Israel-Hamas War December 2 updates | No prisoner exchange with Israel until war on Gaza is over, says Hamas

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday urged Israel to protect civilians as it battles Hamas in Gaza, saying that shielding noncombatants is necessary for victory in the urban fight against the Palestinian militant group. 

Fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed the day before after a week-long truce between the two sides collapsed, with both sides blaming the other for the breakdown of the deal and the resumption of violence. 

Mr. Austin told the Reagan National Defense Forum in California that he had “learned a thing or two about urban warfare” while fighting in Iraq and leading the campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group (ISIS). 

“Like Hamas, ISIS was deeply embedded in urban areas. And the international coalition against ISIS worked hard to protect civilians and create humanitarian corridors, even during the toughest battles,” Mr. Austin said. 

“The lesson is not that you can win in urban warfare by protecting civilians. The lesson is that you can only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians,” he said. 

“In this kind of a fight, the center of gravity is the civilian population. And if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.”

Israel and Hamas brushed off international calls to renew an expired truce Saturday as air strikes pounded militant targets in Gaza and Palestinian groups launched volleys of rockets.

Smoke again clouded the sky over the north of the Palestinian territory, whose Hamas government said 240 people had been killed since a pause in hostilities expired early Friday and combat resumed.

In Israel, the military’s Home Front Command reported 40 missile alerts in the south and centre of the country, and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced “rocket barrages” against multiple Israeli cities and towns including Tel Aviv.

“Over 250 rockets have been fired at Israel since Friday morning,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told reporters. “The vast majority of those have not been successful in reaching their destination. Each one of those, obviously, is intended to kill Israelis.” 

AFP

Israeli hostages released from Gaza spoke publicly Saturday for the first time and urged their government to secure the release of the remaining captives held in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

The hostages, most of whom were freed during a seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas, spoke in a video broadcast before a crowd of thousands at a rally in central Tel Aviv.

In the brief interviews, four women who were held by Hamas related the fear, hunger, and sleeplessness of their captivity after being taken hostage during the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attacks. 

AFP

Under aerial bombardment from Israel, people sheltering in the south of the Gaza Strip after fleeing their homes earlier in the war said on Saturday they had nowhere safe to go now.

The city of Khan Younis is the focus of Israeli air strikes and artillery fire in a new phase of the war after fighting resumed on Friday following the collapse of a week-long truce. Its population has swelled in recent weeks as several hundred thousand people from the northern Gaza Strip have fled south.

Some are camping in tents, others in schools, while some are sleeping in stairwells or outside the few hospitals operating in the city. A World Health Organisation official said on Friday that one of the hospitals was “like a horror movie” as hundreds of wounded children and adults waited for treatment. 

Reuters

Both sides blamed each other for the breakdown of the truce, which before it expired had enabled the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

The deal had been brokered with the help of Qatar, backed by Egypt and the United States, but on Saturday Israel said it was withdrawing its negotiators from Doha after reaching a dead end in talks aimed at securing a renewed pause in hostilities.

French President Emmanuel Macron appealed for “stepped-up efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire” to free all hostages, allow in more aid and to assure Israel of its security.

He took issue with Israel’s stated war aims, warning that if the “total destruction of Hamas” in Gaza was the goal, “the war will last 10 years.

But speaking in Tel Aviv later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue “until we achieve all its aims”, including eliminating the Islamist movement.

“Our soldiers prepared during the days of truce for total victory against Hamas,” he said at his first press conference since fighting resumed. 

AFP

The Israeli military has divided the Gaza Strip into 2,300 “blocs” and is now sending SMS messages to residents telling them to leave before they launch the strikes which they say will “eliminate Hamas”.

Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, died in the Islamist movement’s October 7 assault on southern Israel and some 240 were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

The Hamas-led Gaza Strip government says Israel’s campaign has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, since it was launched eight weeks ago.

The United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, has highlighted that the warning messages do not indicate where the recipients should go.

Ibrahim al-Jamal, a civil servant in his 40s, said he does not have any “internet, any electricity or even a radio to receive information” and that he has “never seen this map” setting out the different blocs.

“Many people in Gaza have never heard of it and it wouldn’t matter anyway as the bombings are taking place everywhere,” he said.

AFP

At almost exactly the same time Israeli negotiators pulled out of deadlocked truce talks in Qatar on Saturday, Israeli jets sent a prestige Doha-funded housing development in the Gaza Strip up in smoke.

Hamad City is named for the former emir of the Gulf petro-state, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who laid the foundation stone on a visit 11 years ago.

Inaugurated in 2016, it was still among the newest projects in the Gaza Strip, the housing complex in the city of Khan Yunis boasting an impressive mosque, shops and gardens. 

AFP

Israel pounded targets in the crowded southern half of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and ordered more neighborhoods designated for the attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll even as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect Gaza civilians a day after a truce collapsed.

At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed Friday morning following the weeklong truce with the territory’s ruling militant group Hamas, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Several homes were hit across Gaza on Saturday, with multiple casualties reported in a strike that flattened a multi-story building on the outskirts of Gaza City.

Separately, the Ministry announced that the overall death toll in Gaza since the Oct. 7 start of the Israel-Hamas war had surpassed 15,200, a sharp jump from the previous count of more than 13,300 on Nov. 20. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it said 70% of the dead were women and children. It said more than 40,000 people had been wounded since the war began. 

AFP

Deputy Hamas chief Saleh Al-Arouri told the pan-Arab Al Jazeera TV on Saturday that there will be no more prisoners exchanged with Israel until war on Gaza is over. 

- Reuters

Police in London said they arrested two people Saturday during pro-Palestinian events, part of a “day of action” organized by campaigners around Britain.

In the south London neighborhood of Brixton, a man was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offense for holding a placard, the Metropolitan Police said.

Officers who made the arrest were then surrounded by other protesters and initially blocked from driving away, police said. A teenage boy was arrested for damaging a police vehicle.

- AP

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, but said international and humanitarian law must be respected, noting that too many Palestinians have been killed.

“Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering, and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating,” Harris told reporters. “So we all want this conflict to end as soon as possible, and to ensure Israel’s security and ensure security for the Palestinian people. We must accelerate efforts to build an enduring peace.” 

- Reuters

Israel will seek a “security envelope” with special zones and arrangements that will prevent Hamas from being positioned on its border after the war in Gaza is over, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

On Friday, Reuters reported that Israel has informed several Arab states that it wants to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of Gaza’s border to prevent future attacks as part of proposals for the coastal enclave after the war ends.

Asked whether Israel was indeed seeking such a buffer zone, senior adviser Mark Regev told reporters: “Israel will have to have a security envelope. We can never again allow terrorists to cross the border and butcher our people the way they did on October 7.”

- Reuters

An Israeli air strike targeting the town of Al-Faluja, 30 km (18 miles) northeast of Gaza City, has killed prominent Palestinian scientist Sufyan Tayeh and his family, the Palestinian Higher Education ministry announced on Saturday.

Tayeh, who was president of the Islamic University of Gaza, was a leading researcher in physics and applied mathematics. 

- Reuters

The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Saturday it had targeted a group of Israeli foot soldiers stationed northwest of Gaza city in the area of Al Tawam, “resulting in deaths and injuries”.

- Reuters

Israel will facilitate provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s civilians as fighting there resumes, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today.

Addressing reporters’ questions about whether Israel seeks a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Gaza Strip after the war is over, Mark Regev said Israel will not allow a situation in which Hamas militants are positioned on the border.

- Reuters

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris laid out broad American objectives for when the Israel-Hamas conflict ends and stressed that the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank should ultimately be reunified under one governing entity.

In talks with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi of Egypt, Harris said that “under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza,” the White House said in a statement.

She also said that once the war ends, efforts to rebuild should be pursued “in the context of a clear political horizon for the Palestinian people towards a state of their own led by a revitalized Palestinian Authority and have significant support from the international community and the countries of the region,” the statement said.

- Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron said that France was “very concerned” by the resumption of violence in Gaza and that he was heading to Qatar to help “engage a new truce ahead of a cease-fire”.

Mr. Macron also told a press conference at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai that the situation required the doubling down on efforts to obtain a “lasting cease fire” and the freeing of all hostages.

A week-old temporary truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed on Friday after mediators were unable to extend the pause.

- Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron appealed Saturday for intensified efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, a day after deadly fighting resumed between Israel and Hamas militants after a truce expired.

“This situation requires stepped-up efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire,” to free all hostages held by Hamas, allow more urgently needed aid into Gaza, and to assure Israel of its security, he told a news conference on the sidelines of the UN’s COP28 climate talks in Dubai.

- AFP

Israel said it was pulling its Mossad negotiators out of Qatar, which is mediating efforts to secure a renewed pause in the Israel-Hamas war, after a deadlock in the talks.

“Following the impasse in the negotiations and at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, David Barnea, head of the Mossad, ordered his team in Doha to return to Israel,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

- AFP

The Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll has surpassed 15,200 and that 70% of those killed were women and children.

The figure was announced on Saturday by Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra, who did not provide further details.

More than 40,000 people have been wounded, al-Qidra said.

Israel intensified a renewed offensive that followed a weeklong truce with Hamas, giving rise to renewed concerns about civilian casualties, even as the United States urged ally Israel to do everything possible to protect civilians.

- AP

Two Iranian Revolutionary Guards members who served as military advisers in Syria have been killed in an Israeli attack, Iranian state media reported on Saturday, in the first reported Iranian casualties during the ongoing war in Gaza.

A Revolutionary Guards statement did not give details of the attack. Syria earlier said its air defences repelled an Israeli rocket attack against targets in the vicinity of Damascus early on Saturday. 

- Reuters

Israel brushed off international calls to renew an expired truce Saturday and pushed on with its devastating bombing campaign against Hamas militants in densely-inhabited Gaza.

Smoke again clouded the sky over the north of the Palestinian territory, whose Hamas government said 240 people had been killed since a pause in hostilities expired early Friday and combat resumed.

Since the end of the pause, Israel’s air, naval and ground forces have attacked more than 400 targets in Gaza, the army said on Saturday. The figure is roughly in line with the daily average number of strikes prior to the pause, according to military figures released previously.

- AFP

A team from Israel’s Mossad intelligence services was in Doha on Saturday for talks with Qatari mediators for another pause in fighting in Gaza, a source briefed on the visit said.

The Qatar-mediated talks focused on the potential release of new categories of Israeli hostages other than women and children and the parameters of a truce, which the source said differed to the truce agreement that collapsed on Friday.

Israel and Hamas have been considering new parameters for the release of hostages and the truce since before it collapsed.

- Reuters

(ISTANBUL) Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said that the chance for peace in Gaza after the humanitarian pause was lost for now due to Israel’s uncompromising approach, broadcaster NTV reported.

Speaking to reporters on his way back from the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Erdogan also said that he is not losing hope for a lasting peace in the conflict adding that Hamas cannot be excluded from its potential solution, according to NTV. - Reuters

In response to U.S. calls to protect civilians, the Israeli military released an online map, but it has done more to confuse than to help.

“The publication does not specify where people should evacuate to,” the U.N. office for coordinating humanitarian issues in the Palestinian territory noted in its daily report. “It is unclear how those residing in Gaza would access the map without electricity and amid recurrent telecommunications cuts.”

In the first use of the map to order evacuations, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson, specified areas in the north and the south to be cleared out on December 2 in posts on X, formerly Twitter. - AP

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Palestinian children wounded in Israeli strikes wait to receive treatment at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 2, 2023. Photo Credit: Reuters

The Belgian Prime Minister on December 2 said he had spoken with Israel’s President following the resumption of fighting in Gaza and told him there could be no more killing of civilians.

A week-old temporary truce between Israel and Hamas collapsed on December 1 after mediators were unable to extend the pause. Israel and Hamas have traded blame over the collapse.

“I’ve addressed my concerns about the fact that violence has started again and I’ve again repeated what I said at the Rafah gate: no more civilian killings,” Belgium’s Alexander De Croo told reporters at the COP28 U.N. climate summit in Dubai. Mr. De Croo said Israel must respect international humanitarian law, that the destruction of Gaza was unacceptable and the killing of civilians had to stop. - Reuters

Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, on December 2, 2023. Photo Credit: Reuters

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that during the truce, thousands of metric tonnes of food, blankets, mattresses, bottled water, medical supplies and fuel were delivered. 

Pope Francis engaged in a “fraught” telephone conversation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in late October, addressing the Israel-Hamas war.

According to a Washington Post report, the call was described as tense by a senior Israeli official. Herzog conveyed the profound shock in Israel after the October 7 Hamas attack, to which the Pope responded, stating unequivocally that it is “forbidden to respond to terror with terror,” according to the Israeli official.

A Vatican source confirmed to CNN that the call between the Pope and the Israeli president occurred at the end of October. However, CNN could not independently verify the Pope’s use of the term “terror.”

The Vatican released a statement to the Washington Post, asserting, “The phone call, like others in the same days, takes place in the context of the Holy Father’s efforts aimed at containing the gravity and scope of the conflict situation in the Holy Land.”

ANI

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday will lay out key American objectives for when the Israel-Hamas conflict ends and stress that the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank should ultimately be reunified under one governing entity.

Harris will make a series of appearances at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, after being anointed by U.S. President Joe Biden to take his seat at the table as he focuses on the Israel-Hamas war.

The White House said Harris will carry a message about post-conflict Gaza as the region grapples with the fallout from a war that has upended the Middle East. “She will emphasize that any post-conflict plan for Gaza must include a clear political horizon for the Palestinian people and ensure that Gaza and the West Bank are reunified under one entity,” a White House official said of her remarks.

Reuters

When it came to the Middle East, Henry Kissinger wasn’t pushing for peace — only for what was possible.

By the time Kissinger died Wednesday at 100, the agreements he negotiated as United States secretary of state between Israel, Egypt and Syria stabilized borders for nearly half a century after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. His work and the pacts it produced sidelined the Soviet Union and set the U.S. as the region’s chief negotiators.

But Kissinger did not resolve the fate of the Palestinians — indeed, no one has — and his legacy in the Mideast remains debated.

AP

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders blamed Israel for what it called a deliberate ambush last month of a convoy of the group’s vehicles as they tried to evacuate Gaza City, killing two people.

In a report Friday that cites several witnesses from the organisation, also known by the acronym MSF, the group said “all elements point to the responsibility of the Israeli army for this attack.”

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a phone message late Friday seeking comment on the MSF report.

- AP

The militant Palestinian group Hamas says Israel is to blame for the violence after it rejected all the offers put forward by Hamas throughout the night to release more hostages and bodies.

Hamas said in a statement that it offered to release older people as well as the bodies of hostages, including those of the Bibas family. It said that Hamas also offered to release Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two small children Hamas claimed were killed previously in Israeli airstrikes, so that he can attend their funeral. Hamas also offered to release two Israeli hostages.

AP

Mediator Qatar said Friday that efforts are ongoing to renew an Israel-Hamas truce and expressed “deep regret” over the resumption of Israeli bombardments after a weeklong cease-fire expired earlier in the day.

Israel and Hamas have traded blame, with each saying the other side violated the terms of the truce. Qatar, which has served as mediator along with Egypt, appeared to be singling out Israel’s role in the resumption of violence.

AP

Germany’s foreign minister is pushing for a renewal of the collapsed cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

The weeklong truce expired on Friday and the war resumed with full force.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement that “in these minutes, we must do everything so that the humanitarian cease-fire is continued — for the remaining hostages who have been hoping for release in dark tunnels for weeks, and for the suffering people in Gaza, who urgently need more humanitarian aid.”

AP

Iran’s delegation has left the U.N. climate conference in protest over the presence of Israeli officials, state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday.

IRNA reported that the country’s delegation had initially decided to participate in COP28 in Dubai after they received information that no Israeli official would attend the event. IRNA did not elaborate on where that information came from, but said political analysis indicated Israel would not take the risk of attending the summit because of the ongoing war in Gaza.

IRNA reported that the head of Iran’s delegation, Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian, called the presence of Israel at the summit “political, biased, and irrelevant,” prompting the Iranian delegation to leave.

AP

The Israeli army says it has recovered the body of an Israeli man originally thought to be taken hostage in Gaza.

In a statement, the army said Ofir Tzarfati’s body had been located by Israeli forces in Gaza. The body was identified by medical officials and his family was notified of his death on Wednesday.

Tzarfati, 27, was abducted with dozens of other people from a music festival on Oct. 7 and had been thought to be among the 240 hostages taken by Hamas.

The army did not say whether Tzarfati died in the original attack or while in captivity.

AP

Israel carried out air strikes near Damascus on Saturday, the Syrian defence ministry said, with an AFP journalist in the Syrian capital reporting the loud sound of bombings.

“At approximately 1:35 am (1035 GMT) today, the Israeli enemy carried out an air assault from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points near the city of Damascus,” the defence ministry said in a statement, reporting no casualties.

Syria state television had earlier reported an “Israeli aggression near the capital”.

AFP

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday met relatives of three people seized by Hamas in Israel and now held in Gaza, lending his celebrity to support those whose loved ones are still unaccounted for following the Oct. 7 attack.

Schwarzenegger gave bronze eagle sculptures to his visitors at a video production company in Santa Monica, just west of Los Angeles. In turn they presented Schwarzenegger with “Bring Them Home” dog tags.

Declaring himself “a big friend of the Jewish people and Israel,” Schwarzenegger said he wanted to amplify the message not to abandon those who remain captive.

Reuters

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, confirmed the deaths of several hostages held by the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, as reported by The Times of Israel on Saturday.

He said, “We are continuing to invest many intelligence and operational efforts, to bring information on the conditions of the hostages,”

The Times of Israel reported that Hagari informed, “In the last few days, the IDF and police notified the families of Eliyahu Margalit, Mia Goren, Ronen Engel, and Aryeh Zalmanovich of their deaths.”

ANI

A hard-hit Israeli kibbutz says three of its members have died in Hamas captivity, including the oldest person held hostage.

Kibbutz Nir Oz said the community had received official confirmation of the deaths of Maya Goren, 56, Arye Zalmanovich, 86, and Ronan Engel, 54.

Zalmanovich was the oldest of the more than 240 people taken hostage by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.

AP

The U.S. says it believes Israel will begin allowing some humanitarian assistance to once again flow into Gaza, after blocking aid on Friday after a temporary cease-fire expired.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that Israel blocked trucks from crossing into Gaza on Friday, but that at the request of the U.S. government, it would now allow some aid to enter.

Kirby said the resumption would be at a significantly reduced level from the hundreds of trucks per day that entered Gaza during the weeklong pause in fighting, saying it was “probably in terms of dozens of trucks versus hundreds of trucks.”

AP

Israel has informed several Arab states that it wants to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of Gaza’s border to prevent future attacks as part of proposals for the enclave after war ends, Egyptian and regional sources said.

According to three regional sources, Israel related its plans to its neighbours Egypt and Jordan, along with the United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel in 2020.

They also said that Saudi Arabia, which does not have ties with Israel and which halted a U.S.-mediated normalisation process after the Gaza war flared on Oct. 7, had been informed. The sources did not say how the information reached Riyadh, which officially does not have direct communication channels with Israel. Non-Arab Turkey was also told, the sources said.

Reuters

A protester in the United States is in critical condition after setting themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Georgia. A security guard who tried to intervene was also injured.

A Palestinian flag found at the scene was part of Friday’s protest, said Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum. He said investigators did not believe there was any connection to terrorism and none of the consular staff was ever in danger.

AP

Israeli airstrikes hit several points on the outskirts of Damascus early Saturday, Syrian state media reported.

State news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, said the strikes came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and that Syrian air defenses shot most of the missiles down. The strikes resulted in only “material losses,” the statement said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitor, said the strikes hit in the area of the south Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, where it said that “there are military forces working with the Lebanese Hezbollah.” It said ambulances rushed to the scene.

AP

Up until the truce began, more than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed — roughly two-thirds of them women and minors — according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The toll is likely much higher. Some 1,200 Israelis were killed, mostly during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war.