WORLD BRIEFING: December 14, 2023
Israel - Hamas War
Israel says 70 Hamas fighters "surrendered with their weapons" at a hospital in northern Gaza. At the same hospital, the Hamas-run health ministry accuses Israel of blocking care to 10 patients, causing two to die. In southern Gaza, the same health ministry says Israeli air strikes killed at least 19 people early on Thursday. Earlier, Israel's ambassador to the UK rejected a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. "Absolutely no," says Tzipi Hotovely, adding: "The Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel. “ In Israel, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is holding talks with Israeli ministers - BBC
All telecommunications and internet services in the Gaza Strip have gone down as a result of "the ongoing aggression", Gaza's main telecommunications companies Paltel and Jawwal said.
Israel vowed to keep fighting in Gaza until it crushes Hamas after one of the deadliest single battles of the war for its soldiers, even as it faces mounting international calls for a cease-fire and unease on the part of its closest ally, the United States. The ambush in Gaza City, one of the hardest hit areas of the war, showed Hamas’ resilience and called into question whether Israel can defeat it without wiping out the entire territory. Support for Hamas has surged among Palestinians — in part because of the militant group’s stiff resistance to a far more powerful foe — while the U.S. has expressed growing discomfort over civilian deaths. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was visiting Israel on Thursday, days after President Joe Biden said that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing.’ - AP
Families of hostages demand 'immediate clarification' over war cabinet decision to suspend Mossad chief's planned trip to Qatar to restart talks. Meanwhile, the U.S. believes stopping war at this stage 'does not serve long-term security interest of everyone in the region' - Haaretz
The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 18,700 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in the enclave since the start of the Gaza war
Ukraine War
Ukrainian security services report that mobile operator Kyivstar was attacked by Russian intelligence. A special unit of Russia's GRU, masquerading as a pseudo-hacker group, claimed responsibility for the December 12 attack on Kyivstar, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported. Kyivstar’s digital infrastructure has suffered critical damage, so restoring all services in compliance with the necessary security protocols will take time," the SBU added. Meanwhile, due to the hacker attack, the shares of Kyivstar’s parent company, VEON, fell by almost 3% during the day to €0.70 per share. At the same time, American companies Microsoft, Cisco, and Swedish Ericsson are helping Kyivstar resume operations after the large-scale cyberattack, said company director Oleksandr Komarov. According to him, this attack was the most destructive hack in history. Its purpose was to cripple the country's critical infrastructure.
U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets for Ukraine have begun arriving at training centers in the United States, Denmark and Romania. Kyiv’s allies hope the modern aircraft can push Russian aircraft farther from the frontlines, target radar transmitters more effectively and hunt down more cruise missiles. Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhnyi said in November that F-16s will be "less helpful" now than they would have been a year ago because Russia has had time to improve its air defences. But they will help address a problem that has persisted from the start of the invasion in February 2022: Russia’s more modern combat aircraft have been difficult for Ukraine’s military to counter with its own aging fighters - Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said peace with Ukraine will only take place "when we achieve our objectives". He was fielding questions from journalists and ordinary Russians in his first marathon news conference since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Much of the largely choreographed event focused on what he calls the "special military operation in Ukraine". He insisted the situation was improving throughout the front line. At one point he revealed that Russia currently has a total of 617,000 troops fighting in Ukraine. He also claimed that on top of 300,000 people called up for service last year, another 486,000 have signed up voluntarily as contract soldiers. He gave no number of military losses, but disclosed that children of people within his "close" circle have fought for so-called private military companies, and a number of people "close to me" have died. A classified US intelligence report estimated this week that 315,000 Russian soldiers had been either killed or wounded since the war began - which it said was almost 90% of Russia's military personnel at the start of the invasion - BBC
Elsewhere
Taliban officials are sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, according to a U.N. report published Thursday. Before the Taliban seized power in 2021, there were 23 state-sponsored women protection centers in Afghanistan where survivors of gender-based violence could seek refuge. Now there are none, the U.N. report said. Officials from the Taliban-led administration told the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan that there was no need for such shelters or that they were a Western concept - AP