Austin: US support for Israel ‘unshakeable’
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said he and Yoav Gallant have been speaking “almost daily” by phone and that it was good to see his Israeli counterpart in person.
Speaking at a press conference during his fourth visit to Israel since the 7 October Hamas attacks, Austin said:
I know that Israel has been profoundly changed from where you were on October 6. So I’m here with a clear message: American support for Israel security is unshakable. Israel is not alone.
He said Israel had” every right” to defend itself against Hamas, who he described as a “fanatical terrorist group” whose stated purpose was to “murder Jews and eradicate the Jewish state”. Austin said:
Hamas is still holding hostages, including American citizens. Hamas embeds itself and hides itself behind innocent Palestinian civilians. Hamas does not speak for the Palestinian people.
The US would continue to push “relentlessly” for the safe return of hostages in Gaza and to help Israel in its efforts to bring them home, Austin said, adding that the issue remained a “top priority” for the US and Joe Biden.
Key events
The US has raised concerns with Israel after reports that an Israeli military sniper shot and killed two Christian women inside a Christian compound in Gaza on Saturday, the White House said.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said at a briefing:
We’ve been very clear that we believe every effort possible must be made to prevent civilian casualties.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic authority in the Holy Land, said the two women, named as Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar, were shot dead in the compound of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza.
Based on our report of December 16, 2023, concerning the deaths and injuries of a number of citizens in the Latin convent of Gaza, as well as the serious damage to the structures, we are displaying some of the photographs we received. It is time to end this senseless conflict pic.twitter.com/VDb9udQOuz
— Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (@LPJerusalem) December 18, 2023
Pete Bowler
Keir Starmer has joined Rishi Sunak in calling for a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, as the political rhetoric continued to shift away from unqualified support for Israel’s assault in line with moves from the US and others.
Some senior Conservatives were even more explicit. Ben Wallace, a former defence secretary, said Israel’s “killing rage” risked it losing international support, and Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, said she believed Israel had broken international humanitarian law.
The Labour leader said there was a need “to get to a sustainable ceasefire as quickly as possible”, beginning with a pause in the fighting during which the remaining hostages seized by Hamas on 7 October can be freed and aid can enter Gaza. He said:
It will have to be a political process, to a two-stage solution which, in the end, is the only way that this is going to be resolved.
The prime minister earlier said Israel had a right to defend itself following Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians, but “it must do that in accordance with humanitarian law”. “It’s clear that too many civilian lives have been lost and nobody wants to see this conflict go on a day longer than it has to,” Sunak said.
And that’s why we’ve been consistent – and I made this point in parliament last week – in calling for a sustainable ceasefire, whereby hostages are released, rockets stopped being fired into Israel by Hamas and we continue to get more aid in.
Bethan McKernan
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials about shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders.
“Hamas should never again be able to project terror from Gaza into Israel. This is Israel’s operation; I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms,” Austin told reporters after meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. He added that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza was “both a moral duty and a strategic imperative”.
Austin was the latest in a steady stream of senior figures in the Biden administration to visit Israel since the unprecedented attack by Hamas on 7 October in which 1,140 people were killed and another 250 were seized as hostages. The trip to Israel is part of a wider Middle East tour, as the conflict in Gaza threatens to spill over into a regional conflagration.
Washington, Israel’s closest ally, has provided intense military and diplomatic cover for the war in Gaza, where the death toll is approaching 20,000, but last week Joe Biden warned that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing”.
Austin and Netanyahu discussed plans for Israel to transition to more surgical, intelligence-led operations aimed at killing Hamas leaders, destroying tunnels and rescuing hostages, in order to stem the loss of civilian life, the US official said.
More than 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.
Tal Henrich, at a daily briefing, said 122 trucks entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing and 79 trucks through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened on Sunday for aid trucks for the first time since the outbreak of war, officials said, in a move intended to double the amount of food and medicine reaching the territory.
More than 190 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and entered Gaza on Monday, Israel’s office for the coordination of government activities in the territories (Cogat) said in a post on social media.
🚚191 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip today (Dec. 18).
🚛127 inspected at the Nitzana crossing and transferred to Gaza via the Rafah Crossing.
🚛64 inspected and transferred to Gaza via Kerem Shalom.#HumanitarianAidforGaza pic.twitter.com/Etor1EBPrC— COGAT (@cogatonline) December 18, 2023
We reported earlier that the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency today.
The meeting with Bill Burns and David Barnea in Warsaw was about a potential new deal to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Axios reported, citing US and Israeli officials. The CIA director played a key role in brokering the previous deal that led to the release of more than 100 hostages last month.
But a Palestinian source familiar with the talks has since told the BBC that negotiations over a new temporary ceasefire “haven’t begun yet”, despite Israel’s “repeated announcement that it is proceeding with negotiating steps”.
Hamas told mediators that any negotiation “would not include discussing new truces, but rather a comprehensive ceasefire, and it would not negotiate any more humanitarian pauses”, the news outlet reported, citing the source.
Gallant: Civilians may soon be able to return to northern Gaza
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Israeli forces had made a “very meaningful and successful achievement” on the battlefield against Hamas.
Speaking at the joint news conference with Lloyd Austin, Gallant said the elimination of the Hamas leadership “will be achieved hopefully soon”.
Israel will gradually transition to the next phase of operations in the war in which the local population may be able to return to the north of the Gaza Strip, he said. Gallant said:
I can tell you that soon we will be able to distinguish between different areas in Gaza.
He said this would allow Israel to start working on bringing back the local population “maybe sooner in the north” than in the south. “This is an ongoing discussion,” he added.
Austin: US not dictating timelines or terms of war
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, asked by a reporter if Washington had set a deadline to the current phase of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza, replied:
This is Israel’s operation and I’m not here to dictate timelines or turn. Our support to Israel’s right to defend itself is ironclad.
Austin said he had had “great” discussions with Israeli counterparts about the status of Israel’s goals and objectives, as well as “how to reduce harm to civilians in the battle space”.
He said the US could “offer some insight” based on its own experience in fighting terrorist groups, and that it had some “great thoughts about how to transition from high-intensity operations to lower-intensity operations”.
Footage shows people fleeing from Al Nasser medical centre in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, after a shell hit the facility’s maternity ward.
At least one child was killed and several others were injured. A hole can be seen in a wall of a room in the building.
Gaza’s health ministry said it was an Israeli shell that failed to explode. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Lloyd Austin said he discussed “the pathways toward a future for Gaza after Hamas” during his talks today in Tel Aviv.
Speaking at the news conference, Austin said Israelis and Palestinians had both “paid too bitter a price” to go back to before the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
He said that based on clear principles laid down last month by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that Israelis and Palestinians “both deserve a horizon of hope”, adding:
The US continues to believe … that it is the interest of both Israelis and Palestinians to move forward toward two states living side by side in mutual security.
Quoting John F Kennedy, Austin said America’s friendship with Israel was “a national commitment”, adding:
That was true then and it’s even truer now. The United States will remain Israel’s closest friend in the world. As I said repeatedly, our support for Israel security remains unshakable. And it always will.
Austin: protecting Gaza civilians ‘a more duty and strategic imperative’
The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, has said protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza “is both a moral duty and a strategic imperative”.
The US would continue to “urge the protection of civilians” and to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, Austin said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
The US was also working to stabilise the region and to ensure that the conflict did “not escalate beyond Gaza”, he said, adding that the US “urgently” calls on Iran to “take steps to deescalate”.
Austin said that during his meetings today that he discussed “the need to take urgent action to stabilise the West Bank”, adding that attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinians must stop and those committing the violence must be held accountable. He said:
We know that the past 72 days have been some of the most painful days in Israel’s history. But it would compound this tragedy if all that was waiting for the Israeli people and your Palestinian neighbours at the end of this awful war, was more insecurity, fury and despair.
Austin: US support for Israel ‘unshakeable’
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said he and Yoav Gallant have been speaking “almost daily” by phone and that it was good to see his Israeli counterpart in person.
Speaking at a press conference during his fourth visit to Israel since the 7 October Hamas attacks, Austin said:
I know that Israel has been profoundly changed from where you were on October 6. So I’m here with a clear message: American support for Israel security is unshakable. Israel is not alone.
He said Israel had” every right” to defend itself against Hamas, who he described as a “fanatical terrorist group” whose stated purpose was to “murder Jews and eradicate the Jewish state”. Austin said:
Hamas is still holding hostages, including American citizens. Hamas embeds itself and hides itself behind innocent Palestinian civilians. Hamas does not speak for the Palestinian people.
The US would continue to push “relentlessly” for the safe return of hostages in Gaza and to help Israel in its efforts to bring them home, Austin said, adding that the issue remained a “top priority” for the US and Joe Biden.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, has been speaking at a joint news conference with his US counterpart, Lloyd Austin, after talks in Tel Aviv.
Gallant said Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were operating “to minimise the harm to civilian population” in Gaza and that Israel was operating “according to international law”.
Israel had also been working with international partners to “facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid”, he said.
Ziad, a 35-year-old Palestinian, describes the extra hardship that winter rain brings and a friend reminisces about a cappuccino for their Gaza diary for the Guardian:
8am I have never been a fan of the sun nor the sunny weather. I am a lover of the rain, winter and tree leaves falling. I remember at high school – my English language teacher would always ask me and other students during the recess to stand in the sun. “Hug the sun, feel its warmth. It is full of vitamin D.” I did what she asked but never liked it.
On the other hand, this teacher opened the door for me to learn about literature, which I loved. In class, we would read summarised classics like Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice and A Tale of Two Cities.
My friend shares with me the results of the Booker prize; it seems that Prophet Song won this year. Based on brief descriptions of the shortlisted books, I see myself more interested in reading The Bee Sting.
I just wish to go back to spending a whole day in my bed, while it is raining outside, and enjoy reading one book after another. One fear I had was dying before reading enough of all the beautiful and great books in this world. Now, I am terrified of dying before even living my life.
But during these times, I could not pray enough for the weather to be sunny. First, for those who are living in schools and tents not to suffer, and to be able to charge our batteries and phones using the solar power of our neighbours. Unfortunately, since yesterday, it has been raining heavily. We had hail.
In no time, most of the streets around us were covered by water due to the poor infrastructure. Most people are still wearing flip-flops; shoes are a luxury they cannot afford. I have noticed many people wearing torn flip-flops. How can they move in the streets?
Read Ziad’s full diary entry here.
Here are some of the latest images from the newswires showing Palestinian families who have lost their homes taking shelter at a UNRWA school in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
According to the UN agency, up to 1.9 million people – more than 85% of the population – have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some multiple times. Nearly 1.4 million people are sheltering in UNRWA facilities across Gaza, it said.
Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has described the Israel-Gaza war as a threat to his country’s national security and “to the Palestinian cause in general”.
Sisi’s remarks came as he secured a third, six-year term in office after winning 89.6% of votes in an election in which he faced no serious challengers, Egypt’s national election authority said on Monday.
Some voters had cited the war in Gaza as a reason for voting for the incumbent Egyptian president, who has long presented himself as a bulwark of stability in the region, Reuters reported.