The US government wants the war between Israel and Hamas to end "as soon as possible", said the White House spokesman for national security, John Kirby, according to Radio Free Europe.
Kirby spoke to reporters in Washington about today's visit to Tel Aviv by US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
He said Sullivan discussed Israel's transition to "low-intensity operations" in Gaza "in the near future."
"But I don't want to put a time stamp on it," Kirby added.
He also said that the US "does not dictate terms to the Israelis as to how long [the war] should last."
"[The war] has to last as long as they feel it needs to in order to eliminate this threat, but obviously we all want it to end as quickly as possible," he said.
Israel's defense minister told Sullivan that the conflict would continue for "several months," although CBS News quoted two US officials as saying that Israel had told the White House that the current phase of the offensive should be over in two to three weeks.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Staje said today that the US must take concrete steps towards a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the two-state model, including pressure on Israel.
This is what he said in an interview with the Associated Press, which he gave while US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan was visiting Tel Aviv, where he and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant discussed the course of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Galant said on that occasion that it will take several more months to achieve Israel's goal of destroying Hamas.
The US is a close ally of Israel, but publicly disagrees with Tel Aviv on the post-war outcome.
Washington wants the West Bank and Gaza to be under a single leadership in the end, as a precursor to Palestinian statehood, which the right-wing Israeli government strongly opposes, AP writes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the idea that the internationally recognized West Bank government has any role in Gaza.
Sullivan will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah tomorrow.
(BETA)
Israeli government minister Benny Gantz said today that they are conducting a strategic, professional discourse with the United States regarding the war against Hamas in Gaza and that Washington is not trying to dictate Israel's actions, Reuters reports.
"I think the Americans have a strategic and professional discourse with us that is appropriate and measured. They are not trying to dictate anything to us," Gantz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet, told reporters.
"We sit as two partners who see the big picture together in a responsible way," he said.
The United States of America (USA) has a historic responsibility to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a conversation with US President Joe Biden.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that he will fight against Hamas until "absolute victory", his cabinet announced after Netanyahu's meeting with Jake Sullivan, White House National Security Adviser, reports Radio Free Europe.
Netanyahu and Sullivan are said to have discussed broader regional threats, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
Earlier, the Israeli military said that Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon had fired hundreds of rockets and missiles at Israel, with about one in five rockets landing inside Lebanon.
"Hezbollah's rocket attacks are equally damaging to Israeli and Lebanese civilians," the statement from December 14 states.
After the eruption of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, Hezbollah launched almost daily rocket attacks on Israel, while Israel launched air and artillery attacks on southern Lebanon.
The head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Filip Lazarini, said that Rafah does not have enough infrastructure for more than a million people who fled there from other parts of Gaza, many of whom were forced to relocate several times, Radio Slobodna reports. Europe.
Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, he said that the city has quadrupled in population, and that the situation has worsened since the Israeli offensive in the south has been going on for the past few weeks, BBC reports.
Lazarini also stated that tens of thousands of people live outside UNRWA shelters, and that those who found space inside are "lucky" compared to people who live "in the open, in the cold, in the mud and in the rain."
The UN official also described the acute hunger in Gaza, stating that desperation has forced many to stop aid trucks to steal food, which they "eat on the spot".
Nearly 1,9 million people - or more than 85 percent of Gaza's population - have been displaced since Israel began retaliatory bombing following a Hamas attack on October 7 that killed 1.200 people.
The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 18.787 people have been killed and another 50.897 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, Radio Free Europe reports.
That's almost 180 dead since the same time yesterday.
Israeli forces shot and killed an unarmed teenager in the West Bank, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported, Radio Free Europe reports.
The boy was reportedly shot in the grounds of Khalil Suleiman Hospital in Jenin.
"Efforts to save his life by MSF doctors and the Ministry of Health were futile," the charity wrote in a post on the X network.
MSF says Israeli forces blocked and searched ambulances and medical staff outside the hospital as they transported discharged patients home today.
"Hospitals should be safe spaces. Hospitals must be respected. These attacks must stop," the statement said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant told visiting White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan today that it will take several months to defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip, reports Reuters.
Galant said that Hamas has been building its "infrastructure underground and above ground" for more than a decade and that destroying the Islamist group "will take a long period of time - it will take more than a few months, but we will win and we will destroy them."
The two also discussed the need for Israelis to return to their homes near the border with Lebanon after tens of thousands of people were displaced by fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah, Galant's office said in a statement.
Israel's parliament approved today the addition of an additional 25,9 billion shekels (6,4 billion euros) to the national budget to cover the costs of the war in Gaza, such as compensation for military reservists and emergency housing for internally displaced persons, reports Reuters.
The amendment, which was ratified by 59 lawmakers in favor and 45 against, increased the 2023 budget to 510 billion shekels (127.5 billion euros), a Knesset spokesman said. Israel adopted the initial 2023 budget along with the 2024 budget in May.
The UK has announced today that it is introducing a travel ban on Israeli settlers responsible for attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
British Foreign Minister David Cameron wrote on the X social network that extremist settlers are "undermining the security and stability of both Israelis and Palestinians."
"Israel must take stronger measures to stop the violence perpetrated by settlers and to prosecute the perpetrators," said Cameron, a former British prime minister.
The Foreign Office did not say how many people the ban applies to.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced last Sunday that the US was imposing a similar travel ban on "individuals believed to be involved in undermining the peace, security or stability of the West Bank".
While the world's attention is focused on the war between Israel and the Palestinian extremist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, there has been a sharp increase in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank, another Palestinian territory.
(BETA)
At least 11 Palestinians were killed during a multi-day raid by Israeli soldiers in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health authorities said today, amid reports of gunfire, hundreds of arrests and limited hospital access.
A young man died of wounds sustained during an Israeli operation in the northern West Bank city that began earlier this week, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Two more Palestinians were killed during the night, it added.
Israeli forces have searched hundreds of compounds and interrogated hundreds of suspects since the operation began on December 12, the army said in a statement.
They dismantled six explosives laboratories, underground tunnel shafts and explosive devices, according to the statement.
Since the raid began on the morning of December 12, Israeli forces have arrested hundreds of citizens, most of whom have been released, according to a statement from the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.
Israel was not allowing ambulances to enter the camp to transport patients, Mahmoud Al-Sadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Jenin, told Reuters.
"We have six ambulances, but we can't even reach the patients who need to be taken to the hospital, some of whom need dialysis," Al-Sadi said.
"The army did not allow us to enter, despite attempts to coordinate with the Red Cross and the UN's Palestine Humanitarian Agency," he said, adding that soldiers were also stationed outside the government hospital in Jenin.
Four soldiers were slightly injured in controlled explosions and shooting by Israeli forces, according to a military statement.
Soldiers occupied the mosque where sporadic gunshots were heard, a video circulating on social media showed.
Reuters could not independently verify the footage.
Asked about the Palestinian deaths and reports of soldiers stopping ambulances reaching the sick, the army confirmed there was an "ongoing counter-terrorist activity" in the city and said more details would be released after the activity ended.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that it is important that United Nations (UN) mechanisms, such as the right of veto of permanent member states of the Security Council, remain in force, Reuters reports.
When asked by a Turkish journalist about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Putin said that he hopes to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in early 2024.
Senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzouk has suggested that the Palestinian extremist organization could recognize Israel as a first step towards Palestinian unity.
DON'T MISS IT
The Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadid announced today that Israel has asked Egypt to mediate a new agreement with the Palestinian Hamas on the release of hostages in exchange for a ceasefire, according to Egyptian sources, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
In response to the report, a member of the political wing of Hamas, Bassem Naim, told the newspaper that "the official position is that while the conflict continues, there will be no negotiations on any agreement."
Palestinian sources told Haaretz that there are informal contacts to formulate the framework of a new agreement, mainly with Qatar and Egypt, but that nothing has matured at this stage.
Following the release of 105 civilians (81 Israelis, 23 Thais and one Filipina) from Hamas captivity during a week-long ceasefire in late November, 135 hostages are believed to be held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are dead.
In exchange for the hostages, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners, women and minors from Israeli prisons.
Four women were freed before that, and one was freed by soldiers at the start of the ground offensive on the Gaza Strip.
The bodies of five hostages were found in Gaza in the continuation of the offensive.
On the first day of the war between Israel and Hamas, about 240 hostages, including children, women, and the elderly, were kidnapped and taken away in attacks by Palestinian extremists.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank announced today that the number of dead in the operation of the Israeli army in Jenin last night rose to three.
Among the dead was a boy, according to Israeli media.
Residents of Jenin said Israelis used a drone to attack Palestinians in the city's eastern quarter, and the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported nine people were wounded, one seriously.
It is the third consecutive day of an Israeli military operation in Jenin designated as counter-terrorist.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 11 Palestinians were killed in the past three days.
Eyewitnesses say that Israeli forces were deployed in several locations in the city and that they entered and searched houses in the eastern quarter, and that there was an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and local extremists.
The Israeli army said soldiers were searching for explosive devices planted on roads.
Before the latest operation, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said 275 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
(BETA)
The latest Palestinian opinion polls have shown growing support for the Islamist Hamas, even in the devastated Gaza Strip.
For residents of the Gaza Strip who have survived Israeli bombs and bullets, there is a silent, invisible killer lurking - disease.
A lack of food, clean water and shelter has exhausted hundreds of thousands of traumatized people and, with the health system on its knees, inevitable epidemics will sweep the Palestinian enclave, 10 doctors and aid workers told Reuters.
"The perfect storm for disease has begun. Now it's about 'How bad is it going to get,'" said James Elder, a spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (Unicef).
From Nov. 29 to Dec. 10, cases of diarrhea among children under the age of five jumped 66 percent to 59.895 cases, and 55 percent for the rest of the population over the same period, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
That UN agency says that these data are certainly incomplete due to the collapse of systems and services in the Gaza Strip due to the war.
Ahmed Al-Fara, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, told Reuters his department was overwhelmed with children suffering from extreme dehydration, which in some cases has caused kidney failure, while cases of severe diarrhea have quadrupled. more than the normal level.
He said he was aware of 15 to 30 cases of hepatitis A in Khan Yunis in the past two weeks.
"The incubation period of the virus is three weeks to a month, so after a month there will be an explosion in the number of hepatitis A cases," the doctor added.
Since the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas expired on December 1, hundreds of thousands of people have moved into makeshift shelters - abandoned buildings, schools and tents. Many sleep in the open with little access to toilets or bathing water, aid workers said.
At the same time, 21 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are closed, 11 are partially functional, and four are minimally functional, according to WHO data from December 10.
Mari-Or Pero, emergency medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF) operations in Gaza, said the medical charity left a health center in Khan Yunis 10 days ago because Israel ordered an evacuation in the area.
She said two things are now inevitable.
"The first is that the epidemic will spread somewhat like dysentery in Gaza, if this pace of cases continues, and the second is the certainty that neither the Ministry of Health nor humanitarian organizations will be able to support the response to these epidemics," she said.
(Radio Free Europe)
The Israeli military stepped up its bombardment of the Gaza Strip today as the US called for Israel to show restraint in its third-month war against the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
Early this morning, the Hamas government announced that 19 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City in the north, Nuseirat in the central part and Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip after intense street clashes yesterday.
In an Israeli raid in another Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank, two Palestinians were killed and several were wounded in Jenin, a stronghold of armed factions, the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health announced.
The Israeli army announced this morning that a reservist was killed in Gaza.
With his death, the death toll in the Israeli ground offensive on that small enclave increased to 116, after the death of ten soldiers yesterday, the most in one day.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in exile in Qatar, said in a televised speech last night that "any arrangement in Gaza without Hamas or the resistance movement is an illusion" and expressed his willingness to discuss policies that would secure the Palestinians' right to an independent state with Jerusalem. as the capital.
According to the latest public opinion polls, support for the extremist Hamas has increased sharply in the West Bank and also in the devastated Gaza Strip, while almost 90 percent of respondents believe that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah, should resign.
The poll showed that 72 percent of respondents believe that Hamas was right to attack Israel on October 7.
The poll results foreshadow the difficulties the administration of US President Joseph Biden will face in his vision of a post-war Gaza and raise questions about Israel's goal of destroying Hamas.
Almost two-thirds of respondents (64 percent) believe that Hamas will retain control of Gaza when the war ends.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, announced that he would continue the war against Hamas "until victory".
"Nothing will stop us. We will go to the end," said the Israeli leader, despite "great suffering" caused by military losses and "pressure" for a ceasefire.
The US, Israel's closest ally, is meanwhile increasingly worried about the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, although it does not question its support for the Israeli operation.
"We want to end this conflict, but we also don't think it would be appropriate to stop the operation now because terrorist attacks against Israel would continue, which is not in anyone's long-term security interest in the region," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
White House Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who will arrive in Israel today, assessed that the country must find a way to reduce the intensity of the attacks and, as he said, "move into a different phase from the high-intensity operations we see today."
CNN reported Wednesday, citing US intelligence agencies, that nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions Israel has used in Gaza since the war began are unguided, which could pose a greater danger to civilians.
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees, Philip Lazarini, said that the people of Gaza are facing the darkest period of their history.
In the war, more than 1.300 people died on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, and the highest number of victims occurred on the first day, October 7, in the attacks of Palestinian extremists led by Hamas on the south of Israel.
Around 240 hostages were then taken to the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli authorities, there are still 135 hostages in Gaza, but not all of them are alive. More than 18.600 people, mostly women and children, died in Gaza.
(BETA)
Israel said yesterday it had suffered its heaviest combat losses in more than 30 days after an ambush in the ruins of Gaza City as it faces increasing diplomatic isolation as the death toll rises and the humanitarian disaster worsens.
Intense fighting is ongoing in both northern and western Gaza, a day after the United Nations called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. US President Joe Biden said that the "indiscriminate" bombing is costing Israel international support.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that the army will continue fighting despite international pressure for a ceasefire. "We continue until the end, until victory, until Hamas is destroyed," he told the soldiers in Gaza in a radio address. "I say this in the face of great pain, but also great international pressure. Nothing will stop us".
DON'T MISS IT
Bonus video:
