News blog about the war in the Middle East
Guterres takes rare action to urge UN Security Council
Updated on December 7th, 2023 – 3:49 a.m. Reading time: 32 min.
Targets bombed in the south: Videos show Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. (Source: dpa)
Israel claims to have surrounded the Hamas leader’s house in Khan Yunis. UN chief Guterres warns of a catastrophe. All information in the news blog.
The most important things at a glance
Hamas terrorists crossed the border into Israel on October 7 and carried out massacres. Since then, Israel has been attacking targets in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. This news blog informs you about the current developments:
UN: 25 percent of Khan Yunis evacuated
3:12 a.m.: According to the UN in Palestine, the Israeli military has declared another area in the city of Khan Yunis, approximately one square kilometer in size, for immediate evacuation. Along with similar expulsions in previous days, about 25 percent of the urban area, home to about 178,000 original residents (73 percent of the population) and an estimated 170,000 internally displaced people, received evacuation orders. The Israeli military ordered residents to move to two areas in Rafah and Al Fakhouri in the eastern Khan Yunis governorate.
Israelis take up arms
UN chief Guterres warns of collapse of public order
11:27 p.m.: UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of a breakdown in public order in the Gaza Strip in a letter to the UN Security Council. Guterres said in the letter that he expects “that public order will soon completely collapse due to the desperate situation, so that even limited humanitarian aid will become impossible.” Humanitarian conditions amid the war between Israel and Hamas could “quickly deteriorate into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible consequences for the Palestinians as a whole.”
In a letter to the Security Council on Wednesday, the UN chief invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter for the first time since taking office in 2017. This allows the Secretary General to bring to the attention of the Security Council “any matter which, in his opinion, may jeopardize the guarantee of international peace and security” and, according to the UN, has not been used for decades.
More fuel allowed for Gaza Strip
11:14 p.m.: The Israeli security cabinet allows a “minimal addition” of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip. This is intended to prevent “a humanitarian collapse and outbreak of disease” in the south of the coastal area, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. The amount of fuel will be determined by the Cabinet and adjusted based on the local humanitarian situation.
Israel’s army appears to be surrounding Khan Yunis in bitter urban warfare
8:28 p.m.: After reports of a bitter urban battle with the terrorist organization Hamas, the Israeli army says it has surrounded Khan Yunis. The military says the largest city in the south of the Gaza Strip is surrounded. They broke through Hamas’ defenses within a few hours. The army launched attacks against central Hamas positions there and is now advancing deeper into the city. Israel’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi had already announced on Tuesday that soldiers were in the process of encircling Khan Yunis.
The Israeli armed forces suspect the leadership of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas and many of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip to be in the area not far from Egypt. If the military takes control of the city, Hamas terrorists would only be able to retreat to small areas in the center of the Gaza Strip and on the border with Egypt.
At the same time, international pressure on Israel to end the ground offensive is likely to increase as the suffering of the civilian population continues to grow. Tens of thousands of people fled from the north to the south of the coastal area on Israel’s instructions because they were promised safety there. Human rights organizations have therefore increasingly criticized the Israeli army’s actions in recent days.
G7 see the terrorist organization Hamas as a threat in the future
8:20 p.m.: The G7 states continue to see the terrorist organization Hamas as a threat to Israel in the future. “Hamas has demonstrated that it still poses a security threat to Israel, as demonstrated by its continued rocket fire since October 7 and its public statements that it will continue to attack Israel in the future,” the countries said in a statement.
