Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters accompany a newly released Israeli hostage before handing her over to the Red Cross in Rafah, Gaza Strip, during a prisoner swap in Rafah,on November 28, 2023. (AFP/File)
Israel bombed southern Gaza’s main city on Monday after Hamas warned no Israeli hostages would leave the territory alive unless its demands for prisoner releases were met.
Israel has responded with a military offensive that has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed at least 17,997 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The ministry said on Monday that dozens of people had been killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, while Israel’s army reported rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.
An AFP correspondent reported that Israeli strikes on Monday hit the main southern city of Khan Yunis, while Palestinian militants Islamic Jihad said they had blown up a house where Israeli soldiers were searching for a tunnel shaft.
In a televised statement, Hamas on Sunday warned that Israel would not receive “their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance.”
Israel says there are still 137 hostages in Gaza, while activists say around 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli jails.
AFP visited the bombed-out ruins of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and found at least 30,000 people taking refuge amid the rubble after Israeli forces raided the medical facility last month.
"Our life has become a living hell, there's no electricity, no water, no flour, no bread, no medicine for the children who are all sick," said Mohammed Daloul, 38, who fled there with his wife and three children.
Syria's state news agency said Israel had carried out strikes near Damascus late Sunday, but air defence systems had prevented any significant damage.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the strikes had targeted Hezbollah sites in the Sayeda Zeinab district and near Damascus airport.
Meanwhile, Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels threatened to attack any vessels heading to Israel unless more aid was allowed into Gaza.
France said Sunday one of its frigates in the Red Sea had shot down two drones launched from Yemen.
Qatar says ‘narrowing window’ for freeing more hostages held in Gaza – as it happened.
Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi says this is a war that cannot be won, “Israel has created an amount of hatred that will haunt this region that will define generations to come.”
It’s as the World Health Organization has warned the territory’s health system is collapsing after more than two months of war.
“Gaza’s health system is on its knees and collapsing,” said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, with only 14 of 36 hospitals functioning at any capacity.
The Kiev authorities ‘went over the edge’ when they declared the Russians as non-indigenous nation in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said following the ceremony awarding Gold Star medals to Heroes of the Russian Federation.
Journalist of Russia’s Rossiya-1 TV Channel Pavel Zarubin posted a fragment of Putin’s statement on his Telegram channel.
"We would have never resorted to anything like this if they [the Ukrainian authorities] had not started destroying Russia on our historical territories, forcing people out of there, declaring Russians a non-indigenous nation," Putin said.
Attempts to Destroy Russia Doomed to Fail - Putin
Vladimir Putin gave a speech during Friday meeting with the Heroes of Russia in the Kremlin, the footage was published in the Telegram channel of journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday.
The West is trying to "crush" Russia, but they will never succeed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"We didn't interfere at first [in the situation in Donbas]. We thought it would calm down somehow. No. Then we had to start helping people... We concluded the Minsk agreements. We also said: ‘We are ready to fulfill them.’ We were working for that. No way. They said it publicly, both the former Chancellor of Germany and the former President of France said, ‘We did not think to fulfill them, we signed them only to prepare Ukraine for military action.’ And an attempt to push Russia back, to weaken it. And eventually crash it. They will never succeed. Never," Putin said.
Also speaking about October honoring of Nazi SS officer from World War II in the Canadian Parliament, Putin said that such actions show that West was ready to cooperate with anyone to harm Russia.
Kiev Has 'No Future'
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the country's defense industry is gaining momentum, while Ukraine is running out of resources that are critical for any country's future.
"But they are running out [of resources], they have no base of their own. When there is no base of their own, no ideology of their own, no industry of their own, no money of their own, nothing of their own, then there is no future. And we have [all of it]," Putin stressed.
Although Russia is bolstering its defense industry, there is still room for improvement, Putin added.
Russia won’t allow ‘Nazi state’ on its border – Moscow
Moscow will not allow Ukraine to continue being a “Nazi state” that poses a threat to both Russia and other nations, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
In an exclusive interview with AFP published on Saturday, Zakharova confirmed that the goals of “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine, as declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the onset of the conflict in February 2022, remain unchanged. According to Zakharova, the events surrounding the Ukrainian crisis have underscored Russia’s belief in the necessity of launching its special military operation.
“From the very beginning of the hostilities, the [Ukrainian] neo-Nazis have been cynically using the civilian population as ‘human shields’ and brutally treating Russian prisoners of war. Their main goal in this conflict is to kill as many Russians as possible,” Zakharova explained.
We will not allow the existence on our borders of an aggressive Nazi state from whose territory there is a danger for Russia and its neighbors.
Asked about the prospects of somehow settling the conflict, Zakharova said that the only way to reach a “lasting peace” was, effectively, meeting all of Russia’s demands. “It is necessary to confirm the neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status of Ukraine, carry out its demilitarization and denazification, acknowledge new territorial realities, and ensure the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and national minorities living in this country,” she explained.
The spokeswoman also confirmed that Russia remains ready to resolve the conflict through diplomacy, stating that Moscow has never refused to do so. However, to make such negotiations possible, “the Kiev regime and its Western curators” must take “practical steps and show goodwill.” Thus far, neither of them have shown such “political will,” she added.
“A comprehensive, sustainable and just resolution of the conflict over Ukraine depends, to a large extent, on addressing its very causes. The West must stop pumping up the Ukrainian military with weaponry, while Kiev must cease hostilities and withdraw its troops from Russian territory,” Zakharova explained, referring to the four formerly-Ukrainian regions – Zaporozhye, Kherson, and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics – that were incorporated into Russia after referendums last fall.
Putin Strengthens Relations with Middle Eastern Powers as Biden Flounders
Biden, who campaigned on restoring global respect for the United States, has had little success in the highly important region.
For US President Joe Biden, Middle Eastern countries are only "junior partners." That’s the consensus of countries throughout the region with regard to the United States, according to journalist Elijah Magnier who appeared on Radio Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Saturday to discuss Biden’s troubled stewardship of US foreign policy.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin had deepened ties with Middle Eastern powers simply by treating them as equals.
Host Jamarl Thomas noted the Russian leader held a meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for five hours during his visit to Moscow this week, a sign of their mutual respect and shared interest in building a multipolar world order. Putin stressed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and emphasized the importance of bilateral cooperation in many areas.
Tehran’s recent entry into the BRICS economic bloc should only strengthen the nation’s ties to Russia in the years to come. But Iran isn’t the only Middle Eastern country moving closer to Moscow.
Magnier noted that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the United States’ strongest allies in the region, have refused to condemn Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Along with other global powers, the countries also resisted calls to join America in sanctioning Russia, meaning US policy intended to isolate Moscow has only contributed to destroying US credibility in the Middle East.
“The only thing they’ve brought to the Middle East is war,” the journalist emphasized.
Russia’s importance in the global order and respect for others’ sovereignty means they are able to play a mediating role few other countries can play according to Magnier, making them a much more attractive partner than the United States.
In the meantime Biden has floundered in the Middle East as attempts to convince Saudi Arabia to produce more oil have instead led to the country decreasing output. Surprisingly, a president who campaigned on foreign policy experience as a strength has only worsened US relations in the key region. Rather than expanding US influence in the Middle East, Thomas says Biden has only served as a symbol of US hubris and arrogance.
There is “no safe place to go in the Gaza Strip”, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Sunday, as Israeli airstrikes kill 300 people in 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 18,000, as well as 49,500 wounded people.
Heavy fighting raged overnight and into Sunday focussing mainly on Khan Younis, as Israel pressed ahead with its attacks after the US blocked the latest international efforts to halt the fighting and rushed more weapons to its close ally.
Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a ceasefire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of nearly 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee .
But the United States has lent vital support to the indiscriminate attack once again in recent days, by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed widespread international support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel.
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The continuing Israeli assault on Gaza comes as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he regrets the Security Council's failure to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Addressing Qatar's Doha Forum, Guterres said the council was "paralysed by geostrategic divisions" that were undermining solutions to Israel's war on Gaza.
The body's "authority and credibility were severely undermined" by its delayed response to the conflict, he said two days after the US veto prevented a resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire.
"I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared," he told the forum.
"Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it," he added.
"I can promise, I will not give up."
Guterres had convened an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after two months of fighting that have left more than 17,700 people dead in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry.
The secretary-general deployed the rarely-used Article 99 of the United Nations Charter to bring to the council's attention "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security".
The rule had not previously been invoked by a UN chief in decades and has been triggered due to the catastrophic humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza.
"We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system," Guterres told the Doha Forum.
"The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region."
At a time when Palestinians in Gaza are facing horrific conditions, the U.S. should not be vetoing a UN resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire and the release of all hostages. The children in Gaza need food, water, and medical supplies. We must do everything possible to… https://t.co/hGTKbN1X43
Palestinian media outlets have reported an update on an Israeli attack at Al-Maghazi camp, located in central Gaza, following a building had been targeted.
According to local media, the Palestinian death toll has risen to 22.
#BREAKING:---Just in--- The IOF targeted displaced Gazans at a UNRWA school in Jabalia refugee camp in northern #Gaza.
In Al-Maghazi camp in central #Gaza, an IOF airstrike on the Al-Madfa' home led to 22 martyrs, and a strike in Nusseirat camp led to five martyrs.… pic.twitter.com/5O2IU6lObz
UN Security Council's authority, credibility severely undermined: UN chief
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday that the credibility and authority of the UN Security Council suffered significant damage over the Gaza conflict.
“The delay comes at a cost, the council's authority and credibility were severely undermined and the resolution is not being implemented,” Guterres said about the previously passed UN resolution calling for more humanitarian aid.
Speaking at the Doha Forum held in Qatar, Guterres criticized the UN Security Council’s “resounding silence” over the Gaza conflict.
“The horrific attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, followed by the relentless Israeli bombardment of Gaza were met by a resounding silence from the Council. After more than one month, the Council finally passed the resolution, which I welcome,” he said, but regretted that the resolution is not being implemented.
Guterres underlined that “there is no effective protection of civilians in Gaza.”
He called for a humanitarian cease-fire in the Gaza Strip amid Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian territory.
“The number of civilian casualties in Gaza in such a short period is totally unprecedented,” he said, noting that “the health care system is collapsing.”
The UN chief expected “public order to completely break down soon and then even a worse situation could unfold, including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt.”
Guterres called on the UN Security Council “to press to avert the humanitarian catastrophe.”
He also reiterated his “appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared.”
“Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it but that does not make it less necessary, so I can promise I will not give up,” he added.
“Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it but that does not make it less necessary, so I can promise I will not give up,” he added.
The US vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution on Friday that demanded an immediate cease-fire to halt the ongoing bloodshed in the Gaza Strip as the death toll continues to mount.
Israel resumed its military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 1 after the end of a week-long humanitarian pause with Hamas.
Nearly 18,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 49,229 others injured in relentless air and ground attacks on the enclave since Oct. 7 following the cross-border attack by Hamas.
The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures
Russia's modernized Ka-52M attack helicopters have entered the fray to seize control of the skies in the conflict, using a variety of munitions to decimate targets.
The Russian Defense Ministry has officially confirmed the first deployment of upgraded Ka-52M helicopters in the Donetsk region.
Carrying out a precision airstrike with advanced munitions and based on the coordinates provided by the aircraft's gunner, Russian forces successfully destroyed the Ukrainian control center and armored vehicles.
The Ka-52, affectionately named "Alligator, " is a state-of-the-art platform for battlefield surveillance and airstrike coordination. Notably, this versatile helicopter is equally adept at assaulting fortified positions and eliminating enemy tanks using advanced armor-piercing projectiles.
Russian Forces Strike Ukrainian Military Ammunition Production Facilities
The Russian Armed Forces continue to strike the positions of Ukrainian troops and ammunition production sites with precision weapons.
The Russian military launched a combined strike on Ukrainian production sites for MLRS artillery, the Defense Ministry said.
"The Russian Armed Forces launched a combined strike with long-range airborne precision-guided weapons on the production sites of ammunition for 'Olha' and 'Grad' multiple launch rocket systems, and 'Grom' operational-tactical missiles," the ministry said.
The ministry added that all the objectives were accomplished and the designated sites were hit.
Russia’s future depends on soldiers involved in special military operation — Putin
Russian troops at the front lines of the country’s special military operation are fighting for the future of their country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said following the ceremony awarding Gold Star medals to Heroes of the Russian Federation.
Journalist of Russia’s Rossiya-1 TV Channel Pavel Zarubin posted a fragment of Putin’s statement on his Telegram channel.
"Russia’s future depends in many ways on your combat activities. This is an obvious fact," Putin said.
