According to the Wall Street Journal, about 70 percent of the 439,000 homes in the Gaza Strip and about 50 percent of buildings were significantly damaged or completely destroyed during the fighting. Furthermore, it is reported that only 8 of the 36 hospitals and medical centers in the Gaza Strip are currently functioning and accepting patients.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said Israeli forces hindered human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Israeli website Wala News, Qatar informed Israel that Hamas agreed in principle to resume talks on the release of the hostages, which include 40 women, elderly people over 60 and the sick, in exchange for the suspension of the military operation for one or two weeks.
On January 1st Al Jazeera: reports 70 dead and more than 100 injured in Israeli bombings on the central region of the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours.
According to Israeli media, the Israeli Supreme Court has invalidated the law on the “abolition of reasonableness” as part of judicial reform.
According to some Arab media, among the objectives of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are the control of the Philadelphia axis and to cut off any contact with the Arab borders from Gaza.
Attacks continue in the Red Sea. A British merchant ship attempting to cross the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on December 31, despite warnings from the Houthi-led Yemeni navy was attacked by a cruise missile. The Houthis continue to besiege Israel from the south, preventing attacks on the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi yesterday called for the closure of the Strait of Gibraltar to Israel.
The IRGC also said a few weeks ago that it could take such a step. According to what emerges from the social sphere, the idea, although hardly feasible, would be to enlist the Saharawi troops of the Polisario Front, near Algeria in Western Sahara which have close ties with Iran and Yemen. In any case, if Gibraltar is also closed to Israeli ships, the trade crisis for Israel will reach its peak.
According to what emerges from the social sphere, the Houthis have modern anti-ship missile systems and, for the first time in the history of wars, they hit a ship with an anti-ship ballistic missile. The United States is said to be concerned about surprises that might await them in the tunnels of the Lebanese mountains at the hands of Hezbollah, a force with a direct supply line to Tehran. On January 1, Houthi military boats and an American ship clashed in the Red Sea, Sky News Arabia reported with reference to Yemeni sources.
According to official Western statements, the US, British and French navies discovered, as of midnight on January 1, 72 stray munitions and 18 cruise missiles launched by the Yemeni navy. 60 were destroyed in the air. To achieve this, 180 missiles were launched, with at least two SM-3 anti-aircraft guided missiles per target. Each of them costs at least $2 million, the expenses amount to at least $360 million and perhaps $500 million. As thousands of critical SM-series stockpiles sought to be stockpiled for a major conflict with China, the United States used ammunition from two cruisers, worth thousands of dollars, against the Houthis. An escalation is expected in the Red Sea in the next few hours between Yemen and the American maritime coalition.
The Israeli Army declared in recent days: “We are preparing for a long-term battle in the Gaza Strip” | The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth wrote: “The end of the war is not in sight, but the American aircraft carrier has abandoned the area.”
From January 1st the classification of the border with Jordan changes from “peaceful” to “hot”. The Israeli media also complain that Hamas launched 27 rockets during the night of the 1st, including 13 rockets from an area north of Gaza over which the Israeli army had previously declared control. Also to the Yedioth newspaper: army officials have reported that the Qassams will be able to launch rockets and mortars even after two or three years of war.
Israel’s Defense Ministry has begun building walls and barriers around a main road in the Gaza Strip to protect civilian vehicles. On January 1, 41 soldiers were injured in battles in Gaza in 24 hours. The army claims that 2,234 soldiers have been injured in Gaza since the start of the war, 355 of them seriously.
A former commander of the Israeli army’s liaison unit said to the press: “What is certain is that it is impossible to reconcile with the reality that has arisen, according to which the settlers were evacuated from the northern border to the hotels: this is Israel’s defeat.”
Israel plans to call in 80,000 foreign workers, most of them from Asia, instead of workers from the West Bank.
Hamas opposes the evacuation of Gaza in a statement said: “The call by Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister, to displace two million Palestinians and keep around 200,000 in Gaza is a war crime accompanied by aggression criminal”. Ahmed Abdel Hadi, Hamas representative in Lebanon told the press that Qassem Soleimani visited Gaza several times and the idea of the tunnels came from Imad Mughniyeh, real name Imad Fayez Mughniyeh alias al-Hajj Radwan founder of the Islamic Jihad Organization (2004) who died in 2008, and to and Qassem Soleimani. So the Hamas tunnels have been under construction since 2004.
In commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the death of Hajj Qassem Soleimani and commander Hajj Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis and their companions, Hezbollah has launched a festival entitled “The Martyrs of Jerusalem”, today at 6:00 pm, in which he will speak Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. The number of Hezbollah members killed in clashes with the Israelis since October 7 has risen to 138. In archive images shown for the launch of the Festival, accounts write that Hamas has 100,000 male and female scouts.
And now a look at the Israel – Hamas comparison, from 31 to 2 January 2024, at 3:00 pm.
Active hostilities continue in the Gaza Strip. At the beginning of the new year, militants from the military wing of Hamas launched a massive MLRS missile attack on Tel Aviv. All targets were intercepted and no casualties or damage were reported. Fierce fighting is underway in Al-Tuffa and Ad-Daraj, while in Beit Lahia a school used by Palestinians for attacks against IDF units was destroyed.
In the central part of the enclave the situation remains unchanged. Clashes are taking place in the ruins of the Al-Bureij refugee camp and the IDF is targeting possible concentrations of militants and other surrounding settlements. The number of civilian casualties rose to almost 22,000 dead and 58,000 injured.
In the south, the IDF is advancing in the municipality of Khuzaa, penetrating about a kilometer into enemy defenses. With this progress, the IDF can now surround the militants in this area from the east and west of Abasan al-Kabirah.
The sides continue to exchange blows on the border with Lebanon. However, rebel activity decreased slightly compared to previous weeks after a series of attacks on Hezbollah concentration areas in the border region.
Arrests are recorded in the West Bank Al Jazeera reports the killings of a number of young people in the village of Azzun, east of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank.
Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al-Arouri was killed by a drone attack on his office in a southern Beirut suburb of Mushrifiyah. According to the Jerusalem Post, both an apartment and a vehicle were targeted in the area. According to Lebanese media, the attack was carried out by two drones. After the attack, Israeli fighter jets were spotted over Beirut and Khalde, along with other areas of Lebanon.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
