Israel-Palestine live: US and Israel air differences over Gaza strategy

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday during a campaign fundraiser that Israel is starting to lose support from the international community over its war in Gaza.

"They're starting to lose that support," Biden said.

Israel's military campaign has included an indiscriminate bombing of Gaza that has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians.

The US president also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to change his hardline, far-right government.

The death toll of Palestinians killed from an Israeli military raid on Jenin has risen to seven, multiple Palestinian news outlets are reporting.

The reports identified the seventh person killed as Rashad Muhammad Turkman.

Senior Hamas members are denying reports that the group's forces in Gaza have been significantly degraded, days after the Israeli military said five influential Hamas commanders had been killed.

A Palestinian source close to Hamas's political leadership in exile told Middle East Eye that the number of casualties among Hamas fighters was "very low" and when pressed for a number, said the "total number of casualties is below 10 percent".

Israel has claimed that up to 5,000 fighters, out of a total of 30,000 from the al-Qassam Brigades, have been killed in the past two months of fighting.

To read the full story, click below.

Hamas denies its battalions have been significantly degraded

Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades said on its Telegram channel that it killed 15 Israeli soldiers in Jabalia in northern Gaza during a battle last week. There was no immediate comment from Israel's military.

While Israel has now shifted the focus of its military assault to Khan Younis in central Gaza, fighting continues in the north.

MEE has also reported that senior Hamas commanders said reports of its forces being degraded are untrue and that its casualties are less than 10 percent.

Hello MEE readers. If you are just joining us today for our live coverage of the war in Gaza, here are some updates from the past several hours:

• The UN General Assembly is expected to convene for a vote today on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

• The international charity Save the Children has said that one of its staff members and their family were killed in an Israeli air strike. 

• There is some difference of opinion on what a post-Hamas Gaza scenario would look like if Israel achieves its military objectives in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement aimed at US President Joe Biden that he hopes "we will come to an agreement here".

• White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he is going to discuss with Israeli officials their timetable for the war in Gaza, as well as a post-war plan for Gaza.

• In another humanitarian concern in Gaza, a report from Reuters said that there are a growing number of children being orphaned in the enclave since the start of the war. 

• Only 11 of Gaza's hospitals remain "partially functional", according to the World Health Organisation.

• Israeli forces have launched a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital after laying siege to it for several days.

• Twenty Israeli soldiers who were killed in Gaza died from friendly fire, according to new data from the Israeli army.

Save the Children announced on Tuesday that one of their staff members and their family were killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza.

“Sameh Ewaida, 39, had been with Save the Children since 2019. He was the proud father of four children – Mohammad (12), Heba (11), Zeina (3), and Zein (2).

"All of his children, his wife Fatima, and many other members of his extended family of 28 are also believed to have been killed following an Israeli airstrike on Sunday 10 December or Monday 11 December,” the organisation said. 

“Sameh, a member of the administrative team, will be remembered by his colleagues for spreading such joy and kindness, dancing at staff workshops, and always the first to make breakfast and coffee for everyone,” they added.

Inger Ashing, chief executive of Save the Children, said: “We condemn the continued bombing of Gaza by Israeli forces which is causing untold suffering among the civilian population in Gaza and the deaths of Sameh, his family and so many others.

 “This conflict has been the deadliest on record for the killing of UN and humanitarian staff. It is a stain on our collective conscience that they were killed while trying to help others survive this brutal conflict.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced on Tuesday that Israeli forces prevented their teams and ambulances from transporting a wounded civilian to a nearby hospital.

The PRCS teams were prevented from reaching people during an Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin earlier on Tuesday. 

Confirming reports from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the PRCS said that as a result, the 36-year-old succumbed to his wounds after he was wounded in the thigh with live ammunition. 

"The PRCS is highly alarmed by the extent of the violations perpetrated against medical missions, the wounded and the sick in the occupied Palestinian territories," they said in a post on X.

"This violation is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, their Additional Protocols, and international customary law," the post added.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told a United Nations event that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war against people in Gaza.

The event was to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Maliki denounced the "international failure" to respect Palestinian rights at a UN meeting in Geneva.

"As we speak, at least one million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them children, are starving, not because of a natural disaster or because of lack of generous assistance waiting at the border," he said. 

"No, they are starving because of Israel's deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war against the people it occupied," he added.

"Rather than insisting on respecting the Palestinian people's basic right to eat and drink water, we are living through this dystopian reality that excludes Palestinians from the most basic rights afforded to all human beings," he said, describing it as an "utter international failure" to protect Palestinians.

Wael Arafat, 28, is currently unable to walk but remains conscious and talking.

The British-Palestinian has lost nearly 20kg since starting a hunger strike 50 days ago. He is demanding the UK government act to stop Israel's two-month-long bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

"I know I might die. I know something could happen to my health," Arafat told Middle East Eye from a hospital in Bath, southwest England, where he is being treated.

"I don't want to die. I'm doing this for my own people who are suffering. Every person in Gaza is my brother and sister," he said. 

Arafat, originally from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, lost both his parents when he was five years old and was brought up by his grandmother in the beseiged enclave, before moving to the UK as a young teenager.

He stopped eating and drinking on 22 October, after learning that his sister and her four children had been killed by an Israeli air strike on their home in Gaza City.

For the full story, click on the link below: 

Read more: British-Palestinian 50 days into hunger strike after family killed in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that there is some difference in opinion on what should happen should Hamas be eliminated. 

“I deeply appreciate the American support for destroying Hamas and bringing back our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew video statement aimed at US President Biden.

“Yes, there is a disagreement when it comes to ‘the day after Hamas,’ and I hope we will come to an agreement here too,” he added.
 

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that two Palestinians - one a child - succumbed to their wounds after Israeli forces stopped ambulances from reaching the wounded in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. 

The two killed were identified as Fouad Emad Abahera, 36, who was forced to wait for half an hour after being wounded in the thigh, and 13-year-old Ahmed Muhammad Samar.

The latest figures take the death toll in the Israeli raid on Jenin to six. 
 

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that he would discuss with Israeli officials their timetable for the war in Gaza in upcoming talks.

Amid growing international pressure for a ceasefire, Sullivan said at a Wall Street Journal forum that he would discuss with the Israelis their post-war plan for Gaza.
 

Singer Taylor Swift and actor Selena Gomez were photographed attending a stand-up comedy show on 8 December, with the proceeds of the event going towards humanitarian relief in Gaza.

The event was hosted by comedian Ramy Youssef in Brooklyn, New York, with other shows also held in Philadelphia, Washington and San Francisco, among other cities.

Other celebrities were also photographed attending the event, including British model Cara Delevingne, Anya Taylor-Joy and Zoe Kravitz. 

The photos of the celebrities attending the comedy show were shared by People magazine and later confirmed by Vogue, who detailed the celebrities outfits.  

In an Instagram photo posted on 15 November, Youssef wrote that all "of the proceeds for the remainder of the 'Ramy Youssef: more feelings' standup tour will be donated to ANERA, providing humanitarian relief to the people of Gaza".

For the full story, click on the link below. 

Read more: Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez attend Gaza fundraiser

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that at least 207 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the last 24 hours.
 
The ministry added that an additional 450 wounded arrived in hospitals and that a “large number” of civilians are still trapped under the rubble. 
 

A growing number of children have been orphaned in Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October, a report by Reuters stated on Tuesday.

In some cases children have lost more than just both of their parents, with their entire families being killed in Israeli air strikes. 

Younis al-Ajla, a doctor involved in caring for an orphan named Razan Shabat, said that Shabat and many other children had been brought to the hospital alone.

"Many children who come to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, we don't know their names. We write 'unknown' on their entry files until one of their relatives comes and recognises them," he told Reuters, adding that this had been Razan's case for many days.

"This girl doesn't know that she lost her family, and we're responsible for her now," said Rajaa al-Jarou, who is married to an uncle of Razan's and is now caring for the girl at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.