#ISRAELHAMASWAR. Cairo final push for hostage and detainee negotiations. Israel takes 4,540 km of Syria and will remain there through 2025

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The Biden administration has privately asked Israel to approve an urgent US request for military assistance to Palestinian Authority forces. Israel is seeking to approve a plan to fully annex the West Bank, which includes the creation of four new cities with the aim of transferring residents from Israel to the West Bank, turning Palestinian cities into regional authorities responsible for themselves and under Israeli control with the abolition of the Palestinian Authority.

Channel 12 confirms that Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare to remain in Syria’s Mount Hermon and the areas it occupies in Syria until at least the end of 2025. The Israeli army now occupies 440 kilometers of Syria and is now just 12 kilometers from the international road that connects Damascus to the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Delegations in Cairo today working to free Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The arrival of the Hamas delegation in Cairo is timed to coincide with the arrival of an Israeli delegation to discuss points related to the agreement regarding the crossing operation and the nature of the Israeli presence in the Salah al-Din “Philadelphia” border corridor.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on December 18, based on an Egyptian invitation to hold in-depth discussions on his position of rejecting the formation of the Gaza Administration Committee, despite Hamas’ announcement of its approval. Abbas’s discussions are also expected to include developments in the West Bank and Israel’s attempts to annex it, given estimates of US President-elect Donald Trump’s administration’s support for this approach.

Mahmoud Abbas will deliver two speeches at the summit, which begins on Thursday, one during the opening session and the other during a session on the latest developments in Palestine and Lebanon.

The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas said in a statement: “We welcome the adoption by the UN General Assembly of a resolution affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, by a majority of 170 countries. We see the decision as an expression of the state of global unity and confidence in the justice of the Palestinian cause, as well as the broad rejection of the occupation and criminal policies led by the US administration that deny the rights of our Palestinian people.”

According to sources in the Saudi Al-Hadath channel, Hamas agreed not to end the war completely in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Hamas agreed not to withdraw completely from Israel in the first phase of the agreement. Hamas rejects the presence of any checkpoints for residents upon their return to the north. Hamas demands international guarantees of Israel’s commitment to the three phases of the agreement.

The committee that monitors the implementation of the ceasefire agreement held its second meeting on December 18 at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura, while Israeli forces have been deployed since yesterday afternoon on the opposite hills and are demolishing houses.

The Lebanese Army Command, Orientation Directorate, issued a statement informing the public that it would detonate Israeli unexploded ordnance remaining in the Qalaia camp in Marjayoun.

The USS Truman aircraft carrier group entered the Red Sea. The recent attack on Hodeidah appears to have been carried out by the US military, the third US attack on Houthi targets in less than 48 hours. The Houthis posted an infographic showing the number 216, indicating the number of ships hit since the start of the fighting in Gaza.

And now a look at the fronts opened by Israel updated to 17:00 on December 18.

French special forces recently landed in Lebanon and headed to Syria to take necessary security measures and prepare for the opening of the French embassy in Damascus.

Israeli forces penetrate the Daraa countryside to a depth of 9 km, and local sources speak of the arrival of Israeli forces up to the Al-Wahda dam. According to other sources, the Israeli army occupied the Al-Wahda dam on the Jordanian border in the afternoon. Israeli forces from the 74th battalion entered the vicinity of the village of Sidon, on the administrative border between the governorates of Quneitra and Daraa.

According to Syrian sources, the Israeli army forces are stationed on all the dominant hills and inside the military barracks in Quneitra governorate, in southern Syria, after controlling about 95% of the governorate.

New Israeli airstrikes targeted the radar battalion on the mountain adjacent to the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor.

Israeli aircraft flew over the southern suburbs of Beirut in the morning and afternoon of December 18. Israeli vehicles and tanks entered the city of Beni Hayyan and carried out shelling. An area they had failed to penetrate during the conflict with Hezbollah. For the second time in ten days, Israeli settlers are trying to establish an outpost near Maroun al-Ras. New Israeli attacks on homes in Naqoura after the meeting of the committee that monitors the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Ras Naqoura. Israeli shelling in the forest of Kafr Kila, in southern Lebanon.

The Sayyida Khawla shrine in Baalbek is full of displaced people who fled HTS to Syria after being attacked and their homes stolen and burned.

In Gaza, the intensive care unit of Kamal Adwan hospital caught fire due to Israeli vehicle fire. Shelling in Shihin and Yaroun. Al-Quds Brigades complain about Israeli shelling in the center of Jabalia camp. Israeli artillery shelling targeted the neighborhood of Al-Saftawi and Jabalia Al-Nazla, northwest of the Gaza Strip.

Al-Qassam wrote in a post: “our fighters managed to hit an Israeli soldier in the “Al-Tawam” area north of Gaza City.” Artillery shelling targeted the area of ​​Al-Saftawi, north of Gaza. Al-Qassam Brigades target enemy command and control site in the “Netzarim” axis with “107” missiles. Al-Aqsa Brigades claim attack against Israeli forces in al-Janina, east of Rafah city, with mortar fire. The bodies of 4 dead Palestinians were recovered following Israeli air strikes on Rafah city. Saraya al-Qud claim seizure of an Israeli drone while it was carrying out intelligence missions in the skies of Rafah city. Israeli vehicles are shooting near Al-Farahin neighborhood, east of Abasan Al-Kabira city, east of Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip.

According to Israeli media, young men throw stones at settler vehicles near Hizma city, northeast of Jerusalem.

According to Israeli media: Overnight, an Israeli was injured by gunfire on a bus that was headed to “Joseph’s Tomb” in Nablus. Israeli forces continue to close the road between Jenin and Nablus, near the Masoudiya intersection. Israeli sources report that a truck was targeted with a homemade bomb near the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, with no injuries. Urgent: Awarta checkpoint is closed east of the city and there is a serious crisis in the area. Clashes between youths and occupation forces near the town of Yitma, southeast of Nablus.

Israeli forces continue their assault on the village of Bil’in, west of Ramallah.

Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio

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