Israel-Hamas war: Australian Lior Sivan dies in Gaza while fighting with the IDF
An Australian soldier has died while fighting Hamas militants with the Israeli Defence Force. Warning: Graphic
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An Australian has died while fighting with the Israel Defence Forces in Gaza.
Captain Lior Sivan, 32, was with an armoured brigade when he was killed by Hamas militants in southern Gaza.
The Israeli Defence Forces confirmed Capt. Sivan was killed in a battle on December 19.
The IDF said Captain Savan, from the town of Beit Shemesh, was an officer in the Harel Brigade’s 363 Batalion.
He trained as a mechanical engineer and was originally from Melbourne. He moved to live in Israel with his wife and child, the ABC reported.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement it “is aware of reports that an Australian citizen has been killed in Gaza and is urgently seeking further confirmation”.
“We send our condolences to his family during this difficult time and stand ready to provide consular assistance,” the statement said.
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AID TRUCKS ENTER GAZA
According to Israel, 163 aid trucks have entered Gaza carrying food, water, medical and shelter supplies that are desperately needed by displaced Palestinians.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that the volume of aid entering Gaza is “woefully inadequate.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced in the besieged Gaza strip have described their terrible conditions to CNN. They are living in cramped spaces with poor hygiene and sanitation. There is not enough food for most families and their children.
IDF PULLED FROM GAZA
Thousands of Israeli soldiers are being shifted out of the Gaza Strip, the military said on Monday local time, in the first significant drawdown of troops since the war began as forces continued to bear down on the main city in the southern half of the enclave.
The troop movement could signal that fighting is being scaled back in some areas of Gaza, particularly in the northern half where the military has said it is close to assuming operational control.
Israel has been under pressure from its chief ally, the United States, to begin to switch to lower-intensity fighting, the New York Post reported.
Word of the drawdown came ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region and after the Biden administration bypassed Congress for the second time this month to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel.
But fierce fighting continued in other areas of Gaza, especially the southern city Khan Younis and central areas of the territory.
The military said in a statement that five brigades, or several thousand troops, were being taken out of Gaza in the coming weeks for training and rest.
In a briefing over the weekend that first announced the troop withdrawal without specifying how many forces were leaving, army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari did not say whether the decision meant Israel was launching a new phase of the war.
Israel’s bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Israel says more than 8000 terrorists have been killed, without providing any evidence.
The war has displaced some 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, sending swells of people seeking shelter in Israeli-designated safe areas that the military has nevertheless bombed.
Palestinians are left with a sense that nowhere is safe in the tiny enclave.
ISRAEL’S TOP COURT OVERRULES LAW
The Supreme Court of Israel has overturned a contentious law enacted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which had reduced the high court’s authority and led to protests across the nation.
The recently passed law eliminated one of several mechanisms the Supreme Court possesses to invalidate decisions made by the government and its ministers.
Specifically, it revoked the court’s power to annul decisions it found to be “unreasonable”.
The court announced in a statement that a majority of 8 out of 15 justices voted to invalidate the law.
US REJECTS ‘ENDURING DISPLACEMENT’ OF PALESTINIANS
The US has reiterated its opposition to the forcible transfer of Palestinians in Gaza amid open calls by Israeli officials to reduce the territory’s population.
“The United States remains firmly opposed to any forced or enduring displacement of Palestinians from Gaza,” a US State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera in an email.
“The only way to ensure a lasting, sustainable peace – and for that matter, Israel’s security – is to advance the realization of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution.”
That US position puts the Biden administration on a collision course with its allies in Israel, as Israeli officials continue to reject the establishment of a Palestinian state, suggesting that Israel would directly control Gaza after the war.
ISRAELI POLICE INVESTIGATING DEATH OF PALESTINIAN
The Israeli military police has launched an investigation into the death of a Palestinian detainee in Gaza.
The detainee was allegedly killed by an Israeli soldier who was guarding him, the Times of Israel reported.
He had been arrested on Sunday night and was then taken for an interrogation before being handed over to a soldier to guard.
The Israeli military, according to the Times of Israel, says the soldier later opened fire and killed him.
ISRAELI RIGHTS GROUP: VIOLENCE AGAINST PALESTINIANS INCREASING
An Israeli rights group says evidence of violence against Palestinian prisoners is increasing rapidly.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel said that “many disturbing question marks are accumulating” after seven Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli prisons since October 7.
Quoted by the Israeli Ynet website, the organisation said that there “is a lot of evidence of cases of violence and cruel and humiliating treatment by prison guards”.
The rights group called for an investigation into the causes of the prisoners’ deaths.
IRANIAN WARSHIP ENTERS RED SEA
It comes as Iran’s Alborz warship entered the Red Sea through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, Tasnim news agency reported, at a time of heightened tensions over the globally important waterway.
The agency did not give specific reasons for its deployment, but noted that Iranian military vessels had operated in the area since 2009.
“The Alborz destroyer entered the Red Sea … by passing through the Bab al-Mandeb,” waterway at the southern tip of the Red Sea, connecting with The Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean, the agency said.
It added that Iran’s naval fleet has been operating in the area “to secure shipping lanes, repel pirates, among other purposes since 2009”.
The United States in early December set up a multinational naval task force for the Red Sea following a flurry of missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Huthi rebels on merchant vessels which led shipping companies to suspend passages through the area.
The Huthis say the attacks were in solidarity with Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, where Israel is battling Hamas militants.
According to the International Chamber of Shipping, 12 per cent of global trade passes through the Red Sea, which provides a shortcut past Africa via the Suez Canal.
On Sunday, US Navy helicopters fired on Huthi rebels attempting to board a cargo ship off Yemen, with the rebels reporting 10 fighters dead or missing.
Regional tensions have spiked since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
On Monday, Britain’s Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said Britain was “willing to take direct action” against the Huthis “to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea”.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron had spoken on Sunday with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian about the Red Sea tensions.
“I made clear that Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks,” he said on social media, noting Tehran’s “longstanding support” for the Huthis.
Abdollahian criticised the “double-standards” of some Western countries, according to a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry, saying the “Israeli regime cannot be allowed … to set the region on fire” with the Gaza war.
The United States previously accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in the Huthi attacks.
Iran has denied such accusations saying the Huthi rebels were acting on their own.
In 2021, the Alborz repulsed a pirate attack against two oil tankers in The Gulf of Aden.
And in 2015, it was one of two Iranian warships sent to the strait “to ensure the safety of commercial ships” in what was seen at the time as a sign of tensions with Saudi Arabia.
HAMAS FIRES ROCKETS AT ISRAEL
The war in Gaza ground into the new year on Monday, with Hamas firing a barrage of rockets at Israel just as the clock struck midnight and two dozen people killed overnight in Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory.
Air alert sirens sounded across Israel as 2024 began, and AFP journalists in Tel Aviv witnessed missile defence systems intercepting rockets overhead, with some revellers in the streets below rushing for cover while others kept up the party with a shrug.
“We were all afraid on the corners … my heart was pounding,” Gabriel Zemelman, 26, said in front of a bar after the rocket fire. “It’s terrifying. You just saw the life we live, it’s crazy.”
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video published on social media, saying they had fired M90 rockets in “response to the massacres of civilians” carried out by Israel.
In Gaza, overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 24 people, with attacks reported across the length of the territory.
The nearly three-month war in Gaza was triggered by the October 7 attack, which killed around 1140 people.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas in response, launching a punishing offensive in the Gaza Strip that has reduced vast areas to a ruined wasteland and killed at least 21,822 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
The Israeli army says 172 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza, with the war showing no signs of stopping.
US STRIKE KILLS 10 REBELS
US Navy helicopters fired on Iran-backed Huthi rebels attempting to board a cargo ship off Yemen with the rebels reporting 10 fighters dead or missing.
The clash in the Red Sea marked a deadly escalation since the United States set up a multinational naval task force in early December to protect the vital shipping lane against attacks by the Huthis, who control the Yemeni capital Sanaa and much of the country’s Red Sea coast.
The rebels – who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza – have repeatedly fired drones and missiles at passing ships in the seaway through which 12 per cent of global trade passes.
US Central Command said the navy had responded to a distress call from the Maersk Hangzhou, a Danish-owned container ship that reported coming under attack for a second time in 24 hours while transiting the Red Sea.
The vessel had earlier been targeted with two anti-ship ballistic missiles. One was shot down by the US military and the other hit the Maersk Hangzhou.
The Huthis had then fired on US helicopters, which “returned fire in self-defence”, sinking three of four small boats that had come within 20 metres of the ship.
It said the crews of the three vessels were killed while the fourth boat fled the area.
Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree confirmed in a statement on X that 10 members of the group’s naval forces were “killed or missing” in the US strike.
Saree said the Maersk was attacked as part of the rebels’ campaign to stop Israeli or Israel-bound vessels from transiting the Red Sea.
“Yemen’s naval forces once again remind all countries of our advice not to be drawn into American plans aimed at sparking a conflict in the Red Sea”, saying the Huthis are determined to confront “any aggression against our country and our people”.
Maersk suspended the passage of its vessels through the Red Sea for 48 hours after the latest of about two dozen attacks by Huthis on international shipping in the past six weeks.
“As we assess the security situation further – it has been decided to delay all transits through the area for the next 48 hours,” the company said in a statement.
It comes as United Kingdom Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the British government was prepared to take “direct action” to prevent further attacks
“The Houthis should be under no misunderstanding: we are committed to holding malign actors accountable for unlawful seizures and attacks,” he wrote in a column for the UK Daily Telegraph.
UK media reports suggest the UK and US are preparing a joint statement to issue a final warning to the Yemeni group.
NO RESPITE IN GAZA
Israelis and Palestinians are ending a dark year, with no end in sight to the deadliest military offensive on Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel.
There has been no respite from Israel’s air raids, artillery fire or ground fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, to the despair of Palestinians surviving the onslaught.
“We were hoping that 2024 would arrive under better auspices and that we would be able to celebrate the new year at home with our families,” said Mahmoud Abou Shahma.
The 33-year-old from Khan Yunis, an epicentre of the conflict in the south of Gaza, was speaking from a camp for displaced people in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
“We hope that the war will end and that we will be able to return to our homes and live in peace,” he said.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says the Israeli military campaign has killed at least 21,672 people, mostly women and children.
On Sunday the ministry reported numerous deaths in overnight strikes on central Gaza’s Zawayda and the nearby Al-Mughazi refugee camp.
The United Nations estimates that almost two million Gazans have been displaced since Israel’s siege began – about 85 per cent of the peacetime population.
With once-bustling Gaza City neighbourhoods reduced to rubble, there were few places left to mark the new year – and fewer loved ones to celebrate with.
“It was a black year full of tragedies,” said Abed Akkawi, who fled the city with his wife and three children.
The 37-year-old, now living in a UN shelter in Rafah, southern Gaza, said the war had obliterated his house and killed his brother.
“God willing this war will end, the new year will be a better one, and we will be able to return to our homes and rebuild them, or even live in a tent on the rubble,” he told AFP.
– with AFP
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