Palestinian mourners carry the body of one of two victims killed in an Israeli drone strike at the village of Aqaba, near the West Bank city of Tubas, on 3 December. (Photo: Alaa Badarneh / EPA-EFE) Israeli leaders hailed on Tuesday a pledge by US President-elect Donald Trump that there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East unless hostages held in the Gaza Strip were released ahead of his 20 January inauguration.
The US on Tuesday urged Israel to investigate allegations its airstrikes had killed aid workers in Gaza, said State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel, expressing outrage over the recent killing of a Save the Children staffer.
Israel strikes Hamas members in occupied West Bank
Israel’s military said on Tuesday that it targeted vehicles in the Aqabah area of the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, killing three Hamas members who it said were planning an imminent attack.
The Israeli military added that soldiers conducted a follow-up raid in the area, during which four weapons were seized.
Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades confirmed the deaths of two of its members, stating they were killed during a mission near Aqabah in the northern West Bank, and vowed to continue resisting Israeli forces “until victory and liberation”.
Israeli leaders applaud Trump pledge on hostages, Gazans fear the worst
Israeli leaders hailed on Tuesday a pledge by US president-elect Donald Trump that there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East unless hostages held in the Gaza Strip were released ahead of his 20 January inauguration.
The reaction in Gaza was less enthusiastic.
Writing on Truth Social, and without naming any group, Trump said the hostages had to be freed by the time he was sworn in.
If his demand was not met, he said: “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.”
During their deadly 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas-led militants captured more than 250 people. Some have been released or freed but around half of them are still in Gaza, although at least a third of these are believed to be dead.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many of his ministers publicly thanked Trump for his hard-hitting words.
“President Trump put the emphasis in the right place, on Hamas, and not on the Israeli government, as is customary [elsewhere],” said Netanyahu at the start of a Cabinet meeting.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Trump’s statement had made clear to everyone who was in the right, and who was wrong.
“This is the way to bring back the hostages: by increasing the pressure and the costs for Hamas and its supporters, and defeating them, rather than giving in to their absurd demands.”
Israel and Hamas have held on-off negotiations since October 2023, but after an initial hostage release in November, little progress has been made with both sides blaming each other.
Responding to Trump’s post, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Netanyahu had sabotaged all efforts to secure a deal that involved exchanging the hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
“Therefore, we understand [Trump’s] message is directed first at Netanyahu and his government to end this evil game,” he told Reuters.
Gaza political analyst Ramiz Moghani said Trump’s threat was directed at both Hamas and its backer Iran, and warned that it would embolden Israel to not only expel Palestinians from swathes of Gaza but also annex the nearby, Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“These statements have serious implications for the Israeli war in Gaza and the West Bank,” he told Reuters.
Mohammed Dahlan, like hundreds of thousands of Gazans, has had to flee his house because of the fighting and is desperate for the war to end. But he said he was shocked by Trump.
“We were hoping that the new administration would bring with it a breakthrough ... but it seems [Trump] is in complete agreement with the Israeli administration and that there are apparently more punitive measures ahead,” he said.
US ‘outraged’ by killing of Save the Children worker in Gaza
The US on Tuesday urged Israel to investigate allegations its airstrikes had killed aid workers in Gaza, said State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel, expressing outrage over the recent killing of a Save the Children staffer.
Asked about the killing of 39-year-old Ahmad Faisal Isleem Al-Qadi in an airstrike on Saturday in Khan Younis, Patel said Washington was seeking more information about the death.
“We are outraged, and we are wanting more information about this incident,” said Patel.
“The IDF needs to provide additional information about this incident,” he added, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. “We urge Israel to thoroughly and transparently investigate actions like these and take appropriate action in their system.”
Lebanese refugees return home from Iraq as ceasefire holds
Lebanese families displaced in Iraq by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah have begun returning to their homes in southern Lebanon following a recently brokered ceasefire.
The cessation of hostilities has allowed many to make the journey back, despite widespread destruction.
“After two months, we are returning to our homeland. We will return even if we find our homes destroyed; we will sit on the ground,” said Ali Abdulla, a southern Lebanon resident, waiting along with dozens of others at Najaf airport in Iraq to fly back to Beirut with his family.
More than 20,000 Lebanese have sought refuge in Iraq since the outbreak of the war, according to official figures seen by Reuters.
Najaf airport officials said around 800 Lebanese were leaving for Beirut every week, while others were using government-provided buses to travel to the Qaim border crossing with Syria and then on to Lebanon.
Iraqi local officials said at least 1,000 Lebanese had been crossing into Syria daily for three days. But then an escalation of hostilities in Syria following a rebel offensive against Syrian government forces led many to shun the land route, fearing for their safety. They now prefer to wait for flights.
Iraq’s government, along with Shi’ite institutions in Najaf and Kerbala, has provided essential support, including free accommodation, healthcare, and meals, ensuring that displaced families have a safe, supportive environment during their stay.
The ceasefire, brokered by the United States and France, aims to end the conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed at least 3,768 people in Lebanon since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
However, not all Lebanese are eager to return, saying their homes are currently uninhabitable due to damaged water and electricity networks. They are uncertain about what will happen once the 60-day ceasefire ends.
“I no longer have a home; everything is destroyed. If we return, where will we sleep, on the street? What is the future of our children if they stay in Lebanon? No education, no future, and no home,” said Rabea Ali, a mother of four sons from southern Lebanon, who is staying in a small rented flat in eastern Baghdad.
Rabea’s son, Omar al-Ali, supports his mother’s decision not to return to Lebanon. He has started a new life working at a car wash station in the mainly Shi’ite district of Zayoona in eastern Baghdad.
“We ran from bombing and devastation. I’m working to collect enough cash to bring my family, who are stuck in Lebanon, to live together here,” said Omar while washing cars.
But 11-year-old Ali Hassan said he was eager to return to his home in southern Lebanon as he missed school and also wanted to visit the grave of a friend killed by an Israeli airstrike.
“I hope to return to Lebanon to visit his grave and pray for him,” said Ali as he shaped a tree out of clay with a group of children gathered in the reception yard of one of Kerbala’s hotels.
Syrian rebels advance close to Hama
Syrian rebels advancing against government forces pushed close on Tuesday to the major city of Hama, said rebels and a war monitor, after their sudden capture of Aleppo last week rocked President Bashar al-Assad.
Rebels and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said insurgents had captured villages including Maar Shahur a few kilometres north of the city. Syrian state media said reinforcements were arriving in the area.
An attack on Hama would ramp up pressure on Assad, whose Russian and Iranian allies have scrambled to support him against a reviving rebellion. The city has remained in government hands since civil war erupted in 2011.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an Arabic-language interview that Tehran would consider sending troops to Syria if Damascus asked, and Russian President Vladimir Putin urged an end to “terrorist aggression” in Syria, RIA reported.
Iraq Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani said Baghdad would not be “a mere spectator” in Syria and blamed Israeli military strikes on the Syrian government for the rebel advance, said his office.
Compounding Assad’s problems, fighters from a US-backed, Kurdish-led coalition battled government forces in the northeast, said both sides, opening a new front along a vital supply route.
Last week’s rebel seizure of Aleppo — Syria’s largest city before the war — marked the biggest offensive for years.
The frontlines of the conflict had been frozen since 2020 after Assad clawed back most of the country from rebels, thanks to help from Russian air power and military help from Iran and its network of regional Shi’ite militia groups.
Now, however, Russia has been concentrating on the war in Ukraine, while Israeli strikes over the past three months have decimated the leadership of Hezbollah, the strongest Iran-backed force fighting in Syria.
On Monday, hundreds of Iran-backed Iraqi militia fighters entered Syria to back up Syrian government forces, Iraqi and Syrian sources said, but Hezbollah does not plan to send forces now.
A rebel source said Iran-backed militia fighters were among the forces they were battling outside Hama.
In recent days, Russian and Syrian government warplanes have intensified airstrikes against rebels, both sides have said. Rescue workers have reported deadly strikes on hospitals in Aleppo and Idlib.
Israel threatens to expand war if Hezbollah truce collapses
Israel threatened on Tuesday to return to war in Lebanon if its truce with Hezbollah collapses and said this time its attacks would go deeper and target the Lebanese state itself, after the deadliest day since the ceasefire was agreed upon last week.
In its strongest threat since the truce was agreed to end 14 months of war with Hezbollah, Israel said it would hold Lebanon responsible for failing to disarm militants who violate the ceasefire.
“If we return to war we will act strongly, we will go deeper, and the most important thing they need to know: that there will no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon,” said Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“If until now we separated the state of Lebanon from Hezbollah ... it will no longer be [like this],” he said during a visit to the northern border area.
Despite last week’s truce, Israeli forces have continued strikes against what they say are Hezbollah fighters ignoring the agreement to halt attacks and withdraw beyond the Litani River, about 30km from the frontier.
On Monday, Hezbollah shelled an Israeli military post, while Lebanese authorities said at least 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon. Another person was killed on Tuesday by a drone strike, said Lebanon.
Netanyahu said any infraction of the truce would be punished, however small.
“We are enforcing this ceasefire with an iron fist,” he said ahead of a Cabinet meeting in the northern border city of Nahariya. “We are currently in a ceasefire, I note, a ceasefire, not the end of the war,” he added.
Israeli strike near Damascus kills Hezbollah liaison with Syrian army
An Israeli airstrike on a car near Syria’s capital, Damascus, on Tuesday killed Salman Jumaa, a senior Hezbollah figure responsible for liaising with the Syrian army, a Lebanese security source told Reuters.
Syria’s state news agency had reported the strike on the airport road but did not offer details on casualties.
The Israeli military confirmed in a later statement taking out Jumaa in what it called an intelligence-based strike in Damascus, saying his killing “degrades both Hezbollah’s presence in Syria and Hezbollah’s ongoing force-building efforts”. DM
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