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Hamas and other Islamist factions have warned that there will be no talks with Israel on the exchange of Israeli prisoners for Palestinian prisoners until Israel completely halts its military operation in the Strip, which has killed some 20,000 people since Oct. 7, according to Gazan authorities. The Islamist militia has released a statement after two days of talks in Egypt — one of the countries mediating with Qatar and the United States — to try to achieve a new truce in the enclave. Meanwhile, the UN has denounced that several areas of Gaza have reached the highest level, that of "catastrophe", in its scale of food insecurity due to the lack of food in both the north and the south. In addition, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Israel to open an investigation into a "possible war crime" by its army in Gaza. The agency says it has received "disturbing reports" about the deaths of "11 unarmed Palestinian men" in Gaza City (north).
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El País
Hamas' popularity has risen "dramatically" since Oct. 7, according to a U.S. intelligence report
A new U.S. intelligence analysis cited by CNN says Hamas' popularity and influence has risen dramatically since the fundamentalist movement's attack on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, according to official U.S. figures.
According to the TV channel, which cites several U.S. officials, that attack has boosted Hamas' reputation as a defender of the Palestinian cause and an effective fighter against Israel in some Arab countries.
A poll released last week by the Palestinian Center for Social Research had found that support for Hamas in the occupied Palestinian territory of the occupied West Bank stood at 44 percent, up from 12 percent three months ago. The opinion poll also found that 92% of Palestinians in the West Bank wanted Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to resign.
Read this report on the growing influence of Hamas by EL PAÍS's special envoy to Israel, Manuel Altozano: War triggers support for Hamas in the West Bank.
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 14:40
El País
NGO calls on the International Criminal Court to investigate 40 Israeli army officers for war crimes in Gaza
The NGO Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has submitted to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) a list of 40 Israeli army officers commanding the Israeli military offensive in Gaza to be investigated for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
DAWN is an organization advocating for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa founded by Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist murdered in his country's Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The list includes Israeli military commanders "who have participated in or have direct command responsibility in operations that have likely included indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilians, the use of starvation as a weapon, the blockade of humanitarian aid and the imposition of the siege on Gaza."
The organization claims to have submitted this information in response to the ICC prosecutor's call on 17 November for the parties to submit to his office information relevant to the investigation into possible war crimes in Gaza.
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 14:23
El País
The UN warns that several areas of Gaza have reached the level of "catastrophe" due to lack of food
Several areas of Gaza have reached the highest level, that of "catastrophe", in the United Nations scale of food insecurity, due to the famine in the north and south of the Palestinian Strip. The UN, governments and non-governmental organizations, such as Action Against Hunger, draw up this scale, in which the Palestinian enclave reaches the highest level in those areas after more than two and a half months of Israeli military offensive.
A few days ago, the United Nations described the Gaza Strip as a "hell on earth." The UN has been warning for weeks that the entry of humanitarian aid is insufficient to cover the basic needs of the population, who have been living in an extreme situation for months due to the Israeli military offensive.
The influx of humanitarian aid is so low that the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinian civilians "deliberately" as part of its war against Hamas in Gaza. (Agencies)
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 13:25
El País
Hamas launches a wave of rockets at Tel Aviv
The al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has announced that it has fired a salvo of rockets at Tel Aviv, Israel's administrative capital. Minutes earlier, the Reuters agency reported that alarms had indeed sounded in the city and explosions had occurred as a result of rocket interceptions by Israeli air defenses.
An agency cameraman has heard sirens in Tel Aviv and heard explosions from the shoot-downs of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system. It was launched minutes after a television channel showed footage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The Red Star of David ambulance service (Hebrew equivalent of the Red Cross) has reported some impacts in the south of the city, but no casualties have been reported so far.
The announcement of the rocket fire came shortly after the Palestinian militia issued a statement in which it refused, after two days of talks in Egypt, to release more hostages in its possession if the Israeli army did not completely stop its offensive in Gaza.
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 13:05
El País
A group of Palestinians mourn the death of their relatives on Thursday in Rafah, southern Gaza. / FATIMA SHBAIR / AP / LAPRESSE
What has happened in the last few hours?
Here are the highlights of Israel's military offensive in Gaza at 13:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 21:
Hamas warns after two days of negotiations in Egypt that it will not release any more hostages until the Israeli offensive ends. Hamas and other Islamist factions have decided that there will be no talks with Israel on the exchange of Israeli prisoners for Palestinian prisoners until the Hebrew state completely stops its military operation in Gaza, according to a statement released after two days of talks in Egypt — one of the countries mediating with Qatar and the United States — to try to achieve a new truce in the Strip.
The UN is calling on Israel to open an investigation into a "possible war crime" over the deaths of 11 unarmed Palestinians in Gaza. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Israel to open an investigation into a "possible war crime" by its army in Gaza. The agency says it has received "disturbing reports" about the deaths of "11 unarmed Palestinian men" in Gaza City (north).
Guterres calls for the restoration of conditions for the entry of "large-scale" aid into Gaza. The UN Secretary-General has denounced that the fighting, added to the shortages in basic services such as electricity, fuel or communications, "seriously limits" the humanitarian work of the United Nations in Gaza, so he has called for the "immediately" restoration of conditions so that aid can be provided in conditions.
The WHO warns that there are no functioning hospitals left in northern Gaza. The World Health Organization has said that northern Gaza has been left without any functioning hospitals due to a lack of fuel, staff and supplies. "Al-Ahli [hospital] was the last one, but now its operation is minimal," a spokesman for the organization said.
Israel claims to have struck more than 200 targets in its offensive against Hamas strongholds. The Israeli military has claimed to have attacked some 230 Hamas targets in places in Gaza such as Khan Younis (south) and Jabalia (north), where Israeli forces are fighting intensely as strongholds of the Islamist group in the Palestinian Strip.
Four Palestinians killed in Israeli attack in Rafah. Four Palestinians, including a soldier in charge of the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, have been killed in an Israeli attack in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, according to Hamas and health sources. Israel denies any involvement in the attack.
A group of Israelis try to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. A group of Israelis are trying to prevent trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza from passing through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, which before the war was used to smuggle goods into the Palestinian enclave, The Times of Israel reported.
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 13:00
El País
Hamas and other Palestinian factions refuse to release more hostages if Israel does not halt its offensive in Gaza
Hamas and other Palestinian factions have decided that there will be no talks with Israel on prisoner swaps until Israel completely halts its military operation in Gaza. This was announced in a statement published by Hamas after two days of talks in Cairo (Egypt) to try to achieve a new truce in the Strip that would allow an exchange of hostages in the hands of Palestinian militias in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
"There is a Palestinian national decision that there will be no prisoner talks or [prisoner-for-hostage] exchange agreements except after a complete cessation of [Israeli] aggression," said the statement, published by Hamas.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh traveled to Egypt on Wednesday to take part in negotiations for a new truce. However, already in the afternoon, a spokesman for the Palestinian militia said that they would not participate in Israel's "game" with a new exchange in exchange for a temporary truce so that Israel would then resume its offensive, and demanded a complete cessation of the offensive. For its part, Israel said it was ready for a new one-week truce to secure the release of the hostages held by Hamas.
In addition to this group, Islamic Jihad and another smaller Palestinian group are holding hostages taken in the Oct. 7 raids, when hundreds of Palestinian militants killed nearly 1,200 people and kidnapped 240. At the end of November, a week-long truce allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israel. (Reuters)
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 12:44
El País
UN calls on Israel to open an investigation into a "possible war crime" over the deaths of 11 unarmed Palestinians in Gaza
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Israel to open an investigation into "the possible perpetration of a war crime" by its army in Gaza. The agency said it had received "disturbing reports" of the deaths of "11 unarmed Palestinian men" in Gaza City, which was located in the north and the largest in the enclave, according to a statement.
The 11 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday night during an Israeli army raid on a residential building in the city where several families were sheltering. The soldiers "allegedly separated the men from the women and children, and then shot and killed at least 11 men ... in front of members of their families," according to testimonies released by the EuroMed Observatory for Human Rights.
The agency has confirmed the deaths of 11 Palestinians, but has specified that the circumstances "are in the process of verification". "The Israeli authorities must immediately conduct an independent, thorough and effective investigation into these allegations." Israeli authorities have not commented on the alleged incident.
Tras más de dos meses de guerra en Gaza, la ofensiva israelí recibe cada vez más críticas y las presiones internacionales a favor de una tregua se multiplican. Las muertes de una madre y su hija a manos de un soldado israelí frente a la única iglesia católica de Gaza el fin de semana pasado y las de tres rehenes israelíes mientras ondeaban una bandera blanca avivaron la polémica.
Israel afirma estar abierto a la idea de una tregua, pero excluye cualquier alto el fuego antes de la “eliminación” de Hamás, un grupo considerado terrorista por este país, Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea.
Unas 20.000 personas, en su mayoría mujeres y menores, han muerto en Gaza desde el comienzo de la ofensiva israelí, según Hamás. La guerra fue desencadenada por el sangriento ataque del 7 de octubre en Israel, cuando los combatientes del movimiento islamista mataron a unas 1.140 personas y secuestraron a cerca de 250, de las cuales 129 siguen retenidas en el territorio palestino, según las autoridades. (France Presse)
ACT.21 DIC 2023 - 12:00
El País
Cuatro palestinos muertos en un ataque israelí en Rafah, entre ellos el director del paso fronterizo de Kerem Shalom
Cuatro palestinos han muerto, entre ellos un militar encargado de la parte palestina del paso fronterizo de Kerem Shalom, han muerto en un ataque israelí en la localidad de Rafah, al sur de Gaza, según han informado este jueves fuentes sanitarias y de Hamás a la agencia Reuters. Israel niega tener que ver con el ataque.
Según estas fuentes, el coronel Bassam Ghaben, director nombrado por Hamás del paso fronterizo de Kerem Shalom, controlado por Israel, ha muerto, junto con otros tres palestinos, en un ataque aéreo israelí. El ataque se ha producido cerca del paso fronterizo de Rafah, que une Gaza con Egipto.
Por su parte, preguntado por Reuters, un portavoz del ejército israelí ha afirmado que, tras examinar el incidente, no les es “conocido”, una forma de negar en principio la autoría.
Los pasos fronterizos de Rafah y de Kerem Shalom son los puntos por los que están entrando a la Franja los camiones cargados de ayuda humanitaria para la población del enclave palestino. El de Rafah ha permitido el paso de camiones desde pocos días después de la actual guerra desatada tras los ataques de Hamás del 7 de octubre, siempre en cantidad inferior a los que cruzaban la frontera antes de la guerra, mientras que el de Kerem Shalom, que conecta Israel y Gaza, ha sido abierto esta semana para el paso de ayuda, aunque siempre controlado por Israel y tras exhaustivas inspecciones de los cargamentos.
ACT.21 DIC 2023 - 11:49
El País
Un grupo de israelíes trata de impedir la entrada de ayuda humanitaria en Gaza por el paso de Kerem Shalom
Un grupo de israelíes está intentando impedir el paso de los camiones con ayuda humanitaria para Gaza por el paso fronterizo de Kerem Shalom, que antes de la guerra se utilizaba para introducir mercancías en el enclave palestino, según ha informado el diario The Times of Israel.
Los organizadores de la protesta han señalado a ese medio que el ejército israelí está intentando sofocar esa protesta ante el puesto fronterizo, que ha sido declarado zona militar cerrada.
La policía cerró el paso a los manifestantes cerca de Urim, a unos 25 kilómetros de Kerem Shalom, tras lo que un par de decenas de participantes en la protesta intentaron llegar a pie hasta el paso fronterizo. Otras personas tratan de llegar hasta allí a pie por la carretera 10, que bordea la frontera con Egipto.
Los manifestantes ondeaban banderas israelíes y portaban pancartas en las que acusaban al Gobierno de su país de “apoyar al enemigo” al permitir la entrada de los camiones en Gaza. "La ayuda al enemigo mata soldados", rezaba uno de los carteles.
La protesta fue organizada por dos grupos, entre ellos la Marcha de las Madres, que afirma representar a los padres de los soldados israelíes que luchan en Gaza, según la cadena de televisión catarí Al Jazeera.
ACT.21 DIC 2023 - 11:39
El País
Grecia aportará una fragata a la misión de EE UU contra los ataques de los rebeldes hutíes en el mar Rojo
El Gobierno griego ha anunciado este jueves que enviará una fragata al mar Rojo para contribuir a la operación Guardián de la prosperidad liderada por Estados Unidos, y a la que se han sumado países de la Unión Europea, cuyo objetivo es proteger el transporte marítimo de los ataques de los rebeldes hutíes de Yemen. “La comunidad internacional se enfrenta a un desafío de seguridad máximo en la región del mar Rojo y el golfo de Adén”, ha señalado el ministro de Defensa griego, Nikos Dendias. El ministro ha añadido que los ataques a buques mercantes por parte de los hutíes, respaldados por Irán, plantean “una enorme amenaza” para la seguridad y la estabilidad de la economía global.
Tras el inicio de la guerra entre Israel y Palestina, los hutíes han lanzado varias andanadas de misiles y drones contra el sur de Israel y también contra buques con bandera o propiedad de empresas de ese país en el mar Rojo y el estrecho de Bab al Mandeb, lo que ha causado que compañías de transporte suspendan sus operaciones en la zona. “Grecia, el país con la mayor flota marítima [comercial], tiene un interés primordial en mantener la libertad de las zonas marítimas y la protección de la vida de los marinos”, ha apuntado Dendias.
Estados Unidos anunció el lunes una coalición militar de vigilancia en el mar Rojo, por donde circula entre el 10% y el 15% del comercio mundial, y los países miembros de la Unión Europea han acordado contribuir a ella. (Efe)
ACT.21 DIC 2023 - 11:17
El País
Planeta Futuro
Human Rights Watch acusa a Meta de censurar contenidos de apoyo a Palestina en Instagram y Facebook
Beatriz Lecumberri
Cuentas suspendidas, comentarios eliminados, usuarios bloqueados o publicaciones borradas por petición gubernamental. Meta está silenciando las voces palestinas y las de quienes les apoyan, “en una ola de censura sin precedentes” de contenidos en Instagram y Facebook registrada desde el 7 de octubre, cuando comenzó la guerra en Gaza, denuncia la ONG Human Rights Watch, en una investigación difundida este jueves, en la que se critica las “promesas incumplidas” de la empresa a la hora de moderar sus contenidos con transparencia y responsabilidad.
Lea aquí el artículo completo.
ACT.21 DIC 2023 - 11:09
El País
La OMS advierte de que no queda ningún hospital en funcionamiento en el norte de Gaza
La Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ha asegurado este jueves que el norte de Gaza se ha quedado sin ningún hospital en funcionamiento debido a la falta de combustible, de personal y de suministros. “En realidad no quedan hospitales funcionales en el norte”, ha deplorado por videoconferencia desde Jerusalén Richard Peeperkorn, representante de la OMS en Gaza. “El [hospital] Al-Ahli era el último, pero ahora su funcionamiento es mínimo”, ha precisado el portavoz de la organización.
La situación de los hospitales y otros centros sanitarios en Gaza es “catastrófica”, sin ningún hospital operativo en el norte de la franja y solo nueve de 36 en todo el territorio están todavía en funcionamiento pese a los 246 ataques contra instalaciones de salud, según ha denunciado hoy la OMS.
“Nuestro personal se está quedando sin palabras para describir la catastrófica situación que enfrentan nuestros pacientes y trabajadores sanitarios”, ha indicado Peeperkorn. (Agencias)
ACT.21 DIC 2023 - 12:43
El País
A man weeps next to the body of his nephew, killed in an Israeli bombardment in Gaza, at Al Shifa hospital, on October 9, 2023. / MOHAMMED SABER (EPA / EFE)
Hundreds of wounded have died in Al Shifa hospital due to the lack of health services due to the Israeli offensive, denounces the Gazan Ministry of Health
Hundreds of wounded have died in Gaza City's Shifa hospital, the largest in the entire Strip, as a result of the lack of health services due to the Israeli offensive, the Hamas-controlled Gazan Health Ministry has denounced.
"Hospitals in northern Gaza are out of service," ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Shifa hospital suffered a ten-day Israeli military siege in November, which put it out of service and forced the evacuation of thousands of wounded and displaced people, including some thirty premature babies, but in recent weeks it had managed to partially regain its functioning.
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as military barracks, hideouts and weapons warehouses, and under that pretext, has besieged and attacked almost all hospitals in the north of the enclave, most recently Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahia; and Al Awda, in Jabalia.
The Health Ministry confirmed last night that the death toll in the Gaza Strip from the Israeli offensive exceeds 20,000 — including more than 8,000 children — in 75 days of war. In addition, an estimated 6,700 bodies remain trapped under the rubble – 70% civilians – raising the death toll even further, and more than 52,600 people are injured. (Image: EFE)
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 10:59
El País
The Red Crescent denounces that the Israeli army is besieging the NGO's ambulance center in Jabalia, in northern Gaza
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) denounced on Thursday that the Israeli army continues the siege of its ambulance center in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. "The occupying forces continue to besiege the PRCS ambulance centre in Jabalia (...) Heavy artillery shelling continues in the vicinity of the centre, accompanied by Israeli sniper fire," the organisation said in a message to the media.
"This poses a threat to the safety of 127 people, including paramedics, volunteers and their families, including 22 injured people receiving treatment inside the centre," the Palestine Red Crescent said.
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 11:23
War between Israel and Gaza
'A Tomb of Palestinian Dreams': War Sinks Refugees from Aida Camp
Luis de Vega
"Aida is a tomb of dreams for Palestinians," said Said Zain, 25, dressed in black from top to bottom. "There are only two ways out here: either you go crazy or you get very imaginative and creative." He prefers the latter and that is what he does in his role as a psychologist at the Youth Centre in the Aida refugee camp (West Bank). Their speech includes a litany of calamities, all of which they encounter in their day-to-day lives. But since the war broke out on October 7, that world of misfortune has gone from bad to worse, he adds. Israel's military incursions, although with less violence than in other West Bank camps such as Jenin or Tulkarem, take place several times a week.
You can read the full information here.
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 10:59
El País
Israel says it has struck more than 200 targets in its offensive against Hamas strongholds
The Israeli military claimed on Thursday to have struck some 230 Hamas targets in places in Gaza such as Khan Younis and Jabalia, where Israeli forces are fighting intensely as strongholds of the Islamist group in the Palestinian Strip.
The Israeli air force destroyed a building used by Hamas and a rocket launcher into Israel in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, according to an army statement.
He also killed suspected members of the Islamist group in the al-Shati refugee camp in the north of the coastal enclave.
Ground troops found numerous weapons at a school in Jabalia, northern Gaza, according to the Israeli military, which repeatedly claims that Hamas uses schools, hospitals and other civilian facilities to hide, store weapons and attack its soldiers. Israel's naval forces attacked vessels used by "terrorists" in the Gaza Strip last night local time, he added.
The army reported the deaths of two lieutenants and a sergeant among its ranks in fighting in the Gaza Strip in recent hours, in which seven Israeli officers and soldiers were seriously wounded. Since the beginning of the ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, 137 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 740 wounded, according to army data.
After consolidating its control in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel is focusing its military efforts on targets such as Khan Younis, Hamas' stronghold in the south and the birthplace of one of its leaders, Yahya Sinwar, in whose tunnels it believes he is hiding. (Image: EFE)
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 08:59
El País
Guterres calls for restoring conditions for "large-scale" aid entry into Gaza
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has denounced that the fighting, added to the shortages in basic services such as electricity, fuel or communications, "seriously limit" the humanitarian work of the United Nations in Gaza, so he calls for the "immediately" restoration of the conditions so that aid can be provided in conditions.
In a message on X, Guterres notes that "heavy fighting, lack of electricity, limited fuel and communications outages severely limit the United Nations' concerted efforts to deliver life-saving aid to the people of Gaza." And it adds, calling for "immediate restoration of conditions to allow large-scale humanitarian operations."
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 08:34
El País
Anti-Semitism and Guilt
Begoña Quesada
The scene is from a romantic comedy set in a Berlin school in the 2000s. Students text each other and some wear Palestinian headscarves as decorations. Neither would be possible today with an innocent meaning. The first is an obvious consequence of technology; the second, politics. Since the Hamas attack, kufiyas have been frowned upon in many German high schools. The slogans look like a gigantic banner between Berlin and Boston and bar arguments about the conflict find their echo chamber on the internet, where everything I say and hear sounds good.
ACT.21 DEC 2023 - 08:30