Demonstrators in Tel Aviv call for release of captives in Gaza

Israelis are protesting in Tel Aviv to demand the release of the captives taken on October 7, 2023, just as Prime Minister Netanyahu said he’s ready for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Ifat Kalderon – whose cousin Ofer Kalderon has been held in Gaza for more than 400 days – called for a full ceasefire across Gaza – not just in the north – to ensure the captives’ safe return to Israel.

“I believe that Netanyahu has already forgotten them and gave up the hostages. And we keep hearing that the message it is sending to the US new government, to Trump, that we don’t have enough hostages alive so we don’t need to bring them back. So I’m calling Trump and everybody – we’ve got to bring them all back home,” Kalderon said.

Biden says he’ll push for Gaza ceasefire after Israel-Hezbollah deal

US President Joe Biden said his administration is pushing for a so-far elusive ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel has been waging war for more than a year.

“The people of Gaza, they too deserve an end of the fighting and displacement. People of Gaza have been through hell,” he said in a televised address. “Far too many civilians in Gaza have suffered far too much.”

Biden blamed Hamas for the failure to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, but many observers suggest Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has stymied the process by adding impossible demands to prolong his fragile political career.

The US president also said it’s possible Saudi Arabia and Israel could normalise ties.

UNRWA chief says disinformation putting staff’s lives at risk

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is condemning the continuing spread of false information against his organisation.

“The spread of disinformation against UNRWA is meant to create chaos and divert attention from the political aims to dismantle the Agency,” he wrote in a post on X. “It is distraction from what really matters: The devastating impact the war in #Gaza & the region is having on civilians & the work that our @UNRWA teams continue to do to save lives.”

The campaign is causing harm to Palestinian refugees and putting the lives of UNRWA staff in Gaza at further risk, he added.

At least 243 of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began last October, making the conflict the deadliest for aid workers in recent history. The Israeli government has also passed laws banning UNRWA in Israel-controlled territory, including Gaza and the West Bank.

🛑 The spread of #disinformation against @UNRWA is meant to create chaos & divert attention from the political aims to dismantle the Agency.

It is distraction from what really matters: The devastating impact the war in #Gaza & the region is having on civilians & the work that…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) November 25, 2024

UN’s Middle East envoy laments ‘no end in sight’ to the horror in Gaza

The UN Security Council has heard a briefing from the Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland. The briefing, delivered by his deputy, was Wennesland’s last to the council as his mandate ends in early January.

UN says 450,000 people living in flood-prone areas in Gaza

Stephane Dujarric, the UN’s spokesman, told reporters that efforts to prepare for the rainy season in the Gaza Strip have been “severely restricted by the challenges aid agencies are facing in bringing sufficient supplies” into the enclave.

UNSC members continue calls for a ceasefire in Gaza after US veto

We’ve been reporting on a UNSC meeting on the situation in Gaza. The meeting came less than a week after the US vetoed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire that was supported by all 14 other members of the council.

Here’s what some of the council members said on Monday:

Israeli attacks kill 11 people across Gaza City

The Wafa news agency says there have been three deadly Israeli attacks in the northern city in recent hours.

Gaza death toll rises

At least 44,249 people have been killed and 104,746 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the enclave’s Health Ministry says. Of those, 14 Palestinians were killed and 108 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added.

With possible ceasefire in Lebanon, Palestinians in Gaza feel alone

As hopes grow for a ceasefire in Lebanon, Palestinians in Gaza, disillusioned by 14 months of ruinous war, are feeling more abandoned than ever.

“I am angry against the world that has failed to bring one solution to the two regions,” Abdel-Ghani, a father of five in the enclave, told Reuters news agency. “Maybe, there will be another deal for Gaza, maybe.”

Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman, who like most Gaza Palestinians has been displaced from his home, told the agency. “We are afraid the Israeli army will now have a free hand in Gaza.”

“Enough is enough,” added Zakeya Rezik, a mother of six. “We are exhausted. How many more had to die before they stopped the war?”

Nine killed in Gaza City school-turned-shelter: Report

Israeli forces have waged yet another deadly attack in the Gaza City area, this one hitting a school sheltering displaced people in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, report our colleagues on the ground. The attack killed nine people, reports Anadolu news agency.

800 European financial groups deal with firms linked to illegal Israeli settlements

A growing number of European financial institutions have a business relationship with companies with ties to illegal Israeli settlements, according to a study by civil society groups.

In total, 822 financial institutions this year have relationships with 58 firms “actively involved” in illegal Israeli settlements versus 776 in 2023, The Don’t Buy into Occupation coalition report said. They called for heightened scrutiny and, if necessary, divestment.

“The indication is that things are going the wrong way,” said Andrew Preston, with Norwegian People’s Aid, which is one of the 25 European and Palestinian civil society groups that conducted the research.

“In our view, European financial institutions should be urgently reassessing their approach to companies involved in the illegal occupation,” he told the Geneva Press Club where the report was presented.

Among the European firms listed were top banks including BNP Paribas and HSBC, the report said. The 58 partner firms include heavy machinery maker Caterpillar and travel sites Booking.com and Expedia, according to the report.

Clashes as Israeli forces raid West Bank cities, towns

The Israeli military has carried out raids in several locations across the occupied West Bank in recent hours, according to local media reports, including:

Main points for November 26th

US will work with Lebanese Army to ensure ceasefire holds: Report

The United States will coordinate with the Lebanese Army to deter potential violations of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, but there will not be US combat troops in the area, a news report quoted a “senior US official” as saying.

The Reuters news agency said the unnamed official called the truce deal “a game-changer” that would show Hamas fighters in Gaza that the conflict there and in Lebanon were delinked.

The ceasefire agreement, brokered by the US and France, takes effect at 4am Lebanon time (02:00 GMT).

Ceasefire should be starting in 10 minutes.

Lack of detail in Israel, Hezbollah ceasefire deal raises ‘more questions than answers’

We got a few more details from a senior Biden administration official about an hour ago, confirming that the Israeli military will have a phased withdrawal as Hezbollah withdraws north and the Lebanese military moves south.

But we have a lot of questions.

I think there are more questions than answers, particularly with that contention from the Israelis that they can restart the war whenever they want, if they feel that the terms are not being met.

The senior administration official said governing all of this will be an expansion of the existing tripartite mechanism which was put in place with the UN resolution in 2006 [Resolution 1701] – that was the UN, Lebanon and Israel.

France and the US will now join that, and they seem to suggest that there will be this sort of real-time monitoring and conflict resolution system that will be under way to prevent any confusion and to immediately resolve any issues with either side, or any side thinking that the terms of this deal are not being met.

There really was a sense of [the administration official] simply not wanting to entertain the idea that Israel could suddenly decide that, well, ‘we’re going back in’.

When asked a specific question, that it didn’t seem the administration official was terribly prepared for – ‘What if Hezbollah thinks that Israel has violated the deal?’ – there was this very waffly answer that seemed to suggest that Lebanon would have sovereignty in the south to repel any Israeli attack.

It wasn’t very clear. But they’re still focusing on the fact that a deal has been done.

UN chief says UN ready to support ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah

Antonio Guterres hopes the “agreement can put an end to the violence, destruction and suffering the people of both [Israel and Lebanon] have been experiencing,” his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

“The Secretary-General urges the parties to fully respect and swiftly implement all of their commitments made under this agreement,” Dujarric added.

Guterres said that the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, and the UN special coordinator for Lebanon were ready to support the implementation of the agreement. He also urged both parties to fully implement Security Council resolution 1701.

The 2006 resolution calls for the Lebanese armed forces and UN peacekeepers to be the only military presence between the border with Israel and the Litani River, about 30km (18 miles) to the north.

WHO chief welcomes Lebanon ceasefire; renews calls for peace in Gaza

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the latest escalation in Lebanon “has been particularly destructive to the health system”.

“We hope [the ceasefire] will be implemented immediately and translate into a lasting peace in Lebanon, and trigger urgent action to bring peace to Gaza and across the region,” the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on X.

“Civilians in Gaza are suffering immensely and need a life-saving ceasefire, full scale humanitarian assistance and peace now before it is too late,” he added.

Israel has killed at least 208 health sector workers and carried out more than 280 attacks on emergency medical facilities in Lebanon over the past year.

Syrian Red Crescent says volunteer killed at Syria-Lebanon border

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent says that one of its volunteers has been killed and other volunteers injured in attacks on the Dabussiyeh and Jussiyeh crossings in Syria’s Homs province.

“They were performing their humanitarian duty in providing first aid to the wounded at dawn on Wednesday,” the organisation said in a statement on Telegram, calling on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and protect humanitarian workers.

Several ambulances were also damaged in the attack and the organisation has withdrawn its crews from the border crossings with Lebanon to ensure their safety, the statement added.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 560,000 people have fled into Syria from neighbouring Lebanon since Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon in late September.

Israel strikes all 3 north Lebanon crossings with Syria for first time

Earlier, we reported that Israeli warplanes had bombed border crossings between Syria and Lebanon.

Lebanon’s transport minister, Ali Hamieh, has now told the Reuters news agency that the Israeli military has bombed all three of Lebanon’s northern border crossings with Syria for the first time.

The three border areas are the Arida crossing, in the Tartous province, and the Dabussiyeh and Jussiyeh crossings, in the Homs province.

Syrian state TV has reported that 18 people were injured, some critically, in the strike on the Arida crossing. It has not reported any casualties. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has received reports of two Syrian government soldiers being killed in the attack on Dabussiyeh.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has said one of its volunteers was killed and other volunteers injured when responding to the attacks on Arida and Dabussiyeh, without specifying where.

US says strike in Syria targets weapons cache of ‘Iran backed’ group

The US military said it attacked a site in Syria used as a weapons storage facility by an “Iranian-aligned” armed group.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the air strike followed after an attack was launched against US military forces stationed in Syria. CENTCOM said current assessments indicate that there were no civilian casualties but a “battle damage assessment is underway”. The location of the attack in Syria was not provided.

CENTCOM commander General Michael Erik Kurilla said the US strike was designed to “degrade” the ability of the armed group “to plan and launch future attacks on the US and Coalition forces” involved in operations against ISIL [ISIS] in the region. “As previously stated, we will not tolerate any attacks on our personnel and coalition partners,” Kurilla said in a statement.

The US military has around 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of the international coalition that was established in 2014 to help combat ISIL. US forces have launched strikes on Iran-backed groups in Syria on multiple occasions and pro-Iran groups have repeatedly targeted US forces in Iraq and Syria in response to Washington’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.