INTERPRETER
Pressure on Israel is increasing amid UNGA resolution, as Biden makes statements pointing to divisions with Netanyahu’s government.
This is how things stand as of Wednesday, December 13, 2023:
The latest developments
- During an emergency session on the war between Israel and Gaza, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a ceasefire on Tuesday. The United States and Israel were among 10 votes against the non-binding resolution.
- Harvard University’s administration has backed President Claudine Gay after calls for her resignation following Gay’s controversial testimony in Congress over the anti-Semitism riot on campus.
- US media reports on Tuesday suggested that Israel has begun flooding a network of tunnels it says Hamas uses with seawater.
- Sports brand Puma will stop sponsoring the Israeli national football team in 2024, a spokesperson for the German company said on Tuesday. Puma has been on the Boycott Divest, Sanctions (BDS) list since 2018 after it first signed a deal to sponsor the Israel Football Association.
Human impact and fighting
- On Tuesday, Israeli forces blew up a school building of the UN Relief and Works Authority in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza.
- According to Al Jazeera correspondent Charles Stratford, an Israeli military assault on Jenin in the occupied West Bank has been going on for 29 hours.
- According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, 100 Palestinians may have been arrested so far in the attack on Jenin, while around 30 of those initially detained may have been released.
- About 8,000 people in Gaza are missing or trapped under rubble, according to a civil defense official.
- A statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on Yemen’s Houthi group to “immediately release” hostages from attacks on ships in the Red Sea that HRW says have no ties to Israel.
- The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that it has deployed four new warships to the Red Sea following the Yemeni armed group’s attacks.
- Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in the past day, military spokesman Daniel Hagari announced on Wednesday.
- About 360,000 cases of illness have been detected in crowded shelters for the 1.9 million people displaced by Israel’s military strike, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday in its latest situation report.
Diplomacy
- At a fundraiser on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden told donors that Israel risks losing international support over its “indiscriminate bombing” of civilians in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
- World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on Tedros called for an immediate ceasefire and protection of all people in the hospital.
- In efforts to speed up aid deliveries, the Karem Abu Salem (called Kerem Shalom by Israel) border crossing between Israel and Gaza was opened on Tuesday and humanitarian trucks were screened before being transferred to the enclave through the Rafah crossing, Palestinian Red Crescent said officials.
