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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
🔴 Live: UN Security Council Gaza vote postponed as calls for ceasefire grow
The UN Security Council struggled to find a unified voice Tuesday on pausing the Israel-Hamas war as aid efforts neared collapse and global economic fallout spread. With calls growing for a new truce, Qatar-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh is to visit Egypt on Wednesday for talks on a ceasefire in Gaza and a prisoner exchange with Israel, a source close to the Islamist group said. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+1)
Issued on: 20/12/2023 – 04:21
Modified: 20/12/2023 – 05:47
2 min
UNSC members huddle in the council chamber for negotiations on a resolution calling for a truce in Gaza, UN Headquarters in New York City, December 19, 2023.
UNSC members huddle in the council chamber for negotiations on a resolution calling for a truce in Gaza, UN Headquarters in New York City, December 19, 2023. © Jessica Le Masurier
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FRANCE 24
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FRANCE 24
Summary:
In Gaza, residents of Khan Younis on Wednesday reported intensifying gun battles between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces in the centre and eastern districts of the southern city.
A United Nations Security Council vote on a Gaza ceasefire resolution was postponed again until Wednesday as negotiations continued in an effort to head off another veto by the United States, diplomatic sources said.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh is due in Cairo later on Wednesday, according to diplomatic sources.
A more precise picture of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel has emerged from security data, confirming the unprecedented scale of the violence but also challenging some initial testimonies. The final death toll from the attack is now thought to be 1,139, among them 695 Israeli civilians including 36 children, 373 security forces and 71 foreigners. The revised figure excludes five people, four of them Israeli, still listed as missing by the prime minister’s office.
At least 19,667 people have been killed in Israel’s ensuing assault on the Gaza Strip and at least 52,586 people wounded, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. At least 7,600 people are missing, according to the Hamas media office.
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32 minutes ago
No end to suffering for children in Gaza strip
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an hour ago
Hamas chief due in Egypt for Gaza ceasefire talks
The head of Hamas was due in Egypt on Wednesday for talks on a fresh ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel said it was willing to agree to another pause in exchange for more hostages.
Qatar-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was expected to lead a “high-level” delegation to Egypt for talks with the country’s spy chief and others on “stopping the aggression and the war to prepare an agreement for the release of prisoners”, a source close to the group told AFP.
Israel’s leaders are facing growing calls to secure the release of 129 hostages they say are being held in Gaza.
Israeli President Issac Herzog said his country was “ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had recently sent his spy chief on two trips to Europe in an effort to “free our hostages”.
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2 hours ago
UN Security Council delays vote on Gaza truce
Trying to avoid another veto by the United States, the UN Security Council postponed voting for the second day in a row on an Arab-sponsored resolution that would deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza during some form of halt in the fighting.
Security Council members remained in intense negotiations Tuesday, as the United States has asked for more time. Talks were ongoing in an effort to get the Biden administration to abstain or vote in favour of the resolution.
Initially planned for Monday, the vote has been pushed back until Wednesday.
The draft resolution on the table Monday morning had called for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities,” but this language was watered down in a new draft circulated early Tuesday.
It now “calls for the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
The United States has opposed language on a cessation of hostilities.
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2 hours ago
Islamic Jihad releases video of two Israeli hostages pleading for their release
The Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, released a video of two male Israeli hostages in Gaza pleading for their release on its Telegram account on Tuesday.
The two men identified themselves as Gadi Moses and Elad Katzir and appeared in a short video asking for efforts to be intensified so they can reunite with their families.
“We are dying every moment. We are in an unbearable situation,” said Moses, looking at the camera against a plain background. The two men were both unshaven and appeared to have lost weight.
Moses is a farmer aged about 79 who was captured from a kibbutz on Oct. 7 when the Hamas militant group carried out its rampage in southern Israel.
Katzir, 47, was also taken from a kibbutz along with his mother, who was later released. His father was killed, according to media reports.
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Key developments from yesterday:
The US and a host of other nations are creating a new force to protect ships transiting the Red Sea that have come under attack by drones and ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced early Tuesday in Bahrain.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog signalled readiness on the part of the country on Tuesday to enter another foreign-mediated “humanitarian pause” in fighting to recover more hostages held by Hamas and enable more aid to reach Gaza.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”. The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
