The UN General Assembly on Tuesday, December 12, overwhelmingly demanded “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza. The resolution was adopted by 153 votes for, 10 against (including Israel and the United States), and 23 abstentions out of 193 member states, while an American amendment wanting to add a condemnation of “Hamas’ abominable terrorist attacks” of October 7 was rejected. This live is now over.
The Gaza Strip is turning into a field of ruins. Some 18% of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been damaged since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the UN said, based on high-resolution satellite images. “Additionally, there has been a staggering 49% increase in the total number of affected structures since the last assessment on November 7, 2023”says the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT) from an image collected on November 26, 2023 with the very high resolution WorldView-3 satellite.
The Israeli government “does not (want) a two-state solution” says Joe Biden. “This is the most conservative government in the history of Israel”said the American president again, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “strengthen and change” the Israeli executive. This is the first time since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that the President of the United States has directly stated his differences with the Israeli executive.
The bodies of two Israeli hostages recovered in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army announced that it had recovered the bodies of two hostages in the Gaza Strip during a military operation. “During an operation in Gaza, the bodies of hostages Eden Zakaria and (soldier) Ziv Dado were discovered and brought back to Israel”states an IDF press release, without immediately specifying when this operation took place.
Thirteen Israeli soldiers killed by “friendly fire”. The Israeli army said that more than a tenth of its soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip were killed after “friendly fire”. “To date, there have been 105 deaths since the start of land operations, 20 of which are accidents,” said a spokesperson. Thirteen soldiers were killed by “friendly fire”while the other seven were in accidents involving vehicles or weapons.