Israel’s war on Gaza: List of key events, day 67

EXPLAINER

An anticipated UNGA meeting amid a Houthi attack on a Norwegian-registered tanker – here are major updates.

Here’s how things stand on Tuesday, December 12, 2023:

The latest developments

• United States Central Command said that at about midnight local time (21:00 GMT on Monday), a Norwegian-registered tanker was hit by a missile while travelling through the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen. Although the tanker caught fire, no injuries were reported and it was “proceeding to a safe port” on Tuesday morning, an executive of the shipping company told Al Jazeera. Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility for the attack.
• The Iran-aligned Yemeni group has carried out several attacks on ships heading towards Israel in solidarity with people in Gaza. They have promised to block all ships heading to Israeli ports until Israel allows the entry of food and medical aid into the Gaza Strip, which has been reeling from more than two months of Israeli bombing.
• As part of a global strike on Monday, shops, schools, and government offices across the occupied West Bank were shut down while Palestine supporters in the West Bank and across the world protested against Israel’s war on Gaza.
• In a post to X on Monday, US Senator Elizabeth Warren criticised the Biden administration’s decision to bypass Congress to approve tank ammunition sales to Israel “amid unacceptable civilian harm”.
• Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said at a press conference on Monday that “Hamas is on the verge of dissolution”.
• Retail clothing brand Zara pulled an advertising campaign featuring mannequins with missing limbs and statues wrapped in white on Monday after it prompted calls by some pro-Palestine activists for a boycott of the fashion retailer.

Human impact and fighting

• A Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) surgeon was shot and injured inside the al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza on Monday, said MSF in a post on X.
• The 65-year-old father of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif was killed in an Israeli air strike on his family home in Jabalia, northern Gaza on Monday. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “deeply saddened” by the attack.
• Only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, according to the latest situation report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) on Monday.
• UN Special Rapporteur on food Michael Fakhri says “every single Palestinian in Gaza is going hungry” and warns world is witnessing a “genocide”.
• The Israel and Palestine director of Human Rights Watch said in a post on X on Monday that Israel’s “inhumane treatment” of Palestinian detainees blindfolded and stripped to their underwear “amounts to a war crime”.

Diplomacy

• The UN General Assembly (UNGA) will convene in an emergency session on Tuesday to discuss Israel’s war on Gaza.
• The US mission to the UN has reportedly submitted an amendment to a ceasefire draft resolution being considered by members of the assembly, according to Al Jazeera Arabic’s Rami Ayari, reporting from the UN.
• In a letter to the president of the UN Security Council on Monday, Palestine’s mission to the UN appealed “to all peace-loving nations” to support a draft ceasefire resolution in the UNGA.
• The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters on Monday that escalating settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is “alarming” the bloc, and pushing him to propose sanctions on those who are violent.
• A dozen UNSC envoys, including China, visited the Rafah crossing on Monday, and urged an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
• US President Joe Biden said his “commitment” to Israel’s “right to exist as an independent Jewish state is unshakeable” during a White House Hanukkah ceremony on Monday.
• Germany expects Israel to adapt its military strategy to better prevent suffering among Palestinian civilians, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday.