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Battles, Bombardment in Gaza as Israel Reschedules Talks with US

US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Anderson told AFP if a parachute failed to open they tried to make sure it ends up in the water - AFP
US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Anderson told AFP if a parachute failed to open they tried to make sure it ends up in the water - AFP
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Battles, Bombardment in Gaza as Israel Reschedules Talks with US

US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Anderson told AFP if a parachute failed to open they tried to make sure it ends up in the water - AFP
US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Anderson told AFP if a parachute failed to open they tried to make sure it ends up in the water - AFP

Battles and bombardment pounded the Gaza Strip on Thursday, after Washington said Israel agreed to reschedule cancelled talks with tensions worsening between the allies.

United States criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mounted over Gaza's civilian death toll, dire food shortages, and Israeli plans to push its ground offensive against Hamas militants into the far-southern city of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians.

World leaders have warned against a Rafah offensive which they fear would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation for the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million residents.

The United Nations reported late Wednesday that famine "is ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza," and said the territory's health system is collapsing "due to ongoing hostilities and access constraints."

Bombardment and fighting have continued despite a binding United Nations Security Council resolution passed on Monday demanding an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza and the release of hostages held by militants.

Netanyahu scrapped an Israeli visit to Washington to discuss the Rafah plan, in protest of the UN ceasefire resolution from which the United States abstained, allowing it to pass.

Netanyahu's government has since backtracked and agreed "to reschedule the meeting dedicated to Rafah", according to White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.

She added that they were working to find a "convenient date".

US officials say they plan to present Israel with an alternative for Rafah, focused on striking Hamas targets while limiting the civilian toll.

The health ministry, in a preliminary toll issued early on Thursday, said 66 people were killed overnight.

Fighting continued around three of the Strip's hospitals, raising fears for patients, medical staff and displaced people inside them.

The Al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis, near Rafah, "has ceased to function completely", the Palestine Red Crescent said earlier this week, following the evacuation of civilians from the medical center.

Israel's military accuses Hamas of hiding in medical facilities and using civilians as shields.

Early on Thursday, the army said militants had been firing on troops "from within and outside the emergency ward at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

Troops began raiding Al-Shifa early last week, and on Wednesday night carried out an airstrike on the emergency ward "while avoiding harm to civilians, patients, and medical teams," the army said.

The UN has reported "intensive exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and armed Palestinians". It cited the health ministry as saying the army has confined medical staff and patients to one building, not allowing them to leave.

Israel's army said troops had evacuated civilians, patients and staff "to alternative medical facilities" it set up.

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have also massed around the Nasser Hospital, the health ministry said, adding that shots were fired but no raid had yet been launched.

The Red Crescent warned that thousands were trapped inside.

Gaza has endured almost six months of war and a siege that has cut off most food, water, fuel and other supplies.

Israel denies it is blocking food trucks but aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is far below pre-war levels -- around 150 vehicles a day compared with at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

With limited ground access, several nations have begun aid airdrops, and a sea corridor from Cyprus delivered its first cargo of food.

But UN agencies said these are no substitute for land deliveries.

Desperate crowds have rushed towards aid packages drifting down on parachutes, and Hamas on Tuesday said 18 people drowned or died in stampedes trying to recover airdropped aid.

Talks in Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal, involving US and Egyptian mediators, have brought no result so far, halfway through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, before meeting visiting Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, stressed that "the number of civilian casualties is far too high, and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low" in Gaza.

US criticism has mounted but President Joe Biden has made clear he will not use his key point of leverage -- cutting US military assistance to Israel, which amounts to billions of dollars.

Netanyahu, who leads a coalition including religious and ultra-nationalist parties, faces ongoing protests at home over his failure to bring home all of the hostages.

Alongside the bloodiest-ever Gaza war, violence has surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where medics and the army said three people were wounded in a gun attack Thursday that targeted a school bus.

The war has raised fears of wider regional conflict, particularly along the Israeli-Lebanon border.

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on Wednesday announced the deaths of eight of its members after a day of cross-border fire with Israel that left at least 16 people dead.

Israeli first responders said they pronounced a man dead in an Israeli border town, after Hezbollah rocket fire followed an Israeli strike on what its military called a "military compound" in southern Lebanon.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that at least 32,552 people have been killed in the territory during more than five months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The toll includes at least 62 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 74,980 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

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Arab World

Israeli Army Reportedly Ignored Oct. 6 Intel Warning of Hamas Attack

(FILES) This aerial view shows displaced Palestinians returning to the war-devastated Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025, shortly before a ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas was implemented. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
(FILES) This aerial view shows displaced Palestinians returning to the war-devastated Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025, shortly before a ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas was implemented. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israeli Army Reportedly Ignored Oct. 6 Intel Warning of Hamas Attack

(FILES) This aerial view shows displaced Palestinians returning to the war-devastated Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025, shortly before a ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas was implemented. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
(FILES) This aerial view shows displaced Palestinians returning to the war-devastated Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025, shortly before a ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas was implemented. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

On October 6, 2023 - less than 24 hours before the Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war - Israel gathered intelligence indicating the Palestinian group was planning something for the following morning, Israeli Kan public broadcaster has revealed.

The information came through an intelligence-gathering operation, conducted via drones over the Gaza Strip, focused on the Hamas guards operating in the tunnel where Israel believed hostage Avera Mengistu was being held, the report said, according to an article published in The Times of Israel on Saturday.

Mengistu, a member of Israel’s Ethiopian minority and reportedly suffering from mental illness, entered Gaza by crossing a barbed wire fence in 2014, and was then arrested and held by Hamas. He was freed as part of a ceasefire deal in February this year.

The Times of Israel quoted Kan as saying that some piece of information obtained during that drone operation, though unclear, set off a red flag, and it was passed along to the Israeli army’s Southern Command.

The broadcaster, citing “sources,” claimed that the Command dismissed the intelligence as, in all likelihood, indicative of a Hamas training exercise, rather than an imminent attack.

The October 6 operation does not appear in the Israeli army’s records, nor has it been mentioned by probes into the events leading up to and during the subsequent terror onslaught, Kan said, adding that the reason for its omission is not clear.

Kan first reported on the intelligence operation earlier this month, but initially cited a source privy to the matter who said it had brought neither an intelligence breakthrough on Mengistu nor any indication of the imminent Hamas attack, The Times of Israel said.

It added that the Kan report comes about two weeks after Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir appointed a panel of experts to investigate the military’s failed handling of intelligence reports received since 2018, which outlined Hamas’s intent to launch a wide-scale attack against Israel, a topic not included in the army’s initial probes into the October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Arab World

Tetteh Accuses Libyan Stakeholders of Stalling Political Progress

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya Hanna Tetteh (Getty)
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya Hanna Tetteh (Getty)
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Tetteh Accuses Libyan Stakeholders of Stalling Political Progress

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya Hanna Tetteh (Getty)
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya Hanna Tetteh (Getty)

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya Hanna Tetteh has accused Libya’s stakeholders of stalling political progress on the UN-backed roadmap intended to lead the country toward national election.

“Four months have elapsed since I first presented the Roadmap to this Council on 21 August and UNSMIL has been engaging Libyan stakeholders with regard to its implementation, which I admit has been quite challenging,” Tetteh told the Security Council in New York on Friday.

She said efforts to advance electoral preparations had failed to meet agreed timelines, despite repeated engagement with Libya’s rival political bodies.

She recalled that committees from the House of Representatives and the High Council of State had agreed in October to reconstitute the High National Elections Commission within two weeks, but “despite multiple efforts and engagements with these institutions, this did not happen.”

Tetteh said a subsequent agreement signed last November, under UN auspices, established a mechanism to select new HNEC board members, with a deadline of December 11 to finalize the process. That deadline also passed without action.

“It is my assessment that the delays are a manifestation of the lack of trust between the two institutions, their own internal divisions, and the inability to overcome their differences and agree on the way forward to resolve the current impasse,” Tetteh said.

She listed the obstacles facing the amendment of the constitutional and legal framework for elections.

Despite the setbacks, Tetteh highlighted the launch of a new UN-facilitated dialogue process held in Libya earlier this month, describing it as a key component of the roadmap.

On December 14 and 15 “UNSMIL launched the inaugural meeting of the Structured Dialogue which is one of the three core components of the Roadmap,” she said. “This is the first process of this magnitude to be held on Libyan soil.”

She said 124 participants included representatives from sovereign institutions, civil society, political parties, academia and cultural and linguistic groups, alongside other state institutions.

The dialogue aimed to define guiding principles for state-building, formulate political and legislative recommendations covering governance, economy, security, and national reconciliation.

On the economy, Tetteh said Libya's persistent financial fragmentation continues to undermine its dinar.

The UN envoy also said that the security environment in Tripoli has stabilized to a certain extent, however the situation remains fragile with sporadic outbreaks of armed clashes in southern Tripoli and elsewhere.

Tetteh commented on UN Security Council Resolution 2796 (2025) of October 31, which extended UNSMIL’s mandate for one year.

She said UNISMIL formed an internal task force to gradually implement key decisions and recommendations, due to limited resources.

Arab World

Sanaa's GPC Wing Deepens Submission to Houthis

A view of previous meetings of the General People’s Congress wing in Sanaa (local media)
A view of previous meetings of the General People’s Congress wing in Sanaa (local media)
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Sanaa's GPC Wing Deepens Submission to Houthis

A view of previous meetings of the General People’s Congress wing in Sanaa (local media)
A view of previous meetings of the General People’s Congress wing in Sanaa (local media)

A wing of Yemen’s General People’s Congress (GPC) operating in areas under Houthi control has moved to consolidate its alignment with the Iran-backed group, dismissing the party’s secretary general, Ghazi Ali al-Ahwal, and replacing Ahmed Ali Saleh, son of the late Yemeni president, with a figure closely associated with the Houthis in the post of deputy party leader.

The party’s General Committee, its political bureau, held a meeting in Sanaa on Thursday, chaired by Sadiq Amin Abu Ras, head of the party wing in Houthi-controlled areas.

The meeting ended with the selection of Abdulaziz bin Habtoor, the former head of the unrecognized Houthi government, as deputy party leader.

The move was widely seen as a direct response to public Houthi demands to remove the former president’s son, coupled with repeated threats to shut down the party and ban its activities.

The decision to sideline Ahmed Ali Saleh came after weeks of mounting pressure by the Houthis on the wing’s leadership.

Measures included tight security restrictions on Abu Ras’s movements and threats to dissolve the party and seize what remained of its political and organizational activity, citing the group’s full control over party headquarters and finances in Sanaa and other areas under its influence.

According to party sources, the Houthis did not stop at imposing the removal, but also demanded the appointment of a loyal figure as deputy leader in an effort to tighten their grip on what remains of the party’s decision-making structures and to prevent any potential communication with party leaders abroad or with rival political forces.

The most controversial decision was the final expulsion of al-Ahwal from party membership, around four months after his arrest by the Houthis on charges of communicating with party leaders outside the country, foremost among them Ahmed Ali Saleh.

At an earlier meeting, the wing had approved the appointment of Yahya al-Raai as secretary general to replace al-Ahwal, in addition to his role as deputy party leader alongside Abu Ras.

The party’s Organizational Oversight Authority submitted a report to the General Committee accusing al-Ahwal of harming party unity and national unity, violating internal regulations, the constitution and national principles.

The leadership used the report to justify the expulsion decision, which it said was taken unanimously, despite criticism that the secretary general remains detained under unlawful conditions without even minimal guarantees of defense or trial.

Houthi grip

Political sources in Sanaa said the appointment of bin Habtoor as deputy party leader was an attempt by the wing’s leadership to ease pressure and avoid a scenario in which the Houthis imposed a more hardline and openly loyal figure, such as Hussein Hazeb, whom the group had been pushing to appoint as first deputy leader or secretary general.

However, the same sources said the move did not prevent the Houthis from pressing ahead with their demand to permanently expel al-Ahwal, underscoring how limited the leadership’s room for maneuver has become and how key decisions are effectively made outside the party’s organizational framework.

In an apparent attempt to justify the moves, the General Committee said the General People’s Congress “has always been and will remain keen to resolve disputes within the framework of national unity,” speaking of visions related to decentralized governance and reducing centralization.

By contrast, senior party figure Jamal al-Humairi, who is based abroad, said the recent decisions were “an extension of a clear trajectory of Houthi pressure,” stressing that they were issued in a “kidnapped political and security reality” where intimidation and blackmail are used to subjugate a long-established party and strip it of its historic leadership.

He said organizational legitimacy “is derived from the grassroots, not from decisions imposed by force,” adding that the decisions “do not represent the party or its base.”

Internal anger

Inside Sanaa, party sources said there was widespread anger and rejection among party cadres over the decision to expel al-Ahwal, as well as criticism of the General Committee meeting for failing to address his detention or demand his release. They also cited frustration over the failure to address the siege imposed on the home of the wing’s leader and other senior figures.

Observers say the treatment of the Sanaa-based wing reflects a broader picture of political life being stifled in Houthi-controlled areas, where a single ideological vision is imposed on parties and only a narrow margin of activity is allowed for organizations that orbit the group.

Since the killing of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh at the end of 2017, the General People’s Congress has been deeply divided. Most of its historic leadership left Houthi-controlled areas without agreeing on a unified leadership abroad, while the Sanaa wing opted to adapt to the reality of Houthi dominance.

Meanwhile, Tareq Saleh formed a political bureau for the National Resistance Forces on the Red Sea coast, which has attracted party figures and members of parliament.

Analysts agree that the latest decisions mark a new stage in the dismantling of the party in Sanaa, turning it into a body stripped of independent will and operating under Houthi conditions, further entrenching the erosion of political pluralism in Yemen.