EXPLAINER
Efforts to combat Houthi attacks and de-escalate the Gaza war are under way – here’s the latest updates.
Here’s how things stand on Monday, December 18, 2023:
Latest developments
- Oil prices rose nearly 1 percent in Asian trade as Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and lower exports from Russia stoke supply fears.
- The Israeli army has been detaining Ahmed Muhanna, the director of Gaza’s al-Awda Hospital, in an unknown location, Gaza’s Ministry of Health spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said on Sunday night.
- The Freedom Theatre in Jenin continues to demand the immediate release of its director, Mustafa Sheta, and acting teacher Jamal Abu Joas.
- On Sunday, Israel’s military rejected claims that its forces “murdered” two women who were sheltering in a Catholic church in Gaza.
- Israel’s military said on Sunday that it had discovered the largest Hamas tunnel near what was once a busy crossing into Israel, reported The Associated Press news agency.
Human impact and fighting
- Israeli air attacks on Jabalia refugee camp killed at least 90 people and wounded more than 100 others, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported on Sunday.
- An Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza overnight Sunday killed 25 people, with 10 being from the same family, reported Al Jazeera Arabic.
- Palestinian journalist Haneen Ali al-Qutshan was killed in an Israeli attack on Nuseirat, according to the Palestinian media office. She was the 95th Palestinian journalist or media worker to be killed since the October 7 conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out.
- As Palestinians in the enclave face hunger and increased cold, they rummaged through aid trucks in large crowds on Sunday.
- Israeli forces raided at least six areas across the occupied West Bank overnight, including near Ramallah and Bethlehem, according to Wafa and Al Jazeera Arabic. A young Palestinian in Nablus and two young men in Qalqilya were injured in firing.
Diplomacy
- United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will arrive in Israel today where he is expected to discuss de-escalating the Israel-Gaza war and announce an initiative for security in the Red Sea.
- French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs condemned on Sunday the Israeli bombing of a residential building in Rafah that killed one of its staff.
- In a statement released on Sunday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry called the visit by the “racist extremist” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to the Psagot settlement an “act of organised state terrorism”.