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Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli army spokesman, confirmed on Monday that Israel had expanded its ground operations to southern Gaza, an area that had already been bombed but where troops had not entered on a large scale. "We have pursued Hamas in the north as we will now do in the south," he said. The Israeli Armed Forces have again ordered today, in the midst of the attacks, the evacuation of six neighborhoods of the southern city of Khan Younis, from where many Gazans travel to go to the city of Rafah (also in the south). They had previously fled the north of the enclave because of the fighting. The southern area is now home to some 1.7 million of the 2.3 million inhabitants living in one of the world's most densely populated territories. Hisham Ibrahim, commander of the Israeli army, said his troops were close to meeting the objectives in northern Gaza: "We are beginning to expand the ground maneuver to other parts of the Strip, with one goal: to overthrow the Hamas terrorist group." Israeli strikes have killed some 15,900 people in the enclave since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. For its part, Israel has confirmed the deaths of 15 of the 137 hostages still held hostage in the Gaza Strip.
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El País
The Palestine Red Crescent announces that it has lost contact with its teams in Gaza due to the telecommunications blackout
The Palestine Red Crescent has reported on the social network X (formerly Twitter) that it has "completely" lost contact with the organization's operations room in Gaza and with all its teams operating in the Strip due to "the fourth telecommunications blackout during the ongoing aggression" in the enclave. "We express our concern for the safety of our teams working in the Gaza Strip amid intense and continuous Israeli airstrikes 24 hours a day," he added. "We are extremely concerned that our teams will continue to provide emergency services, especially as this disruption affects the central operating room" and, the organization added, "makes it difficult for ambulances to reach the injured and sick."
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 20:46
El País
The UN calls on Israel to "avoid further actions that could exacerbate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza"
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on Israel to "avoid further actions that could exacerbate the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and expose civilians to further suffering," according to a UN spokesperson. "The Secretary-General reiterates the need for a sustained flow of humanitarian aid, unimpeded and continuously, to meet the needs of people throughout the Strip. For the people who have been ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe and very little with which to survive," said Stephane Dujarric, a UN spokesman. (Reuters)
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 20:19
El País
Palestinian children displaced from Khan Younis on Monday at a makeshift shelter in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. / MAHMOUD HAMS / AFP
What has happened in the last few hours?
This is the most relevant news of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza at 20:0 p.m. on Monday, December 4:
Israel orders new evacuations and advances with tanks in southern Gaza. The army is urging people to leave part of the town of Khan Younis, which hosts some 200,000 displaced people from the north. The secret services say they will kill all Hamas leaders "anywhere" and "even if it takes years."
New telecommunications blackout in Gaza, according to the supplier company. Paltel, the main Palestinian telecommunications company, has reported that "all telecommunications services in the Strip have been lost" due to the cutting of the main fiber routes. "Gaza is once again in the dark," the company wrote on social media.
At least 15,899 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli offensive. Seventy percent of them are women and children, according to the latest death toll released Monday by the Hamas-controlled Health Strip's health ministry.
Israel confirms the death of 15 of the 137 hostages still held in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office has released a statement publishing the names of "15 civilians and soldiers who were killed and are still being held hostage in Gaza."
The U.S. believes Israel's "targeted evacuations" are an "improvement" over the pre-truce strategy. U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said it was "too early" to assess whether or not Israel was heeding his pleas to protect Gaza's civilians after the resumption of military operations after a seven-day truce. But he told a news conference that the "targeted evacuations" Israel is carrying out these days are an "improvement" compared to "asking an entire city to evacuate it."
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 20:00
El País
New telecommunications blackout in Gaza, according to the supplier company
The telecommunications company Paltel, the main service provider in Gaza, has announced that "all telecommunications services in the Strip have been lost" due to the cutting of the main fiber routes. "Gaza is once again in the dark," the company added on its profile on the social network X (the former Twitter). A few hours ago, this same company had reported that telecommunications had been cut off in Gaza City and in the northern Gaza Strip.
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 20:00
El País
Borrell calls Israeli actions in Gaza "carnage"
The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, warned on Monday that "what we are seeing" in Gaza is "carnage" just like the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, and pointed out that "one horror cannot justify another horror".
At a forum on human rights between the European Union and NGOs in Brussels, some attendees left the room. "He may be saying something inconvenient," Borrell said when warned of what was happening. "But the United Nations has said that what is happening in Gaza is another [carnage], because you cannot accept this number of civilian casualties even though Israel has the right to defend itself."
"One horror cannot justify another horror; The international community is increasingly raising its voice calling for this horror to stop," he said.
Borrell also pointed out that, just as he can criticise the Franco regime without being anti-Spanish, today it should be possible to criticise the Israeli government without being branded as anti-Semitic. "I ask for the right to defend a two-state solution without being against the existence of the State of Israel," he added.
In this regard, Borrell urged to continue working for a political solution that prevents Gaza "from becoming a new Mogadishu [the capital of Somalia], a place without law and order that can become the cradle of all kinds of violence, terrorist movements and irregular migration".
"We call for the release of all hostages, an end to this humanitarian catastrophe, a solution for the day after and an end to illegal settlements and aggressions against Palestinians in the West Bank," the High Representative said. (Image: EFE)
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 20:18
El País
The U.S. believes Israel's "targeted evacuations" are an "improvement" over the pre-truce strategy
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said it was "too early" to assess whether or not Israel was heeding his pleas to protect civilians in Gaza after the resumption of military operations following the humanitarian pause. Miller did insist, at a press conference, that the "selective evacuations" that Israel is carrying out these days are an "improvement" compared to "asking an entire city to evacuate it."
The United States, Israel's closest ally, has urged it to do more to safeguard civilian lives in the southern part of Gaza than in last month's military campaign, during which the Israeli army attacked the northern Gaza Strip. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, confirmed this morning that Israel has expanded its ground operations to southern Gaza, an area that had already been bombed but where Israeli troops had not entered on a large scale, to which hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated. (Reuters)
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 20:01
Isabel FerrerThe Hague
Oxfam sues Dutch government to block shipment of F-35 parts to Israel
The Dutch branch of the humanitarian organization Oxfam Novib sued the government in court on Monday in an attempt to prevent the shipment to Israel of parts from F-35 fighter jets, deployed in the Gaza Strip. It is the first time in its 67-year history that the NGO has made such a decision. The organization alleges that such exports can make the Netherlands complicit in possible war crimes. For that reason, he has asked the District Judges in The Hague to resolve the case on a fast track. Amnesty International, PAX and The Rights Forum have joined the legal proceedings.
The Netherlands has an air base that is also one of the regional depots for F-35 parts. They are owned by the United States, which serves them from that base to its international partners. Oxfam Novib claims that Israel kills civilians with these planes, and Michiel Servaes, its director, has said: "It is unbelievable that these bombs are being dropped thanks to Dutch military support." For her part, Liesbeth Zegveld, the plaintiffs' lawyer, has argued that "it is clear that these aircraft are being used, at this very moment, over Gaza to support Israeli troops on the ground." The Dutch state's lawyer, Reimer Veldhuis, said it was "legitimate" to ask whether Israel had gone too far in its response to Hamas after the attack launched by the Palestinian militia on October 7. He then admitted the difficulty of giving an answer, but also that "a deliberate violation of the laws of war with the use of the F-35s has not been proven."
The State Attorney's Office has also recalled that even if the Netherlands stops exports, other countries can continue to send the pieces. "There are complex interests at stake," and this situation needs "time and coordination," according to Veldhuis. The court decision is expected on December 15, but given the situation it could be announced earlier.
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 18:27
El País
A large plume of smoke after an Israeli attack was taken Monday from southern Israel near the Gaza border. / JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP
MSF doctor in Khan Younis: "The sound of drones is part of our lives and is an indication that our situation is deteriorating"
Nicholas Papachrysostomou is the emergency coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Gaza and has released an audio message in which he narrates how the situation in the southern Gaza Strip is deteriorating day by day with more bombings, more deaths and more displaced people. Here's a verbatim transcript of the most impactful parts of his message:
"The sound of drones is part of our lives and is indicative of our situation deteriorating day by day. The ground operation in the south, around Khan Younis, is a reality. A few kilometres from where the MSF team is, the sounds of battles can be heard. Shrapnel, tanks, bombardments... It's not just aerial bombardments; We are talking about a crisis and that has consequences. The death toll has exploded. The number of injured has exploded.
The orders are always the same: "this neighborhood has to be evacuated, this neighborhood too"... It's always the same. And with the people, services have to move, such as access to healthcare. We had to close two primary clinics because they were in neighborhoods that have been ordered to evacuate. Stopping our support of these clinics is a critical consequence. In seven days, in the clinic where my team was, we saw 1,800 patients before leaving, more than half of them were displaced. One in five were under the age of five. The Ministry of Health is there, obviously, and they try, but they can't cope, the staff is exhausted, they need help."
Papachrysostomou also referred to the situation of two of the hospitals that are still functioning:
"Al Aqsa is an overflowing hospital. In the last 48 hours the team has seen 100 dead, 400 wounded... People arrive too late, after brutal bombings. The stories they tell us are hard to believe.
In Al-Nasr hospital there are thousands of displaced people, people who are sleeping around the hospital, there are families on the floor, there is no space for anything. He's not going to take the hospital anymore. Their days are numbered. There are hundreds of shops, tents, people who have entered incomplete buildings."
Papachrysostomou ends his message by calling for an end to attacks on humanitarian structures and a long-term ceasefire so that aid can enter. "You have to restart everything and for that you have to stop everything that's happening now."
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 19:31
El País
Netanyahu Says Milei Is a "True Friend of the Jewish People" and Invites Him to Visit Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, has congratulated the new president of Argentina, Javier Milei, for his support for Israel during the conflict with Hamas, and also for his electoral victory. Both leaders held a conversation this morning in which they expressed mutual deference, and in which the far-right Milei proposed moving the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem, a city that Israel de facto controls and claims as its capital since 1980, despite the lack of international consensus on the matter. The United States is the only country that recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"The prime minister has told the president-elect [Milei] that he is a true friend of the Jewish people. The prime minister thanked the president-elect for his intention to move Argentina's embassy to Jerusalem and invited him to visit Israel," Netanyahu's office said. (Reuters)
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 17:32
El País
Telecommunications in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip suffer a new decline, according to the provider company
Paltel, the main Palestinian telecommunications company, has reported that "all services" of telecommunications in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip "have been lost" due to the disconnection of key elements of its network, due to the "ongoing aggression". This was stated by the company in a message on the social network X (formerly Twitter), where it specified that its technical teams are working with "all available means" to restore services.
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 16:06
A group of Palestinians mourned the deaths of several family members in Israeli shelling in Khan Younis on Monday. / Mohammed Dahman/AP
Nearly 15,900 killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli offensive
At least 15,899 Palestinians, 70 percent of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to the latest death toll released Monday by the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled Strip. (Reuters)
ACT.4 DEC 2023 - 17:21