Israel-Gaza war live: Iran says Israel ‘will pay’ after commander killed in Syria airstrike
Palestinians mourn their relatives, killed in an overnight Israeli strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
LIVE – Updated at 17:40
Sayyed Razi Mousavi from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reportedly killed outside Damascus.
17:40
The Archbishop of Canterbury has used his Christmas Day sermon to highlight the suffering of children caught up in the Israel-Hamas war.
In his sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, Welby said: “Today a crying child is in a manger somewhere in the world, nobody willing or able to help his parents or her parents who so desperately need shelter.
“Or perhaps lying in an incubator, in a hospital low on electricity, like the Anglican al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, surrounded by suffering and death.
“Maybe the newborn lies in a house that still bears the marks of the horrors of 7 October, with family members killed, and a mother who counted her life as lost.
“Or maybe they’re not a newborn, but someone thinking of next term, having again to hide their Jewishness on their way to school in this country, or a playgroup in our own cities fearful of the age-old atrocious sin of antisemitism.”
17:27
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say Israel “will pay” for killing one of its commanders, Iranian state TV reports
Reuters and Tasnim news agency said earlier that an airstrike killed Sayyed Razi Mousavi outside Syria’s capital, Damascus.
“Undoubtedly, the usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said in a statement read on Iranian state TV.
Mousavi was an IRGC member responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran.
The IRGC described him as one of their oldest advisers in Syria, holding the rank of brigadier-general.
Iran’s state television reported that Mousavi had been “among those accompanying Qassem Soleimani”, the head of the Guards’ elite Quds Force, who had been killed in 2020 in a US drone attack in Iraq.
17:07
16:34
Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad have rejected an Egyptian proposal that they relinquish power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent ceasefire, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, later denied in a statement what the sources said about the talks, adding: “There can be no negotiations without a complete stop to the aggression.”
Referring to the more than 20,000 Palestinians killed during the 11-week war with Israel, he said: “The Hamas leadership is aiming with all its might for a complete, not temporary, end to the aggression and massacres of our people.”
The Egyptian sources had said that both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have been holding separate talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo, had rejected offering any concessions beyond the possible release of more of the hostages seized on 7 October when militants entered southern Israel, killing 1,200 people.
Israeli airstrike in Syria kills senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser – sources and state media
16:08
Iran’s state television announced that Sayyed Razi Mousavi had been killed, describing him as one of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ oldest advisers in Syria, Reuters reports.
It said he had been “among those accompanying Qassem Soleimani”, the head of the Guards’ elite Quds Force who had been killed in 2020, in a US drone attack in Iraq.
Three security sources told Reuters that an Israeli airstrike outside Damascus on Monday killed Mousavi.
There was no immediate comment from Israel’s military. The reports have not yet been independently verified by the Guardian.
15:45
An Israeli airstrike outside Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Monday killed a senior adviser in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, three security sources have told Reuters.
The adviser, known by his nickname Sayyed Razi Mousavi, was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran, the sources said.
The reported death has not yet been independently verified by the Guardian.
Israeli airstrikes kill over 100 people in one of war’s deadliest nights, say Gaza officials
15:35
Medics have now said that an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed 23 people, bringing total Palestinian fatalities overnight to more than 100, Reuters reports.
At least 70 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Maghazi in central Gaza, the health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qidra, said earlier.
Eight people were killed as Israeli planes and tanks carried out dozens of air strikes on houses and roads in al-Bureij and al-Nusseirat, health officials said.
Death toll from Israeli attack on the Maghazi refugee camp rises to 106 – reports
15:35
Palestinian medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza has risen to 106, the Associated Press, which has reviewed hospital records, reports.
The announcement makes the Sunday night airstrike in the Maghazi refugee camp among the deadliest in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
These figures are yet to be independently verified by the Guardian.
Summary of the day so far…
15:30
Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad have rejected an Egyptian plan proposing that they give up power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent ceasefire, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters. Both groups, which have been holding separate talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo, rejected offering any concessions beyond the possible release of more of the hostages seized on 7 October.
20,674 people have been killed and 54,536 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said. The ministry said that 250 Palestinians had been killed and 500 injured in the past 24 hours.
Medics said that an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed 23 people, bringing total Palestinian fatalities overnight to more than 100, Reuters reported. At least 70 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Maghazi in central Gaza, the health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, said earlier. The Associated Press reported later on Monday that at least 106 Palestinians were killed in the airstrike on the Maghazi refugee camp on Sunday night. Eight people were killed as Israeli planes and tanks carried out dozens of air strikes on houses and roads in al-Bureij and al-Nuseirat, health officials said.
Pope Francis reportedly said in his Christmas message that Israeli strikes in Gaza were reaping an “appalling harvest” of innocent civilians. “I plead for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims, and call for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by an opening to the provision of humanitarian aid,” he said as he spoke to thousands of people gathered at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
15:04
Itai Temkin, the Israeli finance ministry’s deputy budget commissioner, has said it was not possible to plan for the possibility that the war would stretch into March or beyond (see his earlier comments at 13.43).
“It is possible that later in the year we will have to come and update it and we will have to come with updates as the war drags on,” he said.
15:02
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says that Israel will not succeed in freeing the remaining hostages held in Gaza without military pressure, Reuters reports.
“We wouldn’t have succeeded up until now to release more than 100 hostages without military pressure,” Netanyahu said during a speech in Israel’s parliament. “And we won’t succeed at releasing all the hostages without military pressure.”
More than 100 hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza.
Qatar and Egypt were mediators between Israel and Hamas in the late November truce during which Hamas released 110 women, children and foreigners it was holding in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and teenagers freed from Israeli jails.
Hamas rejects giving up power in return for permanent ceasefire, say Egyptian sources
14:58
Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad have rejected an Egyptian plan proposing that they give up power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent ceasefire, two Egyptian security sources have told Reuters.
Both groups, which have been holding separate talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo, rejected offering any concessions beyond the possible release of more of the hostages seized on 7 October when militants entered southern Israel, killing 1,200 people.
Egypt proposed a “vision”, also backed by Qatari mediators, that would involve a ceasefire in exchange for the release of more hostages, and lead to a broader agreement involving a permanent ceasefire along with an overhaul of leadership in Gaza, which is currently led by Hamas.
A Hamas official told Reuters: “Hamas seeks to end the Israeli aggression against our people, the massacres and genocide, and we discussed with our Egyptian brothers the ways to do that.
“We also said that the aid for our people must keep going and must increase and it must reach all the population in the north and the south.
“After the aggression is stopped and the aid increased we are ready to discuss prisoner swaps.”
14:35
Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza will probably cost it at least another 50bn shekels ($14bn) in 2024 and bring a near-tripling of its budget deficit, the finance ministry said on Monday, projecting that fighting would last through February.
Briefing lawmakers, the ministry’s deputy budget commissioner, Itai Temkin, said the war was expected to stretch at least two months into 2024, adding 30bn shekels for security and another 20bn for civilian and other expenses, Reuters reports.
Temkin told the Knesset finance committee that that would drive up total defence spending by more than 48bn shekels beyond what initially had been allocated.
Total budgetary spending in 2024 would rise to 562.1bn shekels from a planned 513.7bn and lead to a budget deficit of 5.9% of gross domestic product, up from a target of 2.25%.
With the deficit expected to widen by 75bn shekels to 114bn shekels next year, Temkin said the gap would require cutting other expenses or raising revenue.
Parliament this month approved a special war budget for 2023 of nearly 30bn shekels to help fund the war and compensate those affected by the 7 October cross-border attacks by Hamas, which sparked the war, and by rockets launched from Gaza and Lebanon.
Moshe Gafni, chair of the finance committee, said he was opposed to raising income taxes but supported taxes on excess bank profits and measures to promote economic growth.
The ministry estimated the annual inflation rate would end the year at 3.1% and ease to 2.6% next year.
14:18
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, has accused the UN of “hypocrisy” and has ordered his ministry not to extend one UN employee’s entry visa and to refuse entry for another.
In a post on X, he said: “We will stop working with those who cooperate with the Hamas terrorist organisation’s propaganda.”
Death toll in Gaza reaches 20,674, says health ministry
14:18
20,674 people have been killed and 54,536 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday.
The ministry added that 250 Palestinians had been killed and 500 injured in the past 24 hours.
13:51
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand the Gaza operation, saying the war “isn’t close to finished,” and would take a long time, AP and Reuters report.
Netanyahu dismissed what he cast as false media speculation that his government might call a halt to fighting against the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas Islamists.
“We are not stopping. We are continuing to fight, and we will be intensifying the fighting in the coming days, and the fighting will take long and it is not close to concluding,” he told lawmakers from his Likud party, according to a statement.
13:36
The World Health Organization said it led missions to barely functioning hospitals in northern Gaza at the weekend, describing growing desperation and starving people stripping an aid vehicle of supplies, AFP reports.
The UN health agency and its partners delivered aid, including fuel, to the al-Shifa hospital, once Gaza’s biggest and most advanced medical facility, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said late Sunday on X.
Participants in the mission on 23 December had witnessed “rising desperation due to acute hunger”, Tedros said.
He added: “Partners demand immediate scale-up of food and water to ensure population health and stability.”
Airstrikes across Gaza kill 78 people, says health officials
12:48
Palestinian health officials have said Israeli airstrikes, that began hours before midnight and persisted into Christmas Day, have killed at least 78 people in Gaza.
Residents and Palestinian media said Israel stepped up air and ground shelling against al-Bureij in central Gaza.
As we reported earlier, at least 70 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Maghazi in central Gaza, health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qidra, said.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed eight Palestinians, according to Reuters.
These figures have not yet been independently verified.
12:41
The Israeli military said on Monday that two of its soldiers had died in the past day, bringing the number killed since ground operations began on 20 October to 158.
Pope Francis: Israeli strikes reaping an ‘appalling harvest’ of innocent civilians
12:07
Pope Francis has said in his Christmas message that Israeli strikes in Gaza are reaping an “appalling harvest” of innocent civilians, according to Reuters.
In his Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and world) address, the 87-year-old pontiff also called the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas “abominable” and again appealed for the release of about 100 hostages still being held in Gaza.
He called for an end to conflicts, political, social or military, in countries including Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Francis also criticised the weapons industry and its “instruments of death” that fuel wars.
Speaking to thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, he said:
How many innocents are being slaughtered in our world! In their mothers’ wombs, in odysseys undertaken in desperation and in search of hope, in the lives of all those little ones whose childhood has been devastated by war. They are the little Jesuses of today …
May [peace] come in Israel and Palestine, where war is devastating the lives of those peoples. I embrace them all, particularly the Christian communities of Gaza and the entire Holy Land …
I plead for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims, and call for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by an opening to the provision of humanitarian aid.”
11:37
Here are more details of the Egyptian plan to end the conflict, as reported by the Associated Press:
The call is for an initial ceasefire of up to two weeks during which Palestinian militants would free 40 to 50 hostages in return for the release of 120 to 150 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, the Egyptian official said.
At the same time negotiations would continue on extending the ceasefire and the release of more hostages and bodies held by Palestinian militants, he said.
Egypt and Qatar would work with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to agree on the establishment of a government of experts, he added.
The government would rule Gaza and the West Bank for a transitional period as Palestinian factions settled their disputes and agreed on a roadmap to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.
In the meantime, Israel and Hamas would continue to negotiate a comprehensive “all-for-all” deal, the official said. This would include the release of all remaining hostages in return for all Palestinian prisoners in Israel, as well as the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian militants’ halting of rocket attacks into Israel.
Egypt floats ambitious plan to end Israel-Gaza war
11:34
Egypt has put forward an initial proposal to end the Israel-Gaza war with a ceasefire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts who would administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, said a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat.
The proposal, worked out with Qatar, has been presented to Israel, Hamas, the US and European governments, but still appears preliminary, the Associated Press reports.
It falls short of Israel’s stated goal of eliminating Hamas and seems not to meet Israel’s insistence on keeping military control over Gaza for an extended period after the war.
Israel’s war cabinet, including the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will meet later on Monday to discuss the hostage situation, among other topics, an Israeli official said. The official would not say if they would discuss the Egyptian proposal.
Egyptian officials reportedly discussed the outline of the proposal with Ismail Haniyeh, the Qatar-based political leader of Hamas, who visited Cairo last week.
They plan to discuss the proposal with the leader of Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, who arrived in Cairo on Sunday, the official said.
10:48
Doctors at the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, said fuel shortages and insufficient medical supplies were making working conditions there very difficult, Reuters reports.
“We have 17 beds for dialysis normally serving 120 patients, but now 350 patients are having to use these beds,” Dr Ihab Masher, head of the kidney dialysis department, said.
He added: “Unfortunately we lose patients everyday. I hope god will end all this and that the situation will soon improve.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent has said Israeli bombardment of main roads across Gaza has seriously hindered the passage of ambulances and other emergency vehicles.
10:09
In southern Gaza, an AFP correspondent reported heavy bombings through the night in Rafah and Khan Younis.
In the north, live AFPTV footage on Monday morning showed a long plume of smoke extending across the horizon.
Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesperson, yesterday indicated that forces were close to having operational control in north Gaza.
He said the Israeli military would now focus its “efforts against Hamas in southern Gaza”.
10:00
Iran’s foreign ministry has dismissed Washington’s claims of a drone attack, targeting a tanker off the coast of India and being “fired from Iran”, as “worthless”, AFP reports.
Saturday’s targeting of a Japanese-owned chemical tanker came amid a flurry of drone and missile attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The Pentagon later accused Tehran of the attack.
“We declare these claims as completely rejected and worthless,” the foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, said when asked about the US accusations.
“Such claims are aimed at projecting, distracting public attention, and covering up for the full support of the American government for the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza,” he added.
09:38
Here are some of the latest images from Bethlehem, six miles south of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank:
09:10
The archbishop of Canterbury will use his Christmas Day sermon to highlight the suffering of children caught up in the Israel-Hamas war, PA Media reports.
Referring to Jesus Christ’s birthplace, which is now in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Most Rev Justin Welby will say “the skies of Bethlehem are full of fear rather than angels and glory”.
In his sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, he will say:
Today a crying child is in a manger somewhere in the world, nobody willing or able to help his parents who desperately need shelter.
Or in an incubator, in a hospital low on electricity, like Al-Ahli (hospital) in Gaza, surrounded by conflict.
Maybe he lies in a house that still bears the marks of the horrors of 7 October, with family members killed, and a mother who feared for her life.
Also referring to Ukraine and Sudan, the Archbishop will say: “So many parts of the world seem beset with violence.”
08:41
Early on Christmas Day, AFP journalists said they heard gunfire and sirens in the West Bank city of Jenin, which has seen near daily raids by Israeli forces.
“How can we celebrate?” Nazeria Yousef Deabis, 76, who has lived in Zababdeh all her life, said.
“People don’t feel festive – they’ve lost friends and relatives in Gaza,” she said.
“The occupation (Israel) is destroying Jenin and children are being brutally killed.”
Opening summary
08:06
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Gaza.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed overnight as Israeli strikes on Gaza continued into Christmas Day.
In one of the deadliest single strikes of the war at least 70 people including at least 12 women and seven children were killed in an attack on Maghazi refugee camp, east of Deir al-Balah, late Sunday, according to Gaza health officials.
The Palestinian health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qidra, said the death toll was likely to climb. “What is happening at the Maghazi camp is a massacre that is being committed on a crowded residential square,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said: “Despite the challenges posed by Hamas terrorists operating within civilian areas in Gaza, the IDF is committed to international law including taking feasible steps to minimise harm to civilians.”
In other developments:
Israeli strikes have killed 20,424 Palestinians since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday after one of the deadliest 24 hours in the conflict, not including those killed in the latest strikes. Thousands more are believed to be buried under rubble and tens of thousands more have been wounded.
“People in Gaza haven’t experienced hunger until this war,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said, warning of a “man-made famine” in Gaza as Israel continues its attacks across the strip. In a tweet on Sunday, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added: “Now it is widespread & WFP warns about a looming famine. That would be nothing less than a man-made famine & a stain in our common humanity. We cannot let it happen.”
Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group allied to Hamas, said a delegation led by its exiled leader Ziad al-Nakhlala was in Cairo on Sunday. His arrival followed talks attended by Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in recent days. The militant groups have so far said they will not discuss any release of hostages unless Israel ends its war in Gaza, while the Israelis say they are willing to discuss only a temporary pause in fighting.
Israeli media reported on Sunday that Egypt had put forward to Hamas a three-stage deal that would take several weeks and ultimately end with the release of all hostages and the cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. “On the surface, the plan appears to be a formula that both parties would be pleased to reject,” Haaretz newspaper wrote.
The Israeli military said on Sunday 10 of its soldiers had been killed in the past day, after five killed the previous day, its worst two-day losses since early November. The deaths bring the total number of IDF soldiers killed in Gaza since the ground assault began on 27 October to 154.
Israel’s war on Gaza was enacting a “very heavy price” on Israeli soldiers, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told his cabinet on Sunday on Sunday. “This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “The war is exacting a very heavy cost from us; however we have no choice [but] to continue to fight.”
Thousands of Moroccans took to the streets in Rabat on Sunday in opposition against Israel’s war on Gaza and Morocco’s normalization with Israel. The crowd in Rabat of about 10,000 people denounced what protest leaders called a “war of extermination,” Agence France-Presse reports.
A Qatari Armed Forces aircraft carrying 14 tons of aid for Palestinians in Gaza has arrived in El Arish, Egypt on Sunday, the Qatari state news agency QNA announced. Sunday’s aid delivery brings the total number of Qatari aircrafts sent to Gaza to 50, with a total of 1,548 tons of aid.
Four trucks carrying 33 tons of aid from UNRWA and the World Food Programme have made its way into Gaza, UNRWA reported on Sunday. The aid trucks consists of 84 packages of biscuits and 16 pallets of easy-to-open food cans.