near the border with the Gaza Strip, southern Israel, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Weapons found by Israeli troops during a raid in Gaza City’s Al-Azhar University, in a handout photo published December 8, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)
A picture taken from the Israeli side of border with Lebanon shows shells exploding over hills around the southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab on December 8, 2023. (Jalaa Marey/AFP)
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they happen.
IDF hits manned Hezbollah observation post in response to border attacks
The IDF says it struck a manned Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon in response to attacks on the border today.
Additionally, the IDF says it identified a group of operatives at an anti-tank missile launch site, from which an attack was carried out earlier.
It says the site and operatives were struck.
US State Department denies forbidding Palestinian Authority FM from speaking to media
WASHINGTON — The US State Department denies an allegation that it has forbidden a visiting Palestinian official from speaking to reporters in Washington.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki had joined his Arab and Turkish counterparts in traveling on a rare joint mission to Washington. The foreign ministers said they wanted to push the Biden administration to drop its objections to an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terror group.
At a press conference by the Arab and Turkish diplomats, a reporter asked Malki about a Bloomberg story that quoted PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh as saying he hoped Hamas would be a junior partner to governing Palestinian officials.
But Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan quickly intervened. The US government, the Saudi diplomat said, had imposed visa “restrictions on his excellency that do not allow him to respond to media questions.”
Prince Faisal said he believed the ban was a “historical” practice with the Palestinian official in the US, and that violating it would bring legal repercussions.
No such thing, the State Department says in a statement later. “We have imposed no restrictions that prohibit individuals from speaking to the press.”
Israel hails US for vetoing Security Council resolution seeking Gaza ceasefire
Israel’s envoy to the United Nations thanks American President Joe Biden for “standing steadfastly” with Israel, after the US vetoed a Security Council resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“A little light rejected a lot of darkness,” Ambassador Gilad Erdan says in a statement, alluding to Hanukkah.
“It is shocking that when Hamas is firing rockets at Gush Dan from population centers in southern Gaza, the UN is busy with a disconnected deliberation about a distorted resolution that is directed at the wrong side and does not even condemn Hamas,” the ambassador adds.
“A ceasefire is possible, only with the return of all the hostages and destruction of Hamas.”
US vetoes UN Security Council resolution calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
The United States exercises its veto at the UN Security Council to block a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Thirteen members of the council vote in favor of the motion, while the United Kingdom abstains.
The US deputy representative at the UN, Robert Wood, says the resolution is “divorced from reality” and “would have not moved the needle forward on the ground.”
The Arab-backed measure, which was slammed by Israel, described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “catastrophic.” It called for the protection of civilians, the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages Hamas is still holding, and humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.
Biden said to ask Congress for approval to sell 45,000 tank shells to Israel
The Biden administration has asked Congress to approve the sale of 45,000 shells for Israeli Merkava tanks amid the ongoing war in Gaza against Hamas, according to a Reuters report.
Six French teens convicted for roles in Islamic extremist’s beheading of teacher
PARIS — A French juvenile court convicts six teenagers for their roles in the beheading of a teacher by an Islamic extremist that shocked the country.
Teacher Samuel Paty was killed outside his school in 2020 after showing his class cartoons of the prophet of Islam during a debate on free expression. The attacker, a young Chechen who had radicalized, was killed by police.
The court finds five of the defendants, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the attack, guilty of staking out the teacher and identifying him for the attacker. Another defendant, 13 at the time, is found guilty of lying about the classroom debate in a comment that aggravated online anger against the teacher.
The teenagers — all students at Paty’s school — testified that they didn’t know the teacher would be killed. All are handed brief or suspended prison terms, and required to stay in school or jobs during the duration of their suspended terms with regular medical checkups.
They left the courtroom without speaking. Some had their heads down as they listened to the verdicts. One appeared to wipe tears.
Paty’s name was disclosed on social media after a class debate on free expression during which he showed prophet caricatures published by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. The publication had triggered a deadly extremist massacre in the Charlie Hebdo newsroom in 2015.
Paty, a history and geography teacher, was killed on October 16, 2020, near his school in a Paris suburb by attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov.
The five who identified Paty to the attacker are convicted of involvement in a group preparing aggravated violence.
The sixth defendant wrongly claimed that Paty had asked Muslim students to raise their hands and leave the classroom before he showed the class the prophet cartoons. She was not in the classroom that day, and later told investigators she had lied. She is convicted of making false allegations.
Her father shared the lie in an online video that called for mobilization against the teacher. He and a radical Islamic activist who helped disseminate virulent messages against Paty are among eight adults who will face a separate trial for adults suspected of involvement in the killing, expected late next year.
Israel said to believe IDF needs 3-4 weeks to complete operations in Khan Younis
The military needs another 3-4 weeks to complete the military offensive in Khan Younis and a similar amount of time after that to wrap up the first stage of the war in Gaza against Hamas, the Walla news site reports.
Citing a senior Israeli official, the report says the US has not given Israel a hard deadline but notes Washington has told Jerusalem that time is running out. The official adds that the sides disagree by a month on how long the war should continue, without further specifying.
According to the official, the Bide administration would be happy for the IDF to finish intensive operations by the end of the month but Israel believes it needs until the end of January.
“The American message is that they would like to see us finish the fighting sooner, with less harm to Palestinian civilians and more humanitarian assistance for Gaza. We would also like this to happen, but the enemy does not always agree,” the official is quoted as saying.
“The Americans understand this and we are working together. We need them and they need us,” the official adds.
In call with Netanyahu, France’s Macron urges reopening of Gaza border crossing
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to open a major border crossing to deliver much-needed aid into Gaza.
Macron’s call came to reopen Kerem Shalom comes a day after a senior Israeli official said the crossing to Gaza would operate to inspect humanitarian aid trucks for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began. The move, slated to be implemented in the coming days, is meant to facilitate an increase in the number of aid trucks that can enter Gaza each day.
While Israel will use the Kerem Shalom facilities to inspect the trucks, they will still need to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing between the Strip and Egypt.
During a telephone conversation between the two leaders, Macron also spoke of “the need to protect civilians in Gaza and stressed the importance of achieving a lasting ceasefire,” says the Elysee.
He adds that “Israel must take the necessary measures to put an end to the violence committed by settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.”
There is no immediate readout on the call from Netanyahu’s office.
3 Lebanese troops hurt by Israeli shelling — medical sources
BEIRUT — Three Lebanese soldiers were lightly injured today by Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon, medical sources say, while the Lebanese army reports no casualties in a second attack on a hospital.
Hezbollah also announces the death of four of its fighters today.
“Israeli artillery fire targeted the vicinity of a Lebanese army post in Ras el-Naqura, lightly injuring three soldiers,” a medical source tells AFP.
An AFP photographer at the scene saw the soldiers lying on stretchers, exhibiting signs of breathing difficulties but with no open wounds.
On Tuesday, two people, including a Lebanese soldier, were killed in Israeli cross-border shelling — the first among Lebanese army personnel to be killed since the start of almost daily exchanges of fire on the border between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged the incident and expressed “regret,” saying it was targeting a Hezbollah position and not the army.
The Lebanese armed forces, deployed to the border area, reported a second attack on Friday.
“On December 8, 2023, the military hospital in the town of Ain Ebel was bombed by the Israeli enemy, causing material damage but no casualties,” it says in a statement.
Israeli envoy tells UN that Hamas ‘solely responsible’ for humanitarian situation in Gaza
Addressing the UN Security Council, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan says the forum should call on Hamas to hold fire if it wants to end the fighting in Gaza.
“Why is this draft resolution not directed at Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh?” he says, referring to the terror group’s leaders. “Do you not know who was responsible for ending the previous ceasefire and reigniting hostilities?”
Erdan says Hamas is “solely responsible” for the humanitarian situation in Gaza and should be held “fully accountable” by the Security Council.
He also notes the start of Hanukkah last night.
“I pray that we see another Hanukkah miracle here in the UN, and that the almighty will allow the truth and light to prevail here in this council,” he says.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-december-8-2023/?utm_source=article_hpsidebar&utm_medium=desktop_site&utm_campaign=pa-says-its-working-with-us-on-post-war-plan-for-gaza-hopes-to-include-hamas.