Israel says it strikes Hezbollah launch pad in southern Lebanon

The Israeli army says it is continuing to target Hezbollah activities that violate the terms of the ceasefire.

Its spokesperson said the Israeli air force attacked a launch pad that was identified in the Majdal Zoun area in southern Lebanon, adding that the army destroyed “combat equipment” in the areas of Khiam, Sawwaneh and Aitaroun, also in southern Lebanon.

That's not how a ceasefire works. Hezbollah isn't bombing Israeli soldiers and equipment still left in Lebanon.... The ceasefire terms are for Hezbollah to withdraw North of the Litani river in 60 days. (and for the IDF to vacate Lebanon) But no doubt the US will call it self defense...

UNRWA says Israel continuing disinformation campaign about agency

https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/state-israel-continues-dis-information-campaign-against-unrwa

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says Israel has increased a disinformation campaign against the agency through a series of billboard advertisements put up in several cities worldwide.

UNRWA said the latest efforts by Israel to label the agency a “terror organisation” could amount to hate speech.

“This campaign is creating immense reputational damage to UNRWA, currently the largest humanitarian provider for people in Gaza living through an excruciating war.  These ads can put the lives of UNRWA personnel at serious risk,” the agency said.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began 14 months ago, at least 251 UNRWA staff members have been killed and two-thirds of UNRWA buildings in Gaza have been hit.

The disinformation campaign comes after Israel passed legislation banning UNRWA from operating in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territory.

Israeli officials, media figures warn of reforms threatening press freedom

Israeli opposition leaders and media figures have warned that the government reform proposals were threatening press freedoms. “In the years since this government was formed, Israel has fallen 15 places in the freedom of speech index,” opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said.

A former journalist, Lapid said the current government did not want a balanced media landscape but media “like in Hungary, like in Russia – restrained, frightened, submissive, shallow”.

Israel is ranked 101 out of 180 countries, compared with 86 in 2022 before Netanyahu formed his coalition government.

This year, it banned Al Jazeera from reporting in Israel and later from the occupied West Bank due to its coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. Last month, the government also announced it would stop state advertising in and subscriptions to the Israeli left-wing media outlet Haaretz.

In recent months, the government bills have focused more on Israeli media, including one to grant the government greater control over television ratings data and legislation.

Palestinian Foreign Ministry welcomes UN resolutions on Palestine

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry welcomes the UN General Assembly’s adoption of two pro-Palestinian resolutions, Wafa news agency reports.

The UN adopted the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine resolution with 57 countries voting in favour, seven countries abstaining and eight countries voting against it. The ministry also welcomed the Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat resolution with 101 countries voting in favour, 42 abstaining and 27 against.

The ministry said the adoption of the resolutions emphasised the need to end the Israeli occupation and to achieve the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

It added that the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine resolution pushes for an international peace conference, which will be chaired by Saudi Arabia and France in June and aims to implement UN resolutions on Palestine and a two-state solution to achieve a just peace.

If only the UN had one iota of influence on the US or Israel...

Qatar’s PM says incoming US administration wants Gaza deal before Trump takes power

Qatar’s prime minister says the incoming US administration wants a Gaza ceasefire deal secured “now, today even”.

We are trying to coordinate with them our efforts, and all of us agree and are hoping to get over this situation before the president [Donald Trump] comes to the office,” he was quoted as saying by Sky News.

The prime minister added that Qatar was cautiously optimistic about its renewed efforts to secure a deal but said it required “maximum pressure” by those involved to end the fighting.

He also defended Hamas having a political office in Doha and said it was set up “with full transparency and coordination, and at the request of the US and Israel at that time to have this as to be used as a negotiation platform”.

At least 10 people killed in Israeli attack on al-Mawasi

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.

The Israeli air force carried out two consecutive strikes on the area in southern Gaza. According to Civil Defence crews, multiple makeshift tents caught fire due to the attack.

Emergency teams are currently trying to control the fire while undertaking life-saving measures.

Death toll rises in Israeli attack on al-Mawasi

Gaza’s Civil Defence spokesperson tells Al Jazeera that the death toll in the Israeli air strikes on al-Mawasi has gone up to 20. Dozens more have been wounded, the spokesperson said.

Children among those killed in Israeli attack on al-Mawasi

As we’ve been reporting, two Israeli air strikes have hit al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, killing at least 20 people and setting makeshift tents belonging to displaced people on fire.

A spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence teams told Al Jazeera that children are among those who were killed in the Israeli bombardment of a refugee camp and teams were currently trying to extinguish the fires.

The spokesperson said the Israeli army is well aware that there are only civilians in al-Mawasi. He added that about 20 people were wounded in an Israeli attack on a residential block in the al-Nafaq area north of Gaza City.

تغطية صحفية | مشاهد جديدة من المجزرة ... 20 شـــهيداً وعدد كبير من الجرحى بقصف الاحتلال خيام النازحين في مواصي خانيونس، جنوب قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/f9AvcCLf2P

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) December 4, 2024

Always the same 'excuse' without any proof. As soon as the IDF names any names of supposedly killed Hamas members it's debunked within hours.

‘Keep watching us being slaughtered’

A woman walking with a group of people fleeing one of the last shelters in northern Gaza tells Al Jazeera that the Israeli military has been “wreaking killing and destruction before the eyes of the whole world”.

“The whole world is watching,” said Eman Abu Amsha, who was carrying a child in her arms. “Keep watching us being slaughtered. What we are going through cannot be described in words.”

She said soldiers have killed or detained any men they’ve seen.

“I am 62. I have been walking for hours and carrying my granddaughter. Destruction, killing, fear and starvation, what else is left? And the whole world is watching in silence.”

Netanyahu says body of captive brought back from Gaza

The Israeli army has brought back from Gaza the body of Itay Svirsky, who was taken captive during the 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, Netanyahu says. The prime minister said on X that Svirsky was “murdered in captivity” by Hamas in January.

A statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents families of those being held by Hamas, said returning “Itay’s body for proper burial in Israel provides crucial closure for his family”.

At least 10 people killed in Israeli attack on Gaza City

At least 10 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City. Local sources told Wafa news agency that Israeli fighter jets targeted a house belonging to the ad-Dalu family in the neighbourhood.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza last year, at least 44,532 Palestinians have been killed and 105,538 wounded.

Israeli forces arrest Palestinian patient in West Bank hospital raid

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces raided a hospital in Nablus and arrested a patient.

The ministry in a statement called it “a flagrant violation of all international laws and conventions that stipulate the protection of treatment centres and patients”.

Earlier, Palestinian media reported that special forces from the Israeli army stormed the Arab Specialized Hospital and arrested Ayman Ghanem, who was wounded in a bombing near the town of Aqqaba on Tuesday.

Israel says Palestinian man detained from hospital was behind a gun attack in August

The Israeli military says the Palestinian man who was arrested during a raid on a hospital in the occupied West Bank had been involved in a deadly shooting in the Jordan Valley in August. The military identified the Palestinian as Ayman Ghanem.

It said he had been the third member of a Hamas cell that carried out the shooting on August 11 at the Mehola Junction. A 23-year-old Israeli man who had been discharged from the Israeli military after taking part in the war on Gaza had been killed in the shooting, according to media reports.

The military said Ghanem had been taken to hospital on Wednesday after being wounded in an Israeli drone attack on the West Bank village of Aqqaba. Three Palestinians were killed in that attack.

A Palestinian family’s olive harvest

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/12/3/rooted-in-this-land-until-death-a-palestinian-familys-olive-harvest

Six-year-old Nasser Tanatra is scared of the rock-strewn hilltop where he used to play and pick flowers near his family home.

The boisterous child, the youngest of seven siblings, used to dash to the top of Jabal al-Ras with his 10-year-old sister Urood to gather wild sage and zaatar.

But in mid-September, about 20 Israeli settlers, protected by soldiers, erected tents and began living on the hilltop, about 50 metres (164ft) from the family’s two-storey home.

Ever since, they have attacked and harassed the Tanatras and their neighbours in the Palestinian village of Umm Safa. At night, the settlers fire bullets in the air and release aggressive dogs to roam outside villagers’ homes. From above, they flash bright lights onto the houses, blare music and sing loudly.

Israeli forces carry out raids, arrests across the West Bank

Local media say the raids took place in the following locations in the occupied West Bank:

Israeli military carries out strikes on southern Lebanon

The Israeli military has carried out three air raids on southern Lebanon in recent hours, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report, citing local sources. Israeli fighter jets launched an air strike in the early hours of this morning in the Zawtar area near the Litani River in southern Lebanon.

Before that, the Israeli military also carried out two separate air strikes on homes in the town of Yaroun near Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. There was no immediate report of casualties.

The attacks mark the latest Israeli violations of a ceasefire that went into effect on November 27. The CNN broadcaster cited a source with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) as saying that Israel has violated the truce 100 times in the past week.

Israel has been claiming it is acting against violations by Hezbollah. Analysts say the US-brokered truce deal appears to be designed to make Hezbollah cease fire, but not Israel.


_{A man cleans rubble and debris from damaged buildings after the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, on December 4}

Children, women ‘incinerated’ in Israel’s latest attack on al-Mawasi

The Israeli army has issued a statement saying that it carried out what it described as a “precise air strike” against a Hamas operative in the so-called humanitarian zone in al-Mawasi in Khan Younis.

Now, this is an area of sand dunes that has no services, no water, no electricity. But it is where Israel has squeezed in much of the displaced population in Gaza.

According to medical sources in Gaza, 20 people were killed – incinerated really – in that attack, including women and children. Those facts again debunk Israel’s claims that it takes measures to avoid civilian casualties. And this is not the first time that Israel has attacked civilians in the so-called humanitarian zone in their tents.

Eyewitnesses and survivors described this particular attack as very large and very unusual – a large ball of fire consuming the tents and shrapnel that set other tents on fire, flying hundreds of metres away from the target.

Scenes of ‘horror’ in al-Mawasi after deadly Israeli attack

Our correspondent Hani Mahmoud spoke to rescuers and witnesses moments after the bombing. He said rescuers described scenes of “horror” at the targeted site, with victims burned “beyond recognition” and others “torn into small pieces”.

He said the attacks started major fires, which civil defence crews struggled to contain.


‘Violent’ Israeli bombing campaign reported in Gaza City

Al-Aqsa TV, a Gaza-based outlet, is reporting that Israel’s military has launched a “violent bombing campaign” in northern Gaza City in the early hours of this morning. It said the neighbourhoods of Sabra and Tal al-Hawa were attacked.

Al Jazeera Arabic, citing Palestinian sources, is also reporting Israeli air raids on north Gaza, as well as shelling in Beit Lahiya and Jabalia in the north and the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central area.

Main points on December 4th

Amnesty accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza

The human rights group concluded that Israel’s war on Gaza meets the legal threshold for genocide in a damning report published on Thursday.

The report, titled, “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, was the culmination of months of research, which included extensive witness interviews, analysis of “visual and digital evidence”, and statements made by Israeli officials.

Amnesty said the Israeli military had committed at least three of the five acts banned by the 1948 Genocide Convention – killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life to bring about a group’s physical destruction.

“[There is] sufficient evidence to believe that Israel’s conduct in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide,” the report states.

It added the “unlawful acts inflicted on Palestinians simultaneously, for months without respite, have had a profound, cumulative impact on the mental and physical health of Gaza’s entire population”.

Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, said the conclusion – the group’s first such determination during an active armed conflict – had not been made “lightly, politically, or preferentially”.

Israeli authorities are yet to respond to the report. They have previously rejected allegations of committing genocide, claiming they are acting in self-defence following the Hamas-led October 7 attacks.

Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire ‘offers a vital break’, says UN official

Imran Riza, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, is calling for “continuous international engagement and robust monitoring to establish stability” in the country following last week’s truce between Israel and Hezbollah.

“While the ceasefire offers a vital break, it remains delicate,” Riza said during a visit to the Nabatieh governorate, expressing concern over “violations in certain areas and ongoing tensions along the border”.

He said an estimated 600,000 displaced people are starting to return to their homes, with two-thirds of the figure heading to Nabatieh as well as South Lebanon governorate.

But the return process “is not without significant challenges”, Riza noted, as the two governorates have “experienced an overwhelming level of destruction, with tens of thousands of buildings either partially or completely destroyed”.

He went on to call for unhindered and swift humanitarian access, as well as sustained funding and donor support to help Lebanon recover.

Israel’s buffer zone, created by bombing Lebanon with white phosphorous

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/12/5/israel-buffer-zone-created-by-bombing-lebanon-with-white-phosphorus

Israel has intensively used white phosphorus on a strip in southern Lebanon that matches a zone its army has marked as a red “no go” zone on maps it distributes to Lebanese people, telling them not to return to their homes there.

More than 918 hectares (2,268 acres) have been hit in 191 attacks using the controversial munition since October 8, 2023, according to data collected by Lebanese researcher Ahmad Baydoun and environmental activist group Green Southerners.

Israel claims it uses white phosphorus munitions to create a smokescreen on the battlefield, yet rights groups say it has deployed it over populated areas, not battlefields, in both Gaza and Lebanon – which violates international humanitarian law.

_{A shell that appears to be white phosphorus explodes over a house in the Lebanese village of al-Bustan on October 15, 2023}

French officials arrive in Beirut for ceasefire implementation talks

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati has received a French delegation in Beirut for talks on the implementation of a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, the country’s National News Agency (NNA) has reported.

France, along with the US, is one of the five-member committee in charge of monitoring, verifying and helping enforce the truce agreed last week.

Mikati received the French ambassador to Lebanon, Herve Magro and France’s representative to the committee, Brigadier General Guillaume Ponchin, NNA reported.

“The priorities of the Lebanese position are the ceasefire, the Israeli violations, the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanese territory, and strengthening the deployment of the army in the south,” the prime minister said.

The meeting comes as the fragile ceasefire has already been violated repeatedly. France accused Israel of breaching the truce at least 52 times following which Hezbollah launched a volley of projectiles into Israel.

Britain pledges aid for Gaza while ‘arming the perpetrators’

Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, has criticised the British government’s treatment of the suffering in Gaza as a “humanitarian crisis” rather than a result of the “acute atrocities” committed by Israel.

His comments came after the United Kingdom pledged $24m in funding for Gaza earlier this week, with $15m designated for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme.

“The UK is trying to help feed the victims, while at the same time arming the perpetrators,” Doyle told Al Jazeera.

‘Horror in Gaza must end’, says UNGA president

Philemon Yang said the international community’s demands are clear on Gaza, noting that 14 members of the UN Security Council voted for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave, only for the resolution to be blocked by the US.

“Once again, the Security Council is paralysed, unable to fulfil its primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security,” he said in a speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Wednesday.

The resolution, put forward by 10 non-permanent UNSC members, called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in the 14-month conflict, while also demanding the release of captives held in Gaza.

Yang said in his speech that the “horror in Gaza must end”.

He called for the UNGA to take the lead on resolving the conflict due to the paralysis in the UNSC, and said the issue cannot be fixed through “endless war and occupation”.

The UNGA adopted two pro-Palestinian resolutions on Wednesday, including one calling for an international peace conference on the two-state solution – co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France – to be held in June.

Israel is blocking aid at Gaza crossings: UNRWA

Louise Wateridge, UNRWA’s emergency officer currently in Gaza, says the catastrophic humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.

“We are seeing people begging for pieces of bread. Three women were trampled to death just a few days ago, waiting for pieces of bread,” Wateridge said, speaking in front of an empty UNRWA warehouse.

“UNRWA is not permitted by Israeli authorities to use multiple crossings in the Gaza Strip so the community might see that as: ‘Why is UNRWA not going to the crossing? Why is UNRWA not getting the flour?’ We are denied. We are denied,” she said.

Wateridge said people need everything, from water, food, shelter and warm clothes, “anybody else in the world takes for granted, that is what people need here”.

“Children – you cannot tell anymore if they are shivering from the cold or from the fear of drones and bombs around,” she said on X.

As the situation in #Gaza keeps worsening, @UNWateridge describes the miserable reality to @AJEnglish.

"Children - you cannot tell anymore if they are shivering from the cold or from the fear of drones and bombs around."#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/2N7jrh1PkG

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 5, 2024