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Sen. Tim Kaine criticizes bypassing of Congress on Israel arms sale
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) criticized the Biden administration’s decision to transfer weapons to Israel without congressional oversight in statement yesterday.
“Just as Congress has a crucial role to play in all matters of war and peace, Congress should have full visibility over the weapons we transfer to any other nation,” Kaine said.
The Virginia senator also called for a “public explanation of the rationale behind this decision — the second such decision this month.”
His comments came after the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Friday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had approved the sale of 155 mm projectiles and related equipment, valued at $147.5 million.
Several injured in raids on refugee camps in occupied West Bank, Red Crescent reports
At least 15 people were injured in overnight raids on the Tulkarm and Nour Shams refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said today on X.
Separately, WAFA, the Palestinian news agency, reported that the Israeli military was conducting operations in the area with drones and vehicles that were shooting with live fire. WAFA added that some Palestinians confronted Israeli soldiers and several raids and arrests were made at the same time.
NBC News could not independently verify these reports.
According to a United Nations update released yesterday, 307 Palestinians, including 79 children, have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since Oct. 7.
Death toll in Gaza tops 21,800, Palestinian Health Ministry says
More than 21,800 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to new figures released today by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ministry said in a statement that 150 people had been killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of dead to 21,822.
Of those killed, 70% were women and children, the statement said, adding that 56,451 people have also been injured since Hamas launched a series of attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.
NBC News cannot independently verify the number of dead and health officials in Gaza have previously warned that the numbers of those killed are just estimates, due to the amount of people still stuck under rubble and the unavailability of fuel or supplies to help reach them.
Since Israel launched its ground operation in Gaza, 167 Israeli soldiers have been killed, according to the country’s military.
Dozens killed by strikes on refugee camps, Palestinian Health Ministry says
Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed in airstrikes and shelling in central and southern Gaza today, the Palestinian Ministry of Information said in a post on Telegram.
Casualties were reported in the Al-Maghazi, Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza, the ministry said, although it did not specify how many. Twenty-five people were killed in separate attacks on Nuseirat, Al-Maghazi, Al-Zawaida and Rafah on Saturday evening, it added.
Israeli forces also “targeted three mosques” in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on Sunday, the statement said.
NBC News was not able to independently confirm the reports, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, religious buildings are considered protected civilian infrastructure under international humanitarian law, the targeting of which is deemed a war crime unless the attacking power is able to prove it has lost civilian status.
Former Middle East envoy: The focus has to be on the hostages
Former President Bill Clinton’s Middle East envoy Dennis Ross has expressed a “sense of solidarity” with the families of hostages held in Gaza, and said he supported “military pressure” on Hamas.
Hamas “wants the whole focus to be on death and destruction in Gaza, not on the hostages,” he told families of hostages and their supporters in “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv last night.
“We collectively have to make it clear that the focus has to be on the hostages,” he added.
“Hamas cares about its public image,” he said, and “political and psychological pressure” should be put on the group, including by political and religious leaders in the Arab and Islamic worlds, to argue the taking of hostages “is not Islamic.”
Ross served as Middle East envoy under Clinton in the 1990s. He facilitated the Israel-Jordan peace treaty in 1994, and assisted in the brokering of the Oslo II accords in 1995.
Maersk pauses Red Sea shipping after attack
Following attacks on one of its container ships near Yemen, Danish shipping giant Maersk has announced a 48-hour pause to all transits through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
“On December 30 at approximately 06:30pm CET, when the vessel was 55 nautical miles southwest of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, the vessel was hit by an unknown object,” Maersk said in a statement today.
Following the initial attack, “four boats approached the vessel and engaged fire in an expected attempt to board the vessel,” it added. “A helicopter was deployed from a nearby navy vessel, and in collaboration with the vessel’s security team, the boarding attempt was successfully repelled.”
It is the second time this month Maersk has paused operations in the area due to security concerns. Over 100 container ships operated by various companies have been rerouted in December to travel around southern Africa instead of passing through Suez to avoid attacks from Iran-backed Houthis, adding 6,000 nautical miles to journeys between Asia and Europe.
The Houthis have said they will continue attacking ships in the Red Sea with links to Israel in solidarity with Palestinians and until greater humanitarian aid reaches Gaza’s population.
‘It’s very dire’: Medical delegation arrives in Rafah to assist at hospital
A medical delegation consisting of six American doctors and one Canadian are assisting with surgeries at the European Hospital in Rafah amid dire conditions.
“The sanitation is unbelievable; people living in the hallways, sleeping in the hallway, cooking, it’s just a recipe for disaster, for infection,” Dr. David Hasan of Duke University said.
U.S. Navy helicopters sink three small boats in Red Sea
U.S. helicopters exchanged fire with Iran-backed Houthi crews in small boats in the southern Red Sea today, sinking three boats, after receiving distress calls from a commercial container ship.
U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said the USS Eisenhower and USS Gravely responded to distress calls from the container ship Maersk Hangzhou, which reported being under attack from Houthi small boats for the second time in less than 24 hours.
“In the process of issuing verbal calls to the small boats, the small boats fired upon the U.S. helicopters,” Centcom said in a post on X. U.S. Navy helicopters returned fire and sank three of four small boats, killing the crews, Centcom said. “The fourth boat fled the area,” it added.
The U.S. has issued urgent calls for a crackdown on Houthi attacks on shipping along the vital Red Sea trade route, and established a multinational naval task force to protect the area.
Netanyahu: Israel must control Gaza’s border with Egypt, war to last months
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retake control of the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.
Such a move would be a de facto reversal of its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, placing the enclave under exclusive Israeli control after years being run by Hamas.
“The war is at its height,” Netanyahu told reporters as Israeli military forces pressed ahead with an offensive that the prime minister reiterated will last “for many more months.”
He said the Philadelphi Corridor buffer zone that runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt must be in Israeli hands, adding “it is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarization that we seek.”
Israel Katz set to become Israel’s new foreign minister
TEL AVIV — Israel will have a new top diplomat at the start of 2024 as the war in Gaza approaches the three-month mark.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat tells NBC News that Israel Katz, currently the energy minister, will become foreign affairs minister, following a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Eli Cohen, the current foreign minister, will swap into Katz’s role as energy minister.
The appointments still must be approved by the Knesset. But the move abides by an agreement reached when Netanyahu’s governing coalition was formed a year ago that said that Cohen and Katz would swap jobs after a year. Under that arrangement, Cohen is expected to return as foreign minister two years from now.
The foreign minister is not currently part of Israel’s war Cabinet.
France heightens New Year’s Eve security
PARIS — Security will be tight across France on New Year’s Eve, with 90,000 law enforcement officers set to be deployed, domestic intelligence chief Céline Berthon said Friday.
Of those, 6,000 will be in Paris, where French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said over 1.5 million people are expected to attend celebrations on the Champs-Elysees.
Speaking at a press conference, Darmanin cited a “very high terrorist threat” because, in part, of “what is happening in Israel and Palestine,” referring to the Israel-Hamas war.
Darmanin said that police for the first time will be able to use drones as part of security work, and that tens of thousands of firefighters and 5,000 soldiers would also be deployed.
New Year’s Eve celebrations in Paris will center on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, including DJ sets, fireworks and video projections on the Arc de Triomphe.
The security challenge ahead of the Olympics was highlighted when a tourist was killed in a knife attack near the Eiffel Tower on Dec. 2. Large-scale attacks — such as that at the Bataclan in 2015, when Islamic extremists invaded the music hall and shot up cafe terraces, killing 130 people — also loom in memory.
The knife attack raised concern in France and abroad about security for the games that begin July 26, in just under seven months. But law enforcement officials appear eager to show off a security-ready Paris.
Violence in West Bank has sharply increased, U.N. reports
Violence has risen this year in the West Bank, and has resulted in the deaths 124 Palestinian and six Israeli children, the most in a year, according to the United Nations.
Houthis show no sign of ending ‘reckless’ Red Sea attacks, U.S. commander says
Yemen’s Houthi rebels show no signs of ending their “reckless” attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, the top commander of U.S. naval forces in the Middle East said Saturday, even as more nations join the international maritime mission to protect vessels in the vital waterway and trade traffic begins to pick up.
Since Operation Prosperity Guardian was announced just over 10 days ago, 1,200 merchant ships have traveled through the Red Sea region, and none has been hit by drone or missile strikes, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said in an Associated Press interview.
He said additional countries are expected to sign on. Denmark was the latest, announcing Friday it plans to send a frigate to the mission that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced during a visit to Bahrain, where the Navy’s 5th Fleet is based, saying that “this is an international challenge that demands collective action.”
The Iran-backed Houthis say their attacks are aimed at Israel-linked ships in an effort to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
The narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and then the Suez Canal. The crucial trade route links markets in Asia and Europe. The seriousness of the attacks, several of which have damaged vessels, led multiple shipping companies to order their vessels to hold in place and not enter the strait until the security situation improved. Some major shippers were sending their ships around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, adding time and costs to the journeys.
Currently there are five warships from the United States, France and the United Kingdom patrolling the waters of the southern Red Sea and the western Gulf of Aden, said Cooper, who heads the 5th Fleet. Since the operation started, the ships have shot down a total of 17 drones and four anti-ship ballistic missiles, he said.
Two days ago, the USS Mason, a Navy destroyer, downed a drone and anti-ship ballistic missile that were fired by the Houthis, according to U.S. Central Command. The U.S. said the 22nd attack on international shipping by the Houthis since Oct. 19 caused no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or any reported injuries.
“I expect in the coming weeks we’re going to get additional countries,” Cooper said, noting Denmark’s recent announcement.
The U.S. has said that more than 20 nations are participating, but a number of those nations have not acknowledged it publicly.
Cooper said the coalition is in direct communication with commercial ships to provide guidance on “maneuvering and the best practices to avoid being attacked,” and working closely with the shipping industry to coordinate security.
An international task force had been set up in April 2022 to improve maritime security in the region. But Cooper said Operation Prosperity Guardian has more ships and a persistent presence to assist vessels.
Since the operation started, the Houthis have stepped up their use of anti-ship ballistic missiles, Cooper said. “We are clear-eyed that the Houthi reckless attacks will likely continue,” he said.
The Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014, launching a grinding war against a Saudi-led coalition that sought to restore the government. The militants have sporadically targeted ships in the region, but the attacks increased since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The Houthis threatened to attack any vessel they believe is either going to or coming from Israel. That has escalated to apparently any vessel, with container ships and oil tankers flagged to countries such as Norway and Liberia being attacked or drawing missile fire.
The shipping company Maersk had announced earlier that it had decided to reroute its ships that have been paused for days outside the strait and Red Sea, and send them around Africa instead. Maersk announced Dec. 25 that it was going to resume sending ships through the strait, citing the operation. Cooper said another shipping company had also resumed using the route.
“Commerce is definitely flowing,” Cooper said.
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