US senator: Biden’s Gaza legacy will ‘haunt’ him

US Senator Chris Van Hollen calls President Joe Biden’s Gaza policy “ineffective” and an “unprecedented deterioration in [US] efforts to secure a two-state solution and address the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, warned that “nothing will haunt President Joe Biden’s foreign policy legacy as much as his failed policies in the Middle East.”

Van Hollen stressed that Biden still has time to “correct” some of the mistakes he has made.

Since October 7, 2023, he added, Biden “has failed to effectively exercise American leadership to achieve his own stated goals: ending the war, securing the release of the hostages, and implementing his ‘day after‘ plan to create a path toward sustainable peace in the region”.

He called on Biden to sanction “ultraright” members of Netanyahu’s government and to pause offensive military assistance to Israel.

“Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, the Biden administration should recognize a state of Palestine,” Van Hollen added.

Biden can rot in hell, he's had enough chances.

Trump threatens ‘HELL’ if Israeli captives are not released

US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened unspecified harsh consequences for the Middle East and Hamas if captives taken from Israel and still held in Gaza are not released by the time he is inaugurated on January 20, 2025.

“Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action!” Trump wrote.

Israel has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza since Hamas fighters took the captives there more than a year ago.

BREAKING: Trump sends a message to Hamas on the hostages pic.twitter.com/NhhIBgowiK

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) December 2, 2024

It's already hell in Gaza.

Hamas says 33 captives killed in Gaza since war started

Hamas says 33 captives held by the group in Gaza have been killed since the start of Israel’s nearly 14-month-old war there.

The group issued a video statement on Monday saying the captives were killed “because of the stubbornness of the war criminal” Netanyahu and “his ongoing aggression”.

Hamas’s video lists and dates the incidents in which the group said captives were killed. Most of them were air strikes. However, some were rescue attempts by the Israeli military gone wrong.

Hamas made the announcement as key mediators, including Egypt, Qatar and the United States, launch another effort to reach a ceasefire that would see the release of Israeli captives.

“By continuing your mad war, you may lose your captives forever,” the video concluded. “Do what needs to be done before it’s too late.”

US Senator Sanders says Israel carrying out ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza

US Senator Bernie Sanders says Netanyahu’s government is committing “war crimes” and “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. “You don’t fight terrorism by starving people & killing tens of thousands of civilians,” the 82-year-old leftist and two-time presidential candidate said in a post on X.

Sanders voiced his agreement with Moshe Yaalon, Netanyahu’s defence minister from 2013 to 2016, who on Sunday accused Israel of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Yaalon told Israeli media that hardliners in Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet are looking to remove Palestinians from northern Gaza and re-establish settlements there.

Egypt hosts conference on humanitarian response in Gaza

More than 100 delegations representing countries and international organisations have met in Egypt for a summit seeking to “enhance the humanitarian response” in war-torn Gaza.

The conference was held as part of Egyptian efforts to address catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Gaza, officials there said.

UN deputy chief Amina Mohammed opened the conference by urging an end to the “nightmare” in Gaza.

Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Muhammad Hadi also spoke, calling for a ceasefire and assurances that “humanitarian workers must have safe, rapid, unimpeded and sustained access to all people in need.”

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa also delivered remarks as did representatives of the Egyptian and Palestine Red Crescent societies.

Gaza’s Media Office slams UNRWA’s decision to pause aid deliveries

Gaza’s Government Media Office says a decision by the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) to halt the delivery of much-needed aid to the hunger-stricken, besieged territory is “shocking and surprising”.

In a statement, the office blamed Israel for the “dangerous ramifications” of the move and called on UNRWA to resume the delivery of aid via other border crossings. Earlier, UNRWA said its decision to stop delivering aid via the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom to Israelis) crossing was due to security concerns.

“We urge to uphold its humanitarian responsibilities and retract the decision that is going to threaten the lives of more than two million people, especially women and children,” it said.

“UNRWA was supposed to announce an increase in aid that would enter via other border crossings instead.”

Barking up the wrong tree here, UNWRA is going above and beyond. However with Israel standing by, watching armed gangs loot anything that crosses into Gaza, actively routing convoys on dangerous roads and holding them up, there's no safety for the drivers.

Israel strikes busy marketplace in northern Gaza

A new Israeli attack hit a busy marketplace near the Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza, killing at least two people.

“This is the time when people try to get whatever they’re able to from the marketplace and then run to their campsites or the homes they’ve been sheltering in before it gets dark, before it gets really dangerous at night,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said, reporting from Deir el-Balah.

Footage of the attack showed people thrown to the ground by the impact.

It was the latest attack in an area where artillery and warplane bombing have continued through the day.

Main points for December 2nd

Nine killed in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, Health Ministry says

At least five people have been killed in renewed Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon’s town of Haris, and two others were wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in a post on X.

It said four other people were killed, and one was wounded, in an attack on southern Lebanon’s Tallouseh village in the Nabatieh governorate.

Israel has resumed bombarding Lebanon after a fragile US-brokered ceasefire came into effect last week.

Israel, Lebanon tell US they are committed to ceasefire: Report

Both Israeli and Lebanese officials told their US counterparts that they remain committed to the US-brokered ceasefire agreement and want it to continue, despite the recent escalation on the border and reciprocal accusations of ceasefire violations.

The comments, reported by the news site Axios and attributed to sources with knowledge of the issue, come as the truce agreement was pushed to the brink and US officials grow concerned about its durability after Israel killed eleven people in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah attacked an Israeli military base.

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House on Monday and told him that Israel also spoke to Lebanese and Israeli officials who stressed their commitment to the ceasefire.

US special envoy Amos Hochstein told the officials that the ceasefire monitoring mechanism established under the agreement should be notified of violations so that it can address them.

Israeli military carries out attacks across Gaza Strip

Israel’s assault on Gaza has continued over recent hours, according to our correspondents on the ground, with attacks reported across the Palestinian enclave.

In the south, Israeli fighter jets have blown up residential buildings in the al-Jnaina neighbourhood, east of Rafah city, and launched an air strike northeast of the city of Khan Younis.

Israeli forces have also launched “successive raids” around the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in northern Gaza City.

Israeli shelling has been reported in the central Nuseirat refugee camp as well.

Tragic scenes after Israeli forces attack busy Gaza City market

_{Palestinians try to extinguish the fire in a store after an Israeli attack on the Omar al-Mukhtar market in Gaza City on Monday}

We’ve been covering Israel’s deadly attack on the Omar al-Mukhtar market in Gaza City. Footage from the aftermath of the attack showed clouds of smoke as civilians tried to douse flames in one shop. At least two people were killed.

Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Khalili, reporting from the scene, said, “The market has turned into a place of tragedy as Israeli fighters just directly targeted the shops here.”

He described the market as a “vibrant place in northern Gaza Strip where civilians come to acquire the basic necessities for their families”. But “they ended up being targeted and brutally killed”, Khalili said. “We are talking about a very densely populated market here in Gaza City, and the scene here has turned into a scene of tragedy.”

_{The Wafa news agency reported that two people were killed in the attack and others were injured}

Casualties as Israeli forces bomb central Gaza

Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent is reporting that several people have been wounded in an Israeli attack on a building in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

Israeli rights group documents ‘harrowing’ abuse of Palestinians in Hebron

B’Tselem has published a new report on the abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank City of Hebron between May and August of this year.

The report – based on testimonies from 25 Palestinians – describes acts of violence, humiliation and abuse directed by soldiers at men, women, teenagers and children, all of whom had been selected arbitrarily as they went about their daily lives.

B’Tselem said none of the 25 people had been suspected of any offence or prosecuted and were released immediately after being assaulted.

“Victims gave harrowing accounts of physical and psychological abuse, including beatings, whipping, having cigarettes put out on their bodies, blows to their genitals, injection of an unidentified substance, prolonged binding and blindfolding, threats, insults and more,” the report said.

The scale of the violence “reflects a particularly brutal manifestation of a systematic, long-standing policy of oppression, expulsion and dispossession that lies at the root of the Israeli apartheid regime,” it added.

Food availability ‘at an all-time low’ across Gaza, says FAO

Beth Bechdol, the deputy director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is calling for unrestricted and safe access to the Gaza Strip to deliver emergency aid and prevent the spread of famine.

“Today, food availability is at an all-time low across the entire Gaza Strip, and food supply has sharply deteriorated,” Bechdol said at a ministerial conference in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

“The window of opportunity to deliver assistance is now, today, not tomorrow. Food, medicine and fuel are self-evident priorities, but we must also prioritise the ability to grow food locally where it is needed most to ensure survival,” she said.

Before Israel’s war on Gaza, the enclave was largely self-sufficient in vegetables, eggs, fresh milk, poultry and fish, and produced much of its red meat, olive oil and fruit, according to the FAO. But more than a year later, agricultural food systems have collapsed in Gaza, while Israeli forces have decimated local food production across the whole of the enclave.

"Targeted & Assassinated": Gaza Soup Kitchen Chef Mahmoud Almadhoun Killed by Israeli Drone

Israel killed more than 200 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including 40 members of a single family. The official death toll in Gaza is now over 44,000, although experts believe that is a vast undercount of the true figure.

Israel's onslaught has continued to kill medical and aid workers in recent days, including three people with World Central Kitchen, the head of the intensive care unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital, a staff member with Save the Children, as well as Mahmoud Almadhoun, who co-founded the Gaza Soup Kitchen that has fed Palestinians suffering hunger due to Israel's blockade of vital food aid.

Almadhoun was killed in an Israeli drone strike and is survived by seven children, including a newborn baby. His brother Hani Almadhoun joins Democracy Now! to discuss what he calls a targeted assassination. "My brother slowed down the ethnic cleansing of north Gaza, and that's why he was taken out," says Almadhoun. "This is a war against the civilians in Palestine."

1 year in jail BEFORE trial: How Starmer's Britain treats Palestine protesters

20-year-old Fatema Zainab Rajwani tried to stop Israel's genocide in Gaza by breaking into an Elbit Systems site in England. She was arrested, denied bail and could face 15 months in prison before her trial even starts. Declassified spoke to her mother Sukaina Rajwani about the chilling crack down on Palestine Action's Filton 10.

Israel strikes Lebanon, but hopes ceasefire will hold

The Israeli army has confirmed striking at several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah firing at Israeli forces in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

This comes in the context of Israel’s unique and unilateral interpretation of the ceasefire agreement, whereby Israel has given itself the right to enforce that agreement with “fire”.

Those were the words of the Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who said, “We will maintain the ceasefire with fire”, meaning that Israel can strike at Hezbollah on Lebanese territory and beyond.

Israel views any infraction, any movement, any activity of Hezbollah as a violation that it has the right to respond to. This does not really jive with the American interpretation of the ceasefire.

The US is saying that despite the infractions, the ceasefire continues to hold. US envoy Amos Hochstein, however, has expressed frustration and fear that these Israeli attacks could threaten this fragile ceasefire.

In the meantime, Israel is striking but is still hoping that this ceasefire would hold. The government has scheduled a cabinet meeting in the northern communities to assure those hesitant residents that their decision not to go back to their communities has no foundation. That meeting of the cabinet is still going to go ahead on schedule.

Israeli attack kills journalist of Lebanon’s Al-Nour Radio: Report

Lebanon’s Al-Nour Radio announces that its journalist Ali Hassan Ashour has been killed in an Israeli attack. The media outlet did not specify the exact time or the location of the attack that killed its employee. The news was picked up by Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

Lebanon’s Tyre, Bint Jbeil witness Israeli ceasefire violations: Report

Israeli warplanes have carried out a series of attacks on a number of villages and towns in southern Lebanon’s Tyre and Bint Jbeil districts, according to the country’s National News Agency (NNA).

The agency said Israel “returned to launching flares and thermal balloons” before dawn over the village of Aita al-Shaab in the Nabatieh governorate.

Israel attacks village in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh: Report

An Israeli drone has targeted the village of Beit Lif in southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh governorate amid the ceasefire with the Hezbollah armed group, according to the country’s National News Agency (NNA). There were no immediate reports on the result of the attack.

Death toll rises in Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon’s Haris

We reported yesterday, based on information from Lebanon’s Health Ministry, that five people were killed and two others injured in renewed Israeli attacks on the town of Haris in southern Lebanon.

The ministry now reports that six people were killed and two injured in the town, according to the country’s official National News Agency (NNA). The announcement raised the total death toll from the Israeli attacks on Lebanon yesterday to 12.

Mikati says diplomatic efforts ‘intensified’ to implement truce with Israel

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati says the ongoing “diplomatic contacts have been intensified” since yesterday to stop Israel’s violations of the ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.

According to the National News Agency, Lebanon’s official government news outlet, Mikati said the contacts also aim to implement Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese border towns.

“During these contacts, we stressed the priority of stabilising the situation for the return of the displaced people to their towns and regions, and expanding the army’s deployment in the south,” he said.

He added, “The army command’s announcement of the need to recruit trained soldiers into the army’s combat units falls within the context.”

Palestinian pastor tells Trump: Gaza is ‘already hell on earth’

US President-elect Donald Trump has promised that “there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East” if the captives held in Gaza are not released by January 20, when he takes office.

Here are some of the reactions to his comments: